The Sneaky Seven: Metrics That Seem Obvious (But Aren’t)

The biggest data problem in your business isn’t technical. It’s conversational, and most teams realize it too late.

Most data mistakes don’t look like mistakes. They look like smart, reasonable decisions—but based on numbers that weren’t fully understood.

Teams often think they’re aligned because they’re using the same words:

“Revenue.” “Users.” “Customers.”

But they’re not.

They’re working from different definitions and no one realizes it until something breaks. Then it shows up as rework, wasted time, and wrong turns.

This is a problem of false alignment. It’s common, it’s frustrating, and it’s almost never talked about directly.

Let’s change that.

Here are 7 common offenders that wreak havoc on well-meaning teams, and what you can do about it.

The Sneaky Seven: Metrics that always need a definition

#7: Leads

“Leads” (or prospects) sounds simple, but can have very different meanings across teams. Marketing might count a whitepaper download. Sales may only count someone who requests a meeting.

Depending on the system used to capture them, leads coming from different channels (sales vs. web vs. social, etc.) aren’t always captured or categorized consistently.

Now layer in intent and timing. Are all leads equal? Probably not. And how long is someone considered a lead if they don’t convert into a sale - days, weeks, months?

Before using Leads, ask: What actions qualify as a lead? Which channels are included? And when does a lead stop being a lead?

#6: Traffic

“Traffic” can mean foot traffic at a store or event, or digital activity online. And within each, there are multiple ways to measure it.

At an industry event, traffic could mean total attendees or only the people who stopped at your booth. On a website, it could be page views, sessions, engaged sessions, users, or unique users. Each of these tells a different story and has a different context.

Before reacting to a spike or drop in traffic, ask: What kind of traffic is this - and why is this specific measure being used?

#5: New Product Revenue

“New product revenue” is often used to measure innovation and growth, but there’s usually a lot of debate about what counts as “new.” Timing might be limited to products launched just this year, or, if a product has a long sales cycle, it might include the first few years of a product’s lifecycle.

The type of product also needs definition. Teams differ in whether they count only new standalone or if major new features for existing products are included as well.

Don’t forget to clarify revenue. Some teams use projections. Others use actual revenue. Others use sales booked.

Before using this metric, ask: What counts as a ‘new product’? And how long does something count as ‘new’? Is this projected or actual revenue?

#4: Users and Usage

“Users” and “usage” are highly dependent on your product and distribution model, especially in businesses that deliver services online like banking, software, streaming, or gaming.

A user may be anyone with a login or only someone that is active. But what counts as ‘active’ also varies and needs definition. Perhaps it is someone who accessed the system in the past 30 days, or who took a specific action, or spent a minimum amount of time.

Before citing the usage or user number, ask: Who counts as a “user”? What specifically counts as “active” usage? How is this captured?

#3: Customers

Counting customers gets surprisingly complicated, and definitions can vary between teams or product lines within the same organization.

In B2B, the first question is usually whether the number is counting companies, contracts, or individual users. One company might have multiple contracts and thousands of users.

In both B2C and B2B, the buyer and the end user may not be the same person - like a team signing the contract while another uses the product, or even a parent buying a toy for their child. This is also an important distinction.

Then there is timing and services. A customer who purchased last year, but not this year, may not be counted by one team, but is included by another. How free subscribers or limited trial / promotional customers are counted may also be a discrepancy between teams.

When talking about how many customers you have, ask: Who is being counted? Over what time period? And for which products or relationship?

#2: Retention

Retention (or renewal rate) is the percentage of customers, or revenue, you keep over a period of time.

This metric gets muddy quickly and needs clarification on whether it’s measuring:

• customer retention or revenue retention

• a specific cohort (”customers who signed up in January”) or the whole customer base

• upsells, new customers, or pricing changes

Depending on what is included, retention can exceed 100% and mask churn rates, or not. For this reason, the team might decide for multiple retention metrics based on their objectives.**

Before using a retention metric, ask: Customers or revenue? What cohort or base is being measured over what time period? And what is included / excluded in the calculation?

#1: Revenue

“Revenue is revenue”… until it isn’t.

Sales vs. revenue. Recognized vs. booked. Gross vs. net.

Revenue is one of the most misunderstood numbers because a few key distinctions get blurred.

Sales and revenue are often used interchangeably, but they’re not the same. Sales reflect what was sold in a given period. Revenue reflects what the company is allowed to recognize as earned.

When looking at revenue, you need to understand how it is “earned” or “recognized.” Depending on the product or service, revenue might be counted when a product ships, when it’s delivered, or as it’s used. Or it might follow a defined schedule - so a 12-month subscription sold today might have revenue that is split over 12 months.

And what counts as revenue isn’t always obvious either. In marketplace models, like Etsy or AirBnB, $100K in transactions might translate to $5K in revenue from fees or $105K, depending on how it’s defined.

Before running with it, ask: Is this sales or earned revenue? What products or services are included? And how does revenue get recognized?

Why are these metrics so “sneaky”?

With so much variability, you’d think that we’d always want to clarify the definitions. But we don’t.

Familiar words create a false sense of clarity.

Revenue. Users. Customers.

They sound obvious. So teams assume alignment without confirming what’s actually being measured.

And even when something feels off, people often don’t ask. They feel like they should already know. Or they don’t want to slow the meeting down. Or it’s uncomfortable to challenge a number someone else owns.

So instead, people stay quiet and move on.

When you combine:

• One word that can mean many different things

• A tendency not to pause and clarify

You get false alignment. Nothing breaks right away. It shows up later as confusion, rework, wasted time, and mediocre to poor decisions.

How do you get clarity?

Start here: ask the question. What is included in this metric? How is it defined? Just ask.

Yes, it might feel uncomfortable. But chances are, someone else is wondering the exact same thing and once you say it out loud, you’ll realize the room wasn’t aligned after all.

And when the conversation gets fuzzy, use this playbook:

1. See it for yourself. Go to the source. If it’s a lead, walk through the website or flow. What actually happens when it is captured?

2. Run a quick scenario. Get clear on yes/no cases. “If I download the e-book, am I a lead? What if I request a demo? What if I chat with the bot?”

3. Clarify what’s included. “Does this lead number include only website activity? Or also social, CRM, and sales team inputs?”

4. Tie it back to the report. “So 108 leads in April means 108 people completed web forms or chats, and this excludes phone calls and sales-sourced leads. Correct?”

Your goal: understand it well enough to explain it to someone else simply.

And if you’re being measured on it? Don’t leave the conversation until you know exactly how your actions move that number.

Thanks for reading. Do you have another “sneaky” metric we should add? We’d love to hear it!

**If you want to dig into more on retention, this article from Churnzero is one of the more helpful explanations we’ve seen. We have no affiliation, we just appreciate their clear explanation of retention and when to use it.

Bonus Reading: Other sneaky metrics (but for different reasons)

Percentages add another layer of confusion because they depend on multiple underlying definitions, especially when it comes to conversion rates and trends. We’ve covered these in more detail in other articles. You can read more below.

Trends You Can Trust: Beyond the Basics

Trends You Can Trust: Foundations

Read Data Like a Skeptic

Leadership Training in Disguise