KPI not KPIs

Most companies have big KPI screens with a million different metrics describing how the business is doing. But a million is too many. Even 10 is too many. Each company needs a single main KPI.

For Facebook it’s daily active users.

In this recent podcast, a co-founder of a payments company said their KPI was the number of users who’d used the service twice or more.

By having a single KPI it galvanises people in the company. There’s a shared understanding of what the company is aiming for. Each decision in the company extends from the main KPI.

Ask most people what the main KPI is for their company and they won’t know. If so, then it’s probably time to simplify things.