We have been running our weekly Scorecard for a couple of months, but we realize that almost all of our metrics are lagging indicators that tell us what happened last month rather than what is happening this week. How do we shift our Scorecard to proactive, leading indicators?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A Scorecard filled with lagging indicators is like trying to drive a car by only looking in the rearview mirror. By the time a lagging metric like monthly revenue or closed sales shows a problem, it is already too late to fix it. To build a highly predictive Scorecard, you must identify the leading activities that directly drive those lagging results. Start by looking at the core activities that must happen every single day to produce your desired outcomes. For example, instead of tracking closed contracts, track the number of outbound discovery calls made or product demos scheduled. Instead of tracking monthly customer churn, track weekly customer support ticket resolution times or system uptime. For every lagging indicator you want to influence, work backward to find the human behavior or process step that triggers it. Every metric on your Scorecard must have a clear owner and a weekly target. When these leading indicators drop below target, it gives your leadership team a weekly warning system, allowing you to IDS® the issue and make operational corrections before the lagging results hit your bottom line.