Measure What Matters

by John Doerr

Until you set a really big goal, like vaccinating every child everywhere, you can’t find out which lever or mix of levers is most important. Our annual strategy reviews began with: “What is the objective here? Is it eradication or is it expanding the reach of vaccines?” Then we could get more practical with our key results—like the 80/90 rule at the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, where 80 percent of districts would have 90 percent or more coverage. You need those key results to align your everyday activities, and over time you keep moving them to be even more ambitious against that really big goal. Sometimes, to be honest, we were probably measuring the wrong thing. But the effort was always there to hold ourselves accountable. At private foundations, where you lack a market effect to gauge impact, you have to pay close attention to whether your data is getting you to the ultimate goal.