# Success metrics, SMARTE goals and early signals

*Platform Strategy Designer Study Guide · Value Design · Last updated November 2, 2026 · https://www.certifyforce.com/study-guide/platform-strategy-designer/value-design/success-metrics-smarte-goals-and-early-signals*

How to define success before any performance data exists: the project brief, the four business goal types, trailing customer metrics versus early desirability signals, design implications and future metrics, ESG metrics, and SMARTE goals that let a strategy designer push back on harmful targets.

- Certification: Salesforce Platform Strategy Designer
- Exam section: Value Design
- Study guide: https://www.certifyforce.com/study-guide/platform-strategy-designer

**Official exam objective:**

> Based on the challenge statement created, identify the metrics and signals that will define success.

## What the exam expects

- Set expectations for what good looks like in a project brief, and connect the challenge framing to goals business leaders have set.
- Classify a business goal as a growth, expansion, efficiency or customer satisfaction target.
- Choose early desirability signals over slow trailing metrics while a concept is still being prototyped, and draft the metrics to use after launch.
- Translate a business goal into design implications, and add societal (ESG) metrics alongside business and customer ones.
- Apply SMARTE and push back on goals that could cause harm.
- Key terms: **success metrics / KPIs** (a quantifiable way to measure progress); **trailing indicator** (a metric that takes a long time to measure); **desirability** (whether customers want the product); **ESG** (environment, societal and governance); **SMARTE** (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound, Ethical).

## Key facts

| Fact | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|
| No data while defining a strategy | Data always reflects past performance | [Define Success](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/challenge-framing-and-scoping/define-success) |
| Who sets high-level business goals | Business leaders, not the strategy designer | [Define Success](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/challenge-framing-and-scoping/define-success) |
| Four business goal types | Growth, expansion, efficiency, customer satisfaction | [Define Success](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/challenge-framing-and-scoping/define-success) |
| Time to profit | New companies average 4–5 years; new offerings can take as long | [Define Success](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/challenge-framing-and-scoping/define-success) |
| Best early indicators | Realistic adoption targets and sentiment metrics | [Define Success](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/challenge-framing-and-scoping/define-success) |
| Trailing customer metrics | NPS, retention rate, lifetime value | [Define Success](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/challenge-framing-and-scoping/define-success) |
| Stakeholder pledge | Over 180 CEOs in 2019 | [Define Success](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/challenge-framing-and-scoping/define-success) |
| The E in SMARTE | Ethical | [Define Success](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/challenge-framing-and-scoping/define-success) |
| Project Brief contents | Goals, outcomes and deliverables | [Define Success](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/challenge-framing-and-scoping/define-success) |
| KPIs as exam topic | Listed in the Value Design key topics | [Value Design Prep](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/salesforce-strategy-designer-certification-prep/learn-about-value-design) |

## Check yourself

- Why are there no success metrics to collect while a strategy is being defined?
- Why do strategy designers approach solutioning from a desirability lens first?
- When the project goal is loyalty, what might its post-launch metric be?
- Which three ESG pillars group the page's example metrics?

## Sources

- [Define Success](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/challenge-framing-and-scoping/define-success)
- [Learn About Value Design](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/salesforce-strategy-designer-certification-prep/learn-about-value-design)

## About the full unit

The "Core concepts", "Exam traps" and "Worked scenario" sections of this unit, its 13 linked practice questions, and unlimited timed mock exams are included with the Platform Strategy Designer pack (USD $19): https://www.certifyforce.com/practice-exams