Dashboards of Shared Metrics Support Coordination, Effective Benchmarking

The development of common metrics is increasingly used at the state and regional level as a method to ensure the coordination of likeminded stakeholders. While choosing which metrics to use is at the root of this process, identifying ways in which to communicate this information to interested parties is also important. With an emphasis on innovation and entrepreneurship, this article highlights the ways in which governments and nonprofits are using dashboards to highlight their successes, identify their shortcomings, and gather data to inform next steps.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe recently announced updates to the Commonwealth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Measurement System (IEMS), a web-based portal to track key metrics and outcomes related to Virginia’s innovation economy. A project of the Center for Innovative Technology, categories of metrics tracked by IEMS include: research and development; the “talent pipeline”; access to capital; business dynamics; and research commercialization. The dashboard was originally created as part of the Commonwealth Research and Technology Strategic Roadmap, an effort of the Virginia General Assembly to link funding for research commercialization projects to Virginia’s strategic priorities. Although IEMS began under a previous governor, the McAuliffe administration’s updates suggest its importance in tracking Virginia’s innovation economy.

Last year, the Florida Chamber Foundation and the Florida Regional Councils Association developed The Florida Scorecard, a statewide dashboard that allows Florida’s 11 defined regions to measure themselves against each other and the state. The dashboard categorizes more than 120 metrics across six pillars: talent supply and education; innovation and economic development; infrastructure and growth leadership; business climate and competitiveness; civic and governance system; and, quality of life and quality places. The scorecard also serves as a repository for other data driven reports, such as regional economic development strategies.

At the regional level, a series of philanthropic, civic, business, and nonprofit organizations in Minneapolis-St. Paul worked to develop a Regional Indicators Dashboard, a detailed set of measures to track the strength of the region’s economy over time. Benchmarking Minneapolis-St. Paul across 11 domestic peer regions, the dashboard is diverse in the types of categories it tracks. In addition to conventional measures of regional prosperity such as gross regional product per capita and workforce educational attainment, the dashboard also highlights metrics across environmental stewardship, civic and social engagement, and access to infrastructure. According to a Brookings blog post on metropolitan innovation, the approach in Minneapolis-St. Paul is unique because of the way in which community leaders – regardless of background – aligned to develop the common metrics.