How Colaberry Analyzes its Key Performance Indicators

Posted on November 30, 2018 by Yash .

How Colaberry Analyzes its Key Performance Indicators

Colaberry School of Data Analytics has been providing groundbreaking, career-oriented training programs in Data Analytics since 2012. We run online classes that you can take from the comfort of your own home. Colaberry also offers instructor-led classes in the Dallas, Texas area. More than 4,500 people have changed their lives by participating in these boot camp-style classes!

Key Performance Indicator Examples from Colaberry  

Here, we depict our top 10 best-performing KPIs and our top 10 worst-performing KPIs:

The chart above depicts all of the KPIs (categories and subcategories) together. It also classifies the top-performing and worst-performing KPIs within this graph to broaden our perspective.

We can view the entire dashboard or choose a single category, with any time group we choose. The numerous combinations allow us to dive deeper into our data to better understand, analyze and manage our business.

Analyzing Large Sets of Data

Data Analysis is the process of examining large quantities of data to find patterns and draw conclusions from this information. With the help of specialized tools and professional insight, data can be presented in a way that is easy to read and understand. Once it is compiled, the next steps are to organize and report this data in a format (usually a graph or metric) that can help organizations take quick action to improve in areas that are critical to their business’s success. One widely used metric is the KPI.

Here at Colaberry, we understand the importance of KPIs to today’s enterprises. In fact, we have been using KPIs to track our own training program.

Before we go into the specifics, let’s understand the basics…

So, what does KPI stand for?

KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator. It is a measurable value that shows how effectively a company is achieving a specific, key business objective. A KPI by itself won’t tell you much in terms of how far along you are toward success. You need context to understand the meaning of that indicator and how it meshes with the overall landscape of your business.

For example, if I told you, “the company made $10k in revenue this month,” is that good or bad? Without context, you don’t really know. A more effective way of understanding this revenue number would be if you were viewing a trend, measuring the $10k to a target goal, or comparing it with past performance.

Hence, with the right KPIs in place (and proper context), businesses can set appropriate goals, develop strategies to reach them, and evaluate their progress.

Using KPIs To Measure Success

When comparing KPIs with past performance, you judge how KPIs perform across different time periods, as well as in the moment. This gives you a 360-degree view of how your KPIs are performing and will allow you to easily find patterns or problems and then take actions based on those insights.

Which KPIs Does Colaberry Use to Measure Student Success?

Colaberry programs were created to train military veterans and individuals from underrepresented backgrounds and help them begin careers in the data science field. In order to successfully complete this mission, we use student-centered KPIs to evaluate progress both on a professional level and a personal one.

We believe that potential, combined with dedication and hard work, and finding the right career fit can be the great equalizer.

A few of the major KPIs that Colaberry tracks include:

• Efficiency Rating
• Satisfaction Rating
• Test Scores
• Submissions
• Interviews
• Job Offers

Two of the most important, outcomes-based KPIs that relate to employment include interviews and job offers. We understand that having the knowledge and scoring well is important, but how do our graduates measure up in terms of actually getting interviews and being placed in specific positions?

Interviews

Getting a bird’s-eye view of our graduates’ interview numbers really puts the other KPIs that we track into context. Since we are invested in our graduates and the impact our program has on their lives, we really try to find out what is leading to, or holding a person back, from getting specific amounts of interviews. In Colaberry, both during the courses and beyond them, we focus on:

• Interview Preparation
• Soft skills (voice tone, proper attire, emphasizing project-based skills and the value a student can bring to a prospective employer, etc.)
• Mock Interviews
• Being ready to “hit the ground running” from day one on the job

Job Offers

In some instances, moving from an interview to a job offer is no easy task. We use KPIs to find patterns and find out what percentage of our graduates are being placed within companies, and at what salary range, and we spend a great deal of time searching for new ways to improve these metrics.

Handholding our graduates until they get their first job offer is one of the happiest things we do at Colaberry. We are thrilled that we have had so much success: it is a true testament to the hard work of our students and the focus Colaberry has on its preparation process. We know that companies and our students are eager to improve, and we strive to focus every day on how we can better meet the needs of both stakeholders.

Some of the key aspects that affect whether a job is offered include:

• Real-world project experience
• Alignment of interviewer and graduate’s goals
• Company culture and interviewee’s “soft skills” alignment

How Does Colaberry Analyze KPIs?

At Colaberry, we analyze all KPIs within the following time periods:

• Month-To-Date (MTD)
• Quarter-To-Date(QTD)
• Year-To-Date(YTD)
• Rolling 1 Month
• Rolling 3 Months
• Rolling 6 Months
• Rolling 12 Months

Time periods that include the phrase “to-date” would examine metrics from the start of the time period up until those from today.

QTD Report

Example 1: QTD would mean the start of the current quarter to the current date vs. the start of the last quarter to the equivalent of today’s date.

If today is May 1^st, 2022 and we run a QTD report, we are comparing:

• April 1^st, 2022 to May 15^th, 2022

And comparing the same KPI for the previous QT

• Jan 1^st, 2022 to Feb 15^th 2022

In this case, you are comparing KPIs from QTD and Previous QTD. It’s important that you compare KPIs measured within similar, comparable time frames.

Rolling 1 Month

Example 2: Rolling 1 month would mean you start with today’s date and go back 3 months vs 3 months back vs. the Previous 1 month back.

If today is May 15^th, 2022 and we run a Rolling 1-month report, we are comparing:

• Apr 15^th, 2022 to May 15^th, 2022

And comparing the same KPI for the previous Rolling 1 month

• Mar 14^th, 2022 to Apr 14^th, 2022

Now that we understand the basics, let’s look at how Colaberry measures its KPIs over different time periods. Below, you can see we have calculated the percentage increase over the different periods and used these to create the Heat Map below.

If you look at this visualization, it gives you an overall picture of how the various KPIs are doing during different time periods. It is a bird’s-eye-view that instantly (using colors) reveals the areas where performance is up to the mark as well as the areas in need of help.

Drilling Down For Details

Now if you want to drill down further, you can. Click on that KPI and it will then show you details about it. Let’s say if you want to find more information on “interviews”, you would click on one of the colored or non-colored blocks to the right of interviews that correlate to the timeframe or report you are analyzing.

The Heat Map is just one view. At Colaberry, we believe in showing the most comprehensive view possible so not only do we utilize the KPI Plot chart to analyze the KPIs within different time periods, but we also take one step further and measure the KPIs with their Target Satisfaction rates.

Looks pretty good overall. It also tells us how KPIs are performing in different time periods so we can easily see which KPIs need our immediate attention.

Visualizations such as this can be a very powerful tool in steering the company in the right direction to achieve its goals and objectives by providing insights by simply analyzing the data correctly.

If you would like to know more about Colaberry training programs or are interested in a course, please visit http://training.colaberry.com