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KPI
Planning
Guide
This guide provides definitions, practical advice
and questions designed to help you define and
track the right key performance indicators for
yourself, your team and your organization.

qlik.com
What is
a KPI?
Let’s start with the basics. A key performance indicator (KPI) is a
quantifiable measure of performance over time for a specific strategic
objective. Business leaders and senior executives use KPIs to judge the
effectiveness of their efforts and make better informed decisions.

KPIs vs Metrics
There’s often confusion between these two
terms. So, what’s the difference between a
KPI and a metric?

• KPIs represent how you’re performing

against strategic goals. And by goals, we
mean specific business outcomes, such
as targeted quarterly revenue or targeted
new customers per month.

• Metrics support KPIs by representing the

tactical processes or actions necessary
to achieve the KPIs. Metrics track and
measure the success against targets
for specific actions such as monthly
brochure downloads or store visits.

KPI Planning Guide 2

10 Steps to Strong KPIs
With so much data available today, you may be tempted to measure everything.
But for your KPIs, be sure you measure what matters–the strategic objectives
that will help you reach the high-level goals of your organization. And, get the
right tools in place to know the “why” behind your KPIs. Here are the ten steps
for developing the right KPIs.

1. Define how your KPIs will be used. Be clear about who the audience is for these KPIs and ask
them what they want to achieve and how they’ll use the KPIs. This will help you develop KPIs
which map directly to their goals and strategy.

2. Tie them to strategic goals. Your KPIs must relate to what you’re trying to achieve in your
business overall. While they may be related to a specific function like HR or marketing, every key
performance indicator should tie directly back to your overall business goals.

3. Write SMART KPIs. The most effective KPIs follow the proven SMART formula: Specific,
Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-Bound. Some examples include “Grow sales revenue
by 5% per quarter” or “Increase Net Promoter Score 25% over the next three years.”

4. Keep them clear-cut. Everyone in your organization should understand your KPIs so they can
act on them. When people understand how they’re performing against a clear goal, they can
make decisions that will move the needle in the right direction.

5. Have a mix of lagging and leading KPIs. Lagging indicators help you understand results over
a period of time such as sales over the last 30 days. Leading indicators help you predict what
might happen based on data, allowing you to make adjustments to improve outcomes.

KPI Planning Guide 3

6. Avoid KPI overload. You likely have access to mounds of data and a variety of tools which
allow you to measure anything and everything. Steer clear of KPI overload by focusing on
only the most impactful measures.

7. Get your data house in order. Accurately tracking KPIs requires accurate data. Bring
together data from multiple sources across your business to get complete, accurate,
and up-to-date information.

8. Know the “why” behind your KPI. Pick an analytics or BI tool which allows you to create
interactive visualizations and dashboards based on your KPIs. This will allow you to explore
and analyze the data behind your KPIs directly within the dashboard itself.

9. Stay alert and take action. Modern analytics and BI tools make it easy for you to set up data-
driven, real-time alerts based on your KPIs. These alerts help you quickly respond to changes
in your business. The best tools go further by enabling your key applications to work with your
analytics and trigger automated, event-driven actions based on KPI changes.

10. Plan to iterate. As your business and customers change, you may need to revise your key
performance indicators. Perhaps certain ones are no longer relevant, or you need to adjust
based on performance. Meet regularly to review them, take a close look at performance to
see if adjustments need to be made, and publish any changes you make so teams are
always up to date.

BONUS STEP: Create a KPI-driven, data-driven culture.

Key performance indicators don’t mean much if people don’t understand what they are and
how to explore the data behind them. Increase data literacy in your organization so everyone
works toward strategic targets. Educate employees, assign them relevant KPIs, and use a best-
in-class analytics solution to keep everyone making decisions that move your business forward.
Learn more about data literacy at:

https://www.qlik.com/us/bi/data-literacy

KPI Planning Guide 4

KPI
Examples
Let’s say your strategic objective is to grow revenues by 110% over the prior year. Your KPI
would be described similarly as “110% revenue increase over prior year” and as shown
below, you would track your performance against that target on a regular basis. Most
companies track KPIs on a monthly or quarterly basis. Happily,
in this case, revenue is 114% over the previous year.

