We followed the EOS process and trimmed our leadership Scorecard down to exactly twelve weekly metrics, but we still do not feel like we have our pulse on the business. How do we test if we have actually picked the right five to fifteen numbers, or if we are just looking at a random collection of clean data?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

To test if you have the right five to fifteen numbers on your weekly Scorecard, run the airplane test. If you were on an island with no internet access or phone signal, and you received a single sheet of paper with only these twelve numbers on it once a week, would you know exactly how your business is performing? If the answer is no, or if you would still have to call your managers to ask what the numbers actually mean, then you do not have the right metrics yet.

Your Scorecard must represent the vital activities that drive your operations, not just a list of convenient data points that are easy to extract. To find the right numbers, look at your Accountability Chart and trace your core processes from beginning to end. Every major step in your customer journey and operational delivery must have a corresponding weekly activity metric.

Another test is pattern recognition. When you look at thirteen weeks of history, do the numbers predict your future problems? If your sales activity drops in week three, do you see a corresponding drop in weekly revenue by week eight? If your metrics do not tell a story or warn you of incoming issues, you are tracking the wrong things.

Start by auditing your current twelve metrics. Ask if each number actually drives an outcome or if it is just a passive stat. Replace passive stats with activity metrics that give you a true pulse of your operational health.