Measuring success
One of our 10 working principles is ‘We make evidence-based recommendations and decisions’. That’s why we’ve built measurement into our digital lifecycle.
When we’re creating, operating or planning products and services, we can use those measurements - to check whether we’re on the right path, and to point towards where we can go next.
Why we measure
There are a range of motivations for measuring the success of our digital delivery:
To optimise and improve our products and services once they’re live
To learn how users feel about them. An in-depth understanding of audience needs (especially as needs change), based on both qualitative and quantitative user data, is fundamental to successful digital performance
To help make decisions about their future - which products and services to keep live and possibly improve, and which ones to decommission
To learn lessons we can apply to other work
To inform future planning by the business
To monitor improvement of our digital performance in support of the organisation’s strategic aims
To test hypotheses and challenge assumptions
And crucially, to understand how our products and services contribute to Shelter’s strategic goals. The golden thread runs through everything we do. Every service or product we launch, no matter how small, needs to connect to Shelter’s biggest goals in our efforts to end the housing emergency
How do we measure?
In Shelter’s devolved content manager model, teams that own content also own the responsibility for measuring and reporting its success.
The Digital Analytics team in Central Digital supports content managers to that aim, using a range of tools for tracking, capturing feedback, quantifying, comparing and evaluating data. The analytics team provides content managers with customised, self-serve dashboards, so they're able to monitor the performance of their products or services and flag reports with their business owners.
The analytics team also manages our Digital Report Centre, providing all Shelter staff with a wide range of activity-specific reports.
The Content Manager’s Report gives our content managers and business owners
up-to-date, filterable data on performance and trends
Using outside data
When we design and develop our products and services, it’s valuable for us to inform choices with data and analysis from reliable external sources.
We may draw on datasets that evaluate industry trends - in technology performance and usage, and in audience preferences. Which web browsers are growing in use? Which audience segments are using emerging mobile functionality? What types of fundraising technology are trending upward?
External data also plays an important role in validating hypotheses during product development, letting us cross-reference our own data.
Related
How we understand our audiences
The roles that drive our devolved model
Shelter’s business ownership role in practice
Contact us about the digital framework
Have a question or comment? Found a bug? Or maybe you’d like to contribute to the framework? Use our contact form to get in touch.