Kathryn O'Day

CEOs, COOs, and operations leaders often ask, what is the best metric to assess operational success?

Operations roles can vary wildly, especially in high growth startups where company needs evolve quickly. The “right” metric differs based on company stage and role focus.

Four Operations Metric Ideas

1. Your company “North Star” metric
2. Everyone in every role should be measured on this!
3. Use this metric + another ops metric for internally-focused ops
4. Best for: ops role with heavy revenue or go-to-market focus
5. Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)
6. Two variations:
7. How likely are you to recommend this company as a place to work?
8. How likely are you to recommend our product or service?
9. Best for: ops role with heavy people operations or culture focus
10. Customer Net Promoter Score (NPS)
11. Very common, easy to find benchmarking and survey tools
12. Best for: ops role with heavy customer or product focus
13. Internal-version of Customer Effort Score (CES)
14. Two variations:
15. On a scale of ‘very easy’ to ‘very difficult’, how easy was it to <do task>?
16. On a scale of ‘very easy’ to ‘very difficult’, how easy is it to do meaningful work?
17. Best for: operations role with heavy internal efficiency and process focus

Real World Example

As COO at Rigor, our company “North Star” metric was Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR). My key operational metric was eNPS. We had other metrics and many operational initiatives but ARR and eNPS anchored our focus.

What Else?

What other metrics have you seen for operations leaders? What metrics-related resources have been helpful? Any recommendations or learnings on operations metrics at high growth companies?

What does a Chief Operating Officer do?

I get this question from early founders, CEOs wondering if they need one, polite friends trying to understand my job, even other COOs!

It’s clearly a valid question.

Why is the job of COO so murky?

1. The role looks different at every company.
2. COOs are often behind the scenes, letting others take center stage.

Nathan Bennett and Stephen A. Miles via Harvard Business Review put together one of the best summaries of the different flavors of COO: Second in Command: The Misunderstood Role of the Chief Operating Officer.

They detail the seven (yes, SEVEN - no wonder it’s hard to pin down!) types of COOs.

As COO of Rigor, I handled strategic operations, alignment, communication, facilities, people operations, and finance. My North Star metric was Employee Net Promoter Score.

At other companies, I’ve seen the COO add Go-To-Market, Product, Engineering, or Customer Success to their line up. At public companies, the COO often runs the company while the CEO focuses on vision, press, and investors. Sometimes, the COO is a co-founder or a CEO-in-training.

With all of these different “types” of COO, how should you think about the role?

The most important job of a COO is to complement the CEO.

No, that’s not “compliment” as in, a courteous remark that expresses admiration. That’s “complement” as in, something that completes something else in some way. (Reference for grammar nerds here.)

The COO is fundamentally a balancing role. It’s a leadership role that’s strong in areas where the CEO doesn’t have interest, time, or expertise. And this is different for every company since every CEO is unique.

So, what does a COO do?

• Complements the CEO
• Brings leadership expertise and execution to areas that need attention
• Customizes the role based on the CEO, team, industry, and business

Yes, the COO is often a strong “operator” - great at building repeatable programs that incorporate data, accountability, training, and tools in a structured way.

But the most important job of the COO is to see the needs of the CEO and the company and double down in those areas. It requires an honest, trusted relationship with the CEO and a deep understanding of people and business.

It’s a dynamic, challenging, and subtle role. When you get it right, great things happen.