How to Measure Anything Workbook: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business

CHAPTER 8 The Transition: From What to Measure to How to Measure

1. D
2. D
3. False
4. B
5. True
6. B
7. True
8. Answers should include terms like “standard deviation,” “survey of companies,” “correlation,” or “experiment” combined with the search term of interest like “sales training” and “increased sales.”
9. D
10. False
11. A
12. B
13. True
14. True
15. B
16. B
17. Answers will vary but may include: number of employees of different types, and time spent in different unproductive activities by type of employee. The example should show how the decomposed values are used to compute total unproductive time.
18. At least three of the following: decompose the measurement so that it can be estimated from other measurements; consider your findings from secondary research; place one or more of the elements from the decomposition in one or more of the methods of observation (trails left behind, direct observation, tracking with “tags,” or experiments); keep the concept of “just enough” squarely in mind; think about the errors specific to that problem.
19. “Empirical” refers to the use of observation as evidence for a conclusion.
20. At least two of the following: it’s been done before—don’t reinvent the wheel; you have access to more data than you think—it might just involve some resourceful use of what you have; you need less data than you think—if you are clever about how to analyze it; an adequate amount of new data is probably more accessible than you first thought.
21. The response should mention that all empirical methods have some error, so spending ...