Kova — AI Forecasting
The AI forecasting feature has been live for 6 months. Different teams are tracking different metrics and claiming conflicting results.
The scenario
Kova is a B2B supply chain platform. Six months ago you shipped AI-powered demand forecasting. Sales claims it is driving deals. Product claims engagement is strong. Finance is skeptical because revenue attributable to the feature is unclear. No one agreed on metrics at launch.
Constraint
The CEO wants a single north-star metric and a framework agreed across all teams by end of this week.
Your task
Define the metrics framework and propose a north-star metric for AI forecasting.
1. Clarify: What do you need to establish before proposing a framework?
Pick the 3 questions you'd ask first.
Model approach (strong picks)
- Strong pickWhat is the intended business outcome of AI forecasting — reduce stockouts, improve margins, accelerate sales cycles?
- Strong pickWhat metrics is each team currently tracking, and why did they choose those?
- Strong pickWho are the primary users of the forecasting feature — ops teams, buyers, or executives?
2. Hypothesize: Why is there no agreed metric after 6 months?
Pick the 3 most likely root causes.
Model approach (strong picks)
- Strong pickNo success criteria were defined at launch — the team shipped without alignment on what "good" looks like.
- Strong pickEach team is optimizing for their own incentives — sales for pipeline, product for engagement, finance for revenue.
- Strong pickThe feature's impact is hard to isolate — it's used alongside other tools, making attribution genuinely difficult.
3. Investigate: What do you do this week to build the framework?
Pick the 3 highest-leverage moves.
Model approach (strong picks)
- Strong pickInterview 5 customers who actively use forecasting — ask what decision it changed and what outcome followed.
- Strong pickRun a working session with Sales, Product, and Finance to map the causal chain: feature usage → behavior change → business outcome.
- Strong pickAudit existing event data to see what is actually measurable today vs. what requires new instrumentation.
4. Propose: What is your north-star metric for AI forecasting?
Pick the one metric you'd propose to the CEO.
Model approach (strong picks)
- Strong pick% of customers who made at least one sourcing or inventory decision using a Kova forecast in the past 30 days — measures real adoption and decision influence, not just logins.
- Strong pickForecast accuracy rate (predicted vs. actual demand within ±10%) — measures the quality of the AI output directly.