Who should own and maintain business metrics?
Metrics should be jointly owned: defined by data teams for accuracy, governed with business stakeholders for meaning, and maintained centrally in a metrics layer.
Why joint ownership beats silos
When one group holds all the power, things break:
- Data-only control: Technically correct, business-irrelevant metrics. People ignore them.
- Business-only control: Useful names with fragile math. Numbers change from one deck to the next.
- Per-dashboard ownership: Copy-paste logic spreads bugs and slows delivery.
Joint ownership aligns expertise. Data teams handle modelling, lineage, testing, and performance. Business stakeholders set acceptance criteria, edge cases, and the real-world meaning of terms.
Roles and responsibilities (RACI-style)
- Executive sponsor: Sets priority and tie-breaks during disputes. Accountable.
- Metric owner (business): Defines meaning, inclusion rules, and acceptance tests. Accountable.
- Data steward (data team): Implements and tests the calculation. Responsible.
- Reviewers (cross-functional): Finance, Sales, Marketing, Operations confirm the definition covers their needs. Consulted.
- Consumers: Teams that use the metric in decisions and dashboards. Informed.
Tip: Put the RACI on the metric's detail page so anyone can see who to ask and who approves changes.
Operating model: from idea to certified metric
- Propose: Anyone can request a new metric with a clear problem statement and example decisions it will support.
- Draft: Business owner writes the definition and required dimensions. Data steward drafts the calculation logic.
- Test: Create sample inputs and expected outputs. Include boundary cases.
- Review: Cross-functional reviewers check clarity and downstream impact.
- Certify: Mark the metric as certified in the catalog and publish it for reuse.
- Monitor: Track freshness, usage, and alerts. Archive or rework if usage drops or logic changes upstream.
Result: a repeatable, auditable path from idea to trusted metric.
Guardrails for healthy governance
- Central catalog: One place to browse metrics, owners, tags, and certification state.
- Change management: Version notes, impact analysis, and subscriber notifications.
- Access control: Editors are limited. Most people explore and build views without editing logic.
- Service levels: Define review windows for change requests so teams do not fork definitions.
Common failure modes to avoid
- Glossary theatre: Pretty definitions with no executable logic.
- Shadow queries: Side SQL that tweaks filters and quietly diverges.
- Metric sprawl: Five versions of "Active Users" with no owner. Merge or deprecate duplicates.
- Over-governance: Endless meetings that stall basic changes. Keep ceremonies light.
Real-world scenarios
- SaaS "Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)": Sales wants upgrades counted as new MRR. Finance requires netting downgrades and cancellations. The business owner sets the inclusion rules, the data steward implements and tests, and the catalog publishes one certified "MRR" to every dashboard.
- Ecommerce "Conversion Rate": Marketing excludes staff orders and bot traffic. The data steward embeds the filters in the metric definition so the rate is consistent across landing page and revenue dashboards.
- Marketing "Cost per Lead (CPL)": The business owner specifies currency conversion timing. The data steward implements daily FX rates and aligns lead dates, then certifies the metric.
Where PowerMetrics fits
PowerMetrics gives you a governed metric catalog, executable logic, and role-based workflows so you can assign owners, reviewers, and editors per metric. Certification, tagging, and change history help you prevent drift, while goals, alerts, and published views help teams act on the same trusted numbers. Connect services, databases, warehouses, or semantic layers and keep definitions in one place while every tool reads from the catalog.
Implementation checklist for SMB teams
- Identify 10 to 20 core metrics that drive weekly and monthly decisions.
- Assign a named business owner and data steward for each metric.
- Write plain-language definitions, inclusion and exclusion rules, and required dimensions.
- Implement and test the calculation once in the metrics layer.
- Certify metrics, publish to a browsable catalog, and lock edits to owners and stewards.
- Add usage tracking, freshness monitoring, and alerting.
- Review the catalog quarterly to merge duplicates and retire stale metrics.
FAQ
Who has final say during a dispute?
The executive sponsor. Use the RACI to escalate only when the business owner and data steward cannot agree.
How do departmental variants fit in?
Create one certified core metric and allow named variants with clear tags and owners. Variants must document how they differ.
How often should metrics be reviewed?
Quarterly for high-impact metrics, or any time upstream schemas or policies change.
Who owns dimensions and data quality checks?
Data stewards implement them, business owners validate that rules support decision-making.
Next step
Try PowerMetrics to assign owners, certify definitions, and maintain a central catalog that publishes trusted metrics everywhere.