Seven questions that test the quality of your KPIs
A practical test of ownership, reliability, relevance, and decision value.
A dashboard can contain many measures and still provide little management intelligence. A strong KPI helps an accountable owner detect a meaningful change and make a timely decision.
The seven-question test
Review each proposed KPI against the following questions before adding it to an executive or operational dashboard.
- What decision will this measure support?
- Who owns the result and the action?
- Is the formula unambiguous?
- Is the data source reliable and traceable?
- Is the review frequency appropriate?
- Is there a baseline, target, and threshold?
- What action follows red, amber, or green performance?
Balance leading and lagging measures
Lagging indicators confirm what already happened. Leading indicators show whether the conditions for future performance are developing. A useful framework needs both.
- Outcome: customer delivery performance
- Driver: order readiness at cutoff
- Control: exception closure within SLA
Create a governed KPI registry
Record definitions, owners, sources, frequency, targets, and approval history in one controlled registry. This prevents conflicting formulas and dashboard debates.
- One business definition
- One approved data source
- One accountable owner
If a measure does not trigger a decision, clarify accountability, or reveal performance movement, it is probably information—not a KPI.