Why Do KPIs Have to Be So Hard?

Sometimes, I perceive that KPIs are a religion. Everyone has a view of what they are and how they should be designed and presented. Definitions are hard to pin down because five business leaders might give you five different answers depending on their perspectives. What if we had a framework that eliminated KPI brainstorming while offering a template for including targets and incentives for these key numbers? That framework exists thanks to Bernie Smith.

Who is Bernie Smith?

KPI Consultant and Trainer
Managing Director of Made to Measure KPIs
Creator of KPI Academy
LInkedIn Profile
Author of Gamed (2021), KPI Checklists (2013), and Getting Started with KPIs (2018)

Interview Highlights

KPI expertise started with an engineering background solving problems with a consulting firm’s global clients
The KPI Checklists guy
Why the new book Gamed?
Reasons why brainstorming KPIs is a bad idea
KPIs, Targets, and Incentives are not the same thing
The fifteen-step process
ROKET-DS
Black hat testing
Incentive Design

KPIs don’t tell us if something is good or bad. KPIs are a servant to what we are trying to accomplish.
Bernie Smith

Five Follow-up Questions

Bernie Smith is a likable expert whom I call the voice of reason and wisdom on the topic of KPIs.

After listening to the, consider the following questions to deepen your understanding of Bernie’s key ideas he expressed during the interview:

What was your definition of a KPI before you heard Bernie’s interview? What’s your definition now?
Why do so many people debate what KPIs to use in their organization and why?
This is not a question, but a homework assignment–do a search on A3 problem solving and determine how that framework could assist in the KPI, target-setting, and incentive design process.
Which of your company KPIs should be subject to black hat testing?
Can you clearly deliniate the difference between a KPI, a target, and an incentive?