kpi-tracker-design

KPI Tracker Design Skill

KPI trackers fail by addition: every meeting adds a metric, none subtracts, and within two quarters the tracker is a wall of numbers nobody reads — motion without instrumentation. The working tracker is small (5–9 metrics, each with an owner and a written so-what), trend-first (a number without its history is a Rorschach test), honestly baselined before targets exist, and — the part that decides everything — attached to a ritual where someone reads it aloud and decisions reference it. The tracker is the artifact; the ritual is the product.

What This Skill Produces

• The metric selection — 5–9 survivors of the so-what test, each: definition, source, owner, cadence — plus the kill-list of metrics deliberately not tracked, with reasons
• The tracker structure — metric × period grid, trend columns/sparklines, target and threshold lines
• The target notes — baseline-first discipline: track before targeting; targets with owners and reasons, not round numbers
• The review ritual — where, when, who reads it, and the metric-in-every-decision norm

Required Inputs

Ask for these if not provided:

• The decisions the tracker should feed — metrics follow decisions; "what would we do differently if this number moved?" is the selection filter, and it needs the team's real decision list
• The candidate metrics and their sources — what's measurable today vs. requiring new instrumentation (day-one tracker uses today's sources; the wishlist is a separate roadmap)
• The audience and cadence — team-weekly vs. leadership-monthly are different trackers (grain, commentary, tone) — pick one; hybrids serve neither
• Existing baselines — history where it exists; where it doesn't, the no-targets-for-a-month rule applies

Framework: The Design Rules

1. The so-what test selects: every candidate metric answers "if this moved 20%, what would we do?" — no answer, no slot. The kill-list (tracked-nowhere metrics with their reasons) is half the design's value: it's the documented defense against the wall-of-numbers drift.
2. 5–9, owned, defined: each metric has one owner (who explains its movement, not who's blamed), a written definition (the numerator/denominator argument happens once, at design time — not monthly), and a stated source. Undefined metrics generate the two-truths meeting.
3. Trend-first layout: every metric shows its last 6–12 periods (sparkline or mini-column), not just current-vs-target — direction and volatility are the actual information; a red 87% that's been climbing for four months is a different fact than a red 87% in freefall.
4. Baseline before target: new metrics run target-less for 3–4 periods (you can't set honest targets on unmeasured behavior); then targets get set with a reason and an owner, at attention-worthy thresholds — the [budget-tracker-design](../budget-tracker-design/SKILL.md) signal discipline applies: red must mean something.
5. The ritual is the product: a standing slot (the weekly's first ten minutes) where the owner-of-the-moment reads the tracker aloud — one sentence per moved metric — and any proposal in the meeting gets the "which metric does this move?" question. Trackers without rituals decay into decoration in six weeks, on schedule.

Output Format

KPI Tracker: [team] — feeds: [the decisions]

The Metrics (5–9)

| Metric | Definition (num/denom) | Source | Owner | Cadence |

|---|---|---|---|---|

The Kill-List

[Deliberately untracked: metric → reason — the wall-of-numbers defense]

Structure & Targets

[Grid + trend columns · baseline-first schedule for new metrics · targets with owner + reason + threshold]

The Ritual

[The slot · the read-aloud norm (one sentence per mover) · the which-metric-does-this-move question · quarterly metric review: add/kill with the so-what test]

Quality Checks

• [ ] Every metric passed the so-what test against a real decision
• [ ] Count is 5–9; the kill-list exists with reasons
• [ ] Definitions settle the numerator/denominator argument in writing
• [ ] Trends are visible per metric — no naked current-values
• [ ] The ritual has a slot, a reader, and the decision-linkage norm

Anti-Patterns

• [ ] Do not track what you can't act on — interesting is not a criterion; decidable is
• [ ] Do not exceed nine — the tenth metric costs attention from the first nine
• [ ] Do not set targets on unbaselined metrics — round-number targets on unknown behavior are theater
• [ ] Do not show numbers without trends — a value with no history is a mood
• [ ] Do not build the tracker without booking the ritual — undecorated walls beat decorated ones