A signal is a specific observation you’ve decided is worth noticing, with a name, a purpose, and a reason to interrupt you. The system watches the right source material for it: a client risk in a transcript, the same complaint three times in a support inbox. When the pattern appears, the signal surfaces where a person can act on it.
A dashboard light in a car makes it obvious. Thousands of things happen inside the engine, but you don’t need a report on every spark and temperature change. You need one clear light when the oil pressure matters or a tire goes low. A signal is that light saying pay attention here.
Why you care
The discipline is choosing the lights before you start driving. Too many and you stop trusting the dashboard; too few and you miss the thing that needed action. A signal only earns its place if it changes what happens next in a workflow: a budget concern raised in three meetings might change the next sales conversation. Automation can power the watching, but you still decide what’s actually important and when the definition needs to get sharper.