Scorecard (Weekly Metrics)
Why it matters
Monthly financials arrive too late to act on. By the time revenue is down, the cause happened weeks ago. A scorecard asks the question weekly and favours early-signal numbers, the activity that predicts a result, such as demos booked, proposals sent or support tickets open. Lagging numbers such as revenue only confirm what has already happened.
A red number on the sheet is not a crisis. It is a flag to put on the issues list and deal with before it grows.
How to apply it
- Pick five to fifteen numbers. More than that and nothing stands out.
- Give each number one owner and a weekly target.
- Prefer early-signal measures, and keep one or two outcome numbers such as cash in the bank.
- Pull each number from where it already lives, so nobody hand-counts it every week.
- Review the whole sheet on the same day every week.
- Treat a red number as a prompt to investigate, not as a verdict on the owner.
What it is
A scorecard is a single sheet of the few numbers that show how the business is doing this week. Each row has a name, one owner and a weekly target, and each week's actual figure is entered beside it. The result is marked on track or off track, often green or red.
The format is part of the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), where the scorecard is reviewed at the start of the weekly team meeting. It works for any small team.
Common mistakes
- Tracking too many numbers, which turns the sheet into wallpaper.
- Numbers with no owner, which nobody explains when they turn red.
