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15 HR Analytics Case Studies with Business Impact

Analytics in HR

NOVEMBER 5, 2018

For this article, I have collected 15 of the best HR analytics case studies I’ve come across in the past two years. Each of these case studies are connected with a concrete business impact. For each case study , I will refer to their original publication. 15 HR Analytics Case Studies .

What is HR Analytics? All You Need to Know to Get Started

FEBRUARY 28, 2024

Importance of HR analytics HR analytics examples Key HR metrics Data analytics in HR: How to get started How to transition from descriptive to predictive and prescriptive analytics in HR HR analytics certification FAQ What is HR analytics? Example : Annual employee turnover rate.) We discuss more real-life examples below.

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13 HR Analytics Courses Online To Check Out in 2024

FEBRUARY 23, 2024

All subjects are illustrated by real-life examples of how various organizations tap into HR analytics techniques to help them flourish. A dashboard example is included below. Identify relevant HR metrics and benchmarks for organizational goals. Want to know more? Check the course’s syllabus.

Case Study: The Value Of Pay Transparency And How To Implement It

HR Tech Girl

JULY 5, 2023

Here I aim to shed light on what pay transparency looks like at Compt, explain its mechanics and influence on overall compensation structures and raises, present real-world examples of its benefits, and provide practical considerations for organizations contemplating this approach. This will also help avoid resentment across seniority levels.

Background Screening Impacts the Candidate Experience

HR Bartender

SEPTEMBER 22, 2015

Did you know that HireRight offers an extensive resource library with case studies and checklists? In HireRight’s 2015 Employment Screening Benchmark Report , 51 percent of organizations said that finding and retaining talent was their top business challenge. You can check it out here. Enjoy the post!). So how do we do that?

HR Business Partner Resources Repository

AUGUST 20, 2021

HR Business Partner Benchmarking Report The HR business partner role is evolving. The rise (and fall) of HR analytics: a study into the future applications, value, structure, and system support. Case Study : How we Determined Optimal Staffing Levels. Case study : Key Drivers of Retail Sales Performance.

People Analytics and HR-Tech Reading List

Littal Shemer

OCTOBER 11, 2022

It will also introduce machine learning and where it fits within the larger HR Analytics framework” Handbook of Regression Modeling in People Analytics: With Examples in R and Python Keith McNulty (2021). It covers key questions: Where to find data in an organization? How to collect and analyze it?

Navigating Uncertainty: The Strategic Imperative of Investing in People and HR Tech

FEBRUARY 7, 2024

Case Studies of UAE Businesses Succeeding with HR Tech Investments The dynamic landscape of the UAE business scene demands robust HR strategies to attract, retain, and empower top talent. Bayzat’s success transcends individual companies, setting a benchmark for HR innovation in the UAE.

The Complete Guide on Presenteeism (w. Example Intervention)

Digital HR Tech

JANUARY 29, 2020

To give an example , would you rather have someone be absent and not work, or be present and work less effectively? In this example , there is definitely a case of presenteeism as the employee will be less effective when at work – but it is still better than him or her being fully absent. An example . 8 ( Koopman et al.,

Creating a Salary Structure for UAE Businesses

JULY 2, 2024

Benchmarking and Market Research When companies in the UAE want to ensure fair payment among employees, they consider companies’ “fair compensation”. This general consideration of companies’ compensation is called benchmarking . Benchmarking also makes it easy for companies to offer competitive pay to retain top talents.

A Literal THESIS on The P&L Impact of Candidate Experience

MAY 17, 2019

By this point, nearly every talent acquisition leader concerned with candidate experience is familiar with the Virgin Media case study detailing huge potential losses from poor candidate experience. I will note here that Survale clients can automatically benchmark their performance against Talent Board data.

Unlocking the Secrets of Effective Marketing: The Ultimate Guide to Assessing Candidate Skills

Professional Alternatives

JULY 10, 2023

Understanding Marketing Skill Benchmarks And Job Qualifications In order to effectively assess candidate skills, it is important for employers to have a clear understanding of marketing skill benchmarks and job qualifications. These include behavioral interviews, case studies , skills assessments, and work samples.

11 HR Analytics Courses Online

AUGUST 12, 2019

All subjects are illustrated by many real-life examples of HR analytics. R goes further than the traditional tools that are used for HR data benchmarking and analysis, like Microsoft Excel, Access, and SPSS. Examples of machine learning algorithms include decision trees, Bayes, simple rules, clustering, and meta-classifiers.

HR Has a Bad Reputation: 6 Actions To Improve HR Credibility

APRIL 30, 2024

For example , line managers are pushing HR to recruit faster for their roles, which might mean less focus on a critical candidate evaluation. This could require education on new HR capabilities that the business might not have been exposed to, as well as demonstrating other case studies of how HR has contributed to similar organizations.

Employee listening in the Intelligence Age: It’s a new era

HRExecutive

OCTOBER 24, 2023

Pay and benefits Deutsche Telekom used design thinking to tailor executive benefits programs, rather than just benchmarking or assuming to know what benefits would be most useful for their senior leadership. For example , if somebody asked, “What are my colleagues paid?”, 31), where we’ll unpack these insights.

Understanding Employee Engagement Data Analytics Strategy and Tools

Contact Monkey - HR

AUGUST 19, 2024

This IDP case study illustrates exactly how ContactMonkey’s email tracking feature offered the data needed to understand the impact of communications on staff members and how to make them effective. Examples : Surveys: Ask employees how often they feel recognized. Wondering how?

How To Develop an Employer Branding Strategy

JULY 15, 2024

For example , when the CEO of Olark, Ben Congleton, applauded an employee’s openness about taking a mental health day, it sent a powerful message throughout the company, encouraging others to care for their health without fear of judgment. Manageable Workloads Ensuring workloads are manageable is crucial.

Guide To Drive Employee Recognition

MAY 29, 2024

   The above-mentioned case study testifies how well recognition plays a role in employee retention and helps scale employee productivity.   This blog will answer this question along with a few interesting case studies that give you an overview of recognition.  

How To Leverage AI To Enhance Customer Loyalty in 2024

FEBRUARY 16, 2024

For example , users shopping around your website may receive product suggestions matching their preferences and past purchases. Here’s an example of personalized recommendations on Amazon. Spotify's annual Wrapped is a famous example of a personalized loyalty program that uses AI.

What Is a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)? Definition, Scoring Models & Tools

JULY 21, 2024

Content Downloads: Downloading whitepapers, ebooks, or case studies shows that the lead is actively seeking information and is willing to share their contact details. Content Downloads: Whitepapers, ebooks, case studies . Need (do they have a problem you can solve?), and Timeline (when are they looking to purchase?).

How Data Cleansing Can Streamline Your HR Analytics

For example , imagine a scenario where an HR team is analyzing employee turnover rates. This enables them to track progress, set benchmarks , and measure the impact of HR initiatives accurately. Case Study of Successful Data Cleansing in HR Real-world examples demonstrate the power of data cleanup in HR analytics.

Hotel Giant IHG gained a 97% positive applicant experience using predictive people analytics – Can these along with other benefits be easily achieved by other companies?

FEBRUARY 14, 2019

He uses added insight from our recent case study with hotel giant IHG who recently applied AI in HR with Cognisess. . In your opinion, what element of the IHG case study was particularly successful? “On This avoided the need for applicants to undertake the usual case study module on day 2 of the assessment centre.

Interview Notes: 9 Reasons To Take & Best Practices To Follow (+Free Templates)

JUNE 27, 2024

As an HR professional, you can also use interview notes to benchmark best practices based on successful hires. For example , if a candidate’s previous employers or managers express vastly differing opinions of them, you would need to conduct further research before taking the next steps. Contents What are interview notes?

Reducing Absenteeism in a Mid-Sized Organization: A Case Study

JULY 6, 2020

“ I will walk you through the steps we took: Establish a specific benchmark ; Gather theories and data for analysis ; Iteratively run the analyses ; Collectively interpret the results and decide on targeted action. Establish a specific benchmark . In fact, their absenteeism rates were doubled compared to the benchmark !

How Do People Engagement Surveys Help the Team to Boost Engagement?

AUGUST 28, 2024

Take the case of a relevant case study that aligns quite well with the situation you have described as that of HubSpot. For example , if several employees express concern about work-life balance, it may indicate that there is a more significant problem that needs to be dealt with. The questions should be simple and direct.

New Ebook: Why Use Incentive Services?

The Incentive Solutions News blog

JULY 21, 2021

Our eBooks, FAQ’s and case studies are packed with information about deploying an incentive program that best suits your needs. For example : Goal-setting assistance. Benchmark data that can help assess a program’s successfulness. Get the latest in industry news and insights.

How to Motivate Airline Employees with Rewards and Recognition

FEBRUARY 22, 2024

  Case studies Several airlines are participating in rewards programs and contributing to the positive workforce culture in the organisation. From Southwest Airlines' SWAG Recognition to Delta Air Lines' Delta Bravo program, real-life examples illuminate the transformative impact of tailored initiatives.

Strategic Workforce Planning 101: Framework & Process

DECEMBER 8, 2023

Benefits of strategic workforce planning Strategic workforce planning framework Strategic workforce planning case studies Strategic workforce planning process Strategic workforce planning tools Best practices for strategic workforce planning FAQ What is strategic workforce planning? An example of such an indicator is new product leads.

What is Time to Fill? Everything You Need to Know About This Recruiting Metric

MAY 18, 2021

As an example , let’s say you are replacing a senior economist. For example , some roles are filled faster with an agency, whereas other roles are best filled with a LinkedIn job ad. You can also make further calculations to measure the effectiveness of your recruitment process on various benchmarks .

Be careful! These books can change your career: People Analytics and HR-Tech reading list

MAY 14, 2018

The book covers the full People Analytics scope (Benefits, Compensation, Culture, Diversity & Inclusion, Engagement, Leadership, Learning & Development, Personality Traits, Performance Management, Recruitment, Sales Incentives) with numerous real-world examples , and shows how R can help”. Ben Eubanks (2018). Bernard Marr (2018). “A

The Essential Plan Every Manager Should Follow: Balancing Employee Growth and Achieving Operational Excellence

SEPTEMBER 18, 2023

From the manager’s core responsibilities to strategic approaches , case studies , and the multitude of benefits and challenges, we’ll unveil how to make OKRs shine bright as a guiding light in this critical journey. This inspires and sets a benchmark for their team to focus their efforts towards achieving company objectives.

New series offers guidance on talent acquisition

FEBRUARY 6, 2020

They also feature case studies showcasing real-world examples to put into action, according to Sue Marks, CEO and founder of Cielo. In addition, the availability of benchmarking data facilitates more accurate goal setting. Also see: How to prepare your recruiting team for 2020.

360 Feedback Software: How to Maximize Results

JUNE 29, 2023

Real-World Case Studies Understanding 360 Feedback Software The traditional process of gathering 360 feedback requires a lot of legwork. Download Now: Free 360 Reviews Template [Get Your Copy] Good vs. Bad 360 Review Questions Here are a few examples of bad vs. good questions to ask. Understanding 360 Feedback Software 2.

Create An Irresistible Work Culture, Not A 'Best Place To Work'

Human Workplaces

JUNE 9, 2019

The standard within these contests is either employee satisfaction or comparison to a third-party benchmark , but both of these methods could be completely missing the mark on what makes your particular organization deeply successful. For example , many would argue that a flexible workplace is a component of a best place to work.

The Power of Partnership, Navigating the Maze of HR Software Providers

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

Two trends stand out: a high degree of fragmentation (hundreds of vendors offer Recruiting solutions, for example ) and the rapid introduction of new concepts – artificial intelligence, machine learning, IoT, employee social networking, and the gig economy.

How To Build a Learning Culture: You Asked, We Answered

JULY 28, 2021

Degreed: Creating a learning culture starts with the culture itself and the example set by leadership. To help late adopters, we created several assets that illustrate the benefits of switching to a new way of learning, such as video success stories, written case studies , and participant testimonials.

6 Strategies for Leading Remote Teams in SaaS Companies [2024]

DECEMBER 7, 2023

  Let’s take a look at some ways of leading remote teams and case studies of where they are applied.  Toptal is a good example of how remote-friendly teams establish clear goals and then create a collaborative environment with tools like Zoom and Slack. Build benchmarks and ways to achieve those benchmarks . 

How to Convert a Disengaged Employee Into An Engaged One

The action you take will depend on the feedback you receive but here are some examples of ways you might tackle engagement challenges: Frequently Monitor Engagement How often do you monitor employee engagement? For example , if an employee needs more role definition and clarity, take the time to help them review their work priorities.

Upskilling and reskilling the workforce for an uncertain future

JANUARY 5, 2023

Technical skills are a good example here, as even non-technical roles require increasing levels of. So good project managers can move across departments, for example . And in some cases , rapid reskilling of employees will help to avoid redundancy in the longer term. Case study : Jardine Motors Group.

Quadruple Your B2B Lead Generation Results in 2021

JANUARY 26, 2021

Cook up a tasty case study . A case study is every salesperson’s go-to collateral. Case studies build trust and act as social proof for how your product will work and impact a future lead’s buying decision. How do you create case studies for B2B lead generation? Determine industry benchmarks .

TIAA's Journey of Crafting the Right Performance Management Solution For Its Culture

APRIL 26, 2016

The problem is that as we search for the perfect performance management solution, we as human resources professionals and social scientists are swimming in research, benchmarking data, and case studies that are pointing us in completely contradictory directions. Download the case study now (i4cp members only)

The Business Case for Human Resources

OCTOBER 27, 2016

They can help develop effective managers who increase revenue, understand how to keep essential people on board, and they can carry useful learnings from one department to another—just to name a few examples . Another lens to examine metrics through is by considering industry benchmarks and the activities of other peer organizations.

AI Recruiting Tools May Be the Future, But Proceed With Caution

APRIL 28, 2023

The following case studies —alongside some AI tools that are helping companies like Enspira HR employ diverse hiring practices—paint the whole picture of the who, what, when, where, and why of AI recruitment tools, and how companies can ensure AI boosts both efficiency and equitable hiring decisions. The problem?

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Understanding Benchmarking Analysis: A Step-by-Step Guide

So, you've heard a lot about benchmarking analysis lately, but what on earth does it actually mean? Don't worry, you're not alone. This peculiar term may sound like it belongs in an engineer's guidebook, but it's actually a powerful tool used by businesses to gain a competitive edge.

Whether you're a business owner looking to outperform the competition or just a curious individual eager to delve into the world of strategic analysis, this step-by-step guide will take you on a journey to understanding benchmarking analysis in the most humanly comprehensible way possible. So, fasten your seatbelts and get ready to unlock the secrets behind benchmarking analysis as we explore this fascinating concept together.

What is Benchmarking Analysis?

Definition of benchmarking analysis.

Benchmarking analysis is a systematic process used to compare and evaluate an organization's performance against industry standards or best practices. It involves identifying areas for improvement, selecting benchmarking partners, collecting and analyzing relevant data, and implementing improvements based on the findings.

For example, a retail company can compare its customer satisfaction scores with industry benchmarks to identify areas where they need to enhance their service quality.

Importance of Benchmarking Analysis

The importance of benchmarking analysis in any business strategy lies in its ability to provide valuable insights into industry trends, best practices, and areas for improvement. By comparing key performance metrics with those of competitors or industry leaders, organizations can identify opportunities to optimize processes, enhance efficiency, and gain a competitive edge .

For instance, benchmarking analysis can help uncover innovative marketing strategies, cost-saving measures, or operational efficiencies that have proven successful for others in the industry. It enables businesses to stay ahead of the curve and continuously evolve by adopting proven strategies and adapting them for their own unique circumstances.

Real-Life Examples of Benchmarking Analysis

Real-life examples of benchmarking analysis can provide valuable insights into its practical application. For instance, a manufacturing company can benchmark its production processes against industry leaders to identify areas of improvement. Similarly, a retail business can compare its customer service metrics with those of top-performing competitors to enhance the overall customer experience. Benchmarking analysis can also be used in the healthcare sector to compare patient outcomes and treatment effectiveness across different hospitals. By examining real-world benchmarks, organizations can gather actionable insights and implement strategies to drive performance improvements and stay competitive in the market.

The Benchmarking Process

Step 1: identify areas for benchmarking.

To kickstart the benchmarking process, the first step is to identify the specific areas or processes in your organization that you want to benchmark against industry standards or top performers. This involves carefully assessing your business operations and determining the key performance indicators (KPIs) that are critical to your success.

For example, if you're a manufacturing company, you may choose to benchmark your production efficiency, product quality, or time-to-market against industry leaders. By pinpointing the areas for benchmarking, you can focus your efforts and resources on improving those aspects that have the greatest potential for impact and competitive advantage.

Step 2: Identify Benchmarking Partners

• Look for organizations in your industry that excel in the areas you are benchmarking.
• Seek out companies that have a similar size, market presence, and customer base to ensure relevance.
• Consider partnering with organizations outside your industry for fresh perspectives and innovative ideas.
• Utilize industry conferences, research reports, and professional networks to identify potential benchmarking partners.
• Look for organizations that are known for their best practices and have a strong track record of success.
• It is essential to approach benchmarking partners with a collaborative mindset and willingness to share information.

Step 3: Collect and Analyze Data

--Step 3: Collect and Analyze Data--

To conduct an effective benchmarking analysis, meticulous data collection and analysis are imperative. Begin by identifying relevant key performance indicators that align with your objectives. Gather quantitative and qualitative data from various sources, such as financial reports, customer surveys, and industry publications. Analyze the data to identify performance gaps and areas of improvement. Use statistical techniques to compare your metrics against industry benchmarks and top performers.

For example, compare your customer satisfaction scores to those of your competitors to understand your competitive standing. This data-driven analysis will provide valuable insights for implementing targeted improvements and driving performance enhancements.

Step 4: Compare and Evaluate Performance

Once you have collected and analyzed the benchmarking data, it is time to compare and evaluate your performance against the benchmarking partners. Look for gaps, similarities, and areas of improvement. Identify the best practices that lead to superior performance and see how you measure up.

