We feel stuck with the scorecard metrics we chose at our last quarterly planning session. When is it appropriate to change a scorecard number, and how do we do it without losing historical consistency?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Your scorecard is a living document, not a monument carved in stone. If a metric is no longer helping you run the business, or if you realize it is measuring the wrong activity, change it. Keeping a useless number on your scorecard out of fear of losing history is a waste of energy.

When to Change Scorecard Metrics

Only change a metric when:

• Your business model shifts.
• You redefine a seat on the [Accountability Chart](/qa/how-many-hats-can-one-person-wear-eos).
• You realize a [leading indicator](/qa/leading-vs-lagging-scorecard-metrics) is not accurately predicting the lagging result.

Do not change metrics on a whim because a manager had a bad week and wants to make their dashboard look better.

How to Implement Scorecard Changes

When you decide to change or retire a metric:

1. Discuss it during the IDS (Identify, Discuss, Solve) portion of your [Level 10 Meeting](/qa/improving-departmental-level-10-meetings-ids). This ensures the whole team is aligned and understands the rationale.
2. Once the leadership team agrees on the new metric, note the change in your meeting minutes.
3. To preserve historical consistency, keep your old data archived in a separate tab or historical view.
4. Start the new metric with a clean slate.
5. Accept that it will take a few weeks to build a meaningful trend line for the new metric. Remember, accuracy is always better than consistent bad data.

Sometimes, you may be adding a new metric without historical data. For guidance on setting targets in such cases, refer to [setting scorecard targets without historical data](/qa/setting-scorecard-targets-without-historical-data).

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