Definition
A period view tallies activity within a date range: leads received, applications submitted, enrollments completed, dollars spent. It is the lens of monthly reports and budget reviews — "how did April go?"
Its structural blind spot: the enrollments counted in a period mostly came from leads acquired before it, and the leads counted mostly haven't converted yet. Period numbers are true, but they describe a mixture of cohorts at different ages.
Why it matters
Period view is the right lens for accounting questions and the wrong lens for campaign-evaluation questions. Knowing which question you're asking — and switching lenses accordingly — prevents the most common misreads in enrollment marketing.
How Pennant treats it
Pennant puts Period and Cohort views one toggle apart on the same data, with the active lens labeled so nobody mistakes one question's answer for the other's.