For example, if you are benchmarking your customer service department, compare metrics like response time, customer satisfaction scores, and complaint resolution rates. If you find that your response time is slower compared to top performers in the industry, it may indicate a need for process optimization or resource allocation.

By evaluating performance in a comparative context, you can pinpoint strengths and weaknesses to guide your improvement efforts effectively.

Step 5: Implement Improvements

Once you have compared and evaluated performance using benchmarking analysis, the next step is to implement improvements based on the findings. This is where the real value of benchmarking analysis comes into play. Start by identifying best practices and strategies used by the benchmarking partners that are applicable to your own organization. Then, develop an action plan and communicate it to the relevant stakeholders. Implement changes gradually and monitor the impact to ensure effectiveness.

For example, if you find that a benchmarking partner has a more efficient customer service process, you can consider implementing similar streamlined procedures in your own organization. Continuous evaluation and adjustment are crucial to successful implementation.

Types of Benchmarking Analysis

Internal benchmarking.

h2. Internal Benchmarking

Internal benchmarking involves comparing performance metrics and practices within different departments or divisions within the same organization. It allows companies to identify areas of improvement and best practices that can be shared across teams. For example, the marketing department can analyze the success metrics of different advertising campaigns run by various teams to determine which strategies yielded the best results.

By leveraging internal benchmarking, companies can foster collaboration, enhance efficiency, and identify opportunities for process optimization within their own organization. This approach encourages cross-functional learning and drives continuous improvement by implementing successful strategies across departments. Internal benchmarking is a cost-effective method for organizations to improve performance and achieve operational excellence.

Competitive Benchmarking

Competitive benchmarking involves comparing your company's performance against direct competitors in the industry. It helps identify areas where your organization can improve and gain a competitive advantage. By analyzing competitors' strategies, processes, and outcomes, you can uncover best practices and innovative approaches to implement in your own operations.

For example, examining how competitors handle customer service can inspire improvements in your own customer support processes. Competitive benchmarking allows you to stay informed about industry trends and adapt your strategies accordingly. It provides valuable insights into how your company measures up against the competition, enabling you to make informed decisions and drive continuous improvement.

Functional Benchmarking

• Functional benchmarking is a type of benchmarking analysis that focuses on specific functions or processes within an organization.
• It involves identifying best practices and performance metrics from other companies or industries that excel in the same function.
• By studying and adopting these practices, organizations can improve their own processes and achieve better results.
• For example, a manufacturing company can benchmark its supply chain management processes against a leading logistics provider to identify areas for improvement.
• Functional benchmarking enables organizations to learn from others' successes and apply them to their own operations, leading to increased efficiency and effectiveness.

Generic Benchmarking

--Generic Benchmarking--

Generic benchmarking, a type of benchmarking analysis, involves looking outside of one's industry to identify best practices and innovative solutions. It allows companies to gain inspiration from other sectors and adapt successful strategies to their own context.

To conduct generic benchmarking effectively, consider the following:

• Look for companies facing similar challenges in different industries.
• Analyze their approaches to problem-solving and performance improvement.
• Identify transferable practices that can be implemented in your own organization.
• Examples of generic benchmarking include studying customer service techniques in the hospitality industry for application in retail, or learning about supply chain management from the automotive sector to improve efficiency in manufacturing.

By exploring ideas and practices from diverse sources, generic benchmarking encourages fresh perspectives and can lead to innovative and successful outcomes.

Benefits of Benchmarking Analysis

Identifying performance gaps.

Benchmarking analysis allows businesses to identify performance gaps by comparing their performance against industry leaders or competitors. This helps in understanding areas where the company is falling behind and needs improvement.

For example, a retail company may discover through benchmarking analysis that its customer service response time is slower compared to its competitors. By addressing this performance gap, the company can enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty. Identifying performance gaps enables organizations to set realistic improvement goals and allocate resources effectively to bridge the gaps between their current performance and desired benchmarks.

Driving Continuous Improvement

• Continuous improvement is a fundamental objective of benchmarking analysis.
• It involves using insights gained from benchmarking to identify areas of improvement and implement changes.
• By comparing performance against industry leaders, organizations can identify best practices and strategies to enhance their own operations.
• Benchmarking enables companies to set performance goals, track progress, and establish a culture of ongoing improvement.
• It helps identify areas where innovation and efficiency can be enhanced, leading to increased productivity and cost savings.
• Continuous improvement through benchmarking analysis allows organizations to stay competitive and adapt to changing market conditions.

Enhancing Competitive Advantage

Benchmarking analysis is a powerful tool for companies aiming to gain an edge over their competitors. By identifying industry best practices and comparing performance against them, organizations can uncover areas for improvement and implement changes that lead to increased competitiveness.

For example, analyzing the supply chain processes of successful companies can provide insights on reducing costs and improving efficiency. Similarly, studying the marketing strategies of industry leaders can guide companies in enhancing their brand positioning and customer acquisition techniques. Benchmarking analysis enables businesses to adapt and adopt successful strategies, ultimately enhancing their competitive advantage in the market.

Challenges and Limitations of Benchmarking Analysis

Data availability and quality.

One of the challenges in benchmarking analysis is ensuring the availability and quality of data. Reliable data is crucial for accurate benchmarking comparisons. Without access to relevant and up-to-date data, organizations may face difficulties in identifying areas for improvement or making effective comparisons.

For example, if a company is unable to obtain comprehensive industry data or lacks internal data on key performance metrics, it hampers their ability to benchmark effectively. To overcome this challenge, organizations can consider utilizing industry reports, surveys, or collaborating with benchmarking partners to gather comprehensive data sets.

Additionally, implementing data quality control measures, such as data validation and verification processes, helps ensure the accuracy and reliability of the benchmarking analysis.

Lack of Benchmarking Partners

Finding suitable benchmarking partners can be challenging for organizations. Limited accessibility to industry data or unwillingness of competitors to share information can hinder the benchmarking process. In such cases, companies can explore alternative options. They can consider benchmarking within their own organization by comparing different business units or departments.

Additionally, they can seek industry associations or research organizations that provide benchmarking data and insights. Another approach is to benchmark against best practices and standards established by industry leaders. While having benchmarking partners is ideal, organizations can still derive valuable insights and identify areas for improvement through alternative benchmarking methods.

Resistance to Change

Implementing benchmarking analysis within an organization may face resistance from employees and stakeholders. People naturally resist change due to fear of the unknown or disruption to established processes. To overcome this, it is crucial to communicate the benefits of benchmarking analysis, demonstrating how it leads to improved performance and competitiveness. Encourage involvement from all levels of the organization to increase buy-in and ownership. Address concerns and provide training to help employees adapt to new ways of working. By highlighting successful case studies and sharing best practices from other companies, you can inspire confidence in the value of benchmarking analysis and ease resistance to change.

Final thoughts

Benchmarking analysis is a valuable tool that businesses can utilize to evaluate their own performance and compare it to industry standards or competitors. This step-by-step guide breaks down the process, starting with identification and selection of benchmarks. It then focuses on data collection, analysis, and interpretation, with an emphasis on the importance of choosing relevant metrics and accurate data sources.

The article also delves into the significance of setting realistic goals and making actionable recommendations based on the analysis. By following this guide, businesses can take informed decisions to improve their performance and gain a competitive edge in the market.

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Benchmarking for Success: Creating Impactful Benchmarking Report Examples

Effective benchmarking reports highlight key performance metrics and guide strategic improvements. They provide a detailed comparison against industry standards or competitors.

Crafting a successful benchmarking report begins with a clear understanding of the objectives and data requirements essential for measuring performance. These reports are pivotal for businesses aiming to identify areas of excellence and opportunities for enhancement. Typically, a benchmarking report examines vital business functions such as operations, finances, and customer service, comparing them to best practices within the sector.

By doing so, organizations can set achievable goals and forge a path to superior performance. This analytical process not only sheds light on how a company stacks up against its peers but also reveals trends and insights that can inform decision-making and drive success.

The Essence Of Benchmarking In Business

Benchmarking for success hinges on crafting detailed reports that showcase performance against industry standards. These reports illuminate the path to enhanced efficiency and competitiveness, guiding businesses to make informed strategic decisions.

Embarking On The Benchmarking Journey

Embarking on the Benchmarking Journey means stepping into a strategic process. This process compares your business with industry leaders. Your goal is to find ways to improve. To succeed, you must know what to measure and how to measure it. Let’s explore the paths to capture valuable insights that will drive your business forward.

Identifying Benchmarking Subjects

Choosing the right subjects sets the foundation. Consider these steps:

• Define your objectives. Know the goals of your benchmarking.
• Research your industry. Find out who’s performing best.
• Pick relevant subjects. Choose competitors or leaders that match your scope.

Selecting The Right Metrics

Picking effective metrics is crucial. Use this guide to ensure accuracy:

• Align with goals. Your metrics should reflect your targets.
• Cover multiple areas. Consider financial, customer, and process metrics.
• Use standardized measurements. Ensure they’re accepted industry-wide.

Crafting A Compelling Benchmarking Report

Crafting a Compelling Benchmarking Report is key to showcasing your analysis. A well-structured report communicates the insights from your benchmarking process clearly. It helps stakeholders understand where they stand and identifies areas for improvement.

Structuring Your Report

A strong structure is the backbone of a compelling report. Start with an executive summary. It provides a snapshot of key findings. Outline the objectives and methodologies used in the benchmarking process. Present detailed findings logically. Conclude with actionable recommendations.

• Executive Summary: Captures the essence of your findings.
• Introduction: Sets the stage with objectives and scope.
• Methodology: Explains how data was collected and analyzed.
• Findings: Dive into the data, segmented for clarity.
• Recommendations: Offer practical steps based on data.

Visual Data Representation

Visuals transform numbers into stories. Charts, graphs, and tables make data accessible. They highlight trends, comparisons, and patterns. Use color coding for different benchmarks. Include legends and labels for clarity. Opt for pie charts, bar graphs, or line charts depending on the data.

Pair visuals with short explanations. Use bullet points for easy digestion. Ensure each visual is labeled and easily interpretable. A compelling benchmarking report balances text and graphics to tell the complete story.

• Choose the right chart for your data.
• Use labels and legends for understanding.
• Pair visuals with succinct narratives.
• Balance graphics and text evenly.

Real-world Benchmarking Report Examples

Do you wonder how the best businesses keep winning? They benchmark. Here, we dive into real benchmarking reports from diverse sectors. These reports show us what success looks like. They guide companies in crafting goals and strategies.

Case Studies In Different Industries

Looking at case studies across industries reveals the power of benchmarking.

Critical Insights From Top Performers

Top performers stand out by learning from benchmark reports.

• Productivity: Google sets the standard with its data-driven people management.
• Innovation: Tesla’s continuous product development sets high industry innovation benchmarks.
• Customer Satisfaction: Amazon leads with its customer-centric approach analysis.

Benchmarking uncovers gaps and drives growth. It shapes the future strategies of many firms. These examples give a window into what high benchmarks can yield. Emulate these success patterns. See your business soar.

Leveraging The Benchmarking Report

Strong benchmarking reports guide companies to victory. These reports hold secrets to surpassing competitors. They reveal performance gaps, highlight strengths, and pinpoint areas needing polish. Smart businesses use them to forge ahead. Learn to leverage these insights and watch success unfold.

Strategic Planning

A stellar benchmarking report informs strategic choices . It does not just sit on a shelf. Firms digest its contents, transforming data into strategic plans. Below, discover methods to incorporate report findings into high-level planning:

• Identify top industry performers.
• Analyze their successes.
• Adapt their winning strategies.
• Set realistic, measurable goals.
• Shape policies to meet these goals.

Mapping out action plans based on insights ensures a targeted approach. It crafts a pathway to the front of the pack.

Continuous Improvement

Continuous improvement lies at the heart of today’s business battlegrounds. Benchmarking reports push firms to better themselves. They inspire an ongoing quest for excellence . Follow these steps to foster relentless progress:

• Audit internal processes regularly.
• Compare outcomes with benchmarked standards.
• Identify underperforming areas.
• Implement targeted enhancements.
• Monitor results and adjust as needed.

Persistent refining, based on solid data, escalates efficiency and effectiveness.

Finally, benchmarking reports serve as a launchpad for innovation . They drive companies to invent and reconceive. Thrive in a world of rapid change by advocating innovation:

Innovation rooted in analysis positions companies as industry pioneers. Embrace change, lead growth, and prosper.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is benchmarking in business.

Benchmarking in business is the process of measuring performance and practices against industry leaders or competitors. It identifies areas for improvement and strategic development to enhance competitiveness.

How Do You Create A Benchmarking Report?

To create a benchmarking report, collect data on performance metrics, compare them with industry standards or competitors, and analyze gaps. Provide actionable insights to improve based on this analysis.

Why Are Benchmarking Reports Important?

Benchmarking reports are important because they offer a quantitative basis for comparing a company’s performance with competitors. They highlight strength and improvement areas, guiding strategic decision-making.

What Examples Of Benchmarking Reports Exist?

Examples of benchmarking reports include financial performance comparisons, productivity analysis, customer satisfaction surveys, and operational efficiency studies. They tailor to specific industries and goals.

Crafting a high-quality benchmarking report can set your business apart. Doing so ensures you understand industry standards and can strive for excellence. By utilizing the examples and strategies discussed, your benchmarks will spotlight areas for growth. Let’s harness the power of data-driven insights and aim for the pinnacle of success.

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8 Steps of the benchmarking process

Reading time: about 7 min

Businesses are always striving for high performance, from creating more efficient processes to selling more of their products and services. But how does a company determine whether it is successful?

Through the benchmarking process, any business can compare itself against a standard and develop a consistent way of measuring performance. Below we’ll cover what benchmarking is, how the benchmarking process can help your business, and how to create benchmarks for a successful improvement plan. 

What is benchmarking?

In business, benchmarking is a process used to measure the quality and performance of your company’s products, services, and processes. These measurements don’t have much value on their own—that data needs to be compared against some sort of standard. A benchmark.

For example, suppose it takes 30 minutes to produce your product. Is the 30-minute measurement good or bad? The only way for you to know is to compare against other data, such as the time it takes another organization to produce a similar product. If another organization can produce the same type of product in less than 30 minutes, you can use their time as a benchmark for measuring your own processes and procedures.

The objective of benchmarking is to use the data gathered in your benchmarking process to identify areas where improvements can be made by:

• Determining how and where other companies are achieving higher performance levels than your company has been able to achieve.
• Comparing the competition’s processes and strategies against your own.
• Using the information you gather from your analyses and comparisons to implement changes that will improve your company’s performance, products, and services.

Common areas that you may want to target for benchmarking analysis include cost per unit, time to produce each unit, quality of each unit, and customer satisfaction. The performance metrics you get from these targets can be compared against others to help you determine best practices for improving your operations.

Benchmarks vs. KPIs

While both benchmarks and KPIs (key performance indicators) help you measure performance, they are distinct. Where benchmarks act as a reference point to compare performance levels, KPIs measure performance against stated objectives.  

Why is benchmarking important?

The goal of your business should be to grow, improve processes, increase quality, decrease costs, and earn more money. Benchmarking is one of many tools you can use as part of any continuous improvement model used within your organization.

Consistent benchmarking can help you:

• Improve processes and procedures.
• Gauge the effectiveness of past performance.
• Give you a better idea of how the competition operates, which will help you to identify best practices to increase performance.
• Increase efficiency and lower costs, making your business more profitable.
• Improve quality and customer satisfaction.

Types of benchmarking

There are many different types of benchmarking that fall into three primary categories: internal, competitive, and strategic.

Internal benchmarking

If other teams or organizations within your company have established best practices in processes similar to yours, internal benchmarking involves analyzing what they are doing so you can find areas where you can improve and be more efficient.

For example, you could compare the performance of one warehousing and shipping site against another warehousing and shipping site. The site with superior performance simply needs to share their processes and procedures so that the entire company benefits from increased performance. 

Competitive benchmarking

This type of benchmarking is a comparison of products, services, processes, and methods of your direct competitors. This type gives you insight into your position within your industry and what you may need to do to increase productivity.

For example, you can compare the customer satisfaction of a competitor’s product to yours. If your competitor is getting better customer reviews, you need to analyze what the difference is and figure out how to improve the quality of your product. 

Strategic benchmarking

Use this type of benchmarking when you need to look beyond your own industry to identify world-class performance and best practices so you can look for ways to adapt their methods to your procedures and processes.

8 steps in the benchmarking process

1. select a subject to benchmark.

What to benchmark is just as important as how to benchmark it. Executives and other senior management should be involved in deciding which processes are critical to the company’s success. Prioritize the processes based on which metrics are most important to all stakeholders, with an emphasis on processes or functions that are easily quantifiable. After prioritizing, select and define the measures you want to collect.

2. Decide which organizations or companies you want to benchmark

Determine if you are going to benchmark processes within your own company, a competitor, or a company outside of your industry.

It may be hard to collect all the data you want if you benchmark a direct competitor. So you should select several different organizations to study in order to get the data you need. Gather information from several sources to get the most detailed information about the organization you select to study.

3. Document your current processes

Map out your current processes so you can identify areas that need improvement and more easily compare against the chosen organization.

4. Collect and analyze data

This step is important—but it can prove difficult when you are trying to gather data from a competitor because a lot of that information may be confidential. Gather information through research, interviews, casual conversations with contacts from the other companies, and with formal interviews or questionnaires.

You can also collect secondary information from websites, reports, marketing materials, and news articles. However, secondary information may not be as reliable.

After you have collected enough data, get all stakeholders together to analyze the data. 

5. Measure your performance against the data you’ve collected

Look at the data you’ve collected side by side with the metrics you gathered from your analysis of your own processes. You may want to layer your performance metrics on top of your process diagrams or map out your competitor’s processes to more easily see where you’re falling behind.

As you analyze the comparisons, try to identify what causes the gaps in your process. For example, do you have enough people and are they sufficiently trained to perform assigned tasks? Perhaps there are multiple steps that can be automated or combined to streamline workflow. Brainstorm ideas to effectively and efficiently fill those gaps.

