For the past few weeks, I've been writing about leading indicators and accessibility metrics.
So far, I've talked about:
- How to reduce the number of critical accessibility issues identified in production
- How to reduce the time an accessibility issue has been in the backlog
- How to reduce the number of customer accessibility complaints
- How to reduce the cost of reworking feature because of accessibility
- How to eliminate new accessibility issues in your latest product release
These are a few of the metrics I like to look at and even if none of them will tell you directly how accessible or how compliant you are, they are critical in informing you if you are on the right track.
But how did I come up with them? And do you have to track these exact things?
The short answer is no, you don't. You have to lead your team to come up with metrics that you all agree on are important for your product. Metrics that fit into your process.
The key is to make the decision as a team. If you are to commit to tracking these metrics, everyone needs to be part of the decision about that change as early as possible. Commitment comes from having choice, not from decisions being passed from the top dogs.
The team that discovers and selects metrics should be the same one implementing changes and tracking progress against those metrics. So if your team doesn't understand and believe in those metrics, there's little chance of success.
So how do I do it?
I usually start by gathering the team and encouraging open discussions. Structured discussions. Workshops. Not long tiresome meetings.
And I have a few guidelines I follow:
- I welcome disagreement because it often leads to better outcomes.
- We treat each metric as a learning opportunity.
- We never assign responsibility for any one metric to an individual. Instead, we make progress on every metric everyone's responsibility.
Half the battle is in knowing good metrics, bad metrics and recognising the difference between the two.
Good metrics are:
- Specific and measurable
- Aligned with user needs
- Actionable
- Tied to business goals
- Those that predict future performance
Bad metrics are:
- Vague or subjective
- Difficult to measure consistently
- Disconnected from user experience
- Not actionable
- Those that reflect past performance
To tell them apart, you can begin by asking:
- Can we consistently measure and track it?
- Does it align with our overall accessibility goals?
- Can we influence this metric directly through our actions, or is it an outcome of other factors?
- Does this metric give us early warnings about potential issues, or does it confirm what we already know?
- Can we use this metric to make proactive decisions, or does it primarily serve to evaluate past performance?
- Does this metric show us where we're headed, or where we've been?
- Is this a real-time or near real-time measurement, or does it require a significant time lag to collect and analyse?
Having a set of good metrics builds understanding, alignment and commitment across your team. I should say that you need to be open to changing and adjusting your metrics as you learn more about your users and how your team operates.