Component Deep-Dive
Every charter needs 3 to 5 success criteria. Every criterion needs to pass the SMART test. No competitor provides this volume of charter-specific pass/fail examples.
Updated 11 April 2026
Test: Can you explain exactly what this measures?
Fails
Improve customer satisfaction
Passes
Increase Net Promoter Score from 32 to 50
Test: Can you track progress with a number?
Fails
Make the website faster
Passes
Reduce page load time from 4.2s to under 1.5s
Test: Is this realistic given resources and timeline?
Fails
Achieve 100% customer retention
Passes
Reduce churn from 23% to under 12% (industry best: 8%)
Test: Does this connect to a business outcome?
Fails
Deploy 15 new features by Q3
Passes
Increase trial-to-paid conversion by 2.3 points
Test: When will this be measured?
Fails
Reduce support tickets
Passes
Reduce P1 support tickets by 40% within 90 days of launch
The most common mistake: listing deliverables as success criteria. A deliverable is something you produce. A success criterion is a measurable outcome that proves the project worked.
Deliverables (NOT success criteria)
Success Criteria (measurable outcomes)
Fails SMART
"Improve system performance"
Passes SMART
"Reduce API response time from 2.8 seconds (P95) to under 500ms within 60 days of deployment"
Adds metric (P95 response time), baseline (2.8s), target (500ms), and deadline (60 days)
Fails SMART
"Increase user adoption"
Passes SMART
"Achieve 80% daily active usage among licensed users within 90 days (current: 34%)"
Defines the population (licensed users), timeline (90 days), and measurable threshold (80%)
Fails SMART
"Reduce bugs in production"
Passes SMART
"Reduce P1/P2 production incidents from 8 per month to under 2 per month by end of Q3 2026"
Specifies severity level (P1/P2), baseline (8/month), target (under 2), and deadline
Fails SMART
"Make the migration successful"
Passes SMART
"Migrate 100% of active master data with less than 0.1% integrity errors, verified by data reconciliation report"
Defines scope (active master data), target (100% migration, under 0.1% errors), and verification method
Fails SMART
"Increase website traffic"
Passes SMART
"Increase organic search traffic from 85,000 to 120,000 monthly sessions within 6 months"
Specifies traffic source (organic), baseline (85K), target (120K), and timeline (6 months)
Fails SMART
"Improve brand awareness"
Passes SMART
"Increase unaided brand recall from 12% to 25% in the target demographic (surveyed quarterly)"
Defines metric (unaided recall), population (target demo), measurement method (quarterly survey)
Fails SMART
"Generate more leads"
Passes SMART
"Generate 340 additional marketing qualified leads per month at a cost per lead under $45"
Includes volume target (340/month), quality threshold (MQL), and cost constraint ($45 CPL)
Fails SMART
"Improve conversion rate"
Passes SMART
"Increase homepage-to-signup conversion from 1.2% to 3.5% within 6 months, measured by GA4 funnel"
Defines page (homepage), baseline (1.2%), target (3.5%), timeline, and measurement tool
Fails SMART
"Complete the renovation on time"
Passes SMART
"Achieve substantial completion by 15 March 2027, 2 weeks before lease expiry, with zero punch list items over $5K"
Defines milestone (substantial completion), date, buffer, and quality threshold
Fails SMART
"Stay within budget"
Passes SMART
"Complete all work within the $2.5M GMP with contingency usage under 8% ($200K)"
Specifies contract type (GMP), amount ($2.5M), and contingency threshold (8%)
Fails SMART
"Ensure safety compliance"
Passes SMART
"Zero OSHA recordable incidents across all trades for the 14-month project duration"
Defines metric (OSHA recordable), target (zero), scope (all trades), and duration
Fails SMART
"Improve building efficiency"
Passes SMART
"Achieve HVAC efficiency rating of 85%+ (up from 62%) within 30 days of commissioning"
Specifies system (HVAC), metric (efficiency rating), baseline (62%), target (85%), and measurement window
Fails SMART
"Reduce medication errors"
Passes SMART
"Reduce medication administration errors from 3.2 to under 1.5 per 1,000 patient-days within 90 days"
Uses clinical metric (per 1,000 patient-days), includes baseline, target, and measurement period
Fails SMART
"Improve patient safety"
Passes SMART
"Achieve 98% barcode scanning compliance for all medication administrations on Med-Surg unit"
Specifies the process (barcode scanning), unit (Med-Surg), and compliance threshold (98%)
Fails SMART
"Increase staff compliance"
Passes SMART
"100% of 62 nursing staff pass competency assessment before go-live (minimum score: 85%)"
Defines population (62 staff), milestone (before go-live), pass threshold (85%), and coverage (100%)
Fails SMART
"Better patient outcomes"
Passes SMART
"Zero wrong-patient medication events in the 6 months following implementation"
Specifies the event type (wrong-patient), target (zero), and measurement duration (6 months)
Fails SMART
"Speed up invoice processing"
Passes SMART
"Reduce average invoice processing time from 12 minutes to under 3 minutes within 60 days of deployment"
Specifies metric (processing time), baseline (12 min), target (under 3 min), and timeline (60 days)
Fails SMART
"Reduce errors"
Passes SMART
"Reduce invoice data entry error rate from 4.8% to under 1% within 90 days"
Defines the process (invoice data entry), baseline (4.8%), target (under 1%), and deadline
Fails SMART
"Save money on late payments"
Passes SMART
"Eliminate late payment penalties, reducing monthly cost from $8,200 to $0 within 120 days"
Defines cost baseline ($8,200/month), target ($0), and timeline (120 days)
Fails SMART
"Free up staff time"
Passes SMART
"Free 40% of AP clerk time (equivalent to 1.2 FTE) for exception handling and vendor management"
Quantifies the benefit (40%, 1.2 FTE) and specifies how the freed time will be used
After each criterion passes SMART, ask "So what?" If the criterion does not connect to a business outcome, it is measuring activity, not impact.
"Reduce API response time to under 500ms"
So what? Faster response time reduces cart abandonment by 12%, adding $240K annual revenue
Passes the So What test
"Deploy 15 new features by Q3"
So what? Nobody asked for these specific features. No connection to user adoption or revenue.
Fails the So What test
"Achieve 98% barcode scanning compliance"
So what? Each 1% increase in scanning compliance correlates with 0.3 fewer errors per 1,000 patient-days
Passes the So What test
3 to 5 criteria. Fewer than 3 and the project is too narrowly defined to justify a charter. More than 5 and you are mixing success criteria with deliverables or task completion metrics. If you have 8 criteria, at least 3 of them are probably deliverables in disguise.