Designing a metrics layer stakeholders trust

Context

A growing team had multiple dashboards that disagreed on core KPIs. Leadership needed one place to look without blocking analysts every week.

What we did

• Interviewed finance, ops, and product to map decisions first, then metrics.
• Drafted a semantic contract: definitions, grain, sources, and known caveats.
• Implemented tests on the warehouse models that fail CI when logic drifts.

Outcome

Executives stopped debating numbers in meetings and started debating actions. Analysts reclaimed time from ad-hoc reconciliations.

Takeaway

If your BI layer feels fragile, the fix is rarely “more charts.” It is usually clearer ownership and measurable definitions.