Boards talk about goals, not page views. They want to know where the organisation is in meeting its goals, and that is where digital workplace and communications teams can help. You may not present to the board yourself, but the evidence you hold can add real value to those discussions.
That is why we focus on business outcomes rather than reads and likes as an end in themselves. We start with a goal the organisation cares about and use Addin Analytics to show how close it is to achieving it. This page explains how, with some examples.
KPI hierarchy
We recommend a simple hierarchy with the business goal at the top.
- Business goal: what the board cares about, such as improving cross-selling.
- Audience: the people whose behaviour needs to change, such as the sales team.
- Behaviours: what those people need to do, such as read product information and use the latest case studies and pitch guides.
- Measures: the analytics that show those behaviours, such as consumption, journeys, CTA progression and search.
Reads and likes sit at the bottom. They are only useful when they connect upwards to the goal.
Dashboard
In Addin Analytics, a view is a saved selection of pages, sites, dates and audiences. For each board goal, we create a view of the content and the audience that matter, so every report reflects the same scope.
That view is your dashboard for the goal. The people who need it can open it and see current data, and it stays on the pages, audiences and dates you chose.
Monthly report
The monthly report is where you read the evidence and decide what to do. Compare the same view with the previous month, or an equivalent period, and note what changed.
Keep it short. For each goal, record what the reports show, what you will change and what you will check next month. Our monthly sessions can help you review the findings and agree priorities.
Board report
Board-level reporting should lead with the goal, not the metrics. You may not write the board report yourself, but the evidence you provide can help those who do. Take the example of improving cross-selling. We would measure it by looking at the sales audience and its journeys through product information:
- Are they consuming it?
- Are they reading the latest case studies and pitch guides?
- Are they sharing this with clients in the extranet?
The evidence then shows how many of the sales audience are following that journey, which groups are not and what is being done about it. Revenue is the outcome the board will judge, and these measures show whether the behaviour that supports it is happening.
We think the evidence you share should also be secure. Views can be shared with authorised colleagues, so board members and other stakeholders can see the live report without the data leaving your Microsoft 365 environment. Some vendors allow a CSV download. We think that carries a risk, because a file can easily end up in the wrong hands, including your competitors’.
IT
IT teams can add to the board conversation on cost, risk and platform health. Useful measures here include sites that are barely used or have not been updated, which can be retired, and the content that is being archived or deleted.
The goal might be a leaner SharePoint estate that is cheaper to store and easier for search and Copilot to work with. A view of the whole of SharePoint shows progress month by month.
Comms
For communications, the goal is usually a change in understanding or behaviour. Here is an example of how we would measure an organisation launching a new 2030 strategy. Alongside the strategy, it publishes discipline guides, which explain what each department now needs to do to align with the strategy. The goal is that every department understands the strategy and acts on it.
We would measure this in two steps:
Who read the strategy? We look at reach across the organisation and by department.
Who then went on to the guides? We follow the journey from the strategy to the discipline guides, by department.
The result might show that the strategy reached most people, but only some departments went on to read their guide. That gives leaders a clear answer. Communications can then follow up with the departments that have not, and avoid sending the same message again to those who have.
EX
For employee experience, the goal is that employees can find what they need and complete what they set out to do. Journey completion, searches that return no results and abandoned searches show how easy that is.
Sentiment adds the human side, through likes, shares and the sentiment of conversation in Viva Engage. These are most useful next to the journey measures, because together they show whether the experience is working.
Outcomes
An outcome is a change in the business, so it is best described in the organisation’s own terms: sales teams cross-selling more, departments changing how they work to align to a new strategy.
Addin Analytics shows the behaviour behind each outcome. For each outcome the behaviour visible in Addin Analytics will provide a real-time view of how that business goal is progressing and what needs to be done to move further towards the desired outcome.
ROI method
We recommend a simple method for return on investment.
- Choose a board goal(s) and agree how success will be recognised.
- Create a view for the audience and content involved, and record a baseline.
- Make a change, such as improving a CTA, updating a guide or retiring old content.
- Compare equivalent periods before and after, using the same view.
- Set the change in behaviour alongside the business result, using the figures your organisation holds.
Addin Analytics provides the behaviour evidence. The business figures, such as sales results or storage costs, come from your other systems.
Caveats
As with other measures, no single figure proves understanding, so read them together. Audience-level reporting should also be shared in line with your own governance and access controls.