Our weekly Scorecard has grown over time and now contains dozens of different metrics, making it hard to see our actual operational health at a glance. How do we determine which metrics are truly essential and prune the noise from our Scorecard?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A great Scorecard should give you a pulse on the business in less than five minutes. If your sheet is bloated with dozens of metrics, you are no longer running a Scorecard, you are running an administration report. You must ruthlessly prune the numbers down to the vital few.

To do this, limit your leadership team Scorecard to between five and fifteen high level numbers. Every metric on this list must be a weekly activity measure that directly predicts your future results. If a number does not trigger an immediate action when it goes red, it does not belong on your weekly Scorecard.

Ask your team what would happen if they were stranded on a desert island and could only receive one sheet of paper with fifteen numbers to know how the business is running. What would those numbers be? That is your starting point.

If a department wants to track more granular details, move those metrics down to the departmental scorecards. The leadership team only needs to see the consolidated numbers that indicate overall company health. Review your Scorecard quarterly and discard any metrics that are no longer driving behavior or helping you predict performance. Keep it lean, focused, and actionable.