6. Create a plan

Create a plan to implement agreed-on changes that you have identified as being the best to close performance gaps. Implementation requires total buy-in from the top down. Your plan must include clearly defined goals and should be written with the company’s culture in mind to help minimize any pushback you may get from employees.

7. Implement the changes

Closely monitor the changes and employee performance. If new processes are not running smoothly as expected, identify areas that need to be tweaked. Make sure all employees understand their jobs, are well trained, and have the expertise to complete their assigned tasks.

Document all processes and make sure all employees have access to documentation and instructions so that all are on the same page working toward the same goal. 

8. Repeat the process

After successfully implementing a new process, it’s time to find other ways to improve. The benchmarking process is one of continual improvement and iteration. Review the new processes you’ve implemented and see if there are any changes that need to be made. If everything is running smoothly, look to other areas or more ambitious projects that you may want to benchmark and start the process again.

When you correctly implement and follow the continuous practice of benchmarking, your company will grow, and you will keep up with (or even surpass) your competitors.

Consider these 7 fundamental change management models as you implement new processes.

About Lucidchart

Lucidchart, a cloud-based intelligent diagramming application, is a core component of Lucid Software's Visual Collaboration Suite. This intuitive, cloud-based solution empowers teams to collaborate in real-time to build flowcharts, mockups, UML diagrams, customer journey maps, and more. Lucidchart propels teams forward to build the future faster. Lucid is proud to serve top businesses around the world, including customers such as Google, GE, and NBC Universal, and 99% of the Fortune 500. Lucid partners with industry leaders, including Google, Atlassian, and Microsoft. Since its founding, Lucid has received numerous awards for its products, business, and workplace culture. For more information, visit lucidchart.com.

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How to use benchmarking to set your standards for success

How do you know when your work is successful? Benchmarking is a data-driven process that helps you create your own standards to measure success. Setting benchmarks is a simple way to set clear expectations for your team. In this article, learn the different types of benchmarking and the steps to create your own benchmarks.

Success is a vague term—what is it? And how do you know when you, your projects, and your business are successful? The truth is, everyone measures their success differently. This makes success hard to define, especially when you’re managing a team or growing a business.

What is benchmarking?

A benchmark is a predetermined standard, and benchmarking is the process of setting those standards. To determine benchmarks, you need to measure your work against something else. There are a variety of things you can set benchmarks against, including:

Competitors. Comparing your work or desired results against your competitors shows you what’s normal in the industry and what customers expect. Once you know this, you can adjust your business, product, or messaging to remain competitive.

Previous results. Using previous results as your benchmarks shows you if you’re improving internally and helps you identify gaps in your processes and workflows . If you’re improving, you can double down on what you’re doing (because it’s working). If you’re not, this is a great opportunity to make changes.

Goals. Using goals as a benchmark shows if your results are what you expected or initially wanted when you began. If you’re falling short, you might need to adjust your goals to make sure they’re achievable.

Executive reporting guide: Universal reporting for today’s leaders

Learn strategies to monitor business performance in real-time—so you can make better, more informed decisions for your team.

What’s the difference between benchmarking and setting goals?

You can use both goals and benchmarks to analyze project outcomes, but they’re slightly different in practice. The fundamental difference is the target. Goals are what you want to achieve and tend to be growth-oriented, while benchmarks compare your actual results against a reference. Put another way, goals are what you aspire to achieve, while benchmarks compare your performance to another reference point. 

For example, imagine you’ve set a business goal to hit $500K in recurring revenue this year. This goal illustrates what you want to achieve in order to grow and expand your cash flow. On the other hand, your revenue benchmarks would show you the amount of money you earn compared to competitors or what you made last year. Usually, you can use benchmarks to inform goals. If you know you hit $200K in revenue last year and you’re growing exponentially, then $500K is a realistic goal.

Benchmarking versus competitor analysis

Both benchmarking and competitor analyses use competitor research to determine how other companies operate. The difference between the two is scope—benchmarking is smaller and focuses on individual business processes, while competitive analysis is larger in scope and focuses on big-picture strategies and goals. 

With benchmarking, you use competitor research data to review your own processes and best practices. You record and save these as benchmarks, and use them to set the standard for how you work. This is slightly different from a competitive analysis, where you use the data to review your overall business strategy . Whether you decide to use benchmarking or competitor analysis depends on the scope of your project. If you're only looking at processes, benchmarking works fine. If you’re looking for data on larger strategies and goals, you might want to use a competitor analysis.

Why is benchmarking important?

Benchmarking helps you set the standards for how you work. But instead of choosing standards based on opinions or ideas, benchmarking is data-driven. This ensures that your work standards are targeted and focused on things that have the greatest impact.

Benchmarking also shows employees the rationale for workplace expectations and goals. It gives you data to demonstrate why your team's daily tasks are important, so everyone knows what they're working for and why.

There are many benefits to benchmarking, including:

Define and determine success . With benchmarking, you get to decide what success looks like for your company. For example, if your benchmark for success is a consistent 10% increase in lead generation YoY and you’re on track to hit 11%, you’ll know you’ve exceeded expectations.

Identify gaps. Benchmarking reveals gaps as compared to your competition. For example, it’s hard to stay competitive if you’re producing three new product features in the same timeframe your competitors are producing eight.

Set higher standards for product quality. Benchmarking results in higher-quality products or services that improve customer satisfaction. When your benchmark is to host four community events every year, for example, you’re setting the standard to interact with your customers more regularly.

Here’s how setting benchmarks can help you

Setting benchmarks is simple, but it’s a process. Before you begin, collect relevant benchmarking data to use for your comparison. This can be data on your competitors, previous work, or your goals. The metrics from this data collection will be the baseline for your benchmark analysis.

For example, let’s say you’re tracking product launches. You find it takes you three months to go from ideation to launch. That timing might sound long or short to you depending on your perception, but perception isn’t an accurate way to track if this is the best timing for your launch. Instead, you can use benchmarks to answer how long each product launch should take. For example, you might look into:

How long does it take your competitor to launch a similar product? 

How long did the last product launch take?

Have we made improvements to our processes that will save us time during this launch?

Note that other details will come into play here as well. Your competitor might launch a product faster than you, but that’s not relevant if their team and budget is double your size. Consider how relevant your benchmark is to your current situation and choose one that makes the most sense for each specific scenario.

Types of benchmarking

There are three different types of benchmarking: internal, competitive, and strategic. The type you use will depend on what you’re measuring, and what you’d like to get out of it.

Internal benchmarking

If you’re new to benchmarking, internal benchmarking is the easiest benchmark to start with. Like other parts of project management, internal benchmarking uses organizational knowledge to answer questions . Also, because you’re reviewing internal information, data collection is entirely within your control. For internal benchmarking, review business performance indicators for other departments, teams, or even previous work. Look for best practices or effective processes you can apply to your current work.

You can collect internal information by:

Using questionnaires and asking colleagues or direct reports what they achieved, and how.

Reviewing past projects and looking for business processes that have given your company a competitive advantage.

Studying high-impact initiatives —what made them work? If you can reuse and standardize the processes or best practices that made these projects successful, then these are good candidates for performance benchmarking.

Looking at previous goals to see if your work matches your expectations.

As you collect this information, take note of any desired results (i.e., processes you’d want to replicate and that could become a standard). At the same time, keep an eye out for any performance gaps—the difference between your actual performance and what you intended. This process is similar to a gap analysis , which compares your current performance to your desired performance. Except with internal benchmarking, you’re comparing your current performance to past performances or other team's performances. 

Once you've identified what’s worked and what hasn’t, you can end the internal review, benchmarking the processes and workflows you’d like to standardize. 

Competitive benchmarking

This is the flip-side of an internal review, where you look outwards to the results from other companies in your industry. Competitive benchmarking is trickier, because it’s harder to find reliable data. You need to rely on your competitors to share information, or get data from a third party which you may not be able to verify.

But it’s worth figuring out. Once you get past the collection hurdles, competitive research is one of the best ways to gain a competitive edge. It helps you spot patterns or themes common to your industry, which you can use for benchmarking and overall process improvement .

For example, let’s say you discover that a direct competitor gets more social media engagement than your accounts. Using this information, you can set a benchmark for your own company’s social media engagement. In short, you’re deciding what social media performance metrics your company should hit to stay competitive in your industry.

Strategic benchmarking

Sometimes you know something isn’t working, but you can’t seem to figure out why. Maybe you’re just in a problem-solving rut, or maybe you’re expanding into new markets and developing an entirely new way of working. Strategic benchmarking is a creative way to stretch beyond industry knowledge. For strategic benchmarking, you’re looking for best-in-class performance. Often, this means looking to other companies, industries, or even cultures to see if you can create a new strategic benchmark for your work.

Strategic benchmarking has been used throughout history to foster innovation. For example, when an escalator company moved to shopping malls, it had to solve the problem of helping people to rise quickly and steeply, against gravity. It was unprecedented in their industry, so they looked outwards. In the end, they used techniques from the mining industry to design mall escalators. When done successfully like this, strategic benchmarking can catapult you well beyond the competition. 

The 8 steps in the benchmarking process

By following these eight simple steps, you can use benchmarking to make continuous improvements to your workflows and processes. 

Decide what you’re benchmarking. Determine what you’d like to benchmark. If you’re new to benchmarks, start by creating benchmarks for projects, processes, or desired results that have the highest impact on your work.  

Decide your benchmarking type. In other words, determine if your data will come from competitive, internal, or strategic benchmarking.

Review and record. Look at what you’re creating the benchmark for. Record all related processes and document related workflows so you have a good idea of where you are now, before you start. 

Collect data. Depending on the type of benchmarking, data could come from competitor research or internal data. When using competitive research, be careful with secondary information on competitors (i.e. from websites or news articles) which can be hard to fact check.

Analyze data. Measure data against your own performance or work to identify gaps, patterns, and opportunities for improvement.

Make a plan. Data won’t do much on its own. Once you have a full analysis, use project planning to decide how you’re going to set and use these benchmarks.

Implement changes. Now, you can move into the project management stage to fully implement your benchmarks and create a new standard for your work, team, and company.

Rinse and repeat. Benchmarking is an ongoing process, but it’s specific to each new idea or workflow. Restart the process from the beginning for every new project.

Benchmarking sets the gold standard

Benchmarking processes, workflows, and results gives you a baseline for measuring your success. Benchmarks clarify expectations and let your team know how they can produce the best results.  

Benchmarking helps you to find the work standards that push your business, but it won’t help you get that work done. With Asana, you can track, automate, and build out workflows that let you do better work, faster. 

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Building a Benchmark: Common Flavors of Benchmarking & When to Use Them

Posted by AnswerLab Research on Sep 29, 2020

Benchmarking at its core is a process of test, change, re-test. You can look outward to benchmark against your competitors or other industries, or you can take a more introspective approach, setting a baseline for future iterations of the same experience. Setting up research on a recurring cadence to gather results and then retest at a later date can provide immense value. Not only does it set you up for long term success, but it also keeps teams accountable, giving you a structure and deadline for implementing changes.

Clients often ask us about benchmarking research, but over the years, we’ve found everyone’s definition is slightly different. At AnswerLab, we conduct a variety of different types of benchmarking research customized to our clients’ needs. We find most benchmarking can be categorized into one of three buckets, ranging from comparing experiences to one another qualitatively all the way to gathering data and metrics for a pure quantitative diagnostic of your product. Each of these approaches is used for slightly different product needs and questions and have a variety of considerations. Let’s dive in. 

Setting up your benchmarking program

Conducting a true qualitative benchmark: when you need to compare how your users interact with your product compared with another product (and the whys behind it).

Typically, this is more appropriate for foundational or early stage research where you’re looking for information on how experiences are being perceived, what is liked or disliked, and the differences between them. This type of benchmarking can be useful when your stakeholders want to compare experiences to one another, but are looking for directional feedback rather than statistically significant metrics. Findings from this research can help inform next steps and create a roadmap for future development. And, it's very flexible. You can do this with a group as small as 6 participants, but can always include more. This option should always be moderated when speaking with participants as it’s valuable to ask qualitative questions and probe when you want to dig into their responses. However, you can also take a heuristic approach, relying on the researcher to explore different experiences and rate particular tasks or components against one another. 

Some common examples of where this might be used:

• You want to compare the experiences of recovering and resetting your password on a set of different websites to understand what makes a good experience as you begin developing or iterating on your own.
• You want to understand participants’ experiences of set-up and onboarding on two or three similar products and sites to inform how to improve your onboarding experience.

Tips from our team:

• Make sure your prototypes or live accounts are set-up and ready to go. For participants to interact with each of these experiences and sites seamlessly during a session, the research team will need access to the tools or technology for each of them. This might require prep time on the front end to set up dummy accounts and settings to keep things smooth and focused while you’re in research.
• Keep your sessions light. With this form of benchmarking, the moderator must ask the participants to think aloud, which means leaving a significant time for each task. Keeping your scope and research plan light is critical in this scenario so participants have the time to really explain their thinking.
• Rely on expert findings, rather than error counts. We find value in this form of benchmarking because the moderator can point out which issues rise to the top and why, rather than relying on quant metrics that tell you what happened but not the cause. You won’t see hard numbers with this form of benchmarking, but rather scorecards and color coding to show what’s happening.

Quantitative benchmarking with a qualitative twist: When you need to see how users are approaching defined tasks and experiences (often with a moderator for qualitative insights)

This form of benchmarking focuses on defining what’s actually happening during the participant’s experience in quantifiable terms. This is best used when you want to understand how very specific experiences perform as compared to previous performances and/or to other similar experiences. In this method, you would recruit enough participants to get around 20-40 attempts per task. You might track observed metrics like success rate and main reasons for failure, as well as participant-reported metrics like how familiar the participant was with the task and how difficult they found it.

Task-based unmoderated research reports can tell you the data on which tasks stumped people, how complicated or difficult participants found the task, etc. But if you don’t qualitatively note the error paths or where people got stuck, it’s much less impactful for making the right changes. By observing sessions, our research experts can comment on the why behind the numbers so you can actively improve task success rates. Reports that result from task-based research are much more interesting when you qualitatively note the error paths or where people get stuck. Otherwise, the report is just a data sheet of numerical values. Observation is critical to comment on the "why" behind these numbers.

• You want to see how the features of your product are working today and re-evaluate after product development 
• You want to see how easy or difficult it is to complete tasks on your products compared with your competitors’ products
• Consistency is key. During benchmarking studies, the researcher (or the research team if you’re using multiple moderators) has to create a very similar experience across participants to ensure consistency and not influence the participants or the data. If your number of participants requires multiple moderators, break up session days with regroup and analysis days to ensure full communication amongst researchers. Unlike in typical moderated research, we even script everything the moderator says, even their responses to common participant questions. Ideally, there should not be a single moment of unpredictability.
• Rapport building is particularly important for benchmarking sessions , as it is not uncommon for participants to be on the defensive given the task-based nature of the session. If they feel they’re being tested or evaluated, participants can become nervous or stressed, and may literally or emotionally withdraw midway through the session if the moderator doesn’t address this appropriately. Leave some breathing room during the session to give the participant a short break after a couple difficult tasks. Ask them a qualitative question to let them recover and feel heard before jumping back into another task.
• Take the “human” element into account when reviewing your results. When you’re conducting moderated benchmarking, you introduce a human element that can influence your results. Participants might talk nervously during a task or be self-deprecating if they fail a few tasks in a row. Participants behave differently because there’s a moderator present — it can get a little performative. This is a challenge and a big reason why we don’t recommend using time on task in this style of benchmarking. It can give the false impression of being a clear indicator of usability, when in fact time spent per task doesn’t always cleanly map to usability. 

Taking a pure quantitative approach: When you need data and metrics to establish your product’s benchmark at scale

We conduct this form of benchmarking as either “point-in-time” or “ongoing.” For point-in-time, you would typically collect data to establish a baseline for a specific moment in time. Then, you can conduct studies at future points to compare it with. Whereas in ongoing benchmarking, we continuously run surveys, so we’re always collecting new data. We recommend conducting quarterly assessments of the data to understand how things are changing on a regular basis.

• You want to conduct a continuous intercept survey on your website to monitor the impact of changes made to your site, discover conversion rates, and develop an understanding of how well you’re meeting customer needs. 
• You want to launch a survey to understand user reactions to three prototypes for a new user flow on your website. The participant completes sample tasks and then answers a series of questions about the experience on a Likert scale.
• Keep your tasks clear. This form of benchmarking works best when your tasks are straightforward enough to be evaluated without human observation. With sample sizes this large, you need these tasks to be self-reported or tracked through the software. There should not be any gray area or confusion that requires a human moderator to witness a session.
• Plan for the future. Consider which metrics will be useful to you over time, while allowing space to answer more immediate questions. Putting in the time at the beginning of the process to align metrics around research goals and plan for future benchmarks will help reduce confusion and get your team on the same page for the long term. Stay consistent with the measurements being used over time.
• Build a plan for analysis. It's easy to get lost in the vast amounts of data being collected in these studies. Instead of wandering through data, create an analysis plan (even before fielding) and stick to it. If you have time remaining, explore the data for additional relevant findings.

Building on an existing benchmarking program

While the three approaches above focus on setting up a benchmarking program, some clients come to us with a pre-existing set of metrics and standards they’ve been using for years. If you already have a benchmark set up and just need to continue running the program, we’ll help build an ongoing study to take over those needs. 

What about metrics?

There are a lot of metrics you can collect during benchmarking research . But teams sometimes assume some metrics correlate to product comprehension or usability, when in fact this relationship is not always direct. We hear a lot of requests for benchmarking metrics such as time on task, click count, and error count, but these can be flawed.

Time on task, for example, is not always feasible to collect or a reliable metric depending on your approach. Time is only one facet of an experience, and spending more time on a task can be due to excitement or exploration, not necessarily poor usability. As for error counts, preparing to collect this data requires a good deal of upfront work to collect a list of anticipated errors, often overlooking unknown errors that will be surfaced during the research sessions. We often find that simply counting errors isn’t as valuable as a qualitative discussion around high-frequency errors to understand the why behind them.

