Create Manual Metrics

When you create a measure to quantify the objective that you're working towards, the data points that you add over time to track that measure can neither be shared with any other measure nor can be rolled up to another measure. The values that're entered resides within the measure and once they're deleted, the data is gone and not even the historical data is available for assessing performances like YoY later. The only way to add metrics in library were to either connect to a source like spreadsheets to import the metrics that were tracked in the source or create aggregated metrics from those imported metrics using metrics calculations. 

We feel your pain.. And to fix all these pain points, we have now enabled creating metrics manually which can be

• reused by different measures,

• tracked independently of a measures' availability, and 

• used for metric aggregations and progress roll up.

This will benefit big time for business continuity and strategic governance by assessing the progress over time and allowing the stakeholders to review and reset.

How to create a manual metric in the metrics library?

1. In the Metrics > Library tab, click + Create new metric, and select Manually tracked option.

   

2. Give the metric a name or title, unit and specify a trend. In case you do not find the unit you're looking for, you can input your own custom unit - just type it, click + Add "unit" as a new option, and it'll get added.

3. Click Save.

4. Once saved, it'll display the Source data tab where you can start adding the data points against relevant dates.

   

5. Select how your data needs to be set up (cumulative or non cumulative), the time frame and how you wish to display the data as (summed up, average of or just the last entered value). See The 'Source data' section for more details.

6. Click + icon to add data points to the metric table.

7. Click Done.

Now, toggle the Display manual metrics to view the newly created manual metric with a Manual tag in its tile.

The "Source data" tab:

You can define how you wish to set up your manual metric from the Source data tab.

• Raw tab displays the actual data points or values that you enter either manually from here or by scooting the progress bar manually in the measure.

• Processed tab displays the processed data based on how you set up the data. For example, if you had entered data for every month in the Raw tab and chose Source data is Non cumulative, Time frame Quarterly, and the Total is Sum of values, then you'll see that the data is displayed as Quarterly in Date column and summation of actual values of each quarter in the Value column. Note that, in the screenshot below, though we have data till September 4th, since the current date is not past September 30, there is no entry for Q3.

Some points to note:

• If you select Cumulative in Source data is, then the Total is will automatically default to Last value, and you'll not be able to edit it.

• Total is- the option that you choose here will decide the way the value is displayed, i.e., if you choose

  • Sum of values, then we'll add the values in the Value column, and display the summed up value for the time frame that you choose.

  • Avg (Average) of values, then we'll display the average of values in the Value column for the time frame that you choose. i.e., if you choose the timeframe as Quarterly, then the average of the values in those months of that quarter will be displayed.

  • Last value, then we'll just display the latest value available in the Value column for that metric. Remember that, any value entered against a future date will not be considered, and only that value which is available latest (as on the current date or before the current date) is displayed.

• Time frame - depending on the frequency or time frame that you choose, the data will be displayed. Note that, selecting a time frame that is smaller than how you've entered data in the Raw tab show the same value over and over (i.e., selecting "daily" when the data is entered "monthly", will display the same value every day until the month changes, and so on).

• Trend - depending on the trend that you choose, the color will change, i.e., if you choose "Higher is better" or "Lower is better", then when the metric value matches this criteria, the color will be green. If the metric value is opposite to the trend that's set, then the color will be red.

How to edit or delete a metric?

All the metrics will be available in the Metrics > Library tab. Click the metric tile to view its information from the Sidebar:

• Details - Displays a line graph of the metrics data entered over time. Click Add values to enter data points to the table.

  

• Measures - Here, you can either create a new measure from this metric, or you can view the measures that're connected with this metrics.

• Table view - Displays the exact values of the metrics that you entered over time.

Click the three dots in the metric tile that you wish to edit or delete, and choose the relevant option.

• Click Edit, if you wish to change the name of the metric, unit, trend, and click Save.

• Click Delete - this'll permanently delete the metric from the library. If you wish to have it later, then you'll need to re-create it.

FAQs

Can we add historical data points to the manual metric?

Yes. If you wish to edit a value in the past or add some historical data point, click the metric name in the measure sidebar or toggle the Display manual metrics option in the Metrics library to access the relevant manual metric. You can then edit the metric from its sidebar and from the Source data tab - click the three dots against a value to edit it or click the + icon at the top right to add a data point.

Can I connect the same manual metric to different measures?

Yes, that's the main advantage of using metrics. But just remember that the same data points will be displayed across all those measures that're connected to it and if you do not need that then create a new manual metric.

I updated the progress on manual metric on 7th September, but the metric shows data points for August 31.

It is because you would have chosen Time frame as Monthly and the current date is still not past September 30. If you wish to see the actual value that you entered against the exact date, then choose Daily in Time frame.