Setting clear objectives and ensuring the whole team understands them is a key success factor in digital projects. This deck is designed to accompany a workshop I run with teams at digital agencies. It represents my current thinking on - why objectives are important - what useful objectives look like for digital projects - how to work with clients to define useful objectives. Please feel free to spread the ideas. If you do, I would really appreciate a credit using my twitter handle @docket. Keen to get feedback to so feel free to comment.

1. Setting Better Objectives!
!
!
Alastair Lee | productpanda.com | @docket!
Factors that influence the success of design projects are often not directly related to the designer or
the design work itself. It’s often about getting:
• the right environment
• the right mix of people in the team
• the right timescales
• the right relationship with stakeholders
• and the right brief - with useful objectives

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It seems simple, but in the rush to get on, we often assume everyone shares the same view of what
we’re doing and why, when it’s actually not the case. This can lead to problems later on, when crucial
design decisions need to be made and there is no agreed criteria for making them.

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Today
!
1. Why bother setting objectives?
2. Terminology
3. What do good objectives look like?
4. How to set good objectives with clients

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Part 1.
Why bother?
So why is it important?

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“If you don’t know where
you’re going, any path will do”
CS Lewis

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“There is surely nothing quite so
useless as doing with great efficiency
what should not be done at all”
Peter Drucker

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FOCUS
Clear objectives
• gather the team
• enable you to prioritise and say no
• enable a more harmonious client relationship, where you share a clear goal

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MOTIVATION
Designers like a challenge
Designers often don’t like being told what to do.
With clear objectives you can give your team the autonomy to make their own decisions
According to Daniel Pink’s book Drive - Autonomy is one of three key factors in motivating people

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PROOF
Have you ever wondered if what you were doing was worth the clients money?
Having clear measurable objectives agreed in advance, explicitly tied to business goals enables you
to prove ROI
When that happens the boss becomes interested and you can engage at a more senior level

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BETTER WORK
And it tends to lead to better work and all that goes with it - new business, happy staff, easy
recruitment, awards etc. It’s a good thing.

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Part 2. Terminology

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What is an objective?

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!
A thing aimed at or sought -
a goal!
Oxford English Dictionary

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A goal that is striven for
Wikipedia
For me a ‘goal’ is a bit wooly. It implies a lofty ambition. For me objectives should be, well, objective -
meaning someone from outside the project should be able to look at what you set out to do and
what you have done and say yes, you have achieved your aim.

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Objective = What you aim to achieve
For me an objective is what you aim to acheive. ‘Achieve' implies it’s done and you can prove it.
If you objective is to buy a car then when you get the keys you’ve achieved it.
If your objective is to become a wonderful piano player - that’s more of a goal, an ambition even.

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What is a KPI?

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A way to evaluate the success
of a particular activity in which
you are engaged
Wikipedia
A Key Performance Indicator does just that, it indicates performance, e.g.
• Unique users
• Customer lifetime value
• Page load time

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Objective = What you aim to achieve
= How you measure progressKPI

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What is a requirement?

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A thing that is compulsory;
a necessary condition
Oxford English Dictionary
• it must be on Drupal 7
• it needs to used by people in Spain
• it needs to be done by Sep 12
• not all ‘requirements’ are real, many are preferences, be sure to distinguish between the two

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Objective = What you aim to achieve
= How you measure progressKPI
= Something you can’t changeRequirement

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What is a tactic?

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An action or strategy carefully
planned to achieve a specific end
Oxford English Dictionary
• You could substitute ‘feature’, or ‘activity’ in here. It’s something you do to meet an objective.
It’s not an objective in itself.

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= Something you can’t changeRequirement
Objective = What you aim to achieve
= How you measure progressKPI
= Part of a proposed solutionTactic

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Objective = Sell more shoes
= Sales volumeKPI
= English, French, SpanishRequirement
= Personalised recommendationsTactic

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Objective = Reduce marketing costs
= Cost Per AcquisitionKPI
= Display ads remain as plannedRequirement
= Content marketing pushTactic

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KPIs
Objective Tactics
Requirements
✓
• Objectives and the associated
requirements and KPIs should come first.
Tactics are a response.

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KPIs
TacticsObjectives
Requirements
✕
• However often clients come with pre-defined tactics and requirements. And the objectives
are hazy. This is not so good. Clients are not always best placed to judge what tactics will best
achieve their objectives.

29. • What is the objective, KPI, requirement and tactic here?

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Part 3.
What does a good
objective look like?

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A good objective is…
2. S.M.A.R.T.
1. Pitched at the right level!

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• What it this man’s objective?

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Be happy
WHY?
Catch bus!
Be punctual
Build relationships
Get promoted
Do interesting work
Successful career
• By asking why ? we can see ever higher objectives, that are more interesting to work on

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Be happy
Successful
career
Do interesting
work
Get
promoted
Be punctual
Impress
boss
Catch bus!
STRATEGIC
TACTICAL
• There are many tactical objectives contributing to less strategic ones

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• What is his objective?

