Hawkeye and KPIs: Target of Success

The Christmas season has ended, and with it also came time for many television series and movies to watch and enjoy with family and friends, including several from Marvel, which has dominated this world for several years but, we are not here to talk about cinema. A series of relevance is “Hawkeye” which is about the best archer in the world (of Marvel)... he never misses. Throughout the series, you will see the extreme abilities of this superhero who has great skill with bow and arrow; nevertheless, unlike other superheroes, he trained his way into such a cool nickname.

His skill implied several years of hard and constant training, sessions of target visualization, execution to perfection, validating the shot, observing, adjusting, and repeating the process. This process led Hawkeye to become an expert. He undoubtedly set himself to be the best archer in the world. To reach it without a doubt, he set several milestones for himself that would allow him to validate if he was on the right track and what things should be corrected to reach each step.

This is exactly how you achieve success. One needs to set goals, having the goal fixed to aim at them, making your shots, and visualizing reaching them. This process will be repeated day after day until you reach great things when suddenly you realize that you are quite close to your final goal, and the target is close to being accomplished. As you may have already realized, being able to visualize your goals is very important to achieving success because if you don't know where to focus, how will you hit the bullseye?

For companies, it is extremely important, it is essential, KPIs are the target where they must place their sights, aim and launch their best shots to hit the target. It is very likely that you will not hit it at first, not even close. And that will happen again the second and third time. But the important thing is to not underestimate the value of perseverance. That is why this is a great step for every company.

Writing your KPIs

Here's an easy way to start writing your own KPIs.

1- Set your strategy, what is the final goal are you seeking for your venture?

2-  Establish the execution path you will need to take in order to achieve your goals, set on your strategic plan.

3 - Define what is the best way to quantify the progress of your key activities.

4 - Define what is the number your gonna try to reach, to identify that above that metric is going on well, but that below is a warning to take actions and rectify your actions.

5 - Identify from where are you gonna take the data needed to register the metrics.

6 - Establish the periods of time you will measure the advance.

These few points will give you a tiny guide from where to start writing your KPIs.

I have known companies that are starting, and sometimes they do not think objectively about this. However, subconsciously you always have a goal set, as simple as making ends meet and being able to pay for everything. We always have objectives, even if we do not do them consciously. However, the next step is to reflect on what objectives you need to set for yourself in order to achieve the goals. Because once you raise objectives and expectations, you start executing. You start defining and implementing how many emails to send per day, how many emails to read per day, how many minutes in meetings to have per day, how many people to see per day, how many calls to make, how many calls to answer and so on.

So, what could go wrong if you set a goal and achieve it? Well, the process will also matter. If you were able to subdivide all of your activities, without a doubt, at some point, you would arrive more easily at your goal. However, this could take away from your daily activities, becoming overwhelming at some point and then becoming a game of statistics and probabilities.

Setting objectives is fine, but not having objectives for EVERYTHING is even more important. And you might ask why, and the reason for that is simple: having too many objectives is counterproductive because you don’t know how to prioritize or where to start. That is why it is essential to have KPIs. They are not just any objective but key objectives that will show you the performance of your work plan. These targets could help you define more quickly if you are on the right path or not.

This is important because when you are in a world where you have so many signals everywhere, being able to focus on a few key objectives of how you are progressing in certain essential results of your business allows you to make better and faster decisions, without having to wait to see a sum of several. Therefore, it is of utmost importance for every business to have their KPI’s well defined, making them conscientiously decide which ones will best reflect the desired performance.

Where to start? It could be quite complex at times to identify the exact target to pursue and where to aim. Sometimes it could be a bit frustrating. That is why a guide is so necessary. And that is how I came across EBELI or Evidence Based Entrepreneurship & Lean Innovation.

EBELI makes all complex planning and execution simpler than you might believe. It is a system developed by entrepreneurs that built a simplified framework of tools and processes that allows you to do strategic planning and measuring in real-time. With EBELI you are able to know a little more about systemic and strategic thinking, and it enables you to have a basic guide for defining your KPI’s. And also invites you to put all this knowledge into practice, so that you can develop your own indicators. It also tells you the key points in this process that could lead to great ideas and the right key indicators that you need.

It has always been important to have a supporting guide to achieve all of my objectives. I believe that although there is a lot of knowledge currently through new technologies, you should always access enough information on the different and necessary topics. Especially throughout the incubation process of your projects.

That is why I invite you to take a look at EBELI. Have a broader vision, a guide for this path, especially if you are going through an entrepreneurial journey. You will be not only able to learn about KPI's but also about different parts of the process and key points. Learn about different methodologies grouped and aligned in a single volume. It will enable you to take what works best for you.

When you are an entrepreneur or an innovator, like the archer that hits the target, you need the vision of a hawk. And you also need to count on this capability for a vision so wide that, when you focus on the target, you can achieve success. So do not miss the opportunity to read this guide called EBELI, I am sure you will find it as fascinating as I did. You will be better armed with your bow, arrow, and hawkeye needed to execute the perfect shot and hit the target!