A Superhero’s Guide to IT Metrics

Every superhero has her origin story. One could even argue that it’s the tenacity and courage that comes from knowing what you are on this earth to do that enables superhuman performance. I like to think of this as the democratization of superpowers. While Superman possesses super strength and speed, what really empowers him to save the world is that he understands his destiny. If Superman didn’t know what he was here to do, and why he was doing it, he’d be a lot less effective. It’s no coincidence that he has a fortress of solitude. Saving the planet requires a little soul searching from time to time! 

If you’re too busy putting out fires to have a strategy meeting, you need to spend more time on your strategy – @Why #ITSM #ServiceDesk Share on X

Why Am I Here?

There’s an old Zen proverb that I like to share with first time managers, as well as first time meditators.

“You should sit in meditation for twenty minutes every day – unless you’re too busy; then you should sit for an hour.” 

Usually this comes into play when I’m teaching my leadership team about the difference between working “on the business” and working “in the business.” The morale: if you’re too busy putting out fires to have a strategy meeting, you need to spend more time on your strategy. 

This isn’t just for leaders. IT analysts, help desk staff, sysadmins at every level are asked to perform near superhuman miracles nearly every day in IT. You can only pull this off if you’ve taken time to stop and reflect. Why are we here? What role do I play in my team’s success? What role does IT as a whole play in the business strategy? How does what my team and I do help the company we support accomplish their mission? 

If the above isn’t the kind of conversations you hear your team having, you’re not alone. Unfortunately. This is one of the stated reasons McKinsey says 70 percent of IT transformation projects fail outright. 70 percent of IT projects fail miserably! This statistic explains why IT has a rough reputation, and that 70 percent failure rate is explained by the fact that most IT professionals can’t answer a very simple question. How does what I do contribute directly to the success of the business? 

Realizing What Matters 

I know from studying world class IT teams that they have cultivated a culture that values meaningful metrics. Metrics that matter. This is not only a calling card of teams that are already top performers, it’s also how they got that way. 

One of the biggest barriers to transformation and excellence that IT leaders cite is limited resources. An industry secret of world class teams is that by defining and aligning their team around what really matters, they were able to also identify what didn’t matter. Top performing teams will then pull staff from working on unnecessary functions and train them to work on what matters. All of a sudden, you have free resources where there was no headcount. Genius, really. 

But how do you know what matters and what doesn’t? Below is an exercise I’ve used to help teams arrive at that answer. 

Find a whiteboard, or a blank piece of paper, and write down “WHY WE EXIST:” in large letters on the left side. Next to that, answer the prompt in your own words. For most companies, IT exists to help the business succeed. So if nothing else comes to mind, feel free to simply write “to help the business succeed.” 

Now circle what you wrote, underline it, highlight it. Now, you know what matters, which is a huge step! To ensure success, however, you need to be able to measure what matters so you know if you’re killing it, or, you know, the opposite. 

Measuring What Matters 

Now back to that whiteboard or paper from before. Clear your mind and forget all the metrics and things you know IT teams are “supposed” to measure. Now, under that “why we exist” answer that you circled and underlined, write: “so… how do we measure that?” 

Now take the time to list a few ideas of how you can measure success in “helping the business succeed” or whatever you wrote earlier. 

Working out how to measure what matters is a big departure from the traditional IT strategy of implementing best practices. It’s hard for everyone, which is why so few IT teams have been successful with it – @Why #ServiceDesk #ITSM Share on X

There are many ways to attack this, find the right one for your organization’s culture and goals. Maybe you should measure IT success by aligning IT performance evaluations with actual business goals like revenue numbers. Maybe your company’s big goal is employee engagement, and you can make IT’s main key performance indicator improving or hitting next year’s employee engagement target. 

This is a creative process, and a big departure from the traditional IT strategy of implementing best practices as defined by analysts and academics. It’s hard for everyone, which is why so few IT teams have successfully aligned their metrics to what the business cares about. But hard things, even impossible things, are right up your alley. You’re a superhero, and those studies showing how much IT is out of touch, don’t mean that it can’t be done. They’re your bat signal. Your call to action. It’s the business and end users you support crying for a hero. 

Leveraging Your Superpowers 

I can tell you from experience that as scary as it is to forget everything you know and start from scratch with metrics, it is the only – I repeat, the only – way to change IT’s reputation. The teams I’ve worked with that have actually made this leap have all found that rather than creating chaos, things work smoother and more efficiently than ever before. The very act of rethinking how you define and measure success is actually what reveals and develops the superpowers you need to be the superhero the business has been waiting for.

One of our superpowers unique to IT professionals is that we are born to solve problems. It’s what we do, and we’re crazy competitive at it. As a result, IT has always had the ability to hit the metrics put in front of them. You give any IT team metrics and a clear goal, and they’ll hit that goal. 

Now, imagine if rather than giving your team a dashboard full of dozens of IT-centric metrics, you gave your team only one north star metric to hit, used that metric to define success, and then gave them the freedom to creatively find ways to hit that goal. I guarantee you any IT team allowed to focus on one clear objective is going to knock it out of the park. 

The very act of rethinking how you define and measure success is actually what reveals and develops the superpowers you need to be the superhero the business has been waiting for – @Why #ServiceDesk #ITSM Share on X

The Power of Focus

Allowing technicians, IT managers, and systems administrators to work together focused on one goal will leverage IT’s best superpower and your IT org will be flooded by innovation. The best part? All of your team’s innovation and superpowers are focused on what matters to the business, not just IT, which makes your IT team a crowd favorite and gives newfound respect throughout the company. 

Teams we’ve worked with at QSTAC that have successfully made this shift have absolutely blown the minds of the businesses they support, and IT’s reputation goes from zero to hero faster than they could have ever imagined. 

Instead of emails complaining about IT systems and staff, the CIO is inundated with messages of thanks and praise for the awesome transformation in the employee experience of interacting with IT. Rather than snarky email threads complaining about IT rollouts and policies, there are company-wide shoutouts, and you begin seeing folks come to IT not because they have a problem, but just to say hi to a valuable partner who makes their job easier. 

Here’s a true story. I worked with a company whose employees called the help desk the “IT Gremlins.” That team went through the above exercise, defined their purpose as empowering the business’s success, and decided on the QSTAC^® metrics (Quality, Speed, Technical Knowledge, Approachability and Communication) to define success. In just a few quarters, there was such a transformation that the IT team was soon winning national awards, as did the CIO who was given the autonomy and freedom she asked for. This in turn allowed IT to innovate even more and bring in bleeding edge technology that brought the IT experience at that company from the 2000s well into the 2020s. The company had a successful IPO, employees loved IT, and everyone felt proud of where and how they worked.  

If you do nothing else, just take 5 minutes in your team meeting and go around the room (or the Zoom) asking your team what they think IT’s reason for being is – @Why #ServiceDesk #ITSM Share on X

Call to Action

If this superhero’s guide to metrics is enticing, but just seems like it will never happen where you work, there is an old Chinese proverb that comes to mind that might help: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” 

Don’t think of what you’re doing as transformation, if that feels too massive or intimidating. Just think of the first step. Finding a piece of paper. Then writing what matters. It doesn’t have to be your final answer, just write something down. Talk about it with your team. Bring phrases like “meaningful metrics” into team meetings. 

If you do nothing else, just take 5 minutes in your team meeting and go around the room (or the Zoom) asking your team what they think IT’s reason for being is. You never know when one mild-mannered question can change everything. Good luck and let us know how it goes!