Key performance indicators
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The most important metrics a business tracks to evaluate whether it is achieving its strategic goals.
KPIs are the metrics that matter most to your business. Not every metric is a KPI. Your database has thousands of data points. Your KPIs are the 5-10 numbers that tell you whether the business is healthy and moving in the right direction.
Good KPIs are actionable, measurable, and aligned with business goals. 'Total page views' is a metric but a poor KPI because it does not tell you anything actionable. 'Qualified pipeline generated from content' is a better KPI because it connects content performance to revenue.
KPIs differ by function. Engineering might track deployment frequency and incident response time. Marketing might track MQLs and CAC. Sales might track pipeline coverage and win rate. The executive team tracks company-level KPIs like ARR, NDR, and burn rate.
Examples
A marketing team selects their quarterly KPIs.
They choose five: organic traffic growth (10% QoQ), MQLs generated (200/month), content-to-MQL conversion rate (3%), CAC ($150), and email list growth (500 new subscribers/month).
A CEO presents KPIs at a board meeting.
The board deck shows six company KPIs: ARR ($12M, up 40% YoY), NDR (115%), gross margin (78%), burn rate ($800k/month), runway (24 months), and customer count (350, up from 250).
A team realizes they are tracking too many metrics.
The dashboard has 30 metrics. The PM reduces it to 8 KPIs. The rest are still available for deep dives but are removed from the daily view. The team now focuses on what actually matters.
In practice
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Frequently asked questions
How many KPIs should a team track?
5-10 for a team, 5-8 for the company. More than that and the signal gets lost in the noise. Each KPI should be actionable: if it moves, you know what to do about it. If it does not drive action, it is a metric, not a KPI.
What makes a good KPI?
It is specific, measurable, actionable, relevant to a business goal, and time-bound. 'Improve customer satisfaction' is a goal. 'NPS score of 50+ by end of Q2' is a KPI. Good KPIs tell you both where you are and where you need to be.
Related terms
A goal-setting framework that pairs ambitious objectives with measurable key results to track progress.
The single metric that best captures the core value a product delivers to its customers.
Tools and practices for tracking how users interact with a product to inform decisions about features, onboarding, and growth.
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