Your Strategy Feels Right—But Can You Prove It?
Last week, we changed our language. Now, let’s change how we measure success.
You’ve shifted the way you communicate strategy. You’re using words stakeholders actually use. But words alone aren’t enough.
Because eventually, someone will ask:
💬 “How do we know this is working?”
If you only track outputs or rely on gut feel, you lose credibility. If your strategy lacks clear success metrics, people will revert back to their own assumptions.
This is where leading and lagging indicators come in.
The Team That Had the Right Metrics—But the Wrong Audience
A product team I worked with was focused on improving retention. They had the right metrics:
Lagging indicator (for leadership): Churn rate.
Leading indicator (for product & growth teams): Onboarding completion rate.
They knew onboarding completion predicted retention, but they struggled to get buy-in across the company.
❌ When they talked to leadership, they only presented onboarding completion rates—which leadership didn’t care about.
❌ When they talked to product and growth teams, they only showed churn data—which felt too disconnected from their daily work.
The problem? They weren’t adjusting the metric to fit their audience.
When they switched their approach—talking about churn (lagging) with executives and onboarding (leading) with their teams—alignment improved instantly.
🚀 Leadership could see the business impact.
🚀 Teams could see what they needed to focus on daily.
This is the power of knowing what to measure—and who needs to see it.
Leading vs. Lagging Indicators: What You Need to Know
Most teams only track lagging indicators—outcomes that confirm success after it happens but don’t help you adjust.
Lagging indicators = The final result (churn, revenue, NPS).
Leading indicators = Predictors of success (onboarding completion, feature adoption, engagement).
✅ Think of it like weight loss:
Your weight is a lagging indicator—it reflects what’s already happened.
Your calorie intake and workouts are leading indicators—they predict future weight changes.
Without leading indicators, you’re flying blind. Without lagging indicators, you can’t prove long-term impact.
Why Metrics Aren’t Just a Scoreboard—They’re a Strategy Tool
Tracking metrics isn’t just about proving success—it’s about adjusting in real time and making sure the right people see the right numbers.
The best teams don’t just report on past performance. They ask:
1️⃣ What are our key lagging indicators? (Are we making money? Are customers staying?)
2️⃣ What are the leading indicators that drive them? (What early signs tell us if we’re on track?)
3️⃣ Are we adjusting how we communicate these based on the audience?
Executives need lagging indicators. Teams need leading indicators. If you mix them up, you lose influence.
Revenue & Cost: The Metrics You Can’t Ignore
A selfish strategy only tracks what’s easy. A smart strategy always tracks financial impact.
Why? Because at the strategy level, nothing matters more than revenue and cost.
✅ Even if your role isn’t tied to revenue, your strategy is.
If you work on engagement, how does it impact lifetime value?
If you focus on internal efficiency, what’s the cost savings?
If you can’t connect your work to dollars, someone else will set the priorities for you.
Tying It All Back to Selfish Strategy
A selfish strategy isn’t just about ignoring stakeholders—it’s also about ignoring how success is measured.
🔹 No clear metrics? You’re asking people to trust you on instinct.
🔹 Only lagging indicators? You’re always reacting instead of predicting.
🔹 Only leading indicators? You’re tracking effort, but no one knows if it leads to impact.
🔹 No financial impact? You’re leaving strategy decisions to someone else.
But when you use leading and lagging indicators—and tailor them to your audience—you shift from explaining past results to driving future success.
💡 You stop playing catch-up and start leading.
Your Homework: Make Your Metrics Work for You
✅ Define one lagging indicator that measures your strategy’s success.
✅ Identify 1-2 leading indicators that predict that outcome.
✅ Ensure your strategy connects to either revenue or cost.
✅ Adjust how you communicate these metrics based on your audience.
Next week, we’ll go even deeper—talking about how to adjust when your leading indicators stop moving and how to translate these insights into executive-level conversations.
For now, start tracking what actually drives success—before it’s too late.