See a comprehensive list of KPI examples and dashboard templates per department at the
end of this worksheet.

KPI Planning Guide 5

KPI Planner Worksheet
Okay, now you’re ready to dive in! The below questions will walk you through
the process of defining and tracking the right key performance indicators for
yourself, your team, and your organization.

Who or what are these KPIs for?

State the person, project, product, department, or company which you’re developing
these KPIs for:




What are your highest priority objectives?

State 3-5 specific, measurable goals for a particular time frame (month, quarter or year).
These should be the key targets you track to make the greatest strategic impact on
your business.

1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 
For example: 15 new customers in the US per month

Congrats!
You just set your KPIs. Now let’s confirm these are the right ones...

KPI Planning Guide 6

Do your KPIs align with your
company’s mission?
State how the above KPIs align with your
company’s mission and strategic priorities.



Technology to support KPI
implementation
Are your KPIs actionable and attainable?
Data integration brings together
State at a high level how you will work
data from multiple sources across
towards achieving these goals.
your business to provide complete,

accurate, and up-to-date information.


Learn more:
https://www.qlik.com/us/data-integration
Are your KPIs trackable? (Do you have
the data?) Data analytics or BI tools allow you
State where you will obtain the data to track to create interactive visualizations
each of your KPIs. and dashboards based on your KPIs.
 This makes it easier for stakeholders
 to understand and explore the data
 behind the KPIs. Modern tools also
make it easy for you to set up data-
Got more KPIs in mind? driven, real-time alerts based on your
Through this process, you may have KPIs to help you stay on top of your
thought of additional goals. You can business and take timely action.
list additional KPIs here but avoid “KPI
Learn more:
overload” by focusing only on the most
https://www.qlik.com/us/data-analytics/
impactful measures. data-analytics-tools




KPI Planning Guide 7

How will you share your KPIs?
State who you should share your KPIs with on an ongoing basis and how you will do it. For
example, a Sales Director might have a monitor on the wall with a real-time dashboard for
the Sales Team to track progress toward sales goals.

Person or team Method of sharing KPIs







How frequently do you need to share Which KPI dashboard tool is right for you?
updated KPI data? Compare top interactive KPI dashboard
Ask your stakeholders how often they software: https://www.qlik.com/us/
require status updates. dashboard-examples/dashboard-software
 
 
 

How will you present KPIs in a How will you iterate?

meaningful way? As your business and customers evolve, you
It’s important to give a point of reference may need to revise your key performance
such as a target, a forecast, or a trend. And, indicators. Perhaps certain ones are no
interactive KPI dashboards allow any user to longer relevant, or you need to adjust based
easily explore the data behind the KPIs and on performance. Be sure you have a plan in
uncover actionable insights. place to evaluate and make changes to KPIs
when necessary.

 
 


KPI Planning Guide 8

170 KPI Examples
And Templates
We’ve identified and prioritized the most impactful key performance indicator
examples for each department. Use the table of contents below
to find the ones that are most relevant to your organization and teams.

KPIs by Department
1. Sales 6. Customer Service
2. Management 7. Finance
3. Project Management 8. Human Resources
4. Marketing 9. IT
5. Operations 10. Social Media

See these and other KPIs in Sales Dashboards at

https://www.qlik.com/us/dashboard-examples/sales-dashboards

Sales KPI Examples

Sales leaders and their teams need to track the key performance indicators that help them close more
orders. Below are the 15 essential sales KPI examples:

• New Inbound Leads • Lead-to-Opportunity % • Upsell %

• Lead Response Time • Opportunity-to-Order % • Cross-Sell %
• Lead Conversion % • Average Order Value • Sales Volume by Location
• New Qualified Opportunities • Average Sales Cycle Time • Sales Change (YoY, QoQ. MoM)
• Total Pipeline Value • Revenue Per Rep • Sales Target % (Actual/Forecast)

