Metrics live at two levels: objectives and themes.
Objective metrics
Objective metrics measure progress across all linked work, regardless of theme.
Use objective metrics for
- Overall goal progress
- Cross-theme health
- Company-wide KPIs
Example
Objective: “Improve customer retention” Metric: “Churn reduction” (manual)
- Target: Reduce churn from 5% to 3%
- Updated monthly by the finance team
This metric doesn’t care which theme’s work reduces churn—it’s one company-wide goal.
Theme metrics
Theme metrics measure progress within a specific theme.
Use theme metrics for
- Theme-specific goals
- Work stream milestones
- Discipline-specific initiatives
Example
Objective: “Improve customer retention” Theme: “In-app engagement redesign” Metric: “Issue completion: 8/12 issues done”
- This metric counts only issues linked to this theme
- Other themes’ issues don’t affect it
Combining both
An objective can have:
- Objective-level metric: “Overall churn: -2% (target -2%)”
- Theme A metric: “In-app engagement: 8/12 issues (67%)”
- Theme B metric: “Email campaigns: 5/5 issues (100%)”
- Theme C metric: “Support improvements: 3/6 issues (50%)”
A viewer sees both the objective-wide goal and the breakdown by theme.
Theme metrics don’t aggregate to objective metrics
Theme metrics are independent. An objective metric doesn’t calculate theme metrics—they are separate.
If you want an objective metric that summarizes themes, use an auto-calculated metric like “Issue completion” that counts all linked issues.