A webinar that takes you through how to set KPIs for your community - originally presented by Carrie Melissa Jones and Vanilla Forums

1. How to Set KPIs for
Your Community
Carrie Melissa Jones,
Gather Community Consulting
@workwithgather @caremjo
MAY2019

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Photo Credits:
Zackary Drucker,
The Gender
Spectrum Collection

3. 3
Photo Credits:
Zackary Drucker,
The Gender
Spectrum Collection

4. 4
Photo Credits:
Zackary Drucker,
The Gender
Spectrum Collection

5. 5
Photo Credits:
Zackary Drucker,
The Gender
Spectrum Collection

6. 6
Photo Credits:
Zackary Drucker,
The Gender
Spectrum Collection

7. Let’sdothis!
01

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Agenda
Introduction01
02
03
04 Q&A
The ABCs of Community KPIs
What are Key Performance
Indicators (KPIs)?

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Who’s Talking at
You?
Currently:
● Consultant: AMA, Brainly, Buffer, Google, one of
the 2020 US Presidential Candidates
● Author: Building Brand Communities (May
2020)
Formerly:
● COO of CMX
● Community @ Scribd, Chegg
Carrie
Melissa
Jones

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Four Places
Community
Builders Get
Stuck
No one knows what to do and
they’re relying on you.
Others think they know what
you should measure and you
get assigned KPIs.
You’re given impossible things
to measure.
Your data gets siloed and you
can’t measure anything.
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03
04

11. WhatisaKPI?
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KPIs =
Key Performance
Indicators
A clearly defined, quantifiable
goal for your work
Tied to a measurable metric
Vital to the team or
organization’s goal
Easily communicated back to
relevant team members or
leaders in your organization
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02
03
04

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Anatomy of an Example KPI
Clearly defined,
quantifiable
Measurable
metric (with an
NPS survey)
Vital to the marketing/
product team, who might
monitor NPS already
Easily communicated with
one number
NPS Score of community members vs.
non-community members

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Leadingvs.
LaggingKPIs
L E A D I N G L A G G I N G
A

15. TheABCsof
CommunityKPIs
03

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CBA
B R A I N S T O R M
A S S E S S C H O O S E

17. Organize Communication Plan
Invite to Brainstorm
A S S E S S
Refer to Strategic Objectives
List and Align Stakeholders

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Organize
Communication Plan
Invite to
Brainstorm
A S S E S S
Refer to Strategic
Objectives
List and Align
Stakeholders
● What goals does your entire
organization or team share?
● Financial?
● Customer-related?
● Strategic pivot?
Refer to Strategic
Objectives

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Organize
Communication Plan
Invite to
Brainstorm
A S S E S S
Refer to Strategic
Objectives
List and Align
Stakeholders
Most important for KPI Projects:
● Data originators - person closest to
where data is collected - probably you!
● Data aggregators - people who
package the data together - usually IT
● Data analysts - Business Intelligence
team members
● Internal users of data - people who
need the data to make decisions
Determine Stakeholders
Credit: Bernie Smith

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Organize
Communication Plan
Invite to
Brainstorm
A S S E S S
Refer to Strategic
Objectives
List and Align
Stakeholders
● Who needs to know? Who needs to
make the decision?
● How often do they need to be
updated?
● How detailed?
● Via what channels? (meeting, report,
email, Slack update)
● How will they use the information?
Organize Stakeholder
Communication Plan

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“When you do the work of getting
buy-in, people on your team will be
a part of the community’s success
and not a gatekeeper to it.”
JOSHUA ZERKEL
Global Head of Community at Asana

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Organize
Communication Plan
Invite to
Brainstorm
A S S E S S
Refer to Strategic
Objectives
List and Align
Stakeholders
Based on the communication plan,
invite the required stakeholders
together to brainstorm KPIs with you.
Invitation to Brainstorm

23. B R A I N S T O R M
Create KPI Trees
Strategic Goal – (be the best-performing
gaming community in the world)
Theme – (service, experience, conflict
resolution, experimentation)
Tactical – (source response to queries in
less than 10 minutes, be kind, plan
weekly games, be light-hearted)
Measure – (response time, customer
satisfaction rating in community, Net
Promoter score, event attendance,
customer satisfaction at events)
01
02
03
04

24. Be the
Best-Performing
Gaming Community
in the World
S T R A T E G I C
Size
T H E M E S
Empowering
Experience
Create tangible value
for members
Implement new ideas
from community into
games
T A C T I C S
Increase number of
conversations
Create online events
Grow overall member count
Increase sense of belonging
Get answers from community
Add resources in library
Help members get promoted
Advocate for ideas to product
Bring in members to meet product/research
Generate helpful, useable ideas
M E A S U R E S
Number of responses by non-admins
Number of new threads by admins
Number of new members participating in threads
Event numbers
Registration numbers
New members registering and attending
Conversion from landing pages
Conversion from events
Member growth
Creation of Survey
Survey Results
Survey Results
Attendance at local events
Downloads of resources
Attendance at trainings
Ratings of resources
Creation of tracking mechanism
Rate of job placement
Image via Gather Community Consulting

25. Sample KPIs
(Not a Magic Recipe for KPI Success)

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Sample Leading
KPIs Applicable to
Most Communities
● Time spent outreaching/Number of
outreaches per day
● Number of events organized per
month
● Number of threads started by admins
● Number of new programs launched
● Number of resources created

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Sample Lagging
KPIs Applicable to
Most Communities
● Community Member Growth
● Community Contribution Growth
● Community Satisfaction Scores
● Community Engagement
○ CAVEAT: “engagement” must be
clearly defined and meaningful to
the goal of your community.

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Sample Lagging KPIs by
Organizational Goals:
Innovation, Support, Marketing, Sales,
Advocacy, Product

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Sample KPIs for
Innovation
Community KPIs for Innovation
● Number/Quality Score of ideas
submitted
● Number of ideas accepted
● Rating of ideation sessions
● Number of members interviewed by
research team

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Sample KPIs
for Support
Community KPIs for Support
● CES (Customer Effort Score)
● Time to first answer
● Time to resolution (best answer)
● Ticket volume

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Sample KPIs
for Marketing
Community KPIs for Marketing
● New names/Qualified Leads added to
customer database
● Member time and session duration
● Number of leads to download content
● Increase in SEO traffic, by Pageviews
to community content
● % of UGC marketing content

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Sample KPIs
for Sales
Community KPIs for Sales
● Time to sale for community members
versus non-community members
● Conversion rate from membership to
sales conversation
● Satisfaction with sales interactions
● Repurchase intent

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Sample KPIs
for Advocacy
Community KPIs for Advocacy
● NPS
● Referral links shared and clicked
● Brand sentiment
● Brand mentions

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Sample KPIs
for Product
Community KPIs for Product
● Product usage by cohort
● New feature adoption
● Number of pieces of actionable
feedback
● Customer Churn

35. C H O O S E
Choose 3-7 KPIs to monitor closely.
Choose how you will calculate.
Choose the source(s) of the data.
Choose the data collector and
stakeholders.
Choose the target for your
performance period.
Choose how often you will report.

36. Create a Dashboard

37. Create a Dashboard

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Report Back
After at least a quarter of measuring and reporting on
these KPIs, check back with stakeholders.

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B R A I N S T O R M
A S S E S S
C H O O S E

40. Questions?

41. Newsletter: bitly.com/gathernewsletter
Email: carrie@gathercommunityconsulting.com
Gather on Social
Find Me Online
@workwithgather
Personal Twitter
@caremjo