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HOW?
World domination
Eliminate USSR & USA
Cause nuclear war
Steal rockets
Launch spacecraft
Build lair
Find lair architect

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World
domination
Eliminate
USSR & USA
Cause
nuclear war
Steal
rockets
Build lair
Launch
spacecraft
Find lair
architect
STRATEGIC
TACTICAL
• By asking ‘how?’ we can move down the stack

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Shoe Corp.
• Lets take a mythical shoe company…

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Maximise
profits
STRATEGIC
Sales Prices
Costs
Productivity
Revenues
Wage bill
Cost of
acquisition ↑↑
↑
↑
↑↑
↑
TACTICAL
Working
environment
Online
sales
Shift brand
perceptions↑ Offline
sales↑Head
count
↑ Staff
morale↑↑
Customer
lifetime value↑Outsource
production
Engage young
professionals
Online
conversion↑Traffic↑Brand
awareness↑
↑
SEO↑ Checkout
flow
Reduce form
steps
Restructure
IA↑
Content
marketing↑
Youtube
channel
Average
txn value
Visual refresh
ATL
Campaign ↑ Repeat visits↑
Loyalty club
• The shoe corp pyramid might look like this. My view is that there is a fuzzy line where
business objectives merge with digital tactics. You want to stay above that line if you can.

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Right level =!
The highest level business
objective you can prove
your impact on
• If your line is too high then there will be too many other factors and you can’t prove a link
• If it’s too low then it’s not clear how you are helping the actual business

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A good objective is…
2. S.M.A.R.T.
1. Pitched at the right level ✓
• So on to number 2

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Specific
Measurable!
Attainable!
Relevant!
Time-bound
• Specific - no room for ambiguity, there for all to see. Not lose weight, but loose 2cm of your
waistline or 5lbs in a month.
• Measurable - If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. find a metric you can keep track of
and one that proves you’re done.
• Attainable - in needs to be within reach or you’ll lose motivation. get team to agree, but push
them
• Relevant - clear link to the goal above it
• Time-bound - give yourself as deadline - doesn’t have to be client facing.

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Dumb version
I want to lose weight!
!
S.M.A.R.T. version
I want to lose 5lbs by June 30th!
• Simple example

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Dumb version
Encourage increased donations!
!
S.M.A.R.T. version
Increase the average online donation size*
from £20 to £23 by the end of the year.!
*Measured monthly
• Simple example

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By the end of 2015 we will increase the average
customer lifetime value (CLV) from £400 to £500.
KPIs
• Repeat visits
• Basket size
Assumptions
• Marketing strategy does not change
• We do design and FE dev
• Project goes live end of March 2015
Increase customer
lifetime value
• more likely business example

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In the next 6 months we will engage 50,000 young
professionals in a conversation about classic shoe
styles on Facebook.!
• To count as engaged, the user must Like,
comment or share CR content containing key
messages
• Young professionals are defined by Facebook’s
Graph algorithm
Engage with young
professionals
• Another

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A good objective is…
2. S.M.A.R.T.
1. Pitched at the right level ✓
✓

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Part 4.
But what about
clients?
• yeah but…. clients

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Clients are your users
• If you are a designer, you need to think about the needs of your users. Clients are your users too

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Understand where they are
coming from…

51. • This can help

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…then decode what
they are saying

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Engagement
& Reach
Reach
Engagement
Data capture
Increase
revenue
New donors
Existing donors
Spend per
donation
Marketing
efficiency
Reduce cost
Staff spend
Cust. services
spend
Licences and
equipment
Influence policy
and others
Increase
impact
Communication
and info.
Better services
Better UX
Increase
volunteering
Add new
volunteers
Retain
existing
volunteers
Increase
activity
Likely objectives for charities
• There are not that many objectives that they can have, really. And certain ones will crop up again
and again. Here’s a list for charities for example.

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Ask questions to fill gaps in understanding
• Can I just check your interpretation of…
• What is driving that requirement?
• Which of your business objectives do you see this
supporting
• How would we measure that?
• What would success look like?
• What else is going on that supports this objective?

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What happens when there
are lots of objectives?

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PRIORITISE

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Dot voting
• Which is more important, repeat visits or new users? Conversion rate or basket size?
• Stakeholders get three m&ms each and vote with them (see Lean UX and Gamestorming)

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Effort vs Impact High Effort
Low Effort
Low
Impact
High
Impact
• Another way to do it. Perceived impact vs perceived effort. This will help prioritise.

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Summary
1. Empathise with the client
2. Think about out their pyramid and fill in gaps
3. Find business objectives where you can measure
your impact
4. Gather team and create smart objectives to support
the business obj.
5. Prioritise
6. Measure as you go

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Thank you