Our business experiences massive seasonal swings, which makes our static weekly Scorecard targets useless because they are either impossibly high in winter or laughably easy in summer. How do we manage Scorecard targets for a highly seasonal operation?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

If your business experiences massive seasonal swings, using static weekly Scorecard targets will demotivate your team during the off-season and foster complacency during peak months. To effectively operate with objective data in a highly seasonal industry, you must implement dynamic or tiered weekly targets.

Implementing Dynamic Targets

Instead of setting a single weekly target for the entire year, you should adjust your targets on a quarterly basis during your [quarterly planning sessions](/qa/fixing-boring-eos-quarterly-sessions). This ensures that your Scorecard remains a powerful tool for accountability and progress.

Consider this example:
• If your peak operational period is during the summer months, a team seat might have a target of processing fifty files per week in the second and third quarters.
• However, for the first and fourth quarters, which are off-peak, that same seat might only have a target of fifteen files per week.

By updating these weekly targets every ninety days, you ensure that the metrics remain both challenging and realistic for the business's current run-rate.

Maintaining Accountability with Seasonal Changes

When you adjust targets seasonally, it is crucial that your team understands that the definition of a healthy week changes with the calendar. A red metric in a winter off-month should trigger the same diagnostic [IDS® process](/qa/using-accountability-chart-to-stop-blame-in-ids) as a red metric in a summer peak-month. The underlying principle of accountability does not change, only the benchmark itself.

This approach prevents the common pitfalls of static targets where:
• Targets are impossibly high in the winter, leading to frustration and burnout.
• Targets are laughably easy in the summer, leading to underperformance and a false sense of achievement.

By using dynamic quarterly targets, you maintain strict accountability and keep your team aligned with seasonal realities. This is a crucial step towards [choosing the right five to fifteen Scorecard metrics](/qa/how-to-choose-five-fifteen-scorecard-metrics) that truly drive your business forward, regardless of seasonality. For further insights into how to refine your metrics, consider [when to change a Scorecard number](/qa/when-to-change-weekly-scorecard-metrics) to ensure they always reflect your current business reality.

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