Dashboards vs Decisions

Dashboards are pretty; decisions are plain. The more monitors you open, the less the week seems to end. A scorecard is a vow to finish: a single page that tells you what you’re doing, why it matters, and whether it worked by Friday.

The Structure (Three Sections)

• North Star — The compounding outcome your business depends on (e.g., Qualified Trials Started).

• Leading Indicators — Levers you can move this week (e.g., % of leads routed correctly, % of trials to first‑aha).

• Health Metrics — Guardrails that keep wins honest (e.g., refund rate, support SLA, CPL).

Anything not on the scorecard is deferred until next Monday. Simplicity is not naivety; it is operational courage.

Choosing Metrics (Be Specific)

Outcomes are behaviors measured at scale; leading indicators are the behaviors you can trigger inside seven days. If a metric cannot move by Friday, it belongs in a plan, not on the scorecard.

Good: “Trials reaching first‑aha in 24 hours.”

Mushy: “User satisfaction.”

Pick one outcome and a handful of levers. You can’t steer twelve wheels at once.

Weekly Rhythm (When Numbers Speak)

Update the scorecard once a week. Monday is for intent; Friday is for evidence. The days in between are for work. If you are refreshing graphs every hour, you’ve built entertainment, not instrumentation.

Friday demo prompt: “Show the North Star, the lever we pulled, and whether a health metric broke.”

Make It Legible (So Humans Use It)

• One page (desktop or mobile).

• Plain labels (no jargon).

• Fixed order (North Star → Leading → Health).

• Owner initial beside each lever.

• Last changed timestamp and a link to the test that drove the change.

Legibility beats precision when teams are busy. You can always refine later; you cannot re‑win a lost week.

Pitfalls (and Simple Fixes)

• Too many metrics. Fix: Cap at 1 outcome + 3–5 levers + 2–3 health metrics.

• Vanity numbers. Fix: If it doesn’t guide a decision, delete it.

• Mixed timeframes. Fix: Everything on the page should answer a Friday question.

• No owner. Fix: Every lever has a name. Anonymous numbers rarely move.

A Small Story (Composite)

A growth team kept six dashboards open and still argued in meetings. They replaced them with a single scorecard. In three weeks, two things changed:

1. Decision speed — The Friday demo started on the scorecard, not a slide deck.

2. Ownership — Each lever had initials. When everything is everyone’s job, nothing happens; when it’s someone’s lever, it moves.

Revenue didn’t spike; the slope improved. That is what clarity looks like on a chart.

What to Do Next (Pick Your Path)

• Open the Picker → We’ll map you to the fastest path (Book, $97 Challenge, or Toolkits).

• Try the 7‑Day Challenge → Daily tasks; your $97 becomes credit toward a Toolkit.

• Get the AI Business Growth Toolkit →Routers, scorecards, test matrices, and done‑for‑you blueprints.

• Read the Book → A deeper dive into the weekly operating system that ships outcomes.