Digital work can involve a vast quantity of data. The challenge is deciding which things to report on, how best to measure them, and how to make sense of that data in easy-to-understand reports and dashboards.

In doing this, organisations should avoid vanity statistics. These might include Twitter/X impressions or Facebook reach. They can be big numbers but do not measure real impact.

Reporting allows organisations to adjust course if necessary. Every project or product should have cycles of testing, optimisation and learning built in.

As well as gathering the right data and putting it into digestible report formats, organisations need to share them with the right people at the right time. This can be hard to master if data is in disparate systems and databases.

Things to think about

• How often are reports of previous activity used to inform a new project/product development cycle?
• Do you have a dashboard that presents key measures of performance in one place?
• Do different stakeholders have access to reporting dashboards that are relevant to their level of authority and area of responsibility?
• How quickly and easily can you create basic reports to answer questions about your audiences’ behaviours?