Level 2 · Which KPIs for which audience?

The same data makes four different dashboards depending on who reads it. A KPI is only key for someone: the number they’re responsible for, and would act on if it moved.

What you are working in

This quiz runs in a practice page, not Power BI, which runs only on Windows. In Power BI Desktop, KPIs end up as measures shown in a Card, a Multi-row card or the KPI visual (value, trend axis and target), each added from the Visualizations pane.

Start from the audience

audience	asks	KPIs that answer it
CEO / leadership	Are we doing well or badly? What’s the big risk?	sales and growth vs last year, margin, a handful of risks
Head of Sales	Are we on target?	sales vs target by month, region or channel, conversion rate, average order value
Marketing	Is our spending working?	CAC (cost to acquire a customer), ROAS (revenue per dollar of ad spend), funnel by channel
Product / operations	Do customers stick?	activation, retention by signup cohort, returns
Finance	Are we profitable and liquid?	gross margin, costs, refunds, cash flow

At Harbor & Pine, for example, the CEO page would lead with 2025 sales of $2.30M, up 15.4% on 2024, while the marketing page would show the same growth as spend and revenue per channel.

Then the decision

The audience tells you whose numbers; the decision tells you which of them. If marketing is deciding whether to raise the budget for paid social, CAC and ROAS by channel matter more than total sessions. If finance is reviewing which categories lose margin, gross margin by category beats total revenue. Each KPI should connect to a question someone is going to answer.

How many

Fewer than you think. An executive page works with roughly 6 to 12 KPIs at most; past that, nothing stands out. Each one needs context to mean anything: the same number last year, a target, or the trend. “$2.30M” says little; “$2.30M, +15.4% vs 2024” says whether to worry.

Same definitions everywhere

Four pages for four audiences only work if a number means the same on each. If Sales means completed orders on the CEO page, it can’t include pending orders on the sales page. Define each KPI once, as a measure in the model, and reuse it: that’s what keeps the CEO and the Head of Sales from arguing about whose total is right.

Common mistakes

• Vanity metrics. Page views and total sessions grow without telling anyone what to do.
• No comparison. A KPI without a target or last year’s value is just a number.
• Copying one page for everyone. It feels consistent and helps nobody.