Part 5 (2/2)
How to collect data: I presented fourauto surveys, and using people
Conclusion
This chapter covered how to create a root question and, based on that, how to design a metric I also covered how to identify and collect the information, measures, and data needed to turn the metric picture into a usable metric
Bonus Material
A different way of thinking aboutto share with you
The school my six-year-old attends uses fundraisers to supple coupon books for local fast-food restaurants at the low cost of five dollars Not a bad deal-I easily got backjust one coupon
I like this fundraiser In ives a enerous share of the funds The principal liked it, too, but wanted confirra this fundraiser or investigate a replacehter off at class one day, the principal approached me ”Marty, we collected some data” He kneas adata,” and that he led with that, gave me pause
”Really?” I tried to stay non-coabout my profession But, I can't reive to their questions Most people don't have a root question Most don't want to be creative Most siht and that's ”simpler than possible”
”Yes We collected data on how successful the coupon book prograue
”I wanted to know if it was successful, so we counted how”success” and without looking for the root question, he did a couple of things he could have avoided The good neas that I knew that it didn't take much effort to collect the data-he just had to count how many books were left at the end of the year compared to how many the school had purchased
He even built a nice chart showing the percentage of the total sold by week and overall
”Nice graph,” I said
”As you can see, we sold all of our coupon books a week before the planned deadline So, I' our order for next year”
”Really?”
”Sure, it was a tremendous success!”
”O-kay” I couldn't hold back a small frown
In the short pause that followed, I actually i to escape with no further discussion
”I know you well enough to know that you think I did so Come on, tell ive you a test at this point I'd ask you, ”What did the principal ht his conclusions be wrong? How ht those errors be a probleive you five minutes to capture the answers Since this is a book, if you want to try and figure it out, close the book now and take a shot
I took the ti
”John, it's not that you did so I'd at the least ask you not to ate further The first thing I would do before going further is to define what youa lot of coupon books?”
”Sure Isn't it?”
”I truly don't know Why are you selling the books? What's your purpose?” He nearly rolled his eyes He felt I washim state the obvious
”To raise funds”
”Ok And you succeeded at that, right?”
”Yes”
”And is that all you wanted to know?”
”Sure”
”Really? Then why are you deciding to double your order next year? It seems that you actually wanted to kno many books you should order next year”
”Well, yeah If it was a success, I figured we'd increase our order”