Concepts are built top-down while measurement aggregates bottom-up

Evidence

One interesting and essential feature of the basic framework is that conceptualization and semantics work from the top down, while measurement and numeric measures work from the bottom up. The data–indicator level is where one starts the process of aggregation, which ends up with numeric measures at the basic level. Conceptualization and semantics start at the top and work their way down. This up-and-down feature of the basic framework helps to integrate semantics with measurement. — Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts and Measurement, 175