Becoming Measureable: Vision Part 4

"You can't manage what you can't measure." – Peter Drucker

Imagine if you opened Slack or Teams tomorrow (or whichever tool you use), and your CFO randomly asked you to articulate why you exist using clear business metrics and numbers by the end of the day. How would you answer?

In the world of Cyber PMMs, this is one of our greatest challenges and opportunities. Our future in this business hinges on our ability to provide concrete metrics that objectively demonstrate our value. The fourth part of our Cyber PMM vision is a critical step in bridging this gap between our roles and the financial part of the business. This post aims to address this measurement challenge and provide a vision for us to aspire to.

Imagine if we got this right

To get past the guessing games, think about what a future with measurement would like. Imagine if we got this right:

• Rather than focusing on "dive and catch" reactive heroics, promotions and accolades will be based on measurable performance.
• Entry-level PMMs would understand the criteria for success and they will be able to clearly see their priorities.
• We'll have fewer fire drills since the work we do is measured, so we'll be focused on what really matters.
• Having less confusion and more clarity about how we're doing would make for a more fulfilling career.
• My personal favorite – we'll join less irrelevant calls and meetings because it will be more clear that the topic is not related to our function. Think better time management

This future is only possible if we begin to start measuring our function. This would be an industry-wide effort, and it won't happen overnight. Virtually everything in the digital world is measurable, so there's no excuse not to put effort into resolving this issue. It's worth a shot.

Without measurement, a function is broken