8.3.3 Metric selection criteria

The set of innovation metrics should be selected according to the specific needs of the organisation. In selecting measures, they must be economical to collect, understandable to the people who are going to use the results, learning focused, externally focused, actionable, broad in scope and accomplish the stated objectives (Czarnecki, 1999). Innovation metrics should be regularly reviewed and changed as the direction and priorities of the organisation change.

Some basic criteria for metric selection are:

     use a matrix approach, selecting a few metrics from throughout (as
        shown in Table 8.3);

     support the weakest link in the current innovation systems;

     emphasise real time or leading measures where possible;

     select metrics for which results point directly to actions;

     focus on simple and obvious measures that clearly support business
        imperatives;

     select those that are easily measured consistently over an extended
        period.

Some pitfalls for choosing metrics are predominance of short-term, financial, efficiency, economy and functional measures. It is important to select metrics not only because data are easy to find and they are within the capability of the benchmarking team and the understanding of top management. Metrics must also be relevant to the improvements to be made.