LA ISD Station 5: Goal 5

Data is not just a record of activity; it is the foundation for informed decisions, operational excellence, and meaningful performance management. In my experience as a Management Analyst, I’ve had the opportunity to work closely with data, KPIs, and performance metrics, and I’ve seen firsthand how much these functions can drive real improvement. As data needs evolve, staff with this expertise are more important than ever. Their role is not simply to collect data, but to translate it into actionable insights, highlight areas for improvement, identify trends, and support decision-making that produces tangible results.

The County is only beginning to fully leverage dashboards and analytics, and now is the time to utilize staff with this experience to get ahead. Effective data use requires integrity and transparency: working honestly with the information, maintaining factual accuracy, and ensuring insights are meaningful for both leadership and the communities we serve. When applied thoughtfully, data empowers the County to pinpoint concerns, celebrate successes, and guide strategic actions, turning raw information into measurable improvements, stronger performance, and better outcomes for our communities, thus instilling a culture of continuous improvement, accountability, and innovation. Data is the future, and how we use it will determine our success. I look forward to playing an active role in leveraging data to create meaningful impact, enhancing public services while strengthening Los Angeles County’s operational excellence.

Leadership decisions affecting ISD staff should also be paired with the metrics and/or reasoning they were based on, where applicable. In other words, if metrics data is being gathered from ISD staff, then the specific metrics and reasoning used for these decisions should be made known to staffing as well. Due to the hierarchical separation of responsibilities, disconnect between staff and leadership direction could happen if questions of "why" a decision was made arises without a clear reason.

I agree again with these points. IRSD has struggled in the past with metrics and we are working diligently on getting the necessary metrics for our operation. But, doing this work is a challenge when our staff levels are not optimum. We have a focus on public safety communications and customer service, meeting and exceeding our SLA's, so working towards the data automation is an added load for our team.

One challenge I've seen is coming up with metrics for application development which SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) - we can easily measure things like how many lines of code are written by someone (which is absolutely irrelevant to value delivered to the customer) or number of work items completed (which is both irrelevant and not specific, since there's no universal way of dividing requests into work items). On the flip side, there are relevant metrics like "how quickly was a request handled" but is rarely Time-bound, since a customer may come with 2 requests that sound equally complex to them but from the perspective of a developer may represent factor of 10- or 20-difference in complexity (in some cases we aren't even sure if some of the requests are possible).

Another challenge is adapting metrics to specific team circumstances - a team which maintains 1 existing application for 1 customer will need to be measured differently than a team which has to juggle assignments from half a dozen customers, each with their own applications and priorities.

The strategies for data should also include creating a organizational structure and a culture that supports data driven decisions. The changes to organizational structure breaks down silos between technology and business, and Part of the culture change involves data literacy training.

If this is how we are moving forward, then the data reported must be accurate. Some of the current KPI's that get reported are not accurate.