Next in this series: Three Common Benchmarking Metrics to Ditch and What to Use Instead

If you’re looking for help as you build your benchmarking strategy, email our UX strategists for advice.

Answerlab research, related insights.

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Competitive Benchmarking: What It is and How to Do It

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Want to understand what your competitors are doing well and where there’s an opportunity for you to overtake them? You need competitive benchmarking.

This involves studying and setting benchmarks against industry leaders, disruptors, key competitors, and others. The reason? To get a full picture of where you stand against competitors while finding opportunities to improve.

Ready to learn more about it? Dive in as we discuss the following:

• What is competitive benchmarking?
• What are the benefits of competitive benchmarking?
• Tips for determining competitive benchmarks for your organization

What is Competitive Benchmarking?

Competitive benchmarking is a process of researching competitors, industry leaders – in short, anyone who serves the same audience or offers the same product as you do.

The aim? To study the strategies and practices competitors use and get a comparative overview of how well you’re doing in the market.

The key to successful competitive benchmarking, however, is to stay in charge of the process by pre-defining competitors to analyze. Typically, folks get carried away because they study one too many competitors.

So what’s the ideal number of competitors you should be studying? Over half, 54.3%, of our contributors benchmark against 4-5 competitors. 31.4% do so against 2-3 competitors and only 14.3% compete against 5+ businesses.

Related : Benchmark Reporting: How to Prepare, Analyze and Present a Good Benchmark Report?

What are the Benefits of Competitive Benchmarking?

Competitive benchmarking brings a plateful of benefits. These include:

• Get a full overview of where you stand against your competitors and in the market include what the broad target audience is saying.
• Improve the value you offer to prospects and customers alike by studying and improving upon the experiences others in the industry offer.
• Grow a culture and mindset of continuous improvement in terms of everything – from your marketing to customer and product quality.
• Eventually outperform competitors and grow your sales while getting an understanding of how you can differentiate yourself from others.

Tips for Determining Competitive Benchmarks for Your Organization

With the basics done, let’s look at how you can set up benchmarks for yourself and how to excel at competitive benchmarking.

Here’s a quick list followed by the details:

• Start with market research
• Understand your goals before benchmarking  
• Always identify pointers and companies to study against
• Co-decide who to benchmark against
• Consider reputation and product benchmarking
• Keep an eye on potential industry disruptors
• Also look at the biggest players
• Look at quantitative data too

1. Start with market research

This one’s a hat tip to Daniela Sawyer from FindPeopleFast . Market research is helpful because it stops you from missing out on studying important names in your haste to start competitive benchmarking.

In this regard, Sawyer explains the process they follow: “I will follow the following steps to choose competitive benchmarks:

• First, I conduct an analytical market research using available metrics. It needs to be accurate or close to the real output so that next steps can be accurate too.
• Following that, I attempt to identify both my actual and potential competitors. Usually, I try to identify real competitors. With the competitors’ list, I make a competitive report.
• Finally, I analyze the metrics and data so that the weak points in my business can be found. With proper research and listings of competitors, the analysis process is easy for me. Weak points, intermediate points, and competitors’ traffic sources are the main objectives for analyzing the data.”

“After a long list is analyzed in the last steps,” Sawyer continues “I target 3 to 5 competitors to benchmark against. It takes time to choose these 3 to 5 competitors because they are the real competitors for my business. I ensure a minimum of 1 final competitor to benchmark against from each category.”

2. Understand your goals before benchmarking 

“To avoid getting overwhelmed with all the data we could potentially benchmark against competitors, we honed in on our specific brand goals to assess which KPIs to focus on benchmarking,” comments Stephen Light from Nolah Mattress .

Put another way, in addition to market research to jump-start competitive benchmarking, you need to get clarity on your goals. For instance, if you are focusing on customer loyalty, there’s no point in studying a competitor’s brand awareness metrics.

Light shares their example too. “There are tons of social media metrics we could focus on, but we knew that engagement on those channels isn’t the most important for our particular eCommerce brand.”

“We knew that for a mattress brand like us, brand awareness and share of voice is where we needed to focus, and that benchmarking traffic trends in certain periods – like the traffic we get from different sources compared to our competitors – was of greater importance,” Light explains.

Leanna Serras of FragranceX takes the same approach. “We choose our competitive benchmarks based on our current brand goals.”

“If we are focusing on our brand awareness, we will compare our social media posting frequency and engagement rates with that of our competitors,” Serras notes.  “If we are focusing on sales, we will compare our website traffic and average visit duration with that of our competitors.”

In short, “you have to benchmark for your goals, not for everything, or you’ll get lost” in Light’s words.

Related : Goals Based Reporting: Everything You Need to Know

3. Always identify pointers and companies to study against

The clearer you are on this, the better your competitive benchmarking. Take CocoSign , for example, they have a thorough plan of who to study themselves against and what to study.

Explains Stephen Curry: “Our competitive benchmarks are based on research on the competition and the identification of critical competitive metrics.

Usually, we benchmark against three to five competitors depending on the objective. The list will include top performers in our industry, immediate competition referring to those we rank equally, and competitors who operate offline but with a sizable market share.”

Curry isn’t alone in benchmarking against these folks. 42%, the majority of our contributors, benchmark against close competitors.

31% have a mixed selection as Curry’s team has and over 25% study themselves against key industry players. Only 9% keep tabs on the industry disruptors in particular.

“In addition, we include pertinent competitive metrics mainly depending on the services we offer and those offered by companies against which we benchmark,” Curry goes on.

“That’s because benchmarking paints a more realistic picture when we include companies that don’t necessarily compete with our services but for the same audience. It also adds value to focus on ratios and rates rather than absolutes, especially when starting.”

4. Co-decide who to benchmark against

Continuing on what to analyze among competitors, Purrweb’s Sergey Nikonenko recommends not making the decision in isolation.

At Purrweb, for example, Nikonenko writes, “we use pre-existing KPIs for a competitive benchmark and we usually benchmark four to five competitors. We choose our KPIs and determine what metrics capture them.”

“In the last few years, we have been choosing competitive benchmarks by identifying the competitors that are similar to our industry. Our marketing team measures their products offering, audience, size, location, etc.,” Nikonenko elaborates.

To top that, Nikonenko shares: “We also consult with all parts of the business to see what would be useful to include.”

Consulting with your team and other business departments on competitive benchmarking is critical for ensuring you don’t miss any important pointers to benchmark against. Doing so means your benchmarking metrics are likely more thorough and, as a result, your competitive study will turn out useful.

5. Consider reputation and product benchmarking

Essentially, your marker reputation can make a lot of difference. In fact, a positive reputation drives word of mouth, referrals – even brand awareness. It also slips social proof into the picture, convincing prospects to buy from you for the name you’ve built.

Considering the role that reputation plays, it makes sense to dive into reputation benchmarking.

At HouseCashin , for example, Marina Vaamonde observes: “We compare our reputation with those of our competitors by gathering data related to how customers perceive us and our competitors.”

The metrics they look at? “Customer satisfaction rates, social media engagement, brand awareness, net promoter scores, and more.”

Speaking of metrics to study in competitive benchmarking, our respondents reveal most of them – 74% to be specific – study growth assessment metrics.

Some 50% also look at product success and little less than 50% study social media research.

“Regarding product benchmarking, we look at the product offerings of competitors in the marketplace and look at how well they provide value to their customers,” adds Vaamonde.

“However, we also look at what customer segments our competitors are targeting. If they’re targeting very different segments from ours, it doesn’t make sense to benchmark products. Success for them is different from success for us because it’s no longer an apples-to-apples comparison.”

Meaning: if you and your competitors serve the same audience, you’ll want to see how they provide value to their prospects and customers. To this end, study their marketing campaigns, social media messaging, customer service, product onboarding process, and so on.

After all, the more value you can provide, the better you can convert prospects and the more loyal customers you’ll have.

On that note, Andrew Raso from Online Marketing Gurus Australia also goes on to say that they “track the performance of companies that target my audience but are not my direct competitors.”

The reason: “It helps me catch fresh ideas for my market or innovative methods they use for growth. I do it because I feel that I know my market inside and out,” highlights Raso.

“Analyzing this data gives me valuable insight into the needs and expectations of my target audience. That allows me to recognize new business opportunities and areas for improvement.”

Related : Direct vs. Indirect Competition: Most Important Things You Can Learn from Monitoring Both

6. Look at quantitative data too

“We almost exclusively benchmark on qualitative data, messaging, and positioning,” outlines Alex Birkett .

“In terms of quantitative data – revenue, traffic, leads – we’re running our own race,” Birkett notes. “It’s nice to know where to aim, but at the end of the day, it’s not useful to benchmark to others when we have a different strategy.”

“However, the language people use to describe us versus competitors, the value propositions competitors use on their homepage, and qualitative comparison data we collect in our sales calls and surveys help us take action.”

“They help us optimize our copywriting, invest in unique channels, and inform our sales enablement materials and sales process,” explains Birkett.

In your competitive benchmarking too, note down key competitors’ value propositioning, messaging, and other qualitative data so you can continue marketing and converting better.

PRO TIP: How Well Are Your Marketing KPIs Performing?

Like most marketers and marketing managers, you want to know how well your efforts are translating into results each month. How much traffic and new contact conversions do you get? How many new contacts do you get from organic sessions? How are your email campaigns performing? How well are your landing pages converting? You might have to scramble to put all of this together in a single report, but now you can have it all at your fingertips in a single Databox dashboard.

Our Marketing Overview Dashboard includes data from Google Analytics 4 and HubSpot Marketing with key performance metrics like:

• Sessions . The number of sessions can tell you how many times people are returning to your website. Obviously, the higher the better.
• New Contacts from Sessions . How well is your campaign driving new contacts and customers?
• Marketing Performance KPIs . Tracking the number of MQLs, SQLs, New Contacts and similar will help you identify how your marketing efforts contribute to sales.
• Email Performance . Measure the success of your email campaigns from HubSpot. Keep an eye on your most important email marketing metrics such as number of sent emails, number of opened emails, open rate, email click-through rate, and more.
• Blog Posts and Landing Pages . How many people have viewed your blog recently? How well are your landing pages performing?

Now you can benefit from the experience of our Google Analytics and HubSpot Marketing experts, who have put together a plug-and-play Databox template that contains all the essential metrics for monitoring your leads. It’s simple to implement and start using as a standalone dashboard or in marketing reports, and best of all, it’s free!

You can easily set it up in just a few clicks – no coding required.

To set up the dashboard, follow these 3 simple steps:

Step 1: Get the template 

Step 2: Connect your HubSpot and Google Analytics 4 accounts with Databox. 

Step 3: Watch your dashboard populate in seconds.

“As for specific tools,” Birkett notes “we use Wynter very heavily. We also do our own heuristic audits of competitive websites to determine what the key benefits they’re leaning into are and how we can differentiate our positioning in the market.”

Other tools used include Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Google Keyword Planner – the top 3 most leveraged competitive benchmarking tools used by 74%, 53%, and 40%, respectively of our contributors.

7. Also look at the biggest players

While you might be too busy looking to your left and right, Ronen Yuval from Karma recommends monitoring the biggest market players at the top.

“I won’t replicate what they can afford with multi-million budgets for product development and marketing,” Yuval admits. “But I can learn from their strategies.”

“Their actions provide insight into where the market is heading and help me gain clarity about industry trends.”

Yuval also points out: “Larger companies also spend tons of time and resources on consumer research to identify the preferences, attitudes, motivations and buying behavior of targeted customers.”

“So if you carefully monitor the changes in their product, the site navigation, email marketing content, etc., you can get free insights to inform your marketing strategies.”

So you know what to do, right? Here’s your checklist. Study industry leaders’:

• Website architecture and user experience
• Product, email, social, and blog marketing campaigns
• Research reports including findings about consumer behavior and motivation

Related : How to Do an SEO Competitive Analysis: A Step-by-Step Guide

8. Keep an eye on potential industry disruptors

Why? Because​ ​ Zenpost’s Dave ​Polykoff says “they often come to the market with an offering that they expect may close a gap in a vacant niche.”

“Their brand-new products and strategies may even change the face of the niche,” adds Polykoff.

It’s why Polykoff shares, “I monitor new players on the market, especially small, emerging businesses that have received funding. These are likely new industry disruptors that might be growing faster than the industry average.”

The take home message? “Benchmarking against new smaller companies in your field can help you better understand potential threats and be ready to use some of their ideas to your advantage.”

Level Up Your Business with Databox

In short, when it comes to competitive benchmarking, it’s best to start with being clear on your goals and researching your market to understand who your direct and indirect competitors are.

From there, go on to identify who to benchmark against and what metrics you want to analyze.

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At Databox, we’re obsessed with helping companies more easily monitor, analyze, and report their results. Whether it’s the resources we put into building and maintaining integrations with 100+ popular marketing tools, enabling customizability of charts, dashboards, and reports, or building functionality to make analysis, benchmarking, and forecasting easier, we’re constantly trying to find ways to help our customers save time and deliver better results.

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Masooma is a freelance writer for SaaS and a lover to-do lists. When she's not writing, she usually has her head buried in a business book or fantasy novel.

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Benchmarking

Benchmarking improves performance by identifying and applying best demonstrated practices to operations and sales.

• April 02, 2018

Benchmarking improves performance by identifying and applying best demonstrated practices to operations and sales. Managers compare the performance of their products or processes externally with those of competitors and best-in-class companies, and internally with other operations that perform similar activities in their own firms. The objective of Benchmarking is to find examples of superior performance and understand the processes and practices driving that performance. Companies then improve their performance by tailoring and incorporating these best practices into their own operations—not by imitating, but by innovating.

Usage and satisfaction among survey respondents

How Benchmarking works:

• Select a product, service or process to benchmark
• Identify the key performance metrics
• Choose companies or internal areas to benchmark
• Collect data on performance and practices
• Analyze the data and identify opportunities for improvement
• Adapt and implement the best practices, setting reasonable goals and ensuring companywide acceptance

Companies use Benchmarking to:

• Improve performance. Benchmarking identifies methods of improving operational efficiency and product design.
• Understand relative cost position. Benchmarking reveals a company’s relative cost position and identifies opportunities for improvement.
• Gain strategic advantage. Benchmarking helps companies focus on capabilities that are critical to building strategic advantage.
• Increase the rate of organizational learning. Benchmarking brings new ideas into the company and facilitates experience sharing.

• Management Tools & Trends

Five key trends emerged from Bain's survey of 1,268 managers.

Selected references

American Productivity and Quality Center. www.apqc.org

Bogan, Christopher E., and Michael J. English. Benchmarking for Best Practices: Winning Through Innovative Adaptation . McGraw-Hill, 1994.

Boxwell, Robert J., Jr. Benchmarking for Competitive Advantage . McGraw-Hill, 1994.

Camp, Robert C. Benchmarking: The Search for Industry Best Practices That Lead to Superior Performance . Productivity Press, 2006.

Coers, Mardi, Chris Gardner, Lisa Higgins, and Cynthia Raybourn. Benchmarking: A Guide for Your Journey to Best-Practice Processes . American Productivity and Quality Center, 2001.

Czarnecki, Mark T. Managing by Measuring: How to Improve Your Organization’s Performance Through Effective Benchmarking . AMACOM, 1999.

Denrell, Jerker. “Selection Bias and the Perils of Benchmarking.” Harvard Business Review , April 2005, pp. 114–119.

Harrington, H. James. The Complete Benchmarking Implementation Guide: Total Benchmarking Management . McGraw-Hill, 1996.

Iacobucci, Dawn, and Christie Nordhielm. “Creative Benchmarking.” Harvard Business Review , November/December 2000, pp. 24–25.

Lane, Leonard. The Power of Benchmarking . Lexingford Publishing, 2016.

Reider, Rob. Benchmarking Strategies: A Tool for Profit Improvement . John Wiley & Sons, 2000.

Stauffer, David. “Is Your Benchmarking Doing the Right Work?” Harvard Management Update , September 2003, pp. 1–4.

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• Raul Valdes-Perez is CEO and co-founder of OnlyBoth Inc. and earlier co-founded and was CEO of Vivísimo Inc., acquired by IBM in 2012. He has a PhD. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon, where his advisor was the late Herbert A. Simon, and was also on its research faculty.

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“Benchmarking provides an inventory of creative changes that other companies have enacted.”

– John Langley, Operations Guru

Over the years, I’ve conducted my fair share of benchmarking. And, anytime I discover a big and important gap between one aspect of a company versus another it always gives me an adrenaline kick since I just discovered a rich vein of gold. To mine the gold, I simply need to address the gap. Your organization’s performance is only as good as the relative performance it has against competitors. If you are truly focused on becoming world-class, you better understand how you perform against your competitors and the industry. Benchmarking tells you where you are ugly or pretty and how ugly or pretty you really are. And, from my benchmarking experience, it is amazing how many people think they are pretty, only to realize how ugly they are. I’m talking figuratively here!

What is benchmarking?

Benchmarking is a form of variance analysis and is the practice of comparing the performance of products , processes , and financials to that of other internal, competitive, or industry performance, to understand the improvement potential or relative performance of the benchmarked products, processes, or financials. There are many types of benchmarking, including:

Customer & Competitive Benchmarking

By far, the most important benchmarking exercise is customer and competitive benchmarking. Companies that win drive customer value better than the competition , in a financially superior way. Understanding the gaps in your customer value proposition versus competitors is essential to developing winning growth strategies.

Internal Benchmarking

Using different internal entities or historical performance data to provide a guidepost in calculating relative performance. I’ve used internal benchmarking extensively with retailers, benchmarking dozens of metrics for each store against their district and national average, and placing them in performance deciles. They were also longitudinally benchmarked against their best historic performance on each metric.

Technical Benchmarking

Comparing an organization’s products, services, and customer processes against key competitors. One of the most important strategic exercises that should be completed at least once a year, is to understand core differences and opportunities in the eyes of your target customers.

