What's Makes a good outcome indicator?
Criteria for Assessing Usefulness to the Community...
Measure progress towards a goal
Does the indicator measure a condition that people have decided is important to the community?
Compel, interest, and excite
Does the indicator resonate with the intended community audience? Is it attractive to the media?
Focus on resources and assets
Is the indicator framed in a positive way? Does it focus on problems or assets?
Focus on causes, not symptoms
Does the indicator help to forewarn of future problems and focus on causes, rather than symptoms of problems?
Make linkages and relationships
How does the indicator link to other issues (e.g. social, environmental, economic)? What other indicators would be affected by changes in this one? Does this help to round out the set of indicators in each topic?
Relate to the whole community
Does the indicator affect the community as a hole or only one narrow group? Do the indicators help communicate to an outsider what is most important to the community? Do the indicators address assets and problem areas?
Understandable
Is the indicator simple and clear enough to be understandable to the community as a whole?
Criteria for Assessing Data Quality...
Accessible and affordable
How easily can the data for each indicator be obtained and how much does it cost? Are partnerships within the community possible to access the data cost-effectively and efficiently?
Comparable (standardized)
How easily does this compare with indicators used for other local projects? Does it require a special survey that other communities would not be likely to replicate?
Consistent and reliable
Is the information source likely to produce high quality data over a number of years? Are any indicators for the data that does not exist highlighted in the report?
Credible
Is the indicator believable to the participants who selected it? To the community as a whole? Does the data source help reinforce credibility or detract from it?
Measurable
Is the indicator framed in a way that can be answered by a number, percentage, or proportion? Does the data exist to address the indicator, or is there a practical way to obtain the data needed?
Relevant
Does the indicator address one of the community goals? Does it address the issue the community wants to know about? Does it help to communicate what is important?
Valid
Is the indicator truly measuring what it is intended to measure, and not a by-product? Is the indicator well grounded and founded in fact? Can you support, defend, and justify it in logical or scientific terms?
