Choosing the Right KPIs

This pack gives you 16 KPIs per dashboard — but you should report far fewer. The

hardest part of measurement isn't calculating metrics; it's choosing which ones

deserve a leader's attention. This guide helps you cut from 16 to the 5–7 that

actually drive decisions.

The problem with "track everything"

More metrics feel safer. They aren't. A dashboard with 40 numbers has the same effect

as a dashboard with zero: nobody knows where to look, so nobody looks. Every KPI you

add dilutes the ones that matter and adds maintenance cost. The goal is the

smallest set that lets you steer the business.

Rule of thumb: a team should be able to name its KPIs from memory. If they can't,

there are too many.

The test: is it a real KPI?

A metric earns a spot on the dashboard only if it passes all four:

1. Actionable — if it moves the wrong way, you know roughly what to *do*. A number

you can only watch is a *metric*, not a KPI.

2. Tied to an outcome — it connects to revenue, retention, cost, or risk. "Page

views" rarely does; "activation rate" does.

3. Owned — exactly one person or team is accountable for it (the Owner column).

A KPI everyone owns is a KPI no one owns.

4. Trustworthy — you can measure it consistently and people believe the number. A

precise metric from a flaky source is worse than a rough one from a solid source.

If a metric fails any of these, demote it to a secondary "diagnostic" you check only

when a real KPI moves.

Leading vs. lagging indicators

Balance the two or you'll fly blind:

A healthy dashboard pairs each lagging outcome with the leading metric that predicts

it. On the Sales dashboard, *New Bookings* (lagging) is predicted by *Pipeline

Coverage* and *SQOs* (leading). On Product, *Day-30 Retention* (lagging) is

predicted by *Activation Rate* and *Time to Value* (leading). Watch the leading ones

to change the lagging ones.

The "North Star" approach

Pick one metric that best captures the value your team delivers — your North Star —

then surround it with 4–6 supporting KPIs that explain its movement.

The North Star is the headline; the supporting KPIs are the diagnostics that tell you

*why* it moved.

How many is right?

When in doubt, fewer. You can always drill into a diagnostic when a KPI flags.

A worked example: cutting the Sales dashboard to 6

The Sales dashboard ships with 16 KPIs. For a weekly sales standup, keep:

1. Quota Attainment — the North Star; are we hitting the number?

2. Pipeline Coverage — leading indicator; do we have enough to hit next quarter?

3. Win Rate — efficiency; are we getting better at closing?

4. Sales Cycle Length — leading; are deals speeding up or stalling?

5. Average Contract Value — are we moving up-market or down?

6. Lead Response Time — the one activity metric that reliably predicts win rate.

The other ten (Forecast Accuracy, NRR, Upsell Rate, CAC, Revenue per Rep…) are

valuable diagnostics — review them monthly or when a top-6 KPI breaks, not in the

weekly glance.

Common KPI mistakes

• Vanity metrics: big numbers that only go up and don't inform a decision (total

registered users, lifetime page views). Impressive, useless.

• Proxy obsession: optimizing the measurable stand-in until it stops reflecting the

goal (Goodhart's Law — "when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good

measure"). Watch the outcome, not just the proxy.

• Unowned metrics: a KPI with no name next to it never improves.
• No target: a number without a target is trivia. Set one (see

docs/CUSTOMIZATION.md §2), even if it's a rough first guess.

• Mixing directions silently: half your KPIs are "higher is better" and half

"lower is better." The Direction column (formulas §0) keeps the scoring honest —

use it.

Your selection checklist

For each KPI you're considering, ask:

• [ ] If this moves the wrong way, do I know what to do?
• [ ] Does it connect to revenue, retention, cost, or risk?
• [ ] Is there exactly one owner?
• [ ] Do I trust the number enough to act on it?
• [ ] Is it leading (steer) or lagging (score) — and do I have a balance of both?
• [ ] Could I remove it and lose nothing? (If yes — remove it.)

Get this right and guides/dashboard-design-principles.md will help you present the

survivors so people actually use them.