Comments on: Want to be a successful CEO?

by: Voodoo Ventures - Idea Fuel Blog

Wed, 16 May 2007 16:01:52 +0000

Winning with Analytics…

One of the fundamental principles that we operate on with siteMighty is having data at our fingertips so that we know what is going on at all times. We do this by 1) setting metrics, 2) gathering data, and 3) presenting it in an actionable way.
I have…

by: Jacob Beaton

Fri, 11 May 2007 03:55:14 +0000

Hi Ryan,

I just came across your blog in that typical “ok, now how did I get here again?” fashion. Some interesting stuff.

I am not clear on what kind of information you’re looking to get. Information on your employees - ie. productivity - or information on your customers?

Market information is very important - knowing what your customers are thinking etc. But you know that. Knowing what your employees are doing/ thinking is another thing altogether. We set up some very nice, very elaborate spreadsheets that told us great things, like daily productivity right down to the billable/ cash billable/ non-billable/ gross margin minute. Ultimately, all the graphs and spreadsheets couldn’t solve my internal challenges, and simply worked counter productively - encouraging staff to exaggerate time and stress out about micro management amoung other things.

Ultimately, you risk adding overhead for little or no benefit.

Instead I’ve found that a) making sure the right people are in the right place and b) making sure the systems support and nurture those people is the best way to go.

We use basecamp - and love it - seconding the basecamp mentioned above. Great communication and project management tool.

Good luck

by: Ben Prendergast

Tue, 01 May 2007 12:37:43 +0000

Hey Ryan, hit me up for a Copper Project account, I’d be interested in whether you regain some clarity! http://www.copperproject.com

by: Andrew

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 11:41:28 +0000

All these methods of measuring business performance here sound great. But you need to remember the old adage ‘what gets measured, gets done’.

So in other words, make sure you’re recording and measuring the correct data first.

Like Alex, I would also be careful how much data you ask people to record each week. My experience is getting people to fill in a simple time sheet is difficult enough, let alone an array of complex business performance metrics.

by: Alex

Sun, 08 Apr 2007 00:45:20 +0000

I think the spreadsheet is a great idea, but be careful how big you make it and how often you ask your team to fill it in. Especially if you have a four day work week. Don’t want to make your team spend 25% of their weekly working hours filling in your sheet. :)

by: Ryan Carson

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 23:48:20 +0000

Ryan, will you be sharing your Master Spreadsheet? Well the template of course.

Hey Brad,

I don’t think so. Only because it’s very specific to our business, and wouldn’t be useful in general.

Sorry about that.

- Ryan

by: Brad

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 14:04:18 +0000

My finance person and I have been using Google Docs / Spreadsheet with some success.
I think for such a small group, it really works well. Some others noted realtime data and creating a page that displays this data. That is a great idea as well, but why not go one step further and use the Google API ( http://tinyurl.com/2gl4ho ) to do some updates to your spreadsheets. I only assume its possible as I’ve never really read the API. I’m just thinking ‘out loud’.

Ryan, will you be sharing your Master Spreadsheet? Well the template of course.

by: Grant Hutchins

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 06:08:08 +0000

It might be interesting to try out WikiCalc, a sort of wiki-based spreadsheet made by the original creator of the first spreadsheet, VisiCalc.

http://www.softwaregarden.com/wkcalpha/

It seems like it would fit your needs in that it would allow multiple people to edit it, would keep a history, and would probably be a lot easier to maintain than some Excel versioning hack-job.

That said, I’m not sure if it supports every type of formula you would need. But it does seem to be quite full-featured.

I got to speak with you for a few minutes at the UK meetup at SXSW and have been a fan of your various websites for some time. Keep up the good work!

by: Brian Walsh

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 18:58:54 +0000

We do a combination of things. We have forecasting and planning spreadsheets that we run on Google Docs that we update regularly. Everyone on the team has the ability to update and we use them often on calls and have additional “spin-off” spreadsheets that we share with our clients.

We also run numbers directly out of the DB. At some point, I would like to combine the effort and have them automatically update — but as you know, when running fast, go for the 90% solution first and work your way to 100%!

by: Ryan Carson

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 17:50:51 +0000

Knew, not new. Other than that, great article.

Thanks Tim :)

In your article a few weeks ago ‘Kickstart’, you mentioned autoresponders. I’ve done a little research on this so far. Are you using already or planning on using IntelliContact?

We’re not using IntelliContact right now, but I hear it’s a great app.