Break Your North-Star Metric Into Drivers: The KPI Tree Widget

Every business — a one-person shop included — has one number that matters most: monthly revenue, active subscribers, paying customers. That's the north star. But a north star alone doesn't tell you what to do on a Tuesday morning. For that you need to know what feeds it: which drivers move it, and which of them is behind.

That decomposition has a classic shape — a KPI tree. Revenue breaks into traffic × conversion × price; subscribers break into new sign-ups and churn; each of those can break down again. Consultants draw these on whiteboards. Baton Board puts one on your dashboard, live, next to the tasks that move it.

What the KPI Tree widget does

• One tree, drawn properly. Your north-star metric sits at the top; child nodes branch below it with visible connecting lines. The structure is the explanation.
• Each node is a real metric. A node carries a label, a value, a unit, and an accent color — so "Traffic", "Conversion", and "Average order" read as first-class numbers, not text in a diagram.
• Targets and achievement badges. Give a node a target and it shows an achievement rate; hit 100% and the badge changes to the achieved color. One glance separates the drivers that are fine from the one that needs you this week.
• Restructure by drag and drop. Grab a node by its handle and drop it onto a new parent — the lines re-wire. Reorder siblings, or promote a node to the top level. Your model of the business will change; the tree changes with it.
• Values that update themselves. Publish a small JSON KPI feed (a script or CI job can generate it) and any node with a matching feed key fills in automatically — with key suggestions as you type. Your tree stays current without morning copy-paste.

Why put it on the dashboard, not in a slide

A KPI tree in a slide deck is a snapshot; it decays the day after the meeting. On a dashboard it becomes an instrument:

• It answers "why". The KPI widget tells you revenue dipped. The tree tells you which driver dipped — and that's the difference between worrying and acting.
• It sits next to the work. Baton Board is a widget board: put the tree beside the task list, the habit tracker, and the goals that push its weakest branch. Diagnosis and execution share one screen.
• It's yours to reshape. No diagram tool, no export cycle. When you realize churn deserves its own branch, you drag it there and keep working.
• Humans and AI read the same board. Baton Board is built for the age of AI — your layout and your agents' updates live in one data structure. The tree gives that shared board its structure of intent: what matters, and what feeds what.

Local-first, like everything else

Your KPI tree — values, targets, structure — lives on your device, not on our servers. There's no account. If you opt into a KPI feed, the board fetches your feed from the URL you configure; nothing is sent to us. Export your board and the tree travels with it in data.json.

Build your first tree in five minutes

1. Add the KPI Tree widget (it's part of Pro — you can preview it first).
2. Name the north star. Add the root node: "Monthly revenue", with its unit and current value.
3. Add the drivers. Two to four children: traffic, conversion, price — whatever your model says feeds the top.
4. Set targets on the nodes you're pushing this quarter, and watch the achievement badges do the triage.
5. Optionally connect a feed so values update themselves, and reshape the tree as your understanding sharpens.

Frequently asked questions

What is a KPI tree?

A KPI tree breaks one top metric (the north star) into the drivers that feed it — for example, revenue into traffic, conversion, and average price — so you can see which lever actually moves the number.

Can I set targets on individual drivers?

Yes. Any node can carry a target, and it shows an achievement-rate badge that changes color when you reach 100%.

Can I restructure the tree later?

Yes. Drag a node onto a new parent to re-wire the connecting lines, reorder siblings, or promote a node to the top level. The tree is meant to evolve with your model.

Can the values update automatically?

Yes. Publish a small JSON KPI feed at a URL you control (a script or CI job can generate it) and nodes with a matching feed key fill in and refresh automatically. Without a feed, values are edited by hand.

Is the KPI Tree widget free?

It's part of the Pro analytics set, alongside KPI, goal, habit, agenda, activity, and PDCA. The free plan covers one board with the seven free widgets.

Pricing

Free covers one customizable board with the seven free widgets, export/import, automatic backups, board-wide search, and eight languages. Pro (¥980/month or ¥9,800/year) unlocks unlimited boards, the analytics widgets (KPI, KPI tree, goal, habit, agenda, activity, PDCA), the AI assistant, end-to-end sync, and deep customization. A ¥14,800 lifetime license is available. Polar handles payments and worldwide taxes.

Try it

Open Baton Board, sketch your north star and its three biggest drivers, and see your business as a structure instead of a lone number — on a board you fully own.

Related reading: "Build Your Own Personal KPI Dashboard" and "A Shared Cockpit for You and Your AI Agents."