If you’re running customer onboarding projects, you know that just “finishing on time” doesn’t tell the whole story. You want to get customers up and running fast, but also smoothly—and ideally, without burning out your team. This guide is for anyone using Baton who actually wants to use project metrics to make onboarding better, not just check boxes for a boss or a dashboard.
There's a lot you could track. Here's how to focus on what matters, avoid the noise, and actually get value out of the data Baton gives you.
Step 1: Get Clear on Why You’re Tracking Metrics
Let’s not kid ourselves—measuring everything “just in case” is a waste. Before you start poking around charts, answer this:
- What are you actually trying to improve? Faster go-lives? Fewer customer complaints? Less last-minute scrambling?
- Who needs to see the results? Is this for your team, execs, or customers?
- What does “better onboarding” mean for you? (Hint: It’s not the same everywhere.)
If you can’t answer those, stop here and work it out. Otherwise, you’ll drown in data with nothing to show for it.
Step 2: Know What Metrics Baton Tracks—And Which Actually Matter
Baton offers a bunch of out-of-the-box metrics for project tracking. Common ones include:
- Onboarding project duration (how long from kickoff to completion)
- Milestone/task completion rates (percent completed on time vs. late)
- Time per phase (where projects get stuck)
- Customer engagement (log-ins, updates, or comments)
- Task owners and bottlenecks (who’s holding things up)
What’s Worth Your Time?
Focus on metrics that:
- Directly relate to customer experience or business goals. If no one cares about it, skip it.
- Can be acted on. (“Average days per milestone” is useful; “number of comments” usually isn’t.)
- Don’t require mental gymnastics to explain.
Pro tip: Don’t bother with “vanity metrics” like total number of tasks. They make dashboards look busy but don’t drive real improvement.
Step 3: Set Up Your Projects for Clean Data
Garbage in, garbage out. If your Baton projects are a mess—unclear tasks, skipped steps, vague owners—your metrics will be too.
- Standardize your templates: Make sure each onboarding project uses the same structure and milestones. If everyone improvises, your data’s useless.
- Define what “done” means: Agree on what counts as a finished task or phase.
- Assign real owners: Don’t leave tasks floating. If “everyone” owns it, no one does.
Watch out: Baton can only track what you put in. If teams skip updating tasks, your reports will lie.
Step 4: Pull and Visualize the Right Data
Now, actually get your hands on the metrics. In Baton, you can usually export data or use built-in dashboards. Here’s what to do:
- Filter by relevant time frames: Last quarter, last 10 projects, etc. Don’t mix apples and oranges.
- Segment by customer type or complexity: Are big customers taking longer? Are certain industries always stuck in the same phase?
- Highlight late milestones and bottlenecks: Where are projects most commonly delayed? Is it always the same step?
Pro tip: Don’t just look at averages. Outliers (the projects that went really wrong) often tell you more than the “typical” case.
Step 5: Analyze the Story Behind the Numbers
Metrics are a starting point. They rarely tell the full story on their own.
- Look for patterns, not just numbers: Are certain phases always slow? Does onboarding drag when a particular team’s involved?
- Talk to your team: Ask people actually running projects why things spike or stall. The data might show “Phase 2 is always late,” but only they can tell you it’s because of missing info from sales.
- Gut-check the results: If something looks weird, dig in. Don’t assume the charts are always right—sometimes it’s just bad data entry.
What usually matters: - Repeated late phases (fix the process) - High customer touchpoints (are you asking for too much?) - Projects with lots of task reassignments (maybe unclear responsibilities)
Step 6: Take Action—But Only on a Few Things at a Time
Don’t try to fix everything at once. You’ll overwhelm yourself and your team.
- Pick one or two metrics to improve first. Maybe it’s “reduce average onboarding time by 10%,” or “cut late milestones in half.”
- Test small process changes. For example, add a kickoff call checklist, or automate a reminder for a sticky phase.
- Check back in a month. Did things actually improve? If not, try something else.
Pro tip: Sometimes, the “problem” is outside onboarding—like sales selling to the wrong fit, or customers who never show up. Don’t take the blame for things you can’t control.
Step 7: Ignore the Rest (For Now)
There’s always more data. Most of it isn’t worth your time. If a metric doesn’t help you do one of these:
- Spot a real problem
- Explain a win or loss
- Guide a decision
…then skip it. No one gets a medal for filling out every possible report.
Step 8: Share What Matters, Not Everything
When you show results to your team or leadership:
- Keep it simple: One-page summaries beat 10-slide decks.
- Tell them what you’re doing about it: “We saw X, so we’re trying Y.”
- Own the limitations: If the data’s incomplete or noisy, say so.
If you’re sharing with customers, stick to what’s useful for them—like project timelines or next steps—not your internal metrics.
The Honest Take: What Works, What Doesn’t
What Actually Helps
- Clear, standardized processes (otherwise, you’re just measuring chaos)
- Metrics tied to specific outcomes
- Small, regular tweaks (not giant overhauls)
- Team buy-in—if folks aren’t updating Baton, none of this works
What to Ignore
- Fancy dashboards that no one reads
- Metrics that make you feel good but don’t change behavior
- Over-engineering your reports—spend that energy fixing real issues, not making prettier charts
Keep It Simple, Iterate, and Don’t Chase Every Number
Improving onboarding with Baton’s project metrics isn’t about tracking more—it’s about tracking what makes a difference, cleaning up your process, and making small, steady improvements.
Don’t get distracted by every possible number. Start with what matters, test changes, and check the data again. If something works, keep it. If not, try something else.
And if in doubt, ask yourself: Does this metric actually help my team or my customers? If not, skip it. That’s how you actually improve onboarding—no B.S. required.