How would you change a product team/organization to be more KPI driven?

Becoming more KPI driven is a matter of desire and taste. No person, team, or organization attempts to change without believing that behaving differently will result in an improved outcome they care about. It's only possible when leaders buy into how it would improve the success of their teams and business (e.g. profitability, valuation growth, employee engagement, talent retention, positive social impact, etc.) Some companies are steadfast that the use of KPIs should not equate to being data dr ...Read More

This can sometimes seem like an impossible task - but there are some core change management principles we use at BILL that you can use to help people get excited about the idea of making the move.  Step 1: Prep the organization for the change You have to get people to move from their current beliefs and behaviors to the desired beliefs and behaviors. You can do this in a few steps (1) Understand what their fears and concerns with the change, (2) Share a clear vision and strategy to address conce ...Read More

To make a product team/organization more KPI driven, it is always best to start at the top. The Head of Product at your organization should provide the broader PM organization with the strategic context of what business objectives are essential for your team to hit.  From there the PM team can take that business objective and break it down into their own objective and key result. If you are a product leader seeking to make your organization more KPI driven, what I would do is identify what metri ...Read More

What a terrific question! This is one takes time and depending upon your organization will require patience. The best way I have learned, is to ask "why" a particular feature is being prioritized, and the "impact" it is bringing to the customer. The best way to create change is to start with your own product team (even if that consists of you as the PM, engineering, and UX/UI). For every epic/story, make sure to note down the KPI that it will impact, and why that is important to your target (end ...Read More

PSA: This perspective comes from a product-led growth company, where KPIs are embedded into how the business operates. In this environment, becoming KPI-driven isn’t about adding dashboards; it’s about changing how people think, make decisions, and communicate impact. 1. Start with clarity Telling a team to “be more data-driven” is rarely helpful. It signals a lack of specificity about what kind of data capability you actually want to develop. The first step is to get clear on your goals. What k ...Read More

See question: “What are good OKRs for product management?” for a general introduction to the topic. Being more data-driven is about the entire strategic planning methodology. It could feel natural to start with having execution KPI or KR, but those will only be good if you came up with those metrics in a scientific way. See question: “How do you approach setting crisp KPIs and targets for Engine features and linking them to your topline metrics?” for my step by step process for realistic OKRs. T ...Read More

Create forcing functions that will encourage KPI creation and analysis throughout the product life cycle. Here are some ways I've had success in doing so: I've found OKR exercises to be incredibly helpful in orienting teams around KPIs. As you set those Objectives, you have to also understand what your key results are, which often requires KPI measurement. Once the team has landed on those, it can become a topic of discussion throughout the product lifecycle...how is this helping us hit our key ...Read More

This is a challenge all organizations face as they scale. Most of my experience is in startups, and I know first-hand how hard it is to transition from instinct to data-driven decisions. It's not something you can just flip a switch on - it takes a very intentional mindset and at least one person to really champion. It sounds like you already have the crucial first ingredient: the desire to be more data-driven. In my experience, there are a few critical steps to take to start to make this transi ...Read More

KPIs need to be relatable to the team and part of your product and company cadence. They also need to tie to the company goals. I like to utilize yearly and quarterly planning for the company as the start of the product team cadence and then spend time with the product team to ensure we measure what matters. For example, if you are trying to drive growth - map out new product launches and tie the KPIs to the launch. If you are trying to reduce costs, tie your KPIs to reduction of support tickets ...Read More

This change can be driven by focusing on fostering a data-forward culture. Start by ensuring all your product teams have clarity of vision and outcome goals.   This leads to product backlog features having clear, measurable and time bound goals During roadmap planning, use these backlog goals as input for prioritization Lead your team to embrace outcome-focused product launches. Change ‘Done’ definition from ‘development complete’ to ‘when customer and/or business goals are met’  Another importa ...Read More