Measurement & evidence

One family of kinds. It follows Activation, and the map ends here.

Its kinds— 16

• EventsAn event is a kind of thing that happens, at one grain: the business process a fact is built around. 22 events
• SignalsA signal is one instrument configured to watch something: a tag, a tracked property, a platform conversion, a report setting. 32 signals
• IntelligenceA question area is a family of questions the measurement chain exists to answer. It stands between a goal and the metrics that serve it. 6 question areas
• Attribution ModelsAn attribution model is a rule for dividing credit for an outcome across the exposures that came before it. It governs how credit is shared, not whether the outcome happened, so the same outcome measured under two rules gives two different numbers and neither of them is wrong. 6 attribution models
• Evidence DesignsAn evidence design is the way a reading's cause is established: by assigning who or where receives the activity and comparing, by modelling an outcome over time against the activity, or by dividing observed credit among the exposures that preceded an outcome. A reading names the design it is read by, and the attribution rules are one design among five. 5 evidence designs
• ParametersA parameter is a value a plan has to fix before a reading, a rule, an instrument or a move can be computed: a window, a threshold, a share or a cap, named once so every system that applies it applies the same one. The parameter is the slot and is governed here; the number in it belongs to the business and is a record, set over a window on a stated basis. Each parameter says what it is a parameter of, a metric, an attribution model, an evidence design, an instrument or a processing purpose, or which tactic it constrains. 11 parameters
• Setting BasesA setting basis is where the value in a parameter came from: a public standard that fixes it, a benchmark that supplies it, an experiment that established it, or a decision that chose it. A setting names its basis so a reader knows how far to trust the number and what would change it. 4 setting bases
• Event GrainAn event grain is the grain an event is recorded at: what one occurrence of the event is one of. It fixes whether the fact can be resolved to a single person, and if it cannot, what stands in the way, because a count of events is a count of people only when each event is one person's. 4 event grains
• Measure DirectionA measure direction is which way a reading has to move to be a better result. It says nothing about what the reading measures or how it is built, only which direction counts as improvement, because a number rising is not news until someone says whether rising is the point. 3 measure directions
• Measure FormA measure form is the arithmetic form a reading takes: what kind of number it is before anyone asks what it is about. It governs how two readings may be compared and what a change in one of them can mean, because a count and a share that move by the same amount have not moved by the same amount. 7 measure forms
• UnitsA unit is what a reading is expressed in: what the number is a number of. A count, a percent and a currency amount that print the same figure have said different things, so the unit is part of the calculation rather than a presentation choice. Each unit declares which arithmetic forms it fits, which is what lets a check refuse a rate measured in a count. 7 units
• MetricsA metric is a performance calculation: what is counted or divided, and at what grain. It names its Signal or Metric inputs directly, or points to one versioned Formula that names them; it is never the evidence itself. 51 metrics
• GoalsA goal is a durable outcome the marketing effort exists to advance. It is served by KPIs rather than measured directly. 8 goals
• KPIsA KPI is a performance indicator chosen because it tells whether a Goal is advancing, and measured by one or more Metrics. A number nobody would act on is not one. 42 KPIs
• TargetsA target is a level a reading is committed to reach within a window: a quantified, time-boxed commitment on one KPI, made in service of one goal and pursued by the initiative that is judged against it. It is neither the goal, which is the outcome wanted, nor the KPI, which is how the outcome is read; it is the promise that joins them. Its direction and unit are not restated here: they are the KPI's direction and the Metric's unit. 1 target
• Metric FormulasA metric formula is a versioned calculation method for a Metric, naming its inputs, grain, evaluation rules and validity. It is not the Metric it computes, and not the evidence either. 1 metric formula