1. Bonfire of the
Vanity Metrics
Ivory Madison (not pictured)
CEO and Founder, Red Room

2. “There is no safety in numbers
or in anything else.”
–James Thurber

3. Vain, Vainglorious Vanity:
Not Good for Business
• Vanity blinds you to a lack of
product/market fit.
• It commits you to your original
vision without agility.
• It gets you invested in
appearances, not reality.

4. “Like dreams, statistics are a
form of wish fulfillment.”
–Jean Baudrillard

5. Vanity Metrics: The Most
Common Form of Success Theater
• Living beyond your means:
unsustainable
• Spending energy merely looking
successful: stupid
• Exaggerating your accomplishments:
dishonest

6. Mark Twain said:
“Facts are stubborn, statistics
more pliable.”

7. Notorious Vanity Metrics:
What Numbers Not To Use
• Pageviews • Percent Growth
• New Members • Conversion Rate
• Total Members • Twitter followers
• Unique visitors/visits • Facebook
friends/likes

8. “This is the way the world
ends, not with a bang but a
whimper.”
–T.S. Eliot

9. Characteristics of
Actionable Metrics
• Measures success at your core business.
• Shows or directly relates to revenue.
• Tracks real, individual customers.
• Illustrates cause and effect.
• Leads you to what to do next.

10. “I’m not prepared for a zombie
apocalypse. I need more
bottled water, a shotgun,
and stronger abs.”
–Jenna Fischer

11. Your Four:
The Most Important Metrics
(The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse)
• Measure Relevant Revenue
• Measure Sales Volume
• Measure Customer Retention
• Measure Relevant Growth

12. “To see a world in a grain of
sand…”
– William Blake

13. Find the Big Picture
in the Small Numbers
• Real Lean Startups Don’t Flinch
at Real Numbers
• Business Lessons are Life Lessons
• Vow to Give Up Vanity
• Make the Vision About More
Than Just the Numbers

14. The End
Contact me: Ivory Madison
CEO and Founder, Red Room