KPI health and alerts

Needlr checks every hour that each KPI still counts. If one stops, you're told, and the impact checks using it wait.

Needlr checks every KPI it counts, once an hour. If one suddenly stops counting, you hear about it, and the impact checks that use it wait instead of giving you a wrong answer.

Think of a counter on a shop door

A shop has a counter on its door. It clicks every time someone walks in. Most days it says about 50.

One morning it says 0. Did nobody come? Or did the counter break? Before you close the shop, you check the counter.

That's what Needlr does with your KPIs. If a button was renamed or a page moved, the KPI stops counting. Without a warning, your impact check would look like a disaster.

The three states

How Needlr decides

• It looks at the last 24 hours and at the average day of the 7 days before that.
• If the average day had at least 3 hits, and the last 24 hours have less than 10% of that, the KPI has stopped firing.
• If the average day had fewer than 3 hits, Needlr never raises an alarm. A day with zero is normal for a small KPI.
• Once a KPI has stopped firing, it stays that way until it counts again.
• KPIs counted by Google Analytics (with the GA4 tag) aren't checked this way.

Where you'll see it

• A Stopped firing tag next to the KPI: on its button in step 2 of a new impact check, next to the KPI on the check page, and under the impact check on your project page.
• The impact check's label changes to On hold. On the check page the result says Data problem: “Your KPI stopped firing, so the numbers can't be trusted until it fires again.” (more)
• An email to the account's owners and admins: “Your KPI … stopped firing”. If running impact checks use it, the email says how many.
• A message in your Slack channel too, if you connected one.
• One more email when the KPI fires again. Impact checks that use it carry on by themselves.

The KPI details card

In step 2 of a new impact check, point at a KPI to open its details card. It shows:

• What counts: the rule in plain words.
• Last 7 days: how many times it happened, and by how many people, with a small bar for each of the last 14 days.
• Where it happens: the pages where it was counted in the last 30 days.
• Last seen and Used in: when it last happened, and how many impact checks use it.
• Show it on my site: opens your site with the counted button, form or page outlined.
• A warning if nothing was counted in the last 30 days. Check it on your site before you pick it.

What to do when a KPI stops firing

1. 1Open your site and look for the button, form or page the KPI counts. In step 2 of a new impact check, the KPI's details card has Show it on my site, which outlines it for you.
2. 2If it's gone or its words changed, put it back the way it was. Results come back once it counts again.
3. 3If the change is there to stay, the KPI's rule can't be edited while a running impact check uses it. Stop the impact check and start a new one with a KPI for the new button (how).
4. 4If the button is there and works, it may just be a very slow day. When the KPI counts again, Needlr emails you and the impact checks carry on.

Common mistakes

• Renaming a button during an impact check. Change the words only after it has its verdict.
• Ignoring the email. Every hour the KPI is broken is an hour with no useful data.
• Picking a KPI with no recent hits. The details card shows the last 7 days. Zero means something is wrong already.