Written in collaboration with Mouvement Impact France, the movement of companies with social and ecological impact.
What is at stake?
Why is it important?
The hypergrowth phase (scale) is often pursued after proving product-market fit to transition into scaling. However, the larger the scale, the more challenging it becomes to implement new data measurement tools. This is especially true for measuring the impact of products and services, which is rarely a priority for startups in the scaling phase. Nevertheless, its significance is crucial for the long-term development of the business.
3 key steps to take action
Preliminary step: Anticipate impact measurement even before creating your products/services and define your priority objectives (refer to the sheet: Eco-design Approach).
1️⃣ Define impact and efficiency indicators for your product/service.
- Prioritize the most relevant indicators to track (avoided CO2, replaced transport kilometers, saved plastic quantity, number of disadvantaged people employed or trained, customer satisfaction on the promise, etc.).
- Focus on indicators related to your core activities, your "raison d'être" or mission;
- Emphasize priority areas after conducting a 360° impact assessment (using tools like Impact Score for instance);
- Identify indicators that are most requested by stakeholders you engage with (investors, government authorities, clients, etc.) to be able to provide answers to their most common questions.
- Are the indicators quantifiable and actionable? How will the data be collected, and what is the associated cost?
2️⃣ Collecting Data and Measurement
→ Define how to proceed with data collection:
- Sample size,
- Collection duration,
- Retrieval method (questionnaires, focus groups, etc.),
- Also, determine the collection frequency (continuous, monthly, quarterly, etc.)...
3️⃣ Implement an Action Plan
- Analyze the data and draw conclusions.
- Define quantified impact objectives (KPIs) to achieve, an action plan to reach them, and deadlines (or at least chronological milestones) to stay motivated and track progress (adjust objectives if necessary).
- Communicate the startup's impact to engage stakeholders around the mission.
- Assemble the team responsible for impact assessment.
📚 Resources and further reading
🛠️ Impact Score (Mouvement Impact France)
The Impact Score is a free tool that enables any organization to quickly and freely self-assess its social and ecological impact. It's not a label, but a shared framework constructed by 30 business networks.
L’Impact Score peut dans un premier temps être utilisé pour réaliser un diagnostic d’impact et mettre en place des actions d’amélioration. Dans un second temps, il peut devenir un outil de suivi permettant de mesurer l’efficacité de ces actions.
✍️ They helped us write this page
Mouvement Impact France is the movement of committed leaders working to grow and expand the impact economy.
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