Rosenverse

Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.

Log in Create free account

100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.

Key Metrics: Comparing Three Letter Acronym Metrics That Include the Word “Key”

Wednesday, November 13, 2024 • DesignOps Community
Share the love for this talk
Key Metrics: Comparing Three Letter Acronym Metrics That Include the Word “Key”
Speakers: Saara Kamppari-Miller , Nicole Bergstrom and Shashi Jain
Link:

Summary

Why do so many metrics include the word “Key”? How do those metrics differ, and how do teams and organizations decide which key metric is best for them? Join this DesignOps community discussion to compare different types of three letter acronym metrics such as KPI, KEI, and KSP (Key Performance Indicator, Key Experience Indicator, and Key Strategic Priorities). And let's not forget OKR's (Objectives and Key Results)!

Key Insights

  • Nicole emphasizes linking accessibility initiatives to corporate Key Strategic Priorities to demonstrate business value beyond compliance.

  • Shashi's KPI Compass framework categorizes innovation metrics into quadrants balancing leading/lagging and thought leadership/impact.

  • Key Experience Indicators (KEIs) are distinct from KPIs and focus on user-centered measures that predict experience failure risks.

  • Measuring behavior change is crucial to predicting innovation success, not just tracking final business metrics.

  • Consistency in metrics terminology and templates across teams helps avoid sidetracking conversations with engineering partners.

  • Canary indicators identify critical experience fail points that can doom a product if not monitored carefully.

  • Strategic priorities, like Hilton’s KSPs, tend to remain stable over years to guide multi-year initiatives reliably.

  • Storytelling and communication training are vital for teams to convey the value of accessibility and design work aligned with business objectives.

  • In ambiguous or innovative contexts, metrics should remain a conversation starter rather than imposed fixed covenants.

  • Using user and market feedback can shift early metrics from vanity measures (like downloads) to meaningful adoption and usage data.

Notable Quotes

"If we are working on something that does not ladder up to our KSPs, then we should not be working on it."

"The canary in the coal mine—that’s how we identify the fail points in the user experience we absolutely can’t miss."

"Innovation is invention multiplied by adoption multiplied by inclusion."

"Metrics are always a conversation, they shouldn’t be a covenant."

"Adoption is the only thing that matters in innovation. If you’re not changing behavior, you haven’t innovated."

"Key is a reminder that these metrics reflect what is authoritative and important to the customer and the business."

"If you only measure vanity metrics like downloads, you risk tracking numbers that don’t translate to real usage or value."

"Our KSPs do not change year over year because changing them frequently is disruptive for the business direction."

"We use storytelling to turn accessibility from just compliance into a business differentiator that executives care about."

"When there’s dispute over what to measure, use that as an opportunity to discuss the behavior you want to change and the value capture."

Ask the Rosenbot
Alana Washington
Theme 1: Introduction and Provocation
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Carol Scott
Avoid Harming Your Team and Users: Promoting Care and Brand Reputation with Trauma-Informed UX Practices
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Himanshu Bharadwaj
If design had a heart
2026 • Rosenfeld Community
Peter Merholz
Customer-Centered Design Organizations
2017 • Enterprise Experience 2017
Gold
Soma Ghosh
What emerging methods are advancing UX research [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
2023 • Advancing Research Community
Libby Maurer
Treating Diversity & Inclusion in Hiring as a Design Problem
2019 • Enterprise Community
Maria Giudice
Remaking the Making Company: Moving from Product to Experience
2016 • Enterprise UX 2016
Gold
Alla Weinberg
Cross-Functional Relationship Design
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Andrea Gallagher
The Problem Space
2019 • Advancing Research Community
Joerg Beringer
Scaling User Research with AI: Continuous Discovery of User Needs in Minutes
2025 • DesignOps Summit 2025
Gold
Chloe Amos-Edkins
A Cultural Approach: Research in the Context of Glocalisation
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Amy Brana Stuart
Rest in Peace Fly-in-fly-out Design
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
David Eisner
From prototype to production: Vibe coding design for real engineering systems
2026 • Designing with AI 2026
Conference
Jennifer Strickland
Fireside Chat: How Design Addresses a World on Fire
2022 • Civic Design Community
Phil Hesketh
Designing Accessible Research Workflows
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Emilia Åström
Unlock Your Team’s Intelligence with Collaboration Design
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold

More Videos

Joe Meersman

"The being provided the agency to experiment is an invitation to innovate."

Joe Meersman Pooria Sohi

Use AI to Drive Outcomes that Go Beyond the Design Sprint

September 25, 2024

Caroline Vize

"User experience metrics can give you a well-rounded perspective beyond mere site analytics."

Caroline Vize

The State of UX: Five Lessons from 2021 to Accelerate Digital Experience in 2022

March 9, 2022

Karen Pascoe

"If there’s a performance gap, don’t sit on it; it doesn’t age well and hurts the team, employee, and business."

Karen Pascoe

Developing Experience Teams and Talent in the Enterprise

June 8, 2016

Mandy Drew

"We can’t stop technology development, but we must understand the immense responsibility of unleashing new technology into society."

Mandy Drew

What Role(s) Can Research Play in Responsible Design?

March 11, 2021

Caroline Jarrett

"Organizations rarely know their error rates, which limits their ability to improve user experience or data accuracy."

Caroline Jarrett

Garbage in, garbage out? Measuring error rates to get ready for AI

January 8, 2026

Jennifer Strickland

"We as designers have the opportunity to be brave, have the courage and humility to do the work."

Jennifer Strickland Lesley-Ann Noel

Fireside Chat: How Design Addresses a World on Fire

March 18, 2022

Dave Malouf

"Who is missing from our efforts to make our paths more frictionless?"

Dave Malouf

Theme 3: Introduction and Provocation

January 8, 2024

Nicole Aleong

"There’s a lot of potential in UX research to go beyond product and influence strategy and C-suite decision making."

Nicole Aleong Michaela Mora Prayag Narula Brianna Sylver

What UX research can learn from other research practices [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]

September 14, 2023

Christian Crumlish

"I know that a development team of six costs me a million bucks a year, so risk has a dollar value executives understand."

Christian Crumlish Wendy Johansson Rich Mironov Aditi Ruiz Adam Thomas

Afternoon Insights Panel

December 6, 2022