Awesome KPIs

A curated list of the best resources about Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for business leaders, directors, and managers.

Inspired by awesome lists. Maintained by Rework.

Most companies track too many metrics and act on too few. The right KPIs tell you whether the business is healthy, where growth is stalling, and what decisions to make next. The resources below will help you pick the right indicators, build dashboards people actually use, and move from data collection to data-driven action.

Contents

• Articles
• Books
• Videos & Talks
• Tools & Software
• Templates & Frameworks
• Case Studies & Real-World Examples
• Communities & Newsletters
• Rework Resources

Articles

The most useful KPI guidance balances leading and lagging indicators, filters out vanity metrics, and ties every measure to a real decision.

• Key Performance Indicators & Metrics by Bernard Marr - A comprehensive hub covering KPI selection, measurement, and benchmarking.
• The Ultimate KPI Guide by Klipfolio - Plain-language explanation of KPIs with industry examples and dashboard tips.
• The North Star Metric Explained by Reforge - How to find the single metric that best captures your product's core value.
• Finance KPIs Every CFO Should Track by McKinsey - Key financial indicators and how CFOs and CEOs should align on them.
• Marketing KPIs Beyond Vanity by Content Marketing Institute - Measuring marketing impact with metrics that connect to revenue.
• Lead Scoring Systems by Rework - How to build a scoring model that prioritizes your highest-value leads, a practical example of leading indicators in action.

Books

• Key Performance Indicators by David Parmenter - The most complete guide to developing, implementing, and using winning KPIs; now in its fourth edition.
• Key Performance Indicators For Dummies by Bernard Marr - Practical coverage of 100+ KPIs across financial, operational, sales, and customer metrics.
• The Balanced Scorecard by Robert Kaplan & David Norton - The foundational framework for connecting KPIs to strategy across four business perspectives. (classic)
• 25 Need-to-Know Key Performance Indicators by Bernard Marr - A focused guide to the 25 most important metrics for modern businesses.
• Measure What Matters by John Doerr - Covers OKRs but the underlying logic of measurable outcomes applies directly to KPI thinking.

Videos & Talks

• How to Create KPIs That Actually Work by Bernard Marr - A concise walkthrough of KPI selection and measurement methodology.
• The Balanced Scorecard Explained - A visual breakdown of Kaplan & Norton's four-perspective framework for business measurement.
• Finding Your North Star Metric by Reforge - How to identify the one metric that captures your company's core growth engine.
• KPI Dashboard Design Principles by Geckoboard - Practical principles for building dashboards people use to make decisions.
• Data-Driven Leadership (TED-style talk) - How executives use data to make faster, better decisions at scale.

Tools & Software

• Tableau - Industry-leading data visualization platform for building interactive KPI dashboards.
• Microsoft Power BI - Enterprise BI tool that connects to hundreds of data sources for real-time reporting.
• Klipfolio - Cloud-based dashboard tool that connects 130+ data sources for real-time KPI monitoring.
• Databox - Pulls data from 100+ sources into one clean dashboard, ideal for marketing and sales teams.
• Geckoboard - TV-first KPI dashboard designed for shared office displays and remote team visibility.
• Google Looker Studio - Free data visualization tool with native Google integrations and 800+ connectors.
• Domo - Enterprise business intelligence platform with strong data governance and sharing features.
• SimpleKPI - Lightweight KPI tracking tool designed for small teams without a data analyst.

Templates & Frameworks

These frameworks help leaders connect financial, customer, process, and learning measures to the strategy they are meant to guide.

• KPI Template Library by Klipfolio - Hundreds of pre-built KPI definitions organized by department and industry.

Case Studies & Real-World Examples

The companies below reduced metric noise, exposed a vital few indicators, and connected those measures to operating decisions and accountability.

• Walmart - Walmart's supply chain dominance is built on real-time KPI visibility. Their Retail Link system, deployed in the 1990s, gave suppliers direct access to store-level sales data, a radical move that reduced out-of-stock rates and inventory waste simultaneously. This KPI-sharing approach with the supply chain was a decade ahead of industry practice and is credited with Walmart's ability to undercut competitors on both price and availability. Source

Communities & Newsletters

• Data + AI Summit Community - Annual conference and community for data leaders building analytics and measurement systems.
• RevOps Co-op - Community for revenue operations leaders who live and breathe performance metrics.

Rework Resources

Explore more performance measurement content on the Rework blog:

• Conversion Rate Analysis - Tracking and improving the metrics that predict pipeline health and revenue.

Contributing

Know a great KPI resource that should be on this list? Let us know.