Shruthi Ranganath Iyer, CEO, Foundation for Mother and Child Health

Using data to drive decisions at work is critical for us. It's taken years of learning and unlearning to get to this point. When we started, we were collecting many indicators, and from that we had to narrow down to say, “What are the two most important indicators each of us are going to use?” That was a huge exercise. There was a lot of loss [of what we thought we’d miss by not measuring everything], and there were many arguments and debates within the team.

Let purpose guide data collection

One of our mentors put it well. They asked us, “What are you going to do with that data?” That was critical. For any data point, we asked ourselves: is this going to help me at this point or not? There are different reasons why you might collect data:

• Are you doing it for research?

• Are you doing it for monitoring?

• Are you doing it for evaluation?

If you're doing it for research, you probably need a wide range of data. But as social entrepreneurs, especially in the field-based work I do, we use data to see if our programs are improving and if we are having the impact we want. If I keep that lens in mind, I ask:

• Is this helping me find out if my program is doing better?

• Is this helping me find out if I’m having an impact?

If it doesn’t do either of these, I don’t need to collect that data.

Match data to decision frequency

For every data point we collect, the question to ask is: how often do I need to look at it? Weekly? Monthly? Quarterly?

• Weekly indicators are leading indicators, they show what I can take immediate action on.

• Monthly indicators give a summary of what has happened and what I can adjust.

• Quarterly indicators are lagging indicators, which help improve the next quarter and guide longer-term decisions.

This approach helps us decide whether to keep a data point, especially for monitoring.

Respect people’s personal data

The other piece to remember is the moral cost of collecting data. At the end of the day, it is people's data. As a nonprofit, should we have access to it? Should we even be privy to this kind of data and storing it on our servers? These are important questions to ask when deciding what data to collect.

Build a culture that questions every metric

At FMCH, we’ve built a culture of asking what indicators truly matter. Sometimes we still have arguments like, “We should add one more indicator.” But now, whenever I or anyone else suggests adding one more indicator, the team asks, “Why are we going to add this? What are we going to do with it?” That culture is powerful because it keeps all of us accountable.

Key takeaways

• Always know why you’re collecting each metric. If you can’t say why, don’t measure it. 

• Align data to the rhythm of decision making. 

• Collect only what’s needed, respecting the dignity of the people behind the data. 

• Build a culture where every new metric must be justified by its usefulness.