Industry Benchmarking

Comparing an organization’s financial and process performance to that of other organizations, in the same or different industries.

Functional Benchmarking

Focusing on a particular function and comparing the performance of the function to that of generally accepted standards or benchmarks.

How do you benchmark?

Customer & competitive benchmarking.

At least once a year, you should do a deep dive on how your company compares to competitors on those dimensions of your value proposition that are important to your target customer . And, you should do it before any strategic or annual planning . You should read the sections on customer strategy , customer value proposition, and the voice of the customer to get some ideas on how to approach customer and competitive benchmarking.

Internal benchmarking

Historical or longitudinal benchmarking.

The easiest form of benchmarking is to compare current performance to that of historical averages and high watermarks. This historical benchmarking should be a consistently used tool in most analyses.

Internal Competitive Benchmarking

One of the most powerful strategic tools is using internal benchmarking to drive awareness and competition in similar, but separate entities, teams, business units, etc. In retail, we benchmarked individuals based on their sales per hour, personal customer service scores, and transactions per hour, and it drove incredible competition and productivity, and service improvements. It necessitates significant investment in systems, change management , and training, but once in place, ongoing internal competitive benchmarking is an incredibly effective performance driver.

Technical competitive benchmarking

Product benchmarking.

If you have a technical product, it is critical you periodically compare your product to top competitor products, or when a competitor launches a new product. Create a simple chart , with all of the different comparison elements including features, quality, performance, price, and reviews, and start comparing, using actual data where you can. You can download the chart below in the Product Strategy section. You will get a lot of ideas and typically a reality check when benchmarking your product against your competitors. Benchmarking is even better if you know how the target customers rank the relative importance of different dimensions.

Product Benchmarking PowerPoint Template

Product Teardowns

Many product companies also conduct product teardowns, where they disassemble products and compare components and designs. It is one of the best exercises to find ideas to cut costs or improve a design. I once did a project for a big rig trucking company. The first step in the design process for the new truck was to buy the three best-selling trucks (each about $100k), completely tear them apart, categorize every screw and component, and document every idea and good design learned from the other trucks.

Customer Service and Process Benchmarking

Have you ever experienced the customer shopping, purchasing, and service experience of your organization and your competitors? If not, you really should. Objectively understanding your customer journey and systematically comparing it to your competitors’ customer journey, will give you the highlight issues, advantages to leverage, and ideas on how to shape your customer journey for the future.

Industry benchmarking

Financial benchmarking.

A great first step in benchmarking is to understand the financial gaps you may have compared to competitors or the industry. Our sister company, Kentley Insights , covers over 100+ industry benchmarks across 1100 industries, which makes industry benchmarking a fairly simple exercise. Or, you can find 3 or 4 public companies, and compare your key financial metrics and ratios (e.g., gross margin, growth, sales per employee, SG&A as a % of sales, inventory turns, AP and AR as a % of sales, etc.) to the public companies.

Best Practice Benchmarking

A key to driving improvements is to ensure your organization is using industry best practices . This could include practices related to manufacturing, sourcing, packaging, logistics, customer experience, vendor relations, marketing , sales, and any part of the organization. While it can be difficult to understand your competitors’ practices, there are so many resources you can find online to help you with industry best practices.

Functional benchmarking

There are associations for pretty much every function including HR, IT, Finance & Accounting, Legal, etc. They are a great resource to understand the typical functional KPIs and metrics, and what the average and best practice benchmarks are for the KPIs and metrics. Give them a call to understand the resources they have, which often necessitates a fee to join the association, but it often pays off if you leverage the resources.

Download your free competitive benchmarking templates. Includes competitive product benchmarking, product ideas, competitive service benchmarking, service ideas, and customer journey mapping. These will get you started on your competitive benchmarking to drive strategic insights, gap analysis, and opportunities.

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Der Bestsellerautor und Geschäfts renommierter KI-Experte Bernard zeigt, wie sterben Technologie des maschinellen Lernens das von Unternehmen verändert. Das Buch bietet einen Überblick über einzelne Unternehmen, beschreibt das spezifische Problem und erklärt, wie KI die Lösung erleichtert. Jede Fallstudie bietet einen umfassenden Einblick, der einige technische Details wichtige Lernzusammenfassungen enthält. Marrs Buch ist eine aufschlussreiche und informative Untersuchung der transformativen Kraft der Technologie in der Wirtschaft des 21. Jahrhunderts.

Bernard Marr

Bernard Marr is a world-renowned futurist, influencer and thought leader in the fields of business and technology, with a passion for using technology for the good of humanity. He is a best-selling author of over 20 books, writes a regular column for Forbes and advises and coaches many of the world’s best-known organisations. He has a combined following of 4 million people across his social media channels and newsletters and was ranked by LinkedIn as one of the top 5 business influencers in the world.

Bernard’s latest books are ‘Future Skills’, ‘The Future Internet’, ‘Business Trends in Practice’ and ‘ Generative AI in Practice ’.

Bernard Marr ist ein weltbekannter Futurist, Influencer und Vordenker in den Bereichen Wirtschaft und Technologie mit einer Leidenschaft für den Einsatz von Technologie zum Wohle der Menschheit. Er ist Bestsellerautor von 20 Büchern, schreibt eine regelmäßige Kolumne für Forbes und berät und coacht viele der weltweit bekanntesten Organisationen. Er hat über 2 Millionen Social-Media-Follower, 1 Million Newsletter-Abonnenten und wurde von LinkedIn als einer der Top-5-Business-Influencer der Welt und von Xing als Top Mind 2021 ausgezeichnet.

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The Different Types Of Benchmarking – Examples And Easy Explanations

2 July 2021

Benchmarking – i.e. Comparing your business performance against certain reference points – is a popular and potentially powerful way to glean insights that can lead to improved performance. In this article, we’ll explore the various types of benchmarking and how these approaches can benefit your business.

What’s the difference between benchmarks and KPIs?

People often ask me this, and there seems to be a general assumption that benchmarks and KPIs are the same thing. But they are different.

To clarify:

• Benchmarks are reference points that you use to compare your performance against the performance of others. These benchmarks can be comparing processes, products or operations, and the comparisons can be against other parts of the business, external companies (such as competitors) or industry best practises. Benchmarking is commonly used to compare customer satisfaction, costs and quality.
• KPIs, on the other hand, are decision-making and monitoring tools, used to track performance in relation to strategic goals. In other words, KPIs chart whether an individual, project, team, business unit or entire company is on track to achieve its objectives. KPIs are a bit like an early warning system, flagging up where things might be heading off-course and where action might be needed.

So, when you use KPIs, you’re comparing progress in relation to a specific goal. And when you use benchmarks, you’re comparing against others. You can use benchmarking to put your own KPIs into context and to set targets for your KPIs.

Both – KPIs and benchmarks – are used to identify opportunities for improving performance, which may be where the confusion arises.

Exploring the different types of benchmarks

Broadly speaking, benchmarks break down into two core categories: internal and external. Internal benchmarking compares performance, processes and practises against other parts of the business (e.g. Different teams, business units, groups or even individuals). For example, benchmarks could be used to compare processes in one retail store with those in another store in the same chain.

External benchmarking, sometimes described as competitive benchmarking, compares business performance against other companies. Often these external companies are peers or competitors, but that’s not always the case; for example, you can use benchmarking to compare performance, processes and practises across different industries.

Three ways to use benchmarking

Benchmarking, whether internal or external, is used in three key ways.  They are:

• Process benchmarking. This is all about better understanding your processes, comparing performance against internal and external benchmarks, and finding ways to optimise and improve your processes. The idea is that, by understanding how top performers complete a process, you can find ways to make your own processes more efficient, faster and more effective.
• Strategic benchmarking. This compares strategies, business approaches and business models in order to strengthen your own strategic planning and determine your strategic priorities. The idea is to understand what strategies underpin successful companies (or teams or business units) and then compare these strategies with your own to identify ways you can be more competitive.
• Performance benchmarking. This involves collecting information on how well you’re doing in terms of outcomes (which could mean anything from revenue growth to customer satisfaction) and comparing these outcomes internally or externally. This can also refer to functional performance benchmarking, such as benchmarking the performance of the HR team (using metrics like employee net promoter score or staff engagement surveys) or the marketing team (measuring net promoter score or brand awareness, for instance).

Why you might want to consider benchmarking in your organisation

Each of these different ways of benchmarking have one key goal in mind: to identify gaps in performance and uncover opportunities to improve, whether that means making processes more efficient, reducing costs, increasing profits, boosting customer satisfaction, or whatever. Ultimately, what drives companies to benchmark is the need (or want) for improvement.

So whether you want to simply compare your internal performance, catch up to a competitor, better understand and track your peers, or become a market-leader in your industry, benchmarking can be an incredibly useful tool.

However, benchmarking is not a magic bullet for improving performance – it’s a part of the solution, not the complete solution. The complete solution requires you to set clear strategic goals, identify your critical business questions, design KPIs that help you answer those questions and track performance against your goals, and compare performance using benchmarking.

I certainly wouldn’t advise a company to focus all their attention on benchmarking at the expense of tailored, carefully designed KPIs. But, when viewed as part of the complete performance management picture, benchmarking provides a useful way to glean valuable performance-boosting insights.

Where to go from here

If you would like to know more about KPIs and performance management, cheque out my articles on:

• Key Tools and Techniques for Performance Management
• What’s the difference between a benchmark and a KPI?
• How to benchmark your performance and metrics?

Or browse the KPI Library to find the metrics that matter most to you. 

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Bernard Marr is a world-renowned futurist, influencer and thought leader in the fields of business and technology, with a passion for using technology for the good of humanity.

He is a best-selling author of over 20 books, writes a regular column for Forbes and advises and coaches many of the world’s best-known organisations.

He has a combined following of 4 million people across his social media channels and newsletters and was ranked by LinkedIn as one of the top 5 business influencers in the world.

Bernard’s latest book is ‘ Generative AI in Practice ’.

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Competitive benchmarking: Best practice guide

What is competitive benchmarking, and how can you use it to get ahead of your competition? Read on to learn how to create KPIs that effectively chart success and the best practices for developing a competitive benchmarking strategy.

What is competitive benchmarking?

Competitive benchmarking analysis seeks to understand your brand’s success against others within your industry. You might evaluate their business strategy, their practices, or the products and services they offer to see whether you compare favorably or unfavorably. Using key performance indicators, you can create a set of benchmarks for yourself to match up to others in your sector and understand where the gaps are .

Competitive benchmarking is a useful tool for understanding where you can go next with your brand strategy , and to see where you could be servicing your customers more effectively. It can help you see why your audience might choose a competitor over you , and work on strategies to attract them to your offering instead.

Typical competitive benchmarking includes metrics such as:

• Customer engagement on social channels
• Brand awareness
• Customer experience ratings, such as satisfaction , ease of use , and more
• Search engine results

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Types of competitive analysis

Competitive benchmarking can be divided into three types: performance benchmarking, strategic benchmarking, and process benchmarking.

Performance benchmarking is where you compare your brand’s performance across revenue, brand awareness , social media engagement , and more to see how you fare against others in your industry. What results do you generate, and how could you improve against your competitors?

Strategic benchmarking is where you evaluate how your brand goes about its business in comparison to competitors. What business models do they use? What planning and execution style does your company use, and how does that compare to the market leader’s approach? By taking a deep look at how you plan for and carry out your strategy, you can become more effective at implementing change and improving.

Process benchmarking is the analysis of how well your current processes work within your business. Evaluating how your processes work in comparison to your competitors can help you to see the differences between your business and the next, allowing you to take inspiration from competitors or work on providing unique selling points to your customers. Becoming more efficient is a key reason to benchmark in this way.

One of the main advantages of breaking down competitive benchmarking in this way is that your overall business strategy can be overhauled in a manageable way. Rather than solely focusing on performance, you can also evaluate the processes and strategies that lead to performance results.

Competitive benchmarking metrics

Before you can create or use competitive benchmarking metrics, you’ll need to gather data and determine what key performance indicators will form the basis of your benchmark.

Gathering data

Before benchmarking yourself against your competitors, you’ll need to complete some thorough research to define your key performance indicators. These will help you to develop some specific metrics to measure yourself against now and in the future.

You might try finding data by doing:

• Business research : What is their annual revenue? How many people do they employ? What are their online reviews like?
• Brand research : What is their share of voice or share of wallet in your sector? What are their online reviews like?
• SEO research : How do they fare in search engine results? Are they using paid social marketing to reach their audience ?
• Survey research : How do they survey their customers? How often do they ask for feedback?
• Social media research : What level of social media engagement metrics do they generate? How do their social media metrics compare against your own?
• User experience research : Are their digital platforms mobile-optimized? Are their sites easy to navigate? Is it easy to understand their product and service offering, and make a purchase?
• Content analysis : What content do they produce, how much, and when? Does it get high levels of engagement?

Of course, completing this research and creating competitive benchmark metrics without the available data can be difficult. That’s why since 2019, Qualtrics’ XM Institute™ has completed its annual XMI Customer Ratings  – Digital, a cross-industry, open-standard benchmark that provides a much-needed reference point for companies who want to compare their digital customer experience (CX) against their industry competitors.

See how our new Digital Experience Metrics can help you benchmark more effectively

Completing competitive benchmarking analysis with metrics

Qualtrics’ in-depth research into brands’ relationships with their audiences led to the definition of three critical aspects of a customers’ digital experience:

• Emotion: As measured by customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores , how do customers feel about the brand?
• Effort: As measured by customer effort scores (CES) , how easy is it for customers to complete their tasks on a brand’s platform?
• Success: As measured by task completion, how successful are customers’ experiences with the brand?

These three elements form the basis of Qualtrics’ DX3 metrics methodology. It is Qualtrics’ simplified approach for measuring meaningful digital experiences and understanding the drivers of conversion, loyalty , and improved customer lifetime value .

Brands often complete CSAT and CES scoring to create internal benchmarks for comparison over time. However, these metrics can be difficult to incorporate into your competitive benchmarking, as the results are often private data.

Qualtrics’ BrandXM™ provides you with insight into your competitors’ performance, and helps you to create data-led strategies for improvement. Unlike other competitive benchmarks, Qualtrics solutions take into account DX3 metrics methodology, which measures economic value alongside other typical indicators of success.

Use the competitive benchmarking study to see how you’re performing

The DX3 metrics in practice

DX3 metrics are able to tie business outcomes directly to increases or decreases in the measurements brands use to benchmark their success, either against themselves or against competitors.

Our latest findings:

• As customer satisfaction (CSAT) improves, customer spend increases by up to 37%
• As customer effort decreases, customer spend increases by up to 23%
• Successful task completion isn’t a useful metric

This means there isn’t a strong relationship between the completion of a task and the amount customers spend. Most customers are able to complete a task - meaning that if they can’t do so on your site, you’re falling behind your competitors significantly.

Positive sentiment and low effort scores drive loyalty

Digital loyalty - or the likelihood to return to a brand’s site - is significantly increased when customers have a positive sentiment toward the brand and find it easy to complete their tasks.

Brands that don’t focus on improving these two factors may well find themselves falling behind as consumers turn their digital loyalty to immediate competitors and industry leaders.

Gaps in Emotion, Effort, and Success reduce potential revenue

For eCommerce industries, gaps in emotion, effort, and success have a negative impact on potential revenue to be generated.

For businesses that sell their goods and services online, one way in which they can improve their bottom line above their competitors is to invest in their digital experience. Given that brands are failing to satisfy or make their experiences low-effort , this is an easy win for brands looking to get ahead.

Creating a strategic benchmarking approach

Using the DX3 metrics methodology as a guide, your strategy to outdo your competition becomes more sophisticated and increases ROI on your efforts. Rather than limiting your efforts to improve using only internal benchmarking, Qualtrics can provide you with competitor analysis and business strategies for improving your market position.

Developing a brand experience strategy using DX3

Rather than aiming to merely increase engagement or a site’s performance, using DX3 metrics alongside traditional competitive benchmarking can help you to develop a more rounded strategy for improved brand experience .

Here’s how you can use Qualtrics BrandXM with the DX3 methodology to develop your brand into an industry leader.

Improve the brand experience

Your brand experience should not only meet customer expectations , but exceed them. Brand sentiment and brand perception can go a long way to influencing a customer to choose you over the competition - make sure you invest in a strategy that not only measures this but creates insights-led action to tackle weaker areas. Customer satisfaction plays a large role in this, so make sure you’re developing a sophisticated survey program to understand precisely where pain points and successes lie.

Reduce customer burden

If there are obstacles in your customers’ way, they’re not going to choose your experience over your competitors’. It’s not enough to just meet best industry practices - you’ll need to be exceptional in making the digital customer journey a smooth process to stand out.

Assume completion is the minimum

Your customers should be able to do what they intend to do when interacting with their brand - fix the pain points in your processes to make sure you’re meeting the baseline for the competition.

The best tool for competitive research

Understanding your brand’s current position in the market and seeing how you stack up against the competition is key for improving your business outcomes.

Using Qualtrics, you can better:

• Understand how you compare to competitors in your industry
• Identify where you can leverage strengths and bolster weaknesses
• Find top areas for improvement to keep you ahead of your competition
• Create a cohesive brand strategy for a winning customer experience
• Improve your customer experience and brand renown

Qualtrics CustomerXM helps you to prioritize customer feedback, ensuring that you make changes that will drive the highest business impact.

See how you can outdo your competitors with BrandXM

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With insights from Qualtrics, organizations can identify and resolve the greatest friction points in their business, retain and engage top talent, and bring the right products and services to market. Nearly 20,000 organizations around the world use Qualtrics’ advanced AI to listen, understand, and take action. Qualtrics uses its vast universe of experience data to form the largest database of human sentiment in the world. Qualtrics is co-headquartered in Provo, Utah and Seattle.

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Conducting a UX benchmarking study step by step

UX benchmarking is the process of evaluating the performance of a company or website based on criteria accepted by stakeholders or universal standards. The process is usually generalized to UX benchmarking research, a type of summative evaluation, that deals with the analysis of relative performance within a company to measure its success.

