GrowthBusiness

One Metric That Matters (OMTM)

Sonali Sharma

Jun 23, 2017 • 4 min read

Anyone involved in growing a business knows how easy it is to be distracted from achieving your primary objective/goal.

One approach to that conundrum is referred to as the “One Metric That Matters (OMTM)” approach.

Here, in this video, Axioned’s Libby Swan and Purple Squirrel’s CTO and Co-founder, Kai Yen, talk more about OMTM.

Fireside Chat w/Kai Yen - One Metric

(Start of video transcript.)

0:00 And that growth program (500 Startups) is there any like, major key takeaways, or things that you’ve held on to? And you’re like, oh wow if we didn’t go through that growth program, we wouldn’t have found out about that? Or we wouldn’t have thought about that?

0:11 They kind of force you to pick this like one metric. And kind of get everybody aligned behind that metric. And then run these, like weekly growth meetings, where you’re, you’re basically looking at like, how did we move that metric. And like what are we doing next week, to move that metric. And just holding everybody accountable for, you know their pieces, of moving that one thing forward.

0:30 so that, so that actually was really good, it was, there’s a lot of focus, I think that, um, we got out of it, and I think, but like the one, one thing that that taught me possibly more than anything else was that like, I knew that I need to be really focused going into this, I knew that, that was going to be, like the most important piece of success, I totally underestimated, how hard that was, and like over and over and over again, like using kind of their program, sort of keeps, getting this like back on track, and it is still hard to stay focused, like no matter how much I know, that we have to stay focused on that, it’s still hard, and it’s still like a struggle, to do that, so just that was a lot harder than I expected.

1:14 And then, what do you find are the biggest distractions for you today, with regards to staying on track with that one metric?

1:22 Oh! it’s, it’s everything like, like

1:26 This (fireside chat)?! (laughter)

1:27 (Well) the thing is, like I heard somebody, I don’t know, I don’t know where, I don’t know where I heard this but this just, it made me laugh when I heard it, and then when I realized it was true and we were living it, like I really like, you know like, was laughing hysterically, but some, I heard somebody say like, you know, when you, when you’re that, like an idea person, right? you know you come up with ideas, and usually companies are started by idea people, right? they have ideas, and usually they don’t just have one, they’ve got like a thousand, right? And so you take, like a founder who’s like, an idea person, and usually they connect with other idea people, right?

2:00 Pretty soon you have all these ideas, and then, what you do is, you think, like okay! we just landed some funding, right? This is great! Because we’re going to hire a whole bunch of people, and now we can actually execute on this! And your natural inclination is to go find these like exceptionally smart people and you bring them into the organization and guess what? They have ideas! Like more ideas than they have like bandwidth to do them.

2:21 So the ideas don’t actually get executed, you don’t feel like your, your list of things is getting smaller, it just explodes! And, and that’s that like, that’s that sort of focused piece, because you keep hearing these like, amazing ideas all the time. And when you’re together, they just multiply and it’s really hard to just stay focused, and not, you know, not try to change what you’re doing, and what you’re, and what you’re focused on, which, is that one metric that matters for us.

2:48 So if I could summarize the distraction, it’s really when you get a group of smart people together, they can’t help themselves from ideating, as opposed to, staying fixated on the one metric.

3:00 Absolutely, you just, do that (distraction) all the time.

(End of video transcript.)

Want to read more re: OMTM?
Here are some of the articles we’ll be digesting to try and narrow-in on our/Axioned’s OMTM…

Oh, and in case you’re interested, Axioned’s goals (4 in total vs.1! Oops!) are as follows: Axioned’s 4 Co. Goals — “W-H-RP-C”:

W = WOW: Always “wow” our clients — existing and new — with everything that we do. This is our #1 goal. If we do this successfully, this helps us with #3.
H = HOW: Constantly work on improving HOW we “do what we do”. If we do this successfully, this helps us with #1, #3, and #4.
RP = RIGHT PEOPLE: Get the right people on the bus (Axioned bus!) and into the right seats (aka right job/right position). If we do this successfully, this helps us with #1, #2, and #4.
C = CULTURE: Establish a great culture and working conditions for our team. If we do this successfully, this helps us with #1, #2, and #3.

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