Our department managers want to track twenty minor details that feed into our major leadership metrics. How do we structure the relationship between the high-level company Scorecard and the sub-metrics used by managers without creating dashboard chaos?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

You must maintain a strict hierarchy of data to prevent dashboard chaos. Your leadership team company Scorecard should only contain the five to fifteen high-level metrics that represent the vital signs of the entire business.

To accommodate the minor details your managers need, you must implement departmental scorecards. The high-level company Scorecard is owned by the leadership team. Each departmental seat owner then maintains a separate departmental scorecard for their specific team.

For example, your company Scorecard might track total weekly sales revenue, owned by your head of sales. Underneath that, the sales department scorecard tracks outbound calls, emails sent, demos booked, and proposals delivered. The leadership team does not need to see these sub-metrics every week. The head of sales monitors them to ensure the high-level revenue target is met.

If a company-level metric goes red, the leadership seat owner uses their departmental scorecard to diagnose the problem. They can look at the sub-metrics to see exactly where the breakdown occurred. This keeps your leadership meetings focused on strategic issues rather than getting bogged down in departmental minutiae. This structured flow of data ensures that every level of the business is aligned, without cluttering the view of the leadership team.