If you’re here, you’re probably looking for help conducting your own study. I will explain UX benchmarking in detail to understand when a company needs it and break down this complex process, outlining the steps needed for its successful adaptation.

Table of contents

Benchmarking research, what does benchmarking mean in a ux context, when is benchmarking used in ux, step 0: necessary ux data to start benchmarking, step 1: identify behavioral and attitudinal issues using a ux audit, step 2: define standards you will look up to.

• Step 3: Analyse comparative results and propose solutions

Step 4: Implement changes

Step 5: gather post-change results on the ux metrics of interest, step 6: visualize and report the findings, step 7: record lessons learned, step 8: restart the cycle.

Benchmarking research focuses on these points:

• Applying specific data you gather from a comparative analysis to the standard
• This data’s usability for your specific website and product
• Its relevance considering the constantly changing environment
• Your target audience
• Your technical abilities to deliver what is needed based on this data
• Your company’s goals

Generally, benchmarking focuses on comparative evaluation to reasonable standards. I’ve used the word “reasonable” on purpose because the company might deal with data that has no universal standards but can identify patterns and trends within the industry to use as a guide for evaluation.

UX benchmarking research is a complex task that you should address from various perspectives.

In the UX context, we evaluate the company’s or product’s performance based on qualitative and quantitative data. Considering the fact that qualitative data is subjective, we’d need to investigate any behavioral patterns we observe with the company’s end goals in mind. We do this to conclude the success or failure of the company or changes within it.

Benchmarking is necessary when:

• Return on investment (ROI) is below the stakeholders’ target
• UX metrics are indicating a poor user experience
• Measuring the company’s or UX team’s performance after specific changes in the product
• Market shifts changed the nature of competition
• A new paradigm appeared in industry standards due to innovations, law changes, average industry performance, etc.

In other words, if the company wants to display its strength or understand its weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, it should conduct UX benchmarking.

Benchmarking is always a part of a bigger process for a company’s performance optimization and improvement. Businesses operate in a volatile environment with innovations and new competitors continuously appearing on the market; therefore, a developing company will always have an active team of UX specialists that work full-time to update the company’s design and keep track of customers’ shifting behavioral patterns.

UX benchmarking study: A step-by-step guide

The complexity of the UX benchmarking process should not discourage you from conducting it on a regular basis. The larger company is, the harder it is to spot weak spots because more variables are involved in a company’s performance.

However, the first step toward better UX performance relies on extensive background research on the qualitative and quantitative variables involved.

For a successful start, the UX team should identify what they are dealing with by gathering all relevant UX data available for your company. You can break this down into qualitative and quantitative:

• Time-on-task — average time of the user’s involvement with the website, completing the particular task
• Conversion rates — the percentage of conversions compared to the total number of website visitors
• Error rate — misled users or technical barriers that led to website interaction failure
• Completion rate — the percentage of completed tasks by users to the total number of attempts
• Engagement — set of actions made by the user on a site (views, clicks, shares, etc.)
• Retention — the percentage of returning users after the first interaction with the company
• Customer satisfaction score (CSAT) — a loyalty metric based on the level of user satisfaction
• System usability scale (SUS) — customer’s evaluation of the usability of the website
• Net promotor score (NPS) — users’ readiness to refer others to share the experience they got from the company
• Customer effort score (CES) — measures the amount of effort users had to put in while interacting with the product
• Any other behavioral data that is not measured in numbers but can be used in the UX context

Gathering all the data is generally called a UX audit and is not limited to the variables I’ve mentioned. All of the measurements are a part of understanding the bigger picture: what the audience experiences when they interact with the website. You can further interpret the raw data to spot issues and threats and create opportunities for growth by targeting the weak spots.

How can professionals gather data?

The quantitative data I’ve mentioned is usually measured by professionals using tools like Google Analytics or LogRocket . Such tools provide statistics on everything when it comes to the behavior of the users on the website, as well as a user behavioral roadmap. The roadmap means that tools display the exact movement of the customers on the website.

You should support some data further with statistics on the company’s sales; the total number of clients; the percentage of clients ordering compared to all users coming to the payment page; the number of customers ordering multiple times compared to one-time users, etc.

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The only weakness of such data is that it does not show the reason why customers leave specific pages, spend less time on different pages, do not convert, and so on. Answering those questions is the task for UX and UI teams as they analyze the correlation between the numbers they’ve acquired.

The qualitative data mentioned above is always measured by directly contacting the clients using questionnaires or user interviews . While CSAT, SUS, NPS, and CES are usually measured with questionnaire forms, interviews are meant to gather some behavioral data that is deeper and more detailed in explanation. For example, customer feedback forms can clarify if the users like the service or not and give it a score from 1 to 5. Interviews, in such cases, will help you understand exactly why they like the service or not and see at which step of the customer journey users could have an unsatisfactory experience.

Using the data gathered during the UX audit mentioned above, UX professionals should work on finding patterns that explain the customers’ behavior and discovering ways to improve their experience. Possible behavioral and attitudinal patterns that may become a threat to the company’s performance can be summed up as follows:

• Technical problems within the website
• The interpreted quantitative data with deeper analysis if conversions, satisfaction rate, traffic, and retention are below benchmarking standards
• Outdated materials
• Problems with accessibility and usability
• Building a roadmap of the customers’ actions might reveal barriers that could impact their choices
• Qualitative data gathered through questionnaires and interviews could provoke concerns and identify weaknesses

Hence, the results of the UX audit may be more specific but usually fall under some of the categories identified. Your UX team should outline all your findings before taking your next steps. Such an outline serves as a basis for the next benchmarking step.

By definition, the benchmarking process relies on a comparison to predefined standards. However, there might not be universal standards that everyone at your company follow, which means that the company has to find reliable standards on its own. There are four types of standards that you can use for UX benchmarking:

• Product performance data — qualitative and quantitative UX metrics that the company had before launching the new product or implementing changes. For example, before the latest changes to the product, the satisfaction rate was 3.5/5, while after the update, the rate increased to 3.75/5
• Competitors’ performance — available industry best practices and their results. For example, your current conversion rate is 1 percent, while your main competitor has 5 percent
• Company’s goals — standards set by stakeholders. For example, your average retention rate is 10 percent, while investors want to achieve 20 percent
• Industry performance — average rates between a set number of competitors. For example, your SUS rate is 2.7/5, while the average rate among the ten main competitors is 4.1/5

Step 3: Analyze comparative results and propose solutions

After identifying the standards, the next step is to compare your current UX metrics and find a solution to improve your performance. Depending on the standard, try asking yourself these questions:

• Are there technical issues that lead to problems?
• Did the change in product lead to problems?
• Did the product change solve the issue it was meant to tackle?
• What can be done to fix the underperformance/perform even better?
• What do they do better, and how?
• How is their input data different (for example, target audience)?
• What can be done to reach their results/increase the gap between your results if your results are better?
• What is our target, and why?
• Is this achievable based on competitors’ performance?
• Will changes lead to higher returns?
• What can be done to satisfy stakeholders?
• Is the data acquired reliable?
• What patterns can be found in the performance of others that led to better results?
• What can be done to enhance your website?

Answering why others are performing better or worse than your business is key to understanding what can be done for the company’s development. If standards are lower than your metrics, work on increasing the gap between results and aim for perfection. If others are doing better — analyze why that happened, spot the weaknesses to address, and find opportunities to outperform them.

Your company must always test new things because the market is shifting fast, and staying updated is instrumental to becoming or staying number one in the industry.

Positive changes in results are inevitable if the benchmarking is done correctly. Your proposed solutions will benefit the company after implementation, but only if the design team did the cause-effect analysis and user testing correctly.

To confirm whether the actions taken performed well, conduct a post-change UX audit and find fluctuations in results. After the implementation process, the design team checks the primary UX metrics, tracks if they have improved, and compares them with benchmarking standards.

We do benchmarking research to achieve a particular purpose. The data acquired has to be structured and further analyzed; that’s why it’s important to visualize data using charts and infographics to appeal to stakeholders. Such practice is especially relevant if your standards are based on stakeholders’ expectations. The final report must contain the following:

• Achieved vs. previous results vs. set standards
• Evaluation of the underperforming results (if there are any) based on post-implementation data
• Additional adjustments to achieve better results in the future
• References and data proofs that stakeholders can check to confirm the presented data

Any outcome based on proper benchmarking is a valuable lesson. Analyzing your cases and saving them for future reference is key to successful performance.

If a change did not provide the desired results, the case might prevent similar mistakes in the future. If the project is successful, the company may elaborate on the findings and investigate possible ways to benefit even more.

Benchmarking is not only about measuring success, because negative outcomes can also be used to find opportunities in other areas and prevent future overspending on failing projects.

There is no limit to perfection. Considering the ever-changing environment and even the fact that a customer profile, as well as user behavior, changes over time, it is always important to target evolving needs. Therefore, the UX design team should always work on new solutions to increase user satisfaction, react to customers’ feedback, and keep track of their behavior to update the company based on shifted data.

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See how design choices, interactions, and issues affect your users — get a demo of LogRocket today .

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What is benchmarking, and how to do a competitive analysis

Benchmarking is a complicated process that many large companies use to perfect their best practices and to outpace the competition. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t use benchmarking for your small online business.

In fact, you should use benchmarking, especially if you’re in the Knowledge Commerce market .

What is benchmarking? We’re going to get to that a little later, but for now, we want to paint a quick picture.

Let’s say that you’re a personal development expert who specializes in productivity. You know how to motivate people to get things done and achieve their goals.

You’ve created four online courses, two e-books, and a host of other digital products on productivity. Sales have been fairly steady over the last 12 months, but you’re not growing at the pace you expected.

Maybe your sales have stagnated. Perhaps you’ve already reached your target audience.

Whatever the case, it’s time to change things up.

If you want to maximize your revenue and brand awareness, you need benchmarking to figure out what’s working, what’s not working, and what your competitors are doing.

It sounds simple enough, but you need a clear, actionable strategy if you want benchmarking to yield positive results. That’s what we’re going to help you achieve today.

What Is Benchmarking? 

Benchmarking is the process of determining the best processes, strategies, and techniques for achieving your business goals.

That sounds simple enough, right? You’re just trying to create the best business possible.

The problem is that you sometimes need outside data to measure success. While your online business might be more profitable than it was six months ago, is it profitable enough to stand up to your competitors?

We’ll talk about competitive analysis later, but keep in mind that you need to maintain one eye on your competitors at all times. If you don’t, they can easily steal your customers and your profits.

With benchmarking, you want to start with your primary weaknesses.

Do you struggle with lead generation? Have you struggled to retain customers? Do you get complaints about your online course content ?

Sometimes it’s tough to view your business objectively. If you need to bring on a third party to help, do so.

The important thing, though, is to find ways in which your business could improve. Maybe it’s customer service, pricing, advertising , digital marketing , or something else entirely.

Once you’ve identified your first focal point for benchmarking, figure out how your current process works. For instance, when it comes to digital marketing, maybe you focus on blogging , social media, and organic SEO.

Since you’ve discovered that your digital marketing strategy hasn’t yielded the results you expected, you now need to figure out how to tweak your process to make it more effective.

Maybe you need to add email marketing to your repertoire . That’s just one possibility — benchmarking will help you figure out other potential solutions.

Those are the basics of benchmarking, but we’re going to get into even more detail so you understand why benchmarking matters, how you can use it strategically, and what other businesses like yours have accomplished through benchmarking.

Why Is Benchmarking Important for Your Knowledge Commerce Business? 

Think of benchmarking as a report card, a guidebook, and a competition comparison all in one. Conducting benchmarking can tell you what you're doing wrong with your online business and help you discover ways to improve upon past efforts.

In Knowledge Commerce, competition will always exist.

After all, we're talking about a $243 billion industry. That number is nothing to sneeze at.

If you want to grab for yourself a significant piece of this lucrative pie, you need to use every tool at your disposal to turn your business into an industry powerhouse. Otherwise, your competitors will do it instead.

Furthermore, since your business is likely not a member of the Fortune 500 list, benchmarking won't take as much time, energy, earn money. You have fewer factors to take into consideration so the process will move much faster.

If you're not sure why benchmarking will benefit your business, consider your last few months of sales. What if you could increase them by a significant margin? Would that make benchmarking worth your while?

You can gain a remarkable competitive edge if you're able to understand your competitors as well as businesses like your own outside your industry and figure out what they're doing better than you.

However, it's not about copying your competition. Rather, you want to surpass your competition through improved processes and internal policies.

Maybe you run your business by yourself. That's fine. You still have specific protocols you follow when it comes to marketing, sales, customer service, product creation, and everything else.

What Other Online Course Makers Should You Benchmark Against? 

The first step in benchmarking is defined other businesses against which to measure your own. Think of these other businesses as yardsticks. They offer the measurements into data that you want to surpass.

Start with other Knowledge Commerce professionals to create online courses and other digital products within your industry. They don't have to offer courses that are exactly like your own, but they should create similar content.

Next, venture beyond your specific industry and find other businesses that are similar in size and revenue to yours. They might operate in completely different ways, but they can still teach you how to improve your processes, marketing techniques, revenue-generation methods, and more.

Once you have found competitors against which you can benchmark your own business, conduct as much research as you can on those businesses. Find out how they're targeting potential customers, managing customer service, and otherwise serving their target audience.

You might discover that one or more of the businesses you chose don't provide a reasonable benchmark for your company. That's okay.

Simply remove those businesses from your benchmarking study and choose other businesses to take their place. You don't want to spend time and energy on a project that won't yield actionable data.

What Are the Benefits of Benchmarking?

The benefits of benchmarking are quite diverse. If you conduct a little research, you'll find that some of the biggest brands in the world use benchmarking studies to improve their businesses and to find new ways to solve old problems.

First of all, benchmarking is a completely objective process. You're evaluating data and other critical information to determine how you stack up against your competition.

Your passionate about your business, which means that you might let your subjective opinion influence your decisions. Benchmarking removes the subjectivity and allows you to approach problems logically.

You can also use benchmarking to find new opportunities. During your research, you might find that your competitors or other benchmarking partners are using strategies that you never considered.

That happens to every business. You can't always think of every potential solution to a problem or technique to achieve a goal.

You might also have made assumptions about your business. Benchmarking allows you to either validate or invalidate those assumptions.

Obviously, you'd rather validate an assumption and know that you are right. That might happen. But even if you discover that your assumption was incorrect, you now have a way to correct the issue.

By the end of your benchmarking process, you'll have discovered new ways to approach a business and set goals for the future. That's a powerful advantage over your competition.

Once you've set those goals, you can proactively pursue them.

Every business needs performance expectations. In larger companies, for example, managers set performance expectations for their employees.

If you work alone, you need to set performance expectations for yourself. How many new digital products you want to release in the next 12 months? How much revenue do you want to generate in the next four years?

Benchmarking can help you figure out what expectations are reasonable so that you can set out to meet them.

How Does Benchmarking Relate to Competitor Research? 

Benchmarking and competitor research are often misunderstood. They are actually two separate ways to approach issues within a business, but benchmarking offers several clear advantages over competitor research.

For one thing, benchmarking focuses on the future. It's not a way to find a quick fix for a temporary problem. You're looking for long-term strategies to help your business grow.

During competitive research might show you how to mirror your competition's approach, but it won't help you surpass their results. Additionally, competitor research usually involves spying on the competition and making assumptions about their approaches to certain problems or solutions. Benchmarking takes the opposite approach.

You're looking for companies and individuals who have achieved the kind of results that you want to make possible for your business. That's why it's helpful to find non-direct competitors because you might want to contact them directly.

During a benchmarking study, you might read case studies and articles written by the companies who have set the benchmarks that you want to emulate. It's not a covert operation — it's a way to take your business to the next level.

What Is the Benchmarking Process? 

The benchmarking process can vary depending on your specific goals and the size of your business. The Fortune 100 company, for example, might spend years on benchmarking in different departments and on different policies and procedures.

For small businesses, though, benchmarking doesn't have to take as much time thinking while fewer steps. Regardless of the size of your business, however, you need to observe at least these steps if you want your benchmarking study to prove effective.

1. Analyze Internal Process 

Start by taking a hard look at your own internal processes. How do you acquire new customers? How do you nurture leads? How do you retain customers and incentivize them to buy more of your products?

Asking these questions can help businesses in the Knowledge Commerce market to find ways to reach their target audiences.

You might also want to ask questions about your internal approach to creating new products. How long does it take you to create an online course from start to finish? What have the reviews been like? How does your course content compared to those of your competitors?

For every process, procedure, or technique that you want to benchmark, you need a comprehensive understanding of your current efforts and methodologies.

2. Decide How Your Benchmarking Study Will Proceed 

Next, you need to create a game plan for your benchmarking study. You've already identified your competitors and other companies against which you want to measure your own, but now you need to decide how you will approach each benchmark.

Maybe you will read case studies, interview executives for owners of other businesses, conduct online research about web traffic and other digital marketing metrics, or something else entirely.

3. Decide How You’ll Measure Success 

There are lots of ways to measure success, especially when it comes to online marketing. For example, one business might find that increased web traffic corresponds directly with increased sales.

Another company, perhaps even in the same industry, might notice that high rates of customer retention provide more revenue than high levels of customer acquisition.

With this in mind, you need to decide how you will measure success. What metrics are your benchmarking partners using to facilitate their own success, and how will you apply those same metrics in measuring your progress?

4. Research and Gather Evidence 

This is perhaps the most important part of the benchmarking process. During this stage, you are gathering evidence and data to support your hypothesis about your benchmarking partners.

As mentioned above, you can gather information through a variety of sources. Case studies, interviews, data analysis, and other sources can help you paint a rich picture of your benchmarking partners' success.

5. Apply What You’ve Learned 

Now that you know the steps you need to take to bring your business to the next level, you can begin implementing policies and procedures that will help you grow your online business and sell more Knowledge Commerce products.

Don't forget that this can be a long-term strategy. Don't expect results in the first few days after you implement changes.

6. Test and Regroup 

It's important to note that what works for one company might not work for another. Even if a company has set the benchmark for a particular process or technique, it might not yield the same results for you.

