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KPI Relationships

A KPI Relationship is a directional link from a source KPI to another KPI. It defines how the related KPI should be interpreted and displayed when users analyze the source KPI.

💡 For example:

Example

1

Mouse Click errors may contribute to User Click failures.

2

Salesforce API Error events may provide context for Order Sync issues.

3

Checkout Page Load Time may move inversely to Shopify Conversion Rate.

Relationships are configured on the source KPI. A relationship defined from KPI A to KPI B does not automatically create the reverse relationship from KPI B to KPI A.

📈 How KPI Relationships Support Analysis

KPI Relationships provide the data model used by the Analysis Dashboard to identify signals that may help explain a KPI's behavior.

When users open a KPI in the Analysis Dashboard, GermainUX evaluates its configured relationships and scores the related KPIs using factors such as:

Factor

Details

Deviation from baseline

Deviation from baseline

Direction of movement

Direction of movement

Relationship strength

Relationship strength

Relationship type

Relationship type

Co-movement with the primary KPI

Co-movement with the primary KPI

The most relevant signals appear with the primary KPI's trend in the Related KPIs section.

🔍 This allows investigators to see which KPIs:

Role

Description

May contribute to the issue

May contribute to the issue

Move with the primary KPI

Move with the primary KPI

Move in the opposite direction

Move in the opposite direction

Provide useful contextual events

Provide useful contextual events

Execute within the primary KPI's activity

Execute within the primary KPI's activity

Instead of manually comparing multiple dashboards, users receive a prioritized view of the signals most relevant to the current investigation.

📚 Relationship Types

Type

Meaning

Example

Contributor

Problems or changes in the related KPI may contribute to problems in the source KPI.

Mouse Click errors contributing to User Click failures

Correlated

The related and source KPIs tend to move together, without asserting that one causes the other.

API latency and page response time increasing together

Contextual

The related KPI provides useful context but is not expected to have a direct or measurable relationship.

A deployment event displayed alongside an error spike

A configured relationship helps prioritize investigation. It does not, by itself, prove causation.

⚙️ Configure a KPI Relationship

The easiest way to create a relationship is through the Add KPI Relationship wizard from the source KPI's configuration page.

GermainUX Workspace -> Settings -> Wizards

  1. Open the KPI from which the relationship should originate. This is the source KPI.

  2. Open its KPI Relationships section.

  3. Launch the Add KPI Relationship wizard.

    image-20260724-064009.png
    KPI Relationship Wizard - GermainUX

  4. Select the related KPI.

  5. Configure the relationship fields described below.

  6. Select Finish or Save.

  7. Confirm that the new relationship appears in the source KPI's KPI Relationships list.

📝 Configuration Fields

Field

Required

Description

Name

Yes

Unique name for the relationship entry. Use a name that identifies both its purpose and related KPI.

KPI

Yes

KPI related to the current source KPI.

Type

Yes

Relationship classification: Contributor, Correlated or Contextual.

Direction

Yes

Expected direction of movement: Same or Inverse.

Strength

Yes

Expected strength of the relationship: Strong, Moderate or Weak.

Constraint

No

Filter expression that must be satisfied for the relationship to apply, such as userError == true.

Field

No

Field used to correlate or join instances of the two KPIs, such as sessionId.

Measure

No

Measure evaluated for the related KPI, such as avg(duration). If omitted, GermainUX uses the related KPI's default numerical property or a count when no property is available.

Show As

Yes

Determines whether the related KPI appears as a Trend or Marker in the Analysis Dashboard. Trend is the default.

Child

No

Indicates that the related KPI executes within the source KPI's context. This supports nested activity in the Analysis Trace Timeline.

➡️ Direction

Direction

Meaning

Example

Same

The related KPI is expected to increase when the source KPI increases, or decrease when the source KPI decreases.

Error Click count and failed User Click count rise together.

Inverse

The related KPI is expected to decrease when the source KPI increases, or increase when the source KPI decreases.

Page load time rises while conversion rate falls.

Direction should reflect the expected analytical relationship, not whether the behavior is good or bad.

