Effective alignment across functions, teams, and partners remains one of the most persistent barriers to value creation for organizations. Our latest report, Design Metrics That Boost Organizational Alignment, shows why even organizations who use frameworks like OKRs struggle and how value-aligned measurement helps to bridge the gap.

Current Metrics Drive Misalignment For Three Reasons

The questions we most commonly hear from stakeholders in organizations that want to define metrics are: “What is best practice?” or “What do others measure?” You can ask these questions, but if you start with them — or those are the only questions you ask — you risk ending up with ineffective metrics. It’s like Max Verstappen trying to improve his performance by copying Fernando Alonso’s driving style. While both drivers are elite, their cars, strategies, and techniques are vastly different — the same way value creation is different for your firm compared to others. If Verstappen used Alonso’s telemetry — through his braking points, gear-shift patterns, or cornering approaches — it would be misaligned to Verstappen’s own strengths and Red Bull’s car.

We often speak to CX, digital, and tech leaders and observe that current metrics aren’t effective: They aren’t rooted in understanding what customers value and don’t make the activities of contributors to value (outside the company) measurable. They’re typically cascaded along departmental lines, which reinforces internal silos as opposed to supporting customer journeys that cross silos. Worse still, they become the stand-in for the actual goals (surrogation effect) and pressure to achieve targets invalidates metrics (Goodhart’s law) and corrupts a firm’s culture.

Value-Aligned Measurement Optimizes Value Creation

Value-aligned measurement has business benefits. Nissan aligned journey and product teams around key value-stream OKRs and built capabilities that resulted in both new and improved digital offerings and higher customer retention and vehicle value.

Forrester defines value-aligned measurement as:

Codesign and operationalize a system of metrics that aligns contributions of teams and partners to customer journeys and value streams, driving shared value for customers and the business. 

To deliberately design value-aligned metrics, CX, digital, and tech leaders must:

        • Start by understanding what customers truly value.
        • Identify core journeys and the associated value streams.
        • Cascade metrics by each journey/value stream pair.
        • Follow an evidence-based process.

Build A Performance Culture That Obsesses About Progress Toward Value, Not Scores

A value-aligned approach organizes measurement into four connected levels that support one another:

        • Strategic metrics: the key metrics that everyone shares
        • Success metrics: what strong performance looks like for each journey and value stream
        • Signal metrics: the early cues that something is drifting
        • Workstream metrics: the evidence that interventions are working

This structure allows contributors to improvise while still creating harmony.

How To Make Value-Aligned Measurement Real

        • Secure executive commitment by showing how alignment strengthens growth, loyalty, and efficiency.
        • Define the four levels with discipline: Map journeys, identify all contributors, understand value levers, and choose metrics that reflect real outcomes.
        • Build governance that functions like a good bandleader: someone who listens for drift and helps everyone return to the center.
        • Use integrated tools such as journey management, process mining, and value-stream analytics to surface bottlenecks and connect actions to impact.

Do you want to lead the charge to value optimization? Read the full report to access these insights and best practices in greater detail. Forrester clients can request a guidance session with us to learn more.