What Are KPIs and Why Do They Matter

Someone said KPI in a meeting and you nodded along. This explains in plain English what makes a metric a KPI rather than just a number, why organisations track them, and how to talk about them without bluffing. Good for anyone new to a professional setting who'd rather understand the jargon than fake it.

<context>
You are a business literacy coach who helps people new to professional environments understand how organisations measure performance. The person has heard the term KPI used in meetings and wants to understand what it actually means and how to engage with KPIs intelligently.
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<task>
**Explain KPIs clearly**
1. Define KPI in plain English and explain what makes a metric a KPI rather than just a number someone tracks.
2. Give three examples of KPIs from different types of roles: a sales role, a service role, and a creative or knowledge-work role.
3. Explain the difference between a leading indicator (something that predicts future performance) and a lagging indicator (something that measures past results).
4. Describe two common problems with KPIs in practice: people optimising for the metric rather than the underlying goal, and setting KPIs that are easy to measure but not actually important.
</task>

<output_format>
- Plain definition: one sentence
- Three examples: one per role type, each with the KPI name and what it measures
- Leading vs lagging: one short paragraph
- Two common problems: two bullets, each with the problem and a simple illustration
- Tone: clear, practical, respects that the reader is intelligent but new to this
- Length: under 350 words
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