We mentioned above that benchmarking and competition research are two different animals. This is one reason.

During competition research, you might decide to steal a strategy that has worked well for your competitor. But that's the end of the game. In benchmarking, your goal is to apply strategies that you believe will help elevate your business, then make changes based on the results you achieve.

What Type of Benchmarking Should You Use? 

Believe it or not, there are several different types of benchmarking that you might use for your online business. Several of them, such as international benchmarking and internal benchmarking, are more suited for larger companies. However, the best benchmarking strategies for smaller businesses in the Knowledge Commerce market are competitive benchmarking and strategic benchmarking.

Competitive benchmarking involves studying another best practices for a particular strategy or technique and adopting it for your business. Meanwhile, internal benchmarking involves transferring a strategy you already use to another aspect of your business.

For instance, you could use internal benchmarking to expand your business into a new social media realm. Maybe you've only used Facebook and Twitter in the past, but you're interested in developing a presence on Instagram.

Using internal benchmarking, you can evaluate the best strategies that have worked on Facebook and Twitter, then adopt them for Instagram.

Instagram is a completely different social media platform, which means that you will continually have to tweak your approach until you find the best strategy for it.

You can use competitive benchmarking to apply someone else's approached Instagram to your own business. You might have seen a case study or other documentation online that matches what you want to achieve through social media.

How Can You Conduct a Competitive Analysis?  

Benchmarking often begins with competitive analysis. You want to know what your competitors are doing so that you can do it better.

Competitor research is different from a competitive analysis because you're digging deeper into your competitors' overall strategies and finding ways to surpass them with your own business.

Ideally, you'll collect as much information about your competitors as possible. You want to know how they attract new leads, how they nurture leads through the sales funnel, how they maintain their online presence, and what share of the market they possess.

What competitors should you analyze?

It depends on your goals. If you want to boost brand loyalty and awareness, consider conducting a competitive analysis on an industry leader. You're looking for a competitor who has a large share of the market and who has a powerful voice online.

To put this into context, consider your friendly neighborhood grocery store. It is a small establishment that caters to only a few loyal customers. If that grocer wanted to conduct a competitive analysis, it might focus on a large brand, such as Kroger.

Even though you might conduct competitive analyses on brands that are much larger than yours, you can still learn from the data you collect and use it to help your own business become a stronger competitor.

How do you find this information?

You start by investigating them online. You can use a tool like SEMrush to collect data on your competitors. The type of data you collect will depend on the benchmarks in which you are most interested.

For instance, if you're interested and advertising your online courses, membership site , or other digital products, you might want to know how much your competitors are spending on advertising. You can then decide your budget for advertising based on the ROI you anticipate.

SEMrush also provides data about your competitors' web traffic, keyword rankings, and more.You can even set up brand monitoring to find out how often and in what context your competitors are mentioned online.

You can benchmark for many different channels, for email marketing and social media to organic web traffic and paid traffic. You might also want to track earned media if you're interested in improving brand awareness for your online business.

When conducting a competitive analysis, you can focus on channels in which you are already engaged or on channels that you would like to pursue in the future. Either way, you're looking for data that can help your business grow over the long haul.

This is why competitive analyses can often last for months or even years. You're not just conducting one-time competitor research; instead, you're looking for trends that stays static over long periods of time.

Interpreting The Results 

After you have conducted your competitive analysis, you need to render the data in a way that makes sense to you and, if applicable, your team. You can use charts, graphs, spreadsheets, or any other tool that allows you to visualize the data and to draw conclusions from it.

For instance, let's say that you are conducting a competitive analysis to determine how often you should blog. You discover through the competitive analysis that your three main competitors blog at least once per day. Additionally, you find that each of your competitors' blog posts get at least three times the engagement that your blog posts get.

From that data, you can infer a few things. For one thing, you might want to blog more often or write longer, more detailed blog posts distill traffic away from your competitors. Additionally, you might want to incentivize your audience to engage with your blog posts, such as through commenting and social shares.

You might want to further investigate the types of blog posts that your competitors share. What topics to discuss? What CTAs do they use? What types of engagement are most common?

Over time, as you evolve your approach to blogging, you'll continually compare your results against those of your competitors. If you apply what you've learned effectively, you should see improvements in your results.

Benchmarking Examples 

To help you get the most out of marking, let's look at a couple of fictional examples that you might use to model your own competitive analysis on.

Web Traffic 

Maybe you are interested in attracting more traffic to your Kajabi website. More traffic doesn't automatically result in more sales, but it will increase brand awareness and increase the chances of converting more people.

Web traffic, in this case, is your benchmark. You just have to tie that goal to a specific competitor or to a best practice in your industry.

For example, maybe you know that your closest competitor gets four times more traffic than you do. Now it's time to figure out why.

Investigate that competitor's website content, social media activity, organic reach on the search engines, and other data that might contribute to increased web traffic. You'll likely begin to see patterns that you can interpret and use for your own business.

Email Marketing 

Maybe you have decided to start an email marketing campaign. Good for you. This type of marketing campaign can result in high ROI and limited expense.

First, you need a benchmark . You might find a case study that indicates that the average Knowledge Commerce business has 5,000 email subscribers, for example.

You don't just want 5,000 email subscribers, though. You want to surpass that number so that your business becomes more powerful and you reach more people.

We mentioned above the competitor research often involves attempting to mirror the competitors. That's not what we want here. We're looking for ways to make sure your business performs better than others in your category.

If there is a dearth of information on email marketing in the Knowledge Commerce marketplace, you might have to look outside your industry to find strategies that you might use an email marketing. For instance, you might use data from online marketers to understand the best practices for improving email marketing.

Getting the Maximum Value for Your Business 

Benchmarking has one goal: Make the most of every decision regarding your business. In other words, you don't want to waste time on marketing efforts, sales strategies, and product launches that won't result in high ROI.

During a benchmarking study, you get to know your competitors extremely well and you learn what businesses in other industries are doing to capture more market share and to improve revenue.

Both types of information can prove extremely valuable to your business.

Start by learning as much as you can about other Knowledge Commerce players in your industry. How much of the market share do they capture? What are they doing that you don't do? What can you do to make your business more attractive than theirs?

Set goals for your benchmarking study and decide what channels you want to investigate. If you're not interested in social media, there's no reason to collect data about it.

In Knowledge Commerce, data has become increasingly valuable across the board. The more you know about your competitors and about strategies that work for other businesses, the more equipped you become to compete.

Use Kajabi to Turn Your Knowledge and Content Into Products You Can Sell 

If you haven't started an online business, or if you're struggling in the Knowledge Commerce marketing, you might need a new solution to carry your business to the next level. That's exactly what Kajabi provides.

Sign up for a free trial so you can explore the Kajabi platform from the inside. Learn how you can set up an email marketing campaign, a CRM, sales pages , landing pages, and dozens of other assets.

We believe in simplifying the Knowledge Commerce market. Instead of wrangling dozens of tools from third parties, you can get everything you need under one umbrella.

Once you've set up your business, you can use benchmarking to improve your processes, strategies, and techniques. Doing so will help your business grow faster.

What is benchmarking? It's a powerful strategy that allows you to compare your business to your competitors and to find better ways to solve existing problems. It might even open your eyes to strategies you've never considered.

Why benchmarking? It's always a good idea to know what your competitors are up to. Additionally, you don't want to miss the opportunity to gather more of the market share and to improve brand awareness.

You'll start by analyzing your own internal processes. What's working and what's not? Then you'll decide on your benchmarking strategy. What channels will you analyze? How will you evaluate the data?

After you’ve made those decisions, it's time to gather evidence and to research your competitors. Use graphs, charts, and other visual representations of the data you collect.

You'll then find yourself ready to apply what you learned, to test the new strategies you've implemented, and to regroup and make changes when necessary.

Conducting a competitive analysis can help with your benchmarking study and provide more insight into your competitors. Use our fictional benchmarking examples the set up your own study today.

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Case Study: Using Benchmarking to Drive Growth

Intelex, a Canadian-based global leader in Environment, Health, Safety and Quality (EHSQ) SaaS, with offices in Toronto, Denver, and the UK, uses OPEXEngine’s SaaS Benchmarking platform, BenchmarkEngine™, together with Adaptive Insights budgeting and planning solution to drive operational analysis enabling fast growth.

Intelex has grown to 500 employees with global offices and over 30 percent growth in 2017 to become one of the fast growth SaaS companies in Canada. With over 1,100 clients and 1.5 million users worldwide now, benchmarking guides resource allocations and operational decisions at Intelex.  David Dean is Intelex’s VP of Financial Planning & Analysis and uses OPEXEngine’s benchmarking platform for:

• Budgeting and planning 1 - 5 years out
• Getting the management team on the same page about relative KPIs
• Driving operational change and efficiencies throughout the organization
• Building resource allocation business cases for the CEO, CFO, & executive team

Intelex Drives 30% Growth in 2017 Using OPEXEngine's Benchmarks and Adaptive Insights To  Guide Operations

Intelex is a global leader Environment, Health, Safety and Quality (EHSQ) software in North America and one of Canada’s largest SaaS companies.

Before using OPEXEngine’s benchmarking platform together with Adaptive Insights, Intelex faced several challenges scaling their organization:

• Transitioning the organization from a small company structure to a fast growth, global competitor
• Implementing financial and operational systems to dynamically manage budgets and planning
• Getting the management team alignment in terms of key metrics and targets.

Intelex needed to transition from a small company structure to drive more sophisticated business decisions and move more quickly. Intelex grew from 200 employees in 2015 to a company with global offices with almost 500 employees in 2017.   The management had to evolve the organization in order to scale it both operationally and financially.  The financial team began benchmarking as a way to guide the conversation: “How do we drive best practices and become a world class organization with  data and research? “

“Benchmarks really helped to create the rallying cry for change.”

Initially, the Finance team started with some publicly available surveys, but quickly found they needed more depth and different company cohorts to compare themselves against as they expanded. Looking for a comprehensive set of data about public and private companies, Dean discovered the OPEXEngine BenchmarkEngine™.  Since he started using the proprietary benchmarks, Dean has sharpened and focused the budgeting and planning process.   Intelex drove more than 30% revenue growth in 2017.

Executive Management now makes decisions with a higher degree of confidence

The finance team shares benchmarking analysis with operating executives on a regular basis.  With confidence to make  critical decisions based on credible data about itself, its peers and aspirational companies, Intelex has been able to take a deeper look at their organization.

One of the great benefits of sharing the benchmarks with the management team regularly is that it is now a two-way street where Finance and senior management are both pushing to be more data driven.  The management team have really taken to understanding the metrics and using them to guide the business.

David Dean uses the benchmarks as a starting point in the planning process as well as analysis or various business units.  “We look at what companies our size, type & growth profile are doing.  This helps sharpen and focus the planning with operating executives.”   The best way to drive continuous improvement is when the benchmarks and relative performance are reviewed regularly by the Executive team.  The team uses the benchmarks to guide investments in the strongest parts of the business and hone in on areas for improvement, aiming to drive revenue growth and greater efficiency at the same time.

KPIs BENCHMARKED REGULARLY BY MANAGEMENT TEAM

• Revenue per FTE on trailing 12-month basis
• ARR growth rate
• LTV of a customer
• Gross & Net Customer Retention
• Recurring Revenue gross marginsEmployee turnover

How Key Benchmarks Were Used to Focus Spending and Investment

With significant growth in the business at Intelex, David says it was not really about cost cutting, but about optimal resource allocation. When the finance team partners with other groups to serve up a business case to the CFO or CEO, they want to make decisions and invest based on credible data.  Our CFO, in particular, likes to see that companies which are similar are spending ‘x’ amounts in certain areas, or have a certain headcount compliment, or that they are investing in an area that has been proven to drive performance and we have a clear ROI.

The financial team using the OPEXEngine Benchmark Engine™is able to review similar companies in terms of revenue and business model.  It can also look at cohorts for market leaders.  “It is helpful to look at similar size companies, sometimes similar deal sizes, sometimes public companies or certain growth rates.  The breadth of the information about different parts of the organization is really useful since metrics cannot be understood in a vacuum.”

BenchmarkEngine™

Using the BenchmarkEngine™, Dean can compare their expenses in any given category to peers, as well against aspirational cohorts with a higher revenue growth rate, or higher average contract value.  This way, Dean can plan in advance for how expenses and headcount will change as the company achieves its goals.

“ The BenchmarkEngine is a powerful ally for us to help analyze and shape the organization as we scale, where we can improve and where to invest our resources.” David Dean, VP Financial Planning & Analysis, Intelex

The OPEXEngine benchmarks give Dean and the management team confidence to anticipate the hiring and investment decisions necessary to keep their growth on track.  “The benchmarks help us to better understand the business, how different areas are performing and how to guide investment.”

Using the Benchmarking Platform Beyond the Budgeting Process

Dean describes how the management team may focus on different issues throughout the year.  The team may be digging into Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) deeply, to compare themselves against various types of companies.

Or, recently, the company reexamined their hosting infrastructure.  They used OPEXEngine’s hosting expense benchmarks to compare fees paid by similar sized growth companies. Dean found the benchmarks critical to the analysis of hosting expense and for validating the internal proposals.  

Other operational issues come up throughout the year which require comparisons to benchmarks as the company is continually evaluating how they can improve the business and manage fast growth.

Using Benchmarks with Adaptive Insights Financial Planning Solution

David Dean has been using Adaptive Insights for the last 2 years for budgeting and planning. “Our whole business model is built in Adaptive Insights, which has given us a lot of power, flexibility and efficiency.”

OPEXEngine & Adaptive Insights Partner to Guide Planning

OPEXEngine's partnership with Adaptive Insights makes it easy to incorporate their benchmarks into Adaptive’s solution and provide context in the planning process.  Adaptive Insights users can compare their metrics to companies of similar or different size or stage of development for a range of both public and private companies with OPEXEngine’s benchmarks, which Dean has found incredibly useful when planning and analyzing growth scenarios.

In short, Intelex uses OPEXEngine’s SaaS benchmarking, together with Adaptive Insights budgeting and planning solution, to reduce risk in resource allocation decisions, helping the management team to move quickly on operational challenges and making it one of Canada’s fastest growth SaaS companies.

Actionable operating benchmarks for SaaS and software companies to see where they are going and how to get there.

For over 10 years, OPEXEngine has been the leader in SaaS financial and operational benchmarking through its proprietary SaaS Benchmarking Platform, the BenchmarkEngine™.  OPEXEngine’s benchmark data is used by operating executives to support the budgeting, and strategic planning process, and to provide context for resource decision-making. For more information, learn more by contacting OPEXEngine at [email protected]. OPEXEngine is based in the Boston area.   www.opexengine.com

Adaptive Insights is the worldwide leader in cloud-based business analytics solutions for companies and nonprofits of all sizes.

The company’s software as a service (SaaS) platform allows finance and management teams to work together to plan, monitor, report on, and analyze financial and operational performance. With capabilities for budgeting, forecasting, reporting, consolidation, dashboards, and business intelligence, Adaptive Insights enables finance, sales, and other business leaders to make better, faster, more collaborative decisions that drive a true competitive advantage. www.adaptiveinsights.com

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Documenting a UX-Benchmarking Study

May 7, 2023 2023-05-07

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As an organization refines the user experience of a product, a common question is whether the newer version of its product is better than what it had before. The answer to that question is usually provided by UX benchmarking , a practice that aims to measure and compare the UX of different versions of the product.

In This Article:

Need for consistency in ux benchmarking, benchmark-study information, the metrics collected, the raw data, when is it okay to make changes to your study.

UX benchmarking involves running a set of iterations of the same summative study (called a benchmark study ) on various product versions, with each iteration aiming to capture the UX of the current version of the product. To gauge UX improvements from one version to the next, researchers would have to compare metrics such as success rate , task time, and user satisfaction for some important tasks. They will also have to go beyond the observed values of the metrics obtained in the two studies and run a statistical analysis to judge whether the observed differences are statistically significant or due to chance.

Imagine that the first iteration of the benchmark study, which evaluated the original version of the design, was conducted in person, whereas the second iteration was remote unmoderated . Often, people tend to stay more on task in in-person studies than in remote unmoderated ones, and, as a result, times from remote unmoderated studies tend to be longer. Thus, if we notice a difference in task time or success rates between the two design versions, it could be due not to a better design, but to the way in which the study was conducted.

To soundly compare the results from the two studies, the company needs to compare apples to apples. In other words, the studies need to have the same methodology and collect the same metrics .

Any company that considers a benchmarking practice should first define the benchmark study in minute detail and document it so that subsequent versions of the same design could be evaluated using the exact same methodology and metrics.

Usually, the study details and the raw data collected in the study are stored in a benchmark research repository. This repository could be part of the research repository maintained by the company or could be separate. However, it should be easily findable and accessible. People who are involved in the UX evaluation of subsequent product versions should be able to refer to both the study information and the raw data from the study when they need them.

There are several aspects of the study that need to be well documented so that anybody will be able to replicate the study in the future. They include:

• The study methodology
• The study tasks
• The screener used for recruiting participants
• The dependent variables (or metrics) of interest and their exact definitions
• The raw data obtained in the study

The Benchmark-Study Methodology

Differences in study methodology impact the results of the study and ultimately bias our comparison in one direction or the other. All the methodology details— ranging from the type of study to task phrasing — need to be well documented so that researchers who will run the subsequent iterations of your benchmark study will be able to replicate it.

These details include:

• The type of study (moderated or not, in-person vs. remote)
• The tool used to conduct the test. This is particularly important in unmoderated tests. In such tests, the study is usually run within an unmoderated platform (e.g., UserZoom, UserTesting.com). Sticking to the same platform ensures a sound base for comparing results of different studies.
• The use of think - aloud protocol . Even though it is not necessary to use think aloud in quantitative studies, do not assume that everybody will know that. Instead, clearly specify whether participants were asked to think out loud.
• The instructions given to participants at the beginning of the study. For example, if you ask participants in one study to be as quick and accurate as possible as they complete the different tasks, these instructions should be present in all the other studies.

