HockeyStack ingests data from many different sources, and transforms it into the unified data model we discussed in the previous guide. As a result, there will be thousands of variations of actions. To be able to make these actions usable, and to create some order out of chaos, HockeyStack allows you to define the most important ones as Goals.
Goals are nicknames you give to actions based on a specific ruleset. This can be used to define anything from KPIs like MQL, SQL, Opportunity Creation, to marketing & sales touchpoints like emails opened, calls made, ad clicks.
Let’s say you want to define Newsletter Opens as a Goal.
A Newsletter Open would refer to Emails Opened with a subject line containing “Newsletter: ”, and that were sent using HubSpot.
In HockeyStack terms, we want to find all actions where:
You can think of this as a 5th column in our actions table.
| Timestamp | Entity | Action Name | Action Properties | Is this a “Newsletter Open”? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| … | [email protected] | Email Opened | Email Subject: “Newsletter: 2024 SaaS trends“ | Yes |
| … | [email protected] | Email Opened | Email Subject: “Thank you for signing up!“ | No |
| … | [email protected] | Email Sent | Email Subject: “Newsletter: 2024 SaaS trends“ | No |
If I were to create a report that counts Newsletter Opens, the only action that would be taken into account would be the action done by [email protected], since that is the one matching all criteria.
In HockeyStack, navigate to Definitions > Goals.
This page is your main data dictionary.
You can click on the + icon on the top right corner to create a new goal.
https://app.arcade.software/flows/pjUPPDu776SQUEfSxrjV/view
To start defining a goal, click on the first dropdown and choose a goal type. There are 4 types you can choose from: