Leading vs Lagging Metrics
Leading and Lagging Metrics describe timing: lagging metrics summarise the result after everything has happened; leading metrics move earlier and can give you time to respond. Decision-ready dashboards are explicit about which is which.
What we mean by “Leading vs Lagging Metrics”
Lagging metrics are outcome KPIs — revenue, margin, NPS, retention — that tell you what has already happened. Leading metrics are earlier behaviours or conditions that tend to move before those outcomes change. They are not guesses; they are chosen because there is evidence that they explain or predict shifts in the outcome.
Why this changes how people read a dashboard
When dashboards mix leading and lagging metrics without naming them, people misjudge how much time they have to act.
- Teams react too late because they only watch lagging metrics, treating them as early warnings.
- Or they over-rely on weak “leading” indicators that are not truly connected to the outcome, creating false confidence.
When you will feel this term in real life
Confusion between leading and lagging metrics sits behind several familiar symptoms:
- Wrong timing, wrong rhythm — reviews react after the damage is done, or jump too early on weak signals.
- Inconsistent responses — the same change in a leading metric sometimes triggers action, sometimes not.
The point is not to predict everything. It is to agree which metrics are for judging the past, and which are for protecting the future.
See this term in context
Leading and lagging metrics are threaded through:
Related terms in this glossary
This term connects tightly to:
A simple test: can your team label each KPI on a page as leading or lagging, and agree on those labels without a long debate?