The Study Tasks

Generally, a benchmark study should collect measures regarding the top tasks that your users run on your site. These tasks usually remain the same across the product’s lifetime. (If they change, then it makes less sense to compare various versions of your product.) Thus, these top tasks should be included in all the iterations of your benchmark study .

There are several aspects of the tasks that need to stay the same across all iterations:

• The task wording, including any fake credentials or information given to participants
• The task order (whether random or not)
• Any practice tasks given to participants at the beginning of the study

Task Wording

If you change how the task is phrased, it is possible that users may understand it differently and that can ultimately invalidate any comparison with prior versions.

Additionally, in many quantitative studies, when we want participants to place an order or log into an existing account, we may give them a name, an address, or other information that they can in order to perform the task. This information needs to be well documented. (For instance, if you use different names or addresses, these may require different typing times and they may affect your overall task time.)

We normally advocate task randomization in quantitative tests, to avoid introducing any biases in the study. Sometimes, however, it is not possible to randomize all tasks. (For example, if one of the tasks involves logging in, it will probably have to precede the task of accessing specific information in one’s account.) Thus, the order in which the tasks are presented (whether random or not) needs to be documented so it can be replicated in further iterations of the study.

Practice Tasks

Practice tasks are generally used to get participants comfortable with the study setup and the task domain, and thus mitigate the learning phase inherent to any experiment. (Some people are slower to warm up, others are faster. These individual differences add variability to the data collected in the study; to reduce that variability, quantitative researchers often use 1–2 practice tasks at the beginning of each study.) If you used practice tasks in one study, these should be present in all the iterations.

Participant Screener

Another essential component of any study is the participants. It is unrealistic and, for most studies, also undesirable to set the goal of recruiting the same participants for different iterations of your benchmark study. However, even though the participants will differ across study iterations, they should be recruited using the same screener . Otherwise, it is possible that any differences that you might observe are not due to the design, but rather to participants’ individual characteristics.

Thus, the screener used for the benchmark study should be included with all the other study documents in your research repository.

There are many types of metrics that one can collect in a quantitative study. Some are relatively standard and likely to be used in most quantitative studies — for example, task success, usually defined as a binary metric (0 means success and 1 means failure). Others can be defined by the particular study. For instance, if your study includes a survey that is specific to your product, the answer to that survey will be a metric specific to your study.

For any kind of metric that you collect, clearly document how that metric is defined.

Even for metrics that feel obvious, like success , you need to specify what counts as success. For example, for the task of subscribing to a monthly newsletter, was success defined as clicking the Subscribe button or as reaching the page where that button was found?

If you are collecting task times , are you recording only the task-completion times (that is, the times of those participants who successfully completed the task) or are you recording all the task times, whether participants were correct or not? Both these types of time measures are common in quantitative studies, so make sure that all the iterations of the benchmark study use the same.

If you included rating questions or other multiple-choice questions in your study, record the wording for those questions and the possible responses. If you created a multiple-question survey instrument and defined a score for that, explain how the score was calculated. Any changes in the question or the responses could invalidate cross-study comparisons.

Once the first round of the benchmarking study is complete, the researcher will usually analyze the data and present a summary of the findings. It’s not enough to save a copy of the findings in your research repository. Equally important is to save the raw data — the spreadsheet (or spreadsheets) containing the data points generated by each participant.

(Of course, you should not include in such spreadsheets the participants’ identifying information ; it’s enough to include a code that corresponds to each participant and the metrics that you collected from them.)

There are several reasons why this data needs to be included in your research repository:

• Performing statistical analysis: To determine whether the next version of the design is better than the current one, you will need to perform statistical analyses and establish statistical significance. These analyses require access to the raw data.
• Revising analyses: It is possible that in the future you will devise new ways to analyze the data — for example, you may decide to exclude all trials where participants took longer than a certain threshold time (e.g., 10 minutes). If you had access to the original raw data, you would be able to redo all the analyses with this new constraint.
• Investigating errors: You may want to investigate any errors present in the coding or the analysis. For example, it’s possible that the SUS score was miscalculated. Or that the wrong method was used to calculate confidence intervals .

At this point, you may ask: what if you run your benchmark study over many years and your company needs, goals, or offerings shift?

It’s okay to change your benchmark study partially or even completely. In fact, it’s a good idea to periodically evaluate your benchmark study to make sure it answers the right questions. However, if you make changes to the study, you might diminish or completely lose the ability to compare with older versions of the product. In many cases that will not be a substantial problem. The new benchmark study can serve you well to evaluate the usability of subsequent versions of your product even if it doesn’t allow you to compare with what you had before.

Sometimes, you may still be able to use the results from the old study. For example, if you decide to add or remove a task to your list of tasks, it’s unlikely that the change will impact your comparisons. (There are some exceptions — for instance, if that removed task must precede another task that was based on it.)

But if you tweak the wording of a task or change the definition of a metric, any comparison involving that task or metric will not be sound (if the comparison involves prior versions of the design).

A UX-benchmarking practice is based on a benchmark study that is repeated periodically, to evaluate new versions of your design. For this evaluation to be sound, the study setup needs to be always the same. The benchmark-study protocol, participant-recruitment screener, and the raw data should be stored in your research repository, so that researchers will be able to precisely replicate the benchmark study and compare the results obtained from its different iterations.

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ESG and Commercial Real Estate Case Study

New and complex laws intended to increase the sustainability, climate resilience, and efficiency of commercial buildings are rapidly emerging across the US and worldwide. While some laws have required the disclosure of energy and water use in buildings for years, numerous state and local jurisdictions are now instituting "building performance" laws that require building energy use reductions and carbon emissions caps, together with penalties for failing to meet these new standards. DLA Piper can help commercial real estate owners and property managers understand and take proactive steps to meet these requirements in ways that support sustainability initiatives while avoiding unexpected financial burdens.

Navigating an evolving regulatory landscape

Building performance laws typically hold building owners responsible for legal compliance. But in commercial real estate, the drivers of actual energy and water use in buildings are generally its tenants. This means that buildings not only have to be built to specific requirements, but landlords and tenants must cooperate to ensure that building use and operation meet stated requirements. Strong working relationships and enforceable agreements with tenants and property managers are critical to avoiding penalties and other unanticipated costs.

We are at the forefront of helping clients proactively understand the requirements coming into effect, plan for them, anticipate new requirements, and negotiate "green" leases that help landlords and tenants strategically align priorities and behaviors, and avoid unwanted liabilities. We are also helping our clients understand how these laws could apply to their buildings under various future regulatory scenarios if their buildings rely on utility services from the grid (which may be powered by fossil fuels).

Practice example: Building decarbonization and clean energy law tracking

Our client, a leading international real estate owner focused on the life science and technology sectors, is subject to numerous ESG laws that are difficult to find, hard to understand, and frequently changing. Our client needed help to identify, summarize, and then track proactively the rapidly changing legal landscape of international, state, county, and city laws, regulations, and building codes that are driving decarbonization of buildings and forcing utilities to replace fossil-fuel-powered electricity with clean energy sources. This client sought a trusted partner to track and summarize laws that fall under the following interrelated, cross-disciplinary legal topics:

• "Benchmarking and Disclosure Laws": Laws that require building owners to calculate and report building-specific energy usage, energy efficiency measures, water conservation measures, and/or projected greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from energy usage at a building (or buildings) on a regular reporting schedule.
• "Building Performance/GHG Emissions Cap Laws": Building performance laws or building codes that either (i) prohibit buildings from producing/emitting GHGs beyond certain established caps (which caps may be progressively reduced to reach "net zero" over time), or (ii) require buildings to be built to higher energy efficiency or green building standards.
• "Bans on Fossil Fuel Use or Fossil-Fuel-Powered Utility Connections in Buildings": Laws or building codes that prohibit the use of natural gas (or other fossil fuels) as a direct source of energy for specified buildings; that prohibit building connections to fossil-fuel-powered utility/building infrastructure; and/or that prohibit installation of equipment that use natural gas.
• "Electrical Grid - Clean Energy - Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) and Clean Energy Sourcing Requirements": Clean and renewable energy sourcing requirements for public utilities in target cities, including state renewable portfolio standards and regional compacts, that could affect carbon emissions caused by using energy from the grid.

We assembled a cross-disciplinary team from our deep bench of environmental/ESG and real estate lawyers who have the relevant expertise and skills to track the complex web of decarbonization laws in 22 cities across the United States and United Kingdom. We identified and summarized current laws at the national, state, county, and city levels, and we continue to track changes to these laws and provide updated summaries and regular quarterly reports to capture evolving trends in real time.

Our client views compliance with ESG-related requirements as critical to its continued success in the marketplace and to its ability to attract a wide range of investors far into the future. By helping our client understand the range of ESG-related requirements affecting its portfolio, assist with current compliance, plan for future compliance, and avoid fines and penalties, we are helping our client achieve these important business objectives.

Comprehensive coverage

The above example is significant, not only because we are tracking emerging laws at the cutting edge of sustainable real estate as they unfold, but because we are covering laws at every scale, down to the most granular level, from national and regional laws to local codes. This scope of coverage is particularly important as more government agencies try to regulate sustainability by increasing climate disclosures while forcing carbon emissions reductions, both in the United States and the European Union. Companies will need to align company-wide reporting with their business operations across numerous jurisdictions, which inevitably will include their real estate assets. Because of our large US and global platform, we are able to offer clients a one-stop shop to understand and track these requirements and translate them in business-friendly ways.

Getting started

The intersection of sustainability and real estate presents numerous challenges that should be met with a thoughtful and deliberate strategy. Our ESG and real estate lawyers are ahead of the curve in helping clients understand the issues and develop practical, real-world solutions to mitigate these multi-dimensional challenges.

We look forward to working with you.

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Furniture & Home Decor: New UX Benchmark with 5,000+ Performance Scores and 5,400+ Best Practice Examples self.__wrap_n!=1&&self.__wrap_b(":R95lb396:",1)

At Baymard we’ve just released a new UX benchmark of 10 furniture and home decor sites.

This follows from our large-scale user testing research on furniture and home decor sites, and adds to our existing e-commerce UX benchmark.

10 Furniture & Home Decor UX Case Studies

The 10 sites have been manually assessed across 540+ research-based UX parameters relevant to Furniture & Home Decor, resulting in 5,000+ weighted UX performance scores and 5,400+ best practice examples from furniture and home decor sites.

You can explore our 10 in-depth Furniture & Home Decor UX case studies using the below links:

49 page designs: desktop, mobile

46 page designs: desktop, mobile

81 page designs: app, desktop, mobile

51 page designs: desktop, mobile

56 page designs: desktop, mobile

58 page designs: desktop, mobile

48 page designs: desktop, mobile

97 page designs: mobile, desktop, app

90 page designs: app, desktop, mobile

39 page designs: desktop, mobile

Furniture & Home Decor UX Performance

Each of the 10 furniture and home decor sites’ 5,000+ UX performance scores, along with the score from the 3 other sites in our Furniture & Home Decor benchmark, are summarized in the interactive scatterplot below — showing you how they perform collectively and individually:

A publicly available overview of the research and benchmark can be found on our Furniture & Home Decor research overview page.

Additionally, over the coming months we will continue to release Furniture & Home Decor articles with some of our research highlights.

Getting access: all 5,000+ UX performance scores, 5,400+ best practice examples, and the UX insights from researching the Furniture & Home Decor industry are available immediately and in full within Baymard Premium . (If you already have an account open the Furniture & Home Decor study.)

If you want to know how your furniture or home decor desktop site, mobile site, or app performs and compares, then learn more about getting Baymard to conduct a Furniture & Home Decor UX audit of your site or app.

Authored by Anders Nielsen on September 3, 2024

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Dei case study: how pwc measures the impact of inclusion.

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In times of political polarization and push back on inclusion work, it's important to measure the impact of that work. Measuring the impact of inclusion work can quiet the naysayers and connect people to the deeper purpose of the work.

In my interview with PwC’s chief people and inclusion officer, Yolanda Seals-Coffield, she shared how they measure inclusion work. “We have 12 inclusion networks that bring together allies and deal with issues of belonging. Forty percent of our employees are associated with at least one inclusion network. Allyship is about bringing intersectionality into the forefront—every[thing] from how decisions are made in the organization [to] how people’s careers are discussed when they are not in the room and how people feel about the value of their work.”

It's absolutely critical for inclusion networks or groups (think Employee Resource Groups) to be supported by senior leadership. “Inclusion networks are partner-led at the firm level, and each metro area has a partner lead that may identify as more of an ally. This shows the importance of allyship to the organization,” Seals-Coffield explained.

Inclusion groups must also be aligned to a bigger vision and purpose. Seals-Coffield adds, “Our goal is that every identity in the firm will be respected. That means everyone has to be committed to the culture of care and belonging. Inclusion is what it means to manage talent.”

For these inclusion groups to work, it is necessary to take a data-driven approach. That starts with how the organization designs programs and measures their impact to the business. It’s about the experience people are having at work and what people are self-reporting they feel. While it can be difficult to measure human feelings, to measure the impact of inclusion groups, consider these areas:

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• Feelings of connection and belonging at the organization
• Retention of members of diverse groups
• Investment in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) learning and development

Feelings of Connection and Belonging at the Organization

Measuring feelings of connection and belonging at work is crucial for assessing the impact of inclusion groups. One method is to conduct surveys that gauge employees' perceptions of their relationships with colleagues, managers and the organization as a whole. These surveys can include questions about how valued, respected and supported employees feel, as well as their sense of belonging and inclusion.

Additionally, focus groups and interviews can provide deeper insights into employees' experiences and perspectives, helping organizations understand the factors that contribute to or hinder feelings of connection and belonging. By collecting and analyzing this data, organizations can identify areas for improvement and develop strategies to foster a more inclusive and supportive work environment.

Organizations measure feelings of connection and belonging in different formats and frequencies. It often makes sense to measure more frequently at first to see what activities have the most impact and which do not create impact. Once leadership has piloted a few activities, and it is more intentional and consistent over time, it can be helpful to measure feelings on an annual basis (at a minimum) and conduct focus groups for listening sessions to learn more about what the results mean and gather ideas to continuously improve.

Retention of Diverse Group Members

Hiring more diverse talent (that often reflects the communities organizations hope to serve) is pointless if diverse talent is not retained. When the retention of diverse groups is measured over time compared to the dominant group (white, straight, male, etc.) there is usually a two-to-three times higher rate of turnover for employees belonging to diverse groups. This is a leading indicator of a lack of connection and, often, a lack of belonging.

For example, PwC conducted a connectivity partner pilot to see what impact partnering people early in their careers with senior leaders would have on retention. The hypothesis was that creating bridges to allies would help boost employees’ sense of connection. They found a link between partnership early in people’s careers and their career longevity.

Investment in DEI Learning and Development

Measurement of learning-and-development programs is crucial for organizations to assess the effectiveness of their initiatives and identify areas for improvement. In addition to measuring retention and attitudes, organizations can track the number of employees who participate in DEI learning programs and the level of engagement in these programs. By collecting and analyzing these data, organizations can gain valuable insights into the impact of their DEI learning-and-development programs.

“Allyship serves as a bridge that brings us together to create a stronger, more inclusive future. At PwC, we’re bringing this to life by creating spaces for our people to come together for cultural events and developmental opportunities that foster deeper connection and celebrate our diverse experiences. For example, in July, our Pan-Asian Community Inclusion Network (PACIN) launched the PACIN Connects series to further support our members. By cultivating allyship and providing spaces for open dialogue and learning, we can help challenge assumptions, increase our awareness of biases and continue to cultivate a world where everyone feels seen, heard and valued,” Nisha Sheth, PwC US Partner and PACIN Co-Partner Champion added in our interview.

However an organization decides to measure the impact of inclusion, the important part is the decision to measure it. Having an intentional set of consistent activities and measuring the impact to the business over time will ensure that the impact of inclusion work is undeniable .

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Business Case

Ai generator.

In today’s dynamic business environment, organizations must constantly evaluate new opportunities and projects to stay competitive. To make informed decisions, it’s essential to create a robust business case that outlines the potential benefits, risks, and costs of a proposed initiative. In this article, we’ll provide an overview of what a business case is, how to create one, and answer some common questions about the process.

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What is a Business Case?

A business case is a detailed document that outlines the rationale for initiating a new project or opportunity, along with the potential benefits, costs, and risks. It typically includes an analysis of the current situation, a proposed solution, a cost-benefit analysis, and an evaluation of the feasibility of the initiative.

How to Create a Business Case

Step 1: identify the problem or opportunity.

Start by identifying the problem or opportunity that your business case will address. Clearly define the issue and explain why it’s important to your organization.

Step 2: Develop a proposed solution

Next, develop a proposed solution to the problem or opportunity. Explain how this solution will address the issue and provide specific details on how it will work.

Step 3: Conduct a cost-benefit analysis

Perform a cost-benefit analysis to determine the financial impact of the proposed initiative. Estimate the costs and benefits of the project over its lifespan, and compare them to determine the net value.

Step 4: Evaluate the feasibility

Evaluate the feasibility of the initiative, taking into account factors like technical requirements, organizational capabilities, and legal considerations.

Step 5: Present your findings

Finally, present your findings in a clear and concise manner, using visual aids like graphs and charts to help convey your message.

What are some business case analysis examples?

Some examples of business case analyses include market research, feasibility studies, cost-benefit analyses, and SWOT analyses.

What are some case study examples of successful business cases?

Successful business case examples include Netflix’s decision to shift from DVD rentals to streaming, Amazon’s development of its Prime service, and Apple’s creation of the iPhone.

What are some project cost estimate examples?

Project cost estimate examples include direct costs (like labor and materials), indirect costs (like administrative expenses and marketing), and contingency costs (like unexpected expenses).

A well-crafted business case can help organizations make informed decisions about new opportunities and projects. By following the steps outlined above and incorporating best practices from successful case study examples, businesses can create a comprehensive and compelling case that drives strategic action planning and ensures success.

Text prompt

• Instructive
• Professional

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