Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

Select metrics that reveal whether you're achieving strategic goals to track progress and identify problems before they become expensive to fix.

Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

definition

Introduction

Why it matters

How to apply it

Keep learning

Growth orchestration

Get a grip on what's actually working and what needs course correction. Use data and experiments to make decisions instead of opinions. See how changes in one part of the system affect everything else. Random tactics don't compound, coordinated ones do.

Explore playbooks

Tool selection

Tool selection

Select tools across your growth stack using clear evaluation criteria. Avoid common pitfalls, ensure integrations work, and build a system that scales with your business.

Customer research

Customer research

Uncover specific pain points, validate assumptions, and reveal what actually drives buying decisions. Run research that produces actionable insights, not just interesting quotes.

Quarterly strategy

Quarterly strategy

Run quarterly business reviews that assess current state, set ambitious but realistic goals, build actionable roadmaps, and define key results that keep everyone aligned.

Monthly review

Monthly review

Analyse monthly performance data across all four growth engines. Identify what is working, what is not, and make tactical adjustments using a structured decision framework.

Related books

Measure What Matters

John Doerr

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Measure What Matters

A clear guide to OKRs for growth teams. Write good objectives, choose key results and run cadences that stick.

Clockwork

Mike Michalowicz

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Clockwork

A clear way to design responsibilities and handoffs. Use time maps and simple dashboards to remove bottlenecks and protect focus.

Scaling Up

Verne Harnish

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Scaling Up

Practical tools for scaling a company. Use rhythms, scorecards and priorities to keep a growing team aligned.

Lean Analytics

Alistair Croll

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Lean Analytics

Pick the One Metric that Matters for your stage. Build lean dashboards and use data to decide the next best move.

Related chapters

1

How to choose the right metrics

Focus on metrics that drive decisions and reveal bottlenecks. Avoid vanity metrics that look good but don't help you grow.

2

How to decide what to track

Track what matters for growth decisions. Map key conversions, name events with clear conventions, and document tracking specifications.

Wiki

North Star Metric

Choose one metric that best predicts long-term success to align your entire team on what matters and avoid conflicting priorities that dilute focus.

Competitive advantage

Identify what you do better or differently that competitors can't easily copy to defend margins and win customers consistently over time.

Net Revenue Retention (NRR)

Track revenue growth from existing customers through expansion and contraction to prove your product delivers increasing value over time.

Minimum viable test

Design experiments that answer specific questions with minimum time and resources to maximise learning velocity without over-investing in unproven ideas.

Attribution model

Assign credit to marketing touchpoints that influence conversions to understand which channels work together and deserve budget in multi-touch journeys.

Data warehouse

Store raw data from all business systems in one place to run analyses and build reports that combine information across marketing, sales, and product.

Braindump

Clear mental clutter by transferring all thoughts, tasks, and ideas onto paper or screen, creating space for focused work.

Deep Work

Block extended time for cognitively demanding tasks requiring sustained focus, maximising valuable output whilst minimising shallow distractions.

Marketing stack

Organise the tools that capture leads, nurture prospects, and measure performance to automate repetitive work and connect customer data across systems.

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

Calculate the total cost of winning a new customer to evaluate marketing efficiency and ensure sustainable unit economics across all channels.

Multi-touch attribution

Distribute conversion credit across multiple touchpoints to recognise that customer journeys involve many interactions and channels working together.

Prioritisation

Systematically rank projects and opportunities using objective frameworks, ensuring scarce resources flow to highest-impact work.

Control group

Maintain an unchanged version in experiments to isolate the impact of your changes and prove causation rather than correlation with external factors.

Conversion tracking

Measure which marketing activities drive desired outcomes to allocate budget toward channels that actually generate revenue instead of vanity metrics.

Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)

Track predictable monthly subscription revenue to monitor short-term growth trends and make faster decisions than waiting for annual revenue reports.

Referral marketing

Turn satisfied customers into active promoters who systematically bring qualified prospects into your pipeline at near-zero acquisition cost.

Event tracking

Capture specific user actions in your product or website to understand behaviour patterns and measure whether changes improve outcomes or create friction.

Statistical significance

Determine whether experiment results reflect real differences or random chance to avoid making expensive decisions based on noise instead of signal.

Sales-led growth

Win customers through direct sales conversations where reps guide prospects from discovery to close with personalised solutions and relationship building.

Sample size

Calculate how many users you need in experiments to detect meaningful differences and avoid declaring winners prematurely based on insufficient data.