Many companies use key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure performance of a specific business metric that is valuable to the business growth. These performance indicators are usually measured over time and are very different from department to department.

KPIs are very much like SMART goals organizations should be following.

These performance indicators should be:

• Specific
  There should be a specific objective to be goaled upon.
• Measurable
  You need to be able to measure the progress over time.
• Attainable
  The business metric can’t be outrageously out of reach.
• Relevant
  Results need to be relevant to the goals.
• Time-based
  The business metric needs to be measured in a time box.

An example of a KPI for an organization might be:

Growth in new gross revenue from Widget X.

A SMART KPI to support this:

Tim is responsible for $10,000 in new gross revenue from Widget X within this quarter.