Define Metrics During Planning, Not During Execution
Metrics belong in planning, not as an afterthought during execution. Teams often spend their time tracking results after work begins, but not enough time deciding which measures actually matter before the work starts.
One of the easiest mistakes a team can make is waiting until execution is underway to ask how success will be measured. By that point, people are already moving. They are already making decisions, spending effort, and interpreting progress without a shared definition of what good looks like.
That is how teams drift into activity without clarity.
The Cost Of Late Metrics
When planning is incomplete, execution turns into a search for measurements instead of a pursuit of outcomes. The work may still be busy, but the direction becomes harder to trust.
Teams then start asking questions like:
- What should we track?
- How will we know we are successful?
- Which numbers matter most?
The problem is not that those questions are wrong. Could we have asked these questions sooner?
Metrics Are Planning Decisions
“Before you can measure progress toward a destination, you must define both the destination and your starting point.” - Adapted fromAndy Stanley (Visioneering)
Metrics are not just reporting artifacts. They are planning decisions that should happen up front.
If a team starts execution without a shared metric, each person may measure something different. One person may track activity, another may track output, another may track customer impact, and another may track revenue. Without a common standard, alignment becomes difficult.
The PLACES Perspective
Planning Defines Success
Planning should establish:
- Desired outcomes - How concrete can we make the attainable prizes after the finish line?
- Success measures - The best measures usually occur long after the work is completed.
- Leading indicators - Too often thought isn’t put into forward looking metrics as they are harder to define and are only indicators
- Lagging indicators - Important but often times reactive. Good indicators will allow for early warning signals
- Review cadence - There is a fine line on frequency of reviews. However, the best cadences are a mix of self-service and targeted questioning.
Metrics are one form of deliverable for planning. Clarity up front will allow better execution and communication of progress. Execution is where metrics are monitored, not invented.
Defining metrics in planning
A clear indicator where metrics aren’t a first class citizen in planning happens after execution starts. It comes at the first report out. The metrics may be imposed by others without taking into consideration how to even track them. Backfilling becomes a normal process to try and gather numbers, sentiment, and improvement percentages.
Three Questions Every Planning Session Should Answer To Gather metrics
Before work enters execution, planning should answer three simple questions.
1. What Is The Outcome?
Avoid activity-based measures when the real goal is something deeper. Instead of measuring meetings, documents, or emails, measure the change that matters. That may be reduced cycle time, improved adoption, higher quality, or better customer satisfaction.
2. What Indicates Progress?
Identify leading indicators that show whether the work is moving in the right direction. Early signals such as engagement, first-response time, adoption, or attendance can reveal whether the plan is taking hold.
3. What Metric Defines Success?
Every initiative should have one metric that matters most. If everything is important, nothing is important. A clear primary measure gives the team focus when execution begins.
Better Conversations Come From Better Metrics
When metrics are defined during planning, stakeholders align faster, expectations become clearer, priorities become visible, and trade-offs become easier to discuss.
The team also spends less time debating performance and more time improving it. Many execution problems are really planning problems that showed up later.
Reflection
Planning determines how success will be measured. Execution determines whether success is achieved.
If metrics are being created during execution, the planning work was not finished. Define the outcome first. Define the metrics second. Then execute with confidence.
That is how planning empowers execution within the PLACES Framework.