Are Your Metrics Leading to Miscommunication?

If you’ve been around long enough, you’ve probably seen several different ways to calculate On-time Delivery (OTD).

The calculation changes depending on who is calculating it, but it’s typically called OTD across the board.

The issue is that if one person means On Time to the Requested Ship Date and another means On Time to the Requested Delivery Date, there’s bound to be miscommunication, which leads to unproductive conflict.

So, when defining a metric, OTD, or any other metric that can be calculated in multiple ways, it’s important to clearly and precisely define what the metric means within the name.

Here are three different types of words you can use to name metrics clearly:

1. Prime words – These are the main nouns that describe the core topic, such as “Account,” “Customer,” or “Product.”
2. Qualifiers – Words added to the prime words to give more detail about what the word means, like “Savings Account” or “Sold Product.”
3. Class words – indicate the type of information, such as “Amount,” “Date,” or “Name.”

So OTD could become Delivery Requested Ship Date On-Time %.

That’s a mouthful, and I’m not advocating never using the term “On-Time Delivery.” Instead, if you can tactfully include this fully qualified business name in a dashboard, report, or email, it will help reduce the ambiguity of what you mean by “On-Time Delivery.”

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All the Best,

Tucker