Lagging indicator
A metric that reports the consequence of a problem after it has occurred, such as a customer complaint count or a regulatory fine. Necessary for accountability but insufficient alone as a warning system, because it cannot prevent the harm it reports.
Defined in 4 GAGE programs, which carry 6 distinct definitions of it. The wording above is taught in AI Data Governance: The Data Chair.
How each discipline defines it
The same term does different work depending on who is using it. These are the definitions as each program teaches them, unedited.
A metric that reports the consequence of a problem after it has occurred, such as a customer complaint count or a regulatory fine. Necessary for accountability but insufficient alone as a warning system, because it cannot prevent the harm it reports.
An outcome metric measured after events have occurred, such as the count of serious incidents reported under Article 73 or the remediation closure rate for Article 9 risk management actions.
A metric that confirms an outcome after the fact (weeks to quarters), such as revenue attributed or retention. What an initiative is ultimately judged on, but too late to steer by alone.
A later business outcome (such as revenue, tickets resolved, or customer satisfaction) that matters but is harder to attribute and arrives after the leading indicators move.
A signal that moves only after a problem is well established (e.g. the headline accuracy metric); trustworthy but slow, so it should not be the only thing watched.
Where it is taught
The exact lessons this term appears in. The first 7 topics of every program are free with a free account.
- The 3-Stage AI Productivity System: BLOCK, SCALE, RESULTS · Practical AI Workflow Design and Prompt Engineering, AI Literacy & Professional Conduct
- Monitoring and Reviewing AI Agent Outputs · Agentic AI and Workforce Integration, AI Literacy & Professional Conduct
- Measuring quality so executives act: the scorecard that survives a board meeting · Quality as Physics, AI Data Governance: The Data Chair
- Measuring and Communicating Value · The Economics and the Business Case, Business AI Transformation
- Measuring Long-Term Transformation Success · Measure, Sustain and Evolve, Business AI Transformation
- Communicating AI Risk to the Board and Leadership · Post-Market Monitoring and Enforcement, EU AI Act Implementation Expert
Terms it appears with
Not an alphabetical neighbourhood: these are the terms taught in the same lessons, ranked by how often they appear together.