How the numbers are made
Community activity, a written claim about why it matters, then a business result. Nothing skips the middle step.
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Community signal
What happened
Posts, answers, attendance, commits. Counted, deduplicated, traceable back to the source.
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Bridge metric
Why you think it matters
Your claim, written down and printed on the screen, where anyone in the room can disagree with it.
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Business result
What the business already tracks
Renewals, referrals, support cost. Priced with your numbers and owned by a named person.
A worked example
Community signal
1,180 questions answered by members
Bridge metric
Members resolve 34% of questions, up from 29%
The claim: a question answered in the forum is a ticket that never opens.
Business result
Support cost lower by $47k to $71k
Priced with your own cost per ticket.
Why we do not just compare members to everyone else
Because the people who join a community were already your most engaged customers. Comparing them to everyone else credits the community with something it did not cause. We compare each member against their own behaviour before they joined instead.
A test where we knew the real answer was +15%
The test is repeatable, and the method behind any number is named on the screen showing it.
What a bridge can come back as
- Written down
- Authored, and waiting on enough data to test.
- Measurable
- The data is there. Not yet judged.
- Supported
- The evidence backs the claim.
- Not supported
- Tested, and the evidence does not back it.
- Not enough evidence
- Too early to call it either way.
Three rules
- Community activity never connects straight to a business result. A written claim always sits in between.
- Every dollar figure comes from a number you gave us.
- You get a range whenever the method leaves room for one.