🏋️ Strength

Strength

Use when

Strong

The relationship is consistently expected and highly relevant to investigations.

Moderate

The relationship is meaningful but may not appear in every situation.

Weak

The relationship is indirect, occasional or primarily exploratory.

Strength influences prioritization. Configure it according to observed behavior and domain knowledge rather than the perceived importance of either KPI.

🧾 Example: Mouse Click Contributing to User Click Failures

Suppose errors associated with Mouse Click activity are a leading contributor to User Click failures within the same user session.

Configure the relationship on the User Click source KPI:

Field

Value

Name

MouseClickContributor

KPI

Mouse Click

Type

Contributor

Direction

Same

Strength

Strong

Field

sessionId

Show As

Trend

Child

Enabled

If only error-related Mouse Clicks should contribute, add an appropriate constraint, such as userError == true.

🖥️ Results in the Analysis Dashboard

Configured relationships can appear in the primary trend chart and the Related KPIs section of the source KPI's Analysis Dashboard.

image-20260724-064426.png


📈 Show As: Trend

A Trend relationship receives a card in the Related KPIs grid. Depending on the available data and dashboard configuration, the card can show:

Item

Details

Current value

Current value

Comparison with baseline

Comparison with baseline

Miniature trend chart

Miniature trend chart

Deviation or health status

Deviation or health status

Co-movement with the primary KPI

Co-movement with the primary KPI

Select the related KPI's trend to promote it to the main chart and compare it directly with the source KPI.

Use Trend when changes over time, deviation from baseline or co-movement are important to the investigation.

image-20260724-064640.png
KPI Trends - GermainUX


📍 Show As: Marker

A Marker relationship does not receive a Related KPI trend card. Instead, individual occurrences are plotted on the main chart's timeline using color-coded shapes.

Users can:

Action

Effect

Hover over a marker

View occurrence details.

Select a marker

Open the Analysis view for that instance.

Compare event timing

Compare the event's timing with changes in the primary KPI.

Use Marker for discrete events whose timing is more useful than an aggregate trend—for example, deployments, errors, crashes or configuration changes.

image-20260724-065414.png
Error Click Marker - GermainUX


A Trend-type related KPI can be segmented by a pivot instead of displayed only as a single trend.

  1. On the related KPI card, select Pivot By.

    image-20260724-065546.png
    Pivot By - GermainUX

  2. Choose a dimension, such as Country, Browser or Server.

  3. Review the resulting table of pivot values.

    image-20260724-065638.png
    Pivot values - GermainUX

  4. Compare each segment's health, measure, count and miniature trend.

  5. Select a row to add that segment to the main chart for comparison.

Pivoting helps reveal whether the relationship is concentrated within a particular population, application, technology or environment.

🔎 Filter Markers

When an Analysis view contains one or more Marker relationships, the Filter Events control becomes available in the portlet toolbar.

  1. Select Filter Events.

    image-20260724-065720.png
    Filter Events - GermainUX

  2. Show or hide each marker KPI using its checkbox.

  3. Expand a KPI to filter markers by individual field values.

    image-20260724-065414.png
    Error Click KPI as Marker - GermainUX

  4. Use the search box to locate a KPI or field value.

  5. Use Select All or Clear All to reset the selection.

Changes apply immediately to the visible chart markers. The selections belong to the current portlet instance and reset when the analyzed KPI, scope or time range changes.

📋 Configuration Recommendations

Recommendation

Configure relationships on the KPI users will investigate as the source.

Use Contributor only when there is a credible contributing mechanism.

Use Correlated when the KPIs move together but causation is not established.

Use Contextual for events or signals that help explain the timeline.

Choose Same or Inverse based on the expected numerical movement.

Use a join field, such as sessionId, when instance-level association matters.

Apply constraints to exclude irrelevant instances.

Use a measure aligned with the analytical question.

Prefer Trend for continuous or aggregated signals and Marker for discrete events.

Validate relationship behavior against historical examples before assigning Strong strength.


Service: Analytics

Feature Availability: 2026.2