YC Partner Adora Cheung covers the importance of defining and tracking KPIs to understand how effectively your startup is reaching your goals. Transcript and lecture slides here: https://www.ycombinator.com/library/6j-how-to-set-kpis-and-goals-sus-2019 This lecture is part of YC's Startup School, a free online program and global community of founders. Register and join the community at https://www.startupschool.org/ Timestamps 00:00 What is a Key Performance Indicator (KPI)? 00:39 Why do KPIs matter? 1:33 What are the right KPIs to set? 1:46 Setting your primary metric 2:22 What are the characteristics of a good primary metric? 5:32 The two best primary metrics 6:50 When should you consider active users as a metric? 9:20 KPIs for bio and hardtech businesses 11:15 Secondary metrics 12:56 The best KPI for an unlaunched company 13:55 Setting metric-based goals 15:20 How fast should I grow? 17:15 What does success look like for you? 17:40 Guidelines for defining a goal 19:45 How to pick a goal 20:44 Tracking Progress 21:18 Leveraging your primary goal 22:27 Using the Startup School weekly update