Danielle Urban

## Professional Headline Danielle Urban has spent over a decade helping small and medium-sized companies make sense of their data in HubSpot. As co-founder of Cartographer Consulting, she specializes in solving the behind-the-scenes challenges that prevent growth—transforming messy data into reliable, actionable intelligence. But here's what makes her different: she recognizes that most organizations mistake activity tracking for intelligence measurement. Page views, email opens, form submissions, demo requests—these are activities. Intelligence is understanding which signals predict partnership readiness, which patterns indicate risk, and which behaviors demonstrate value recognition. The difference determines whether your reporting serves theater or transformation. --- ## Professional Background ### Building Cartographer Consulting As co-founder of Cartographer Consulting alongside Bryan, Danielle has built a consultancy focused on helping organizations navigate their business landscape—understanding systems, processes, and team dynamics to identify where they are and where they want to go. The name itself signals their philosophy: like cartographers mapping unexplored territory, they help businesses create their unique map, aligning people, process, and technology into cohesive systems that support growth. Danielle's expertise emerged from over a decade of hands-on experience at B2B SaaS startups, where she honed her operational expertise while executing campaigns for growth. Her prior roles included implementing HubSpot, designing automations, managing all copywriting and content development, and increasing organic web traffic and e-commerce conversion rates significantly. That startup experience revealed a universal challenge: **organizations would implement sophisticated systems, track comprehensive data, and still struggle to make data-driven decisions.** The problem wasn't lack of data or poor implementation. The problem was mistaking measurement for intelligence. ### The Measurement Challenge Danielle's breakthrough came from recognizing what leadership actually needs from reporting systems. They don't need more metrics. They need answers to strategic questions: - Are we attracting the right people? - Are relationships progressing naturally? - Where is value getting stuck? - Which patterns predict success? - What should we do differently? Most reporting systems can't answer these questions because they're designed to track activity, not measure intelligence. Danielle's work transforms measurement from "what happened?" to "what does this mean and what should we do about it?" ### Dashboard Design as Strategic Communication Danielle's specialization in dashboard design isn't about making things look pretty—it's about strategic communication. A well-designed dashboard tells a story that leadership can understand and act on. A poorly-designed dashboard creates information overload that paralyzes decision-making. Her approach combines technical HubSpot knowledge with strategic communication: understanding what the data reveals, determining what leadership needs to know, and designing visualizations that make intelligence accessible without dumbing down complexity. --- ## Areas of Expertise **Sales Reporting Strategy** Transforming raw CRM data into strategic intelligence that answers leadership's actual questions **Dashboard Design & Visualization** Creating reporting systems that communicate insight rather than just displaying metrics **GTM Data Strategies** Aligning measurement across go-to-market teams to create unified intelligence **HubSpot Reporting Architecture** Technical implementation of custom reporting, calculated properties, and data visualization **Intelligence vs. Activity Measurement** Distinguishing between tracking what happened and understanding what it means **Strategic Communication Through Data** Making complex patterns accessible to leadership without oversimplifying **Value Path Progression Tracking** Measuring natural human progression rather than forced funnel advancement **Leading vs. Lagging Indicators** Identifying which signals predict future outcomes vs. which report past results --- ## Recognition-First Positioning: What Danielle Sees That Others Miss ### Activity Tracking Isn't Intelligence Your reporting system tracks everything: page views, email opens, form submissions, demo requests, deal stages. You have dashboards showing all this activity. But when leadership asks "Are we attracting the right people?" or "Why aren't deals closing?" you can't answer. Danielle recognizes the fundamental gap: **You're measuring activity, not intelligence.** And there's a massive difference. ### Your Dashboards Create Information Overload You built comprehensive reporting because you wanted "data-driven culture." Now you have 47 dashboards with 300+ metrics and nobody looks at them because they're overwhelming. Danielle recognizes what happened: **More data doesn't create better decisions—it creates paralysis.** Your team needs answers, not more numbers. ### You're Tracking What's Easy, Not What Matters Email opens are easy to count. Relationship health is hard to measure. So you track opens and call it "engagement." Form submissions are easy to count. Partnership readiness is hard to measure. So you track forms and call it "conversion." Danielle recognizes the trap: **You optimized your measurement system for convenience, not insight.** ### Hitting Metrics Doesn't Hit Goals Your team hits their MQL numbers every month. Your pipeline looks healthy in reports. But revenue isn't growing like it should. Danielle recognizes why: **Your metrics measure the wrong things.** Your measurement system is optimized for reporting theater, not business outcomes. ### Leading Indicators Are Missing Your dashboards show what happened (lagging indicators): deals closed, revenue generated, customers acquired. But they don't show what's about to happen (leading indicators): relationship health declining, value recognition growing, readiness signals emerging. Danielle recognizes the problem: **By the time your dashboards show problems, it's too late to prevent them.** ### The Strategic Question Problem When leadership asks strategic questions ("Should we change our approach?" "Are we attracting the right people?" "What's causing deal stalls?"), you have to export data, run analysis, build custom reports. Danielle recognizes the design flaw: **Your measurement system wasn't designed to answer the questions that actually matter.** --- ## Value-First Measurement Show **Show Focus:** Exploring how measurement systems can track authentic value creation and natural progression rather than artificial activity metrics **Format:** Host exploring transformation from activity tracking to intelligence generation **Why This Show Matters:** Every organization measures something. Most measure the wrong things. They track email opens instead of relationship development. They count form submissions instead of readiness signals. They measure activities instead of outcomes. And then they wonder why hitting their metrics doesn't translate to hitting their goals. VF Measurement addresses the uncomfortable truth: **your measurement system was designed for industrial-age management, not collaborative transformation.