Four Key Metrics For Operations Leaders
How to measure success for a COO or VP of Ops
CEOs, COOs, and operations leaders often ask, what is the best metric to assess operational success?
Operations roles can vary wildly, especially in high growth startups where company needs evolve quickly. The “right” metric differs based on company stage and role focus.
Four Operations Metric Ideas
Your company “North Star” metric
Everyone in every role should be measured on this!
Use this metric + another ops metric for internally-focused ops
Best for: ops role with heavy revenue or go-to-market focus
Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)
Two variations:
How likely are you to recommend this company as a place to work?
How likely are you to recommend our product or service?
Best for: ops role with heavy people operations or culture focus
Customer Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Very common, easy to find benchmarking and survey tools
Best for: ops role with heavy customer or product focus
Internal-version of Customer Effort Score (CES)
Two variations:
On a scale of ‘very easy’ to ‘very difficult’, how easy was it to <do task>?
On a scale of ‘very easy’ to ‘very difficult’, how easy is it to do meaningful work?
Best for: operations role with heavy internal efficiency and process focus
Real World Example
As COO at Rigor, our company “North Star” metric was Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR). My key operational metric was eNPS. We had other metrics and many operational initiatives but ARR and eNPS anchored our focus.
What other metrics have you seen for operations leaders? What metrics-related resources have been helpful? Any recommendations or learnings on operations metrics at high growth companies?
If a company is looking or an ops role with heavy revenue or go-to-market focus as well as a large people/culture focus, is that a unicorn that you really need to break into two separate roles (ie COO & VP of Operations) or is that generally what you will find in most recruits for that role?
Utilization for those with staff who bill for their time.