Exploring Metrics

Every KPI in TargetBoard can be explored across four powerful views: Track, Analyze, Inspect, and Improve. These tabs help you understand trends, break down data, debug edge cases, and trigger actions.

What You'll Learn

• What each Explore tab is for
• How to pivot across dimensions and drill down
• How to inspect individual items in a KPI
• How to add automations or annotations

When to Use This

Use the Explore section when you want to:

• Understand what’s behind a KPI’s trend
• Drill into a single team, label, or status
• Debug data behind the scenes
• Set alerts, annotations, or follow-up actions

1. Access the Metric Page

You can open a KPI from:

• Any KPI card title (opens in the Track tab)
• Clicking on a data point in a graph (opens in Analyze)
• The Catalog page (click any metric name)

2. Track Tab

Use the Track tab to:

• View the KPI trend over time
• Apply personal filters
• Review tags and status
• Add annotations to highlight major events

Add Annotations

Click the “Add Annotation” icon on the chart:

• Set Global visibility (everyone sees it)
• Or keep it Private (just for you)

Use annotations to track things like:

• New hire added
• Tool change
• Process shift

Annotations are great for understanding why a KPI spiked or dipped - especially for recurring reports.

3. Analyze Tab

Use the Analyze tab to:

• Pivot the metric by rows by and columns by dimensions

  Example: Team by Status

• Filter across multiple values
• Hover over a cell and click the drilldown icon
• This opens a new filtered version of the KPI
• You can then save it as:
  • A new metric in a board
  • Add it as a new mertic to the catalog

You can build multiple views from one metric - like “Cycle Time” for each squad or “Ticket Volume” by priority. At any point you can click on the more info to see the exact filter and definition of the metric.

4. Inspect Tab

Use the Inspect tab to:

• See the raw items that make up the metric
• View properties like issue title, status, assignee, labels
• View metrics by editing the columns and adding columns
• Validate why a specific item is included or excluded

This is your debugging zone - perfect for when a number looks off or a manager asks, "What’s behind that?"

Inspect is your best friend when checking edge cases or validating metric logic.

5. Improve Tab

The Improve tab is used to:

• Set up automations or alerts
• Define triggers for follow-up workflows
  • “Open a Jira ticket if CSAT drops below 70%”
  • "Pull request waiting for review more then 8 hours"

6. Add to Catalog, Share, and Add to Board

Once you’ve analyzed or drilled down into a metric, you can:

• Click Add to catalog icon to turn it into a metric KPI
• Add to a board immediately

Best Practices

• Add annotations during major events to track cause-and-effect
• Use Analyze to explore performance across multiple dimensions
• Inspect regularly to validate how a metric behaves
• Save useful views as new KPIs to reuse in boards