Building KPIs That Make Your Company More Agile

Reporting vs. deciding

A dashboard that only tells you what happened is a rear-view mirror. The KPIs worth building are the ones that change a decision this week.

A framework

• Leading indicators (pipeline, activation, burn multiple) over lagging ones (revenue, cash)
• Cadence matched to the decision: weekly for operating, monthly for board
• One owner per metric — shared metrics are unowned metrics
• A threshold that triggers action, not just observation

Getting there

Start by inventorying every decision your team makes weekly. Then work backward to the single number that should inform each one. Cut everything else. A board deck with eight focused KPIs beats one with thirty.