Proposed success measures for WIP II

Owned by Paul Seiler (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Apr 14, 2015
3 min read

A few thoughts on what success measures (or key performance indicators) are about to help focus:

  • Measures that help you understand how you are doing against your objectives.
  • Are indicators of success
  • Require comparison across time periods
  • Depend on the industry and type of website

We must be attentive when setting success measures for the project that we do not confuse these with success measures for the web site. The WIP scope is narrower than the whole web site and the constraints are greater. Also, the time dimension is shorter, so maybe we can think of useful WIP measures as output, whereas web site ones over a longer time frame could include outcome (where the difference requires people to change their behaviour).

Suggested measure from Business Justification Case

Based on a reading of the Business Justification Case and the scope documents (as well as listening o the team for a few weeks) I propose the following objectives (with associated benefits in brackets) and the measure (as bullet points). Aside from the standard project management targets of time, budget, quality and scope WIP II will be successful if we :

Make greater use of the new templates

These being the same as or similar to those developed in WIP I for the home site, as they are mobile-friendly/responsive, channel-focused, use our brand consistently, ensure that all content being moved is reviewed, will support reduced duplication of content and will lower future maintenance costs). Measures include:

  • Number or percentage of old pages moved on to new templates (including those collapsed or removed altogether)
  • Number or proportion of faculties (or schools) moved on to new templates (including those collapsed or removed altogether)

  • Number of CSU sites (yet to be defined) moved on to new templates

  • Number of CRMs that must be supported

Improve the ease with which students can find appropriate information and complete action while online

As this will increase the user satisfaction by ensuring that they can better achieve their intent for visiting the site. In turn, they are likely to become more loyal, returning to our site again. This will also support the need to reduce the costs of face-to-face interaction by offering more services online. Measures include:

  • Bounce rates and time on site provide insight as to how well people seem to be doing what they want
  • Conversion actions, where appropriate (e.g. enrol, apply, request, book, download, call, email, etc.), are a better measure but do require more work. It shows we are focusing on outcomes and will will force the conversation to be about objectives (without these you can't have conversion rates)
    • Attention needs to accurately measure if action engagement with content downloaded (not just downloading it). In GA look at Virtual Pageviews or Events (% of video watched). E.g. subscribe to updates, book/register for an event, request something mailed, enrol in a course, email/call a contact/staff member
    • Goal conversion rate is even more powerful but takes more thinking/set up.
  • Task completion rates means asking (i.e. survey based) people if they successfully completed the thing they came to do. It allows for a conversation about conversion measures/actions
  • Percentage of site search exits: Assuming that many visitors to our site will use the search, maybe we should examine how well it is working for people and this metric could help with that.

Ensure that University research more easily discoverable/accessible

Research outputs are a major source of prestige and funding for the university. While they might be easily found by those on the inside (or with specific prior knowledge) they could be made more discoverable to people on the outside, meaning anyone without this prior knowledge of how and why to find research. The benefits would be more use made or greater awareness of the research done by people at Victoria, more requests for research (with the associated funding) and a greater recognition of the contribution made by Victoria.. Measures include:

  • Visits, new cf returning, time on site, bounce rates, etc.
  • Conversion actions, where appropriate (e.g. ask, download, call, email, etc.)