Term of the Week: Ripple Metrics

(ˈri-pəl ˈme-triks)

The term “ripple metrics” was mentioned recently by Stephanie Fine Sasse, founder of The Plenary, during this recent conversation on CivicSciTV’s Questions of the Day program which was recorded on the sidelines of the ASTC Conference in San Francisco. She described one way to think about measuring impact that focuses more on capturing the unseen effects that are typically harder to capture through traditional metrics.

In her view, ripple metrics capture the indirect signals of change — the conversations that continue after an event, the artifacts people create, the unexpected collaborations that follow.

Ripple metrics, she said, are about “mixing metrics with sensing.” They treat impact as something that unfolds over time — visible not in a single dataset but in the stories, relationships, and ideas that move outward, one ripple at a time.

Invitation

Can you share stories of ‘ripple metrics from your civic science work?