03-16-2026IMPACT COUNCIL

17 metrics executives track religiously

Each industry has its own focus, but choosing the right metrics can help steer the ship.

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The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of top leaders and experts who pay dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership, and more.

BY Fast Company Impact Council

Metrics can tell you if you’re going the right direction or not. They can also be a waste of time if the metrics are noise instead of strong signals. There is no one right answer to which metrics to use, but understanding how others use them can turn on a light bulb for new ideas. We asked our Fast Company Impact Council members what metrics they track obsessively—and why— and the answers we share may have you rethinking your own tracking.

1. CONVERSION AND RETENTION

I track a lot of metrics and it’s easy to get lost in the minutiae of the business, but as a subscription business the metrics of conversion and retention are my twin North Stars. What percentage of visitors in trial are going to become paid subscribers, and what percentage of them will remain paid subscribers in three months? Really these metrics are a reflection of the benefit customers get from our products showing they are valuable enough for someone to pay us and that they are valuable enough for them to stick around. Nearly all of the other metrics that I obsessively check flow from these two. — Tony Grimminck, Scribd, Inc.

2. ORGANIC GOOGLE SEARCH

I track organic Google search above almost everything. You can buy impressions, but you can’t buy someone typing your brand name unprompted. It’s the cleanest signal of real demand. I also monitor inbound pull—which partners, retailers, or creators are reaching out to us. When serious brands want proximity, it means you’re culturally relevant. If search and inbound drop when spend drops, you’re renting attention, not building equity. And then there’s the quiet test: What happens when we ease off spend? Do we disappear or are we building something worthy of the space we’ve been given? — Emily Kortlang, Yerba Madre

I track EBITDA because it tells me, without any spin, whether our core business is creating the level of profitability that powers reinvestment and growth for our employee owners. I track labor as a percentage of net revenue, staff churn, and our employee culture index scores because they tell me how efficiently we’re deploying our talent and how........

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