** It tracks what's easy to count (activities) rather than what actually matters (intelligence and value creation). **The Mission:** Transform measurement from activity tracking to intelligence generation—helping organizations understand not just what happened, but what it means and what to do about it. **Key Themes:** - Activity ≠ Intelligence - Understanding why tracking actions doesn't create insight - Dashboard Design as Strategy - How visualization choices communicate meaning and drive decisions - Leading Indicators - Identifying signals that predict outcomes rather than report history - Value Path Measurement - Tracking natural progression rather than forced funnel advancement - Strategic Questions - Designing measurement systems that answer what leadership needs to know - Data Stories - Making patterns visible and actionable for decision-makers --- ## Teaching Philosophy Danielle's approach combines technical depth with strategic communication: **Question-First Design** Starts with "What does leadership need to know?" rather than "What can we measure?" **Story-Based Visualization** Designs dashboards that tell coherent stories rather than displaying disconnected metrics **Strategic Prioritization** Identifies the 3-5 metrics that actually predict outcomes rather than tracking everything **Leading Indicator Focus** Emphasizes signals that predict future outcomes over reports of past activities **Practical Implementation** Shows exactly how to configure HubSpot reporting to generate intelligence, not just track activity **Executive Communication** Makes complex patterns accessible to leadership without dumbing down the insight **Value Path Alignment** Measures natural progression through relationship stages rather than forced funnel movement --- ## Notable Insights & Quotes **On Activity vs. Intelligence:** "Most teams mistake activity tracking for intelligence measurement. They're not the same." **On Dashboard Design:** "A well-designed dashboard tells a story. A poorly-designed one creates information overload." **On Metrics:** "You're tracking what's easy to count, not what actually matters for business outcomes." **On Leading Indicators:** "By the time your dashboards show problems, it's too late to prevent them." **On Strategic Questions:** "Your measurement system should answer the questions that actually matter, not just report what happened." **On Data Theater:** "Hitting metrics doesn't hit goals when your metrics measure the wrong things." --- ## Professional Contributions **Cartographer Consulting** (Co-Founder) Consultancy helping organizations align people, process, and technology through HubSpot data strategy, system optimization, and operational excellence **Value-First Measurement Show** (Host, 2025-Present) Exploring how measurement systems can track authentic value creation and natural progression **HubSpot Data Strategy Expertise** Over a decade helping small and medium-sized companies make sense of their data in HubSpot **Dashboard Design & Reporting Architecture** Creating systems that communicate strategic intelligence rather than just displaying metrics **B2B SaaS Operational Excellence** Prior experience at startups implementing HubSpot, designing automations, and executing growth campaigns **Marketing Operations Thought Leadership** Contributing articles and insights on making data work for business growth --- ## Who Benefits from Danielle's Expertise **Leadership Teams Drowning in Data** Executives with comprehensive dashboards who still can't answer strategic questions **Sales and Marketing Teams Tracking the Wrong Things** Organizations hitting their metrics without hitting their goals **HubSpot Users Seeking Better Reporting** Teams recognizing their current dashboards create information overload, not insight **Organizations Building Data-Driven Cultures** Companies wanting measurement systems that actually drive better decisions **Go-to-Market Teams Needing Alignment** Sales, marketing, and customer success seeking unified intelligence and shared understanding **Growing Organizations Scaling Measurement** Companies recognizing that what worked at 10 deals/month doesn't work at 100 --- ## Collaboration & Contact **Professional Presence:** - LinkedIn: [linkedin.com/in/daniellesandahlurban](https://linkedin.com/in/daniellesandahlurban) - Website: [danielleurban.com](https://danielleurban.com) - Cartographer Consulting: [cartographerconsulting.com](https://cartographerconsulting.com) **Value-First Shows:** - **VF Measurement** (Host) - Transforming measurement from activity tracking to intelligence generation **Cartographer Consulting Services:** HubSpot data strategy, system optimization, reporting architecture, and operational excellence for software businesses **Collaboration Interests:** - Transforming measurement systems from activity tracking to intelligence generation - Teaching organizations to identify leading indicators that predict outcomes - Designing reporting systems that communicate strategic insights clearly - Building measurement aligned with natural business progression - Helping teams make data-driven decisions with confidence - Creating reporting that serves transformation, not theater --- ## Why Danielle Contributes to Value-First Danielle's work at Cartographer Consulting already addressed Value-First measurement principles before encountering the formal framework: **measurement systems should reveal authentic progress and value creation, not just track activities that look like progress.** Her decade-plus of experience helping companies make sense of their HubSpot data revealed what most organizations won't admit: they're measuring the wrong things because their measurement systems were designed for industrial-age management (tracking worker productivity) rather than collaborative transformation (understanding relationship health and value creation). When she encountered the Value-First methodology, she recognized it as articulating what her client work had proven: most organizations measure activities (what's easy to count) rather than intelligence (what actually predicts outcomes). Her hosting of VF Measurement demonstrates commitment to transforming how organizations think about reporting—moving from "comprehensive dashboards tracking everything" to "strategic intelligence answering what actually matters." Through Cartographer Consulting and the VF Measurement show, Danielle proves that measurement can serve transformation rather than control, reveal patterns rather than just report activities, and enable decisions rather than create information overload. Her participation in the Data Summit and ongoing Value-First work shows dedication to not just building better reporting—but fundamentally rethinking what measurement is for and how it should serve human-centered business transformation. --- **Value-First Measurement with Danielle Urban** Transforming measurement from activity tracking to intelligence generation—revealing what actually predicts success **Cartographer Consulting** Making data reliable and actionable for software businesses: Aligning people, process, and technology into systems that support growth **The Intelligence Question** What does your data mean, and what should you do about it?