How It Works

dashboard

Trace brings the powerful concept of metric trees to life aligning an organization’s inputs and efforts against the desired business outcomes.

Step 1

Design
Metric Trees

Start with critical output metrics and decompose them into granular inputs. Or, work your way bottom-up.
OKRs and planning processes are a vital source for this design exercise. Trees are organizational artifacts.
Metric trees can be domain-specific or higher-level, cross-functional in the inputs.
Dashboard
dashboard
Step 2

Map
the Metrics

Map the datasets and business logic behind the "nodes" in the metric tree.
Trace uses well-designed configuration files (a light-weight "metrics layer") to power the application.
Trace natively understands the syntax of DBT Metrics, but it is not essential to getting started.
Step 3

Bring Metric Trees To Life

Trace creates and populates the core metric tree artifacts for the organization.
Executives, business leads and data teams can visually align on the ongoing work and the desired outcomes.
Trees are backed by extensive datasets encompassing metrics and rich segmentation.
Dashboard
Step 4

Utilize and Operate

Tap into a library of pre-existing algorithms for common metric analysis needs.
Streamline "always-on" analysis and insights for weekly and monthly business reviews.
Shape business strategy and drive consistent operational excellence.
Dashboard
qa icon

Frequently Asked Questions

Reach us and ask any question!

What are metric trees?
down arrow

Metric trees map the business KPIs to input drivers and granular segments. The closest analogy to today’s “BI" world is to think of them as “dashboard trees” - that is, they connect the metrics in various dashboards to reflect the business processes and models.

How do I create a metric tree?
down arrow

Start with a high-level output KPI and then break it down layer by layer into granular inputs. For example, revenue can be decomposed into “orders”, “items per order”, “units per item” and “price per unit” and further into "new" vs "expansion" terms.

Why is this framework essential now?
down arrow

Organizations continue to make huge investments into data without realizing the ROI on the other end. They find themselves creating dashboard swamps - chopping up metrics into pieces losing sight of the underlying business processes and user needs. This manifests in slow time to insights, bloated data servicing teams, weak business self-service and an organization parched for clear operating insights. Teams feel disconnected from their business impact despite sitting on a lot of datasets.

What are the benefits of metric trees?
down arrow

Metric trees are the missing layer to convert data into business strategy and operational excellence.
1) The C-suite gains clarity and alignment of the org-wide input levers and how they impact outcomes.
2) Analysts save enormous time executing deep dives as software does the heavy calculation lift.
3) Business leads enjoy rapid, granular insights, not a swamp of disconnected swamp of dashboards.

Integrates easily with the modern data  stack

Trace augments existing BI/reporting tools with a powerful browser-based design and implementation of metric trees.

and more

Trusted and Loved By

"Trace has been a game changer for our organization. We leverage our financial and operational metric trees regularly to identify the drivers behind metric trends, as well as variances versus budgets in a clear, actionable way. I'm excited to continue working with Trace as we scale."

Marcello Halitzer
Head of Finance,
@Chapter

"I’m a big proponent of metric trees, and Trace is the first tool that brings them to life exactly as I imagined—packed with rich features and functionality. It automates the tedious work and cuts through the noise of metrics in a clear, concise way. Excited to partner with them!"

Maxime Lagresle
Sr. Director of Data
@Veronica Beard

"Trace has become an invaluable tool for us! It allows us to quickly and comprehensively analyze the drivers of our KPIs, running complex analyses with just a few clicks. We’re excited to continue leveraging Trace as they consistently ship new features."

person
Peter Muller
Head of Insights
@Capsule
person
arrow

How It Works

dash heroApp Screenshot mobile

Trace brings the power of metric trees to life. Utilizing cutting-edge OLAP tech, it runs blazingly fast transformations empowering data and business teams with instant insights

Trace Complements Existing "BI" Tools

Trace augments existing BI/reporting tools with a powerful browser-based calculation engine that operates on metrics, segments and relationships.

frame

Without Trace

  • 01

    Dashboards capture what has already happened. Not the why.

  • 02

    Analysis is limited by data team's bandwidth.

  • 03

    Granular insights requires effort. Writing queries is tedious.

  • 04

    Taking action on insights is hard. Business feels under-served.

  • 05

    Metric reports are islands. Business connections are lost.

VS

vactor
vactor

With Trace

  • 01

    Rapidly answer the why. Crush your business KPI reviews!

  • 02

    Gain productivity. Address a high % of exec/leadership questions.

  • 03

    Trace auto-calculates across granular segments blazingly fast.

  • 04

    Go from metric -> segment -> entity lists; act on the insights.

  • 05

    Model systemic connections and processes, not just metrics.

frame

Without Trace

  • 01

    Dashboards capture what has already happened. Not the why.

  • 02

    Analysis is limited by data team's bandwidth.

  • 03

    Granular insights requires effort. Writing queries is tedious.

  • 04

    Taking action on insights is hard. Business feels under-served.

  • 05

    Metric reports are islands. Business connections are lost.

vactor
vactor

With Trace

  • 01

    Rapidly answer the why. Crush your business KPI reviews!

  • 02

    Gain productivity. Address a high % of exec/leadership questions.

  • 03

    Trace auto-calculates at granular segments delightfully fast.

  • 04

    Go from metric -> segment -> entity lists; act on the insights.

  • 05

    Model systemic connections and processes, not just metrics.

Value Proposition

vactor

Productivity

Automation

Takes just a few clicks to run analysis. Save precious time and answer more questions.

icon

Reliability

Trusted Insights

Nurture the insight -> action -> insight loop on a trusted, reliable back-end semantic model.

icon

Intelligence

More connections. Better insights.

The metric tree captures connections  enabling system-wide insights.

icon

Impact

Drive ROI from your own data

Demand more from your data investments. Run an analytics-powered business.

vactor

Productivity

Automation

Takes just a few clicks to run analysis. Save precious time and answer more questions.

icon

Reliability

Trusted Insights

Nurture the insight -> action -> insight loop on a trusted, reliable back-end semantic model.

icon

Intelligence

More connections. Better insights.

The semantic layer captures connections between metrics enabling system-wide insights.

icon

Impact

Drive ROI from your own data

Demand more from your data investments. Run an analytics-powered business.