Issue 15 companion · The AI Metric That Matters Is Not Usage
The Consequence Metric picker
Usage tells you people are busy. A consequence metric tells you the business changed shape. For each AI workflow, tick the one downstream number it must move - from the menu below - and put only that on the executive page. Everything else is a footprint.
This one is for readers of The Signal.
Add your name and The Consequence Metric picker opens right here, on this page. You also get one sharp idea about AI and leadership every Tuesday, each with a companion like this one.
Founding readers also get The Starting Line, my $47 course, free. One email a week. Unsubscribe any time, and your data is yours - we never sell or share it.
What you are opening
Built for this issue. It follows the argument you have just read, one step at a time.
A live status. It tells you what is still blank, because a half-filled sheet changes nothing.
Saved on your device. Close the tab and come back to it.
Prints clean. Take it into the room on paper if that is how the room works.
The Signal
The Consequence Metric picker
Issue 15 companion · The AI Metric That Matters Is Not Usage
The Consequence Metric picker
Usage tells you people are busy. A consequence metric tells you the business changed shape. For each AI workflow, tick the one downstream number it must move - from the menu below - and put only that on the executive page. Everything else is a footprint.
A prompt count is not an outcome. It is a footprint.
Nothing answered yet
Customer & service
Resolution time- how long a case takes to close
First-contact resolution rate- solved without a second touch
Escalation rate- how often it goes up a level
Repeat contact rate- customers coming back for the same issue
CSAT / NPS- how the customer actually felt
Sales & commercial
Conversion rate- leads that become customers
Sales cycle time- days from lead to close
Win rate- qualified deals actually won
Average deal value- size of what closes
Cost to acquire / cost to sell- what a customer costs to win
Finance & cost
Cost per transaction / per unit- unit economics of the work
Gross or contribution margin- what is left after the cost of doing it
Working-capital days- how long cash is tied up
Rework / error cost- the price of fixing it twice
Operations & delivery
Cycle time / lead time- start to finished, per item
Throughput- volume completed per period
On-time delivery rate- promises kept
Defect / error rate- how often the output is wrong
Hours freed AND redeployed- and to exactly what (name it, or it is not a saving)
Risk & quality
Exception rate- cases that need a human override
Compliance / incident rate- breaches or near-misses
Time to detect an error- caught inside, or outside
Retention & growth
Churn / retention rate- customers who stay
Net revenue retention- growth from existing customers
Time to value- how fast a new customer gets a result
The one metric we will put on the executive page
The workflow
The consequence metric
Baseline (before)
Target (after)
The Signal
One sharp idea about AI and leadership, every Tuesday - with a companion like this each issue. Not subscribed yet? Get The Signal here.
VZN Studios · Your data is yours - we never sell or share it.
Join Our Free Trial
Get started today before this once in a lifetime opportunity expires.
