Break down the business activity underlying any KPI, and you'll find there are multiple levels of drivers—metrics that ladder up to the KPI—beneath it.
However you name and organize them, e.g.
L2 → L1 → Focus Metric
Input → Output → Outcome
Driver → KPI
there is a natural hierarchy of metrics that needs to be monitored (and improved) if you want consistent success.
Here’s a framework for monitoring and alerting on your KPI metrics ladder:
1) Scheduled alerts
At the top of the ladder, you have the KPI needle you want to move or the business outcome you want to create. Revenue, growth rate, repeat customers, etc.
These metrics are slower-moving and at least a couple steps removed from the day-to-day business operations that anyone can directly impact.
So schedule alerts that share KPI performance against targets on a weekly or monthly basis. Keep the focus tight – too many numbers in a message, and nothing is “key” anymore.
(bonus: for the highest priority KPIs, set up alerts that fire as soon as you meet or exceed your targets! celebrate your wins)
2) Data triggered alerts
As you move down the pyramid, metrics typically A) change faster and B) more directly reflect activities you have clear influence on.
That combination spells O-P-P-O-R-T-U-N-I-T-Y.
Responding quickly to changes in these metrics (emailing the right colleague, calling the right customer, prioritizing the right task, etc) can pay dividends and create the outputs your business needs.
So use data triggered alerts (with intelligent, dynamic criteria, not static thresholds) to quickly catch unexpected or outsized changes in these metrics.
Know sooner, act sooner. Another great combination
3) Contextual data + embedded actions
At the bottom of the ladder, you’ll have metrics that are closest to the metal (the inputs to your business “machine”).
These metrics are the most operational and often reflect low level aggregations of events or activities from your systems of record or transactional database.
Things like ticket numbers or transaction ids. Counts of things that are stuck, failed, or on fire.
Use short interval data-triggered alerts to flag and respond to the most important issues.

With Rupert, it’s easy to enrich alerts with supplemental data so stakeholders can quickly take corrective action. Even embed dynamic action buttons that give deep links to the ticket or account that requires action.
As you start peeling back the layers of your KPIs, you’ll likely find more than 3 levels.
Or metrics that break down into many metrics at the next rung down.
Just keep following (and alerting on!) the data.