What Is a KPI?
A metric tied directly to a business goal, not just a number you happen to track.
What it means
KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator. It's a metric you've deliberately chosen because it reflects whether a specific business goal is being met — "leads per week," "repeat purchase rate," "calls booked from the website." Not every number you can measure is a KPI; a KPI is one you've decided actually matters to the outcome you're chasing.
Why it matters
It's easy to end up staring at whatever numbers a dashboard happens to show, rather than the few that actually tell you if the business is moving in the right direction. Naming your KPIs up front — and ignoring the rest day to day — keeps reporting from turning into noise.
ask datanephew
What should my KPIs even be?
Tell datanephew your goal in plain language — more bookings, more newsletter signups, more repeat customers — and it can suggest which numbers across your connected sources actually track that, instead of a generic list of everything available.
Can datanephew just show me my KPIs each week, not everything else?
Yes — set up a regular summary focused on the specific metrics you care about, pulled from whichever platforms feed them, so you're not sifting through unrelated numbers to find them.