Custom KPI: Maximize Your Effectiveness with Custom KPI Dashboards

In Rhythm software, there are few different lenses to view your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). You can view them in a Scorecard to ensure you have a balance between people and process metrics. You also have a couple of different ways to look at all of the KPIs in a particular group: either as an EnergyMap so you can see at a glance how the linked Individual Priorities are going, or on the 13 Week Race tab so you can see how the status of your KPIs has changed over the course of the quarter.

Finally, Custom Dashboards are perhaps the most powerful tool for viewing KPIs in your weekly meeting. Here, you have the ability to select exactly which KPIs you want to view together regardless of which group the KPIs are in. You can arrange your data to tell the specific story you need to hear. Here are a few examples of how you can use Custom KPI Dashboards to maximize your effectiveness:

To solve a specific problem. Suppose you need to shorten your sales cycle, and you are tracking metrics like Number of Demos, Prospect to Customer Conversion Rate, and Number of Days to Close. You might have these same composite KPIs set up in 4 different sales regions. In your executive team meeting, you don’t want to have to hunt for these numbers… you just want to see them grouped together so you can have the right data for the conversation you need to have about shortening the sales cycle. Creating a custom dashboard lets you do just that.
To easily access the metrics that keep you up at night. As the CEO, you might care about some KPIs more than others. If you keep tabs on just 3 or 4 key metrics (like Cashflow Runway, Employee Health Index, Deals Closed, etc.), then putting just these 3 or 4 KPIs on a Custom Dashboard will help you keep focused on what’s most important to you. Patrick calls this your "Stop Signs Dashboard" because if one of these key metrics goes Red, you would stop and figure out how to fix it.
To organize data used by cross-functional teams. Many of our clients have multiple locations and may measure the same or related KPIs in different teams. If your groups in Rhythm are set to reflect functional teams (Sales, Operations, R&D, HR, Finance, etc.), then you can create a Custom KPI Dashboard for each location (Denver, New York, Hong Kong, etc.) so you can view the same data through multiple lenses. Similarly, if you work in project teams that differ from the functional or location groups set up in Rhythm, this is a place to pull together the relevant data for that project in one place.

If you look at your KPI list and think that there is just too much information there, then it is probably a good idea to conduct a KPI audit when the next quarter turnover comes around. But, if everything you are measuring is important data that you just wish you could organize differently, then Custom KPI Dashboards could make all the difference in your ability to use the data you are collecting to make the maximum impact.