KPI Planning Guide 9

 See these and other KPIs in Executive Dashboards at
https://www.qlik.com/us/dashboard-examples/executive-dashboards

KPIs for Managers

Executives and managers need KPIs that reflect their organization’s strategic priorities. Below are the 15
key management KPI examples:

• Customer Acquisition Cost • Revenue per FTE • ROA (Return on Assets)

• Customer Lifetime Value • Revenue per Customer • Current Ratio (Assets/Liabilities)
• Customer Satisfaction Score • Operating Margin • Debt to Equity Ratio
• Sales Target % (Actual/Forecast) • Gross Margin • Working Capital
• Sales by Product or Service • ROE (Return on Equity) • Employee Satisfaction Rating

See these Project Management KPIs in a Workforce Management

Dashboard at https://demos.qlik.com/qliksense

Project Management KPIs

Project managers need to keep projects on time and on budget while ensuring a high-quality outcome.
That’s why the 15 key performance indicators examples below focus on timeliness, budget, and quality.

• On-Time Completion % • Resource Capacity % • Number of Errors

• Milestones on Time % • Budget Variance (Planned vs Actual) • Customer Complaints
• Estimate to Project Completion • Budget Iterations • Change Requests
• Adjustments To Schedule • Planned Value • Billable Utilization
• Planned vs. Actual Hours • Net Promoter Score • Return On Investment (ROI)

KPI Planning Guide 10

 See these Marketing KPIs in a Marketing Dashboard at
https://www.qlik.com/us/dashboard-examples/marketing-dashboards

Marketing KPIs
Marketing leaders need to track KPIs which enable them to measure their progress against clearly defined
goals. The 15 marketing KPI examples below cover all phases of the customer acquisition funnel.

• Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) • Conversion Rates (For Specific • Average Order Value
• Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) Goals) • Total Revenue
• Cost per Lead  • Social Program ROI (By Platform) • Revenue by Product or Service
• New Customers • Organic Traffic & Leads • Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
• Cost per Acquisition • Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) • Net Promoter Score (NPS)
• Upsell & Cross-Sell Rates

See these Operations KPIs in a KPI Dashboard at

https://www.qlik.com/us/dashboard-examples/kpi-dashboards

Operations KPIs
Operations managers need to track KPIs around efficiency, effectiveness, and quality as covered in the 15
key performance indicators examples below.

• Labor Utilization • Labor Materials • Project Schedule Variance

• Employee Turnover Rate • Operating Margins • Order Fulfilment Cycle Time
• Employee Absence Rate • Customer Lifetime Value • Delivery In Full On Time Rate
• Employee Training Rate • Processes and Procedures Developed • Rework Rate
• ROI of Outsourcing • Cash Flow • Customer Complaints

KPI Planning Guide 11

 See these and other KPIs in a KPI Dashboard at
https://www.qlik.com/us/dashboard-examples/kpi-dashboards

Customer Service KPIs

Service and support teams should focus on KPIs that measure response times. But, like the 15 key
performance indicators examples below, they should also have a clear view of the customer base and
longer term, preventative KPIs such as employee engagement and knowledge base articles.

• Number of Issues (By Type) • Cost Per Conversation • Customer Effort Score
• First Response Time (FRT) • Customer Satisfaction Score • Customer Retention Rate (CRR)
• First Contact Resolution Rate (CSAT) • Support Costs / Revenue Ratio
• Average Response Time • Net Promoter Score (NPS) • Knowledge Base Articles
• Average Resolution Time • Positive Customer Reviews • Employee Engagement
• Most Active Support Agents

See these and other KPIs in a Financial Dashboard at

https://www.qlik.com/us/dashboard-examples/financial-dashboards

Finance KPIs
Financial teams have no shortage of ratios and metrics to track. Finance managers and executives
should focus on margin, expense, revenue, and cash management as shown in the 15 key finance KPI
examples below.

