Lagging Indicator

A lagging indicator is a metric that reports an outcome after the fact; by the time it moves, the behaviour that caused it happened weeks earlier.

Revenue, churn rate and month-three retention are clear examples: they are trustworthy because they measure the actual outcome, but they arrive late and usually cannot be corrected within the period they describe. That makes a lagging indicator a verdict rather than a steering wheel. The common failure is managing by it: a team reacts monthly to a number whose cause formed two months ago, and today's reaction will only appear two months from now. The correct treatment is pairing each lagging indicator with one or two leading indicators that expose the same causal chain earlier.