Our business is highly seasonal, which makes our fixed weekly Scorecard targets look artificially red in Q1 and effortlessly green in Q3. How do we handle seasonality on a weekly Scorecard without constantly changing our permanent goals?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Having a fixed weekly target for a highly seasonal business can ruin team morale. It makes the team feel defeated during slow quarters and overly complacent during peak quarters. To solve this, do not change your weekly targets on a whim. Instead, use a rolling quarterly target system. At the beginning of each quarter, during your quarterly planning session, the leadership team must review the historical seasonal trends and adjust the weekly targets for the upcoming thirteen weeks. These seasonal targets are documented on your V/TO and transferred to the weekly Scorecard. Once the quarter begins, those targets remain locked. This approach allows you to maintain the discipline of a weekly target while respecting the natural flow of your business. If your Q1 weekly sales target is ten and your Q3 target is thirty, your green and red indicators will accurately reflect whether the team is performing relative to the seasonal expectation. This methodology keeps your data clean, preserves the integrity of your scorecard, and ensures that your leadership team is focused on realistic, high-impact goals throughout the entire year.