• Gross Profit Margin (and %) • Quick Ratio (Acid Test) • Cash Conversion Cycle
• Operating Profit Margin (and %) • Current Ratio  • Accounts Payable Turnover Ratio
• Net Profit Margin (and %) • Berry Ratio (gross profit to • Accounts Receivable Turnover Ratio
• Operating Expense Ratio operating expenses) • Budget Variance
• Working Capital Ratio • Return on Assets • Payroll Headcount Ratio
• Debt-To-Equity Ratio

KPI Planning Guide 12

See these and other KPIs in an HR Dashboard at https://www.qlik.com/us/dashboard-examples/hr-dashboard

Human Resources KPIs

HR managers are primarily concerned with three main areas: workforce management, compensation,
and recruitment. The 35 key performance indicators examples below cover the main KPIs for each area:

Workforce Management KPIs: Compensation KPIs: Recruitment KPIs:

• Workforce Management KPIs: • HR functional operating • Quality of hire

• Absenteeism rate expense rate • Vacancy rate
• ROI of outsourcing • Labor cost per FTE • Turnover rate
• Succession planning rate • Labor cost revenue percent • Resignation/retirement rate
• Open/closed grievances • Labor cost revenue expense • External hire rate
• Promotion rate percent • Time-to-fill
• Time to productivity • Total benefits as percentage of • Diversity, experience, and gender
• Successor gap rate labor costs hire ratio
• Worker composition by gender, • Revenue per FTE • Recruiting funnel metrics
experience, and tenure • Profit vs. compensation per FTE • Talent import/export ratio
• Internal mobility • Human capital ROI • Voluntary turnover rate
• Manager quality index • HR functional cost per employee • Retention rate
• HR effectiveness • Recruiting expense per new hire
• Employee satisfaction rates • Retirement rate forecast
• Training ROI

KPI Planning Guide 13

 See these and other KPIs in a KPI Dashboard at
https://www.qlik.com/us/dashboard-examples/kpi-dashboards

IT KPIs
IT managers should track the on-going stream of support tickets and downtime. They should also track
the projects and the team that will proactively reduce the number of these tickets in the future as shown in
the top 15 IT KPI examples below.

• Total Support Tickets •  Average Time to Repair • Critical Bugs 

• Open Support Tickets • Uptime % • IT Support Employees Per End
• Ticket Resolution Time • Server Downtime Users 
• Reopened Tickets • Security Related Downtime • IT Costs vs Revenue 
• Average Time Between Failures • Total Projects • IT Team Turnover
• Projects on Budget

See social Media KPIs in a KPI Dashboard at

https://www.qlik.com/us/dashboard-examples/marketing-dashboards

Social Media KPIs

Social media managers should have KPIs that represent reach, engagement, and conversion to
revenue. The 15 social media key performance indicators examples below should be applied both as
totals and for each social media platform on which your organization is active.

• Social Share of Voice (SSoV) • Share Rate (Shares or ReTweets) • Site Traffic From Social (By
• Total Reach • Interest Rate (Likes, Reactions, Platform)
• Total Impressions Favorites)  • Conversions From Social
• Followers or Fans or Subscribers • Response Rate (Comments, Replies) • Conversion Rate From Social
• Audience Growth Rate • Key Post or Hashtag Reach  • Revenue From Social
• Link Clicks • Social Program ROI

KPI Planning Guide 14

ABOUT QLIK

Qlik’s vision is a data-literate world, where everyone can use data

and analytics to improve decision-making and solve their most
challenging problems. Our cloud-based Active Intelligence Platform
delivers end-to-end, real-time data integration and analytics cloud
solutions to close the gaps between data, insights and action. By
transforming data into Active Intelligence, businesses can drive better
decisions, improve revenue and profitability, and optimize customer
relationships. Qlik does business in more than 100 countries and
serves over 38,000 customers around the world.  

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