KPIs

Key Performance Indicators — the metrics used to measure progress toward a specific goal or business objective.

KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are quantifiable metrics used to evaluate how effectively a company, team, or individual is achieving key business objectives. Unlike OKRs (which define goals and outcomes), KPIs are the measurement instruments — the numbers that tell you whether the underlying activity is working. Revenue, customer acquisition cost, churn rate, and NPS are examples of KPIs.

Good KPIs are specific, measurable, relevant to the goal they're tracking, and timely — meaning they're available quickly enough to inform decisions. Bad KPIs are vanity metrics: numbers that look impressive but don't correlate with business health. Page views without session depth, downloads without activation, or follower counts without engagement are common vanity KPIs.

KPIs show up in job descriptions ('you'll own the KPIs for X') and interviews ('what KPIs were you responsible for?'). Being able to speak to the metrics that defined success in your previous roles — and how you moved them — is one of the clearest ways to demonstrate impact rather than just activity.