A KPI scorecard tells the leadership team, every month, whether the company is on track. OKRs, objectives and key results, say what the team is changing this quarter to stay on track or get back on it. We design both, connect them to your strategic plan and budget, and set up the monthly and quarterly routine that keeps them honest.
What it is and who it is for
It is the measurement layer of the planning cycle. A plan without it relies on impressions, and impressions in an owner-led company are usually the owner's.
It suits companies that:
- have a plan but can't say, in the first week of a month, whether last month was on track;
- track dozens of numbers in different systems and discuss none of them;
- tried OKRs once, found them bureaucratic, and abandoned them;
- report to a board that wants a consistent page of measures every quarter.
What is included
You receive a scorecard, a first quarter of OKRs and the routine that maintains them.
- Measure selection. We start from the priorities in your three-year plan and the drivers in your operating budget, then choose about ten measures that, together, describe the health of the company.
- Definitions. Each measure gets a written definition, a data source, an owner, a target and green, amber and red thresholds. Definitions prevent the monthly argument about what a number means.
- Leading and lagging balance. Roughly half the measures should predict the future (proposals sent, technician utilisation, backlog) and half report results (revenue, margin, cash).
- First-quarter OKRs. Three company objectives with two to four key results each, written with the leadership team.
- Review routine. A 45-minute monthly scorecard meeting and the OKR scoring step in each quarterly review.
What a scorecard looks like
Picture a single page with a table: one row per measure, with columns for owner, target, this month, year to date and status. Ten rows might include revenue against budget, gross margin percentage, backlog in weeks, proposals sent, close rate, average invoice, recurring revenue share, on-time completion, staff turnover and cash on hand in weeks of overhead. Our scorecard guide explains how to choose and define each one.
Timeline
Designing a first scorecard and OKR set usually takes three to five weeks. The first monthly review should happen within a month of the scorecard going live.
- Week 1: review the plan, budget and current reports; interview the finance lead.
- Week 2: draft measures and definitions; test whether the data actually exists.
- Week 3: leadership workshop to agree targets and write the quarter's OKRs.
- Weeks 4–5: build the scorecard, run the first monthly review with the team.
How results are measured
The scorecard succeeds when it changes the conversation at leadership meetings. We look for three signals.
- Speed. The scorecard is ready within ten working days of month-end.
- Focus. Meetings spend most of their time on amber and red measures, not on updates about green ones.
- Follow-through. OKR scores at quarter-end are mostly between 0.6 and 0.8 on a 0-to-1 scale. Consistent scores of 1.0 suggest the goals were too easy; consistent scores below 0.4 suggest too many goals or too little time.
A worked example of an OKR
Suppose a priority in the plan is to grow recurring revenue. A quarterly objective might read: "Make maintenance agreements the default offer on every residential visit." Key results could be: raise the share of residential visits where an agreement is offered from 35% to 80%; raise the acceptance rate from 12% to 18%; and add 150 net new agreements in the quarter. The arithmetic is checkable: if the team makes 1,400 residential visits in the quarter, 80% offered at an 18% acceptance rate gives about 200 new agreements, enough to cover normal cancellations and still add 150 net.
Mistakes to avoid
Scorecards and OKRs fail in a handful of common ways.
- Too many measures. Thirty KPIs means nobody reads any of them.
- Measures without owners. A number nobody owns is a number nobody improves.
- OKRs that are just a to-do list. "Launch the new website" is a task. "Raise web-sourced proposals from 8 to 15 a month" is a key result.
- Changing definitions mid-year. It makes trends meaningless. Change them at the annual reset.
- Tying OKR scores to bonuses. People start setting easy goals. Keep compensation tied to KPIs and results, and keep OKRs as a learning tool.
Scorecard design is usually scoped as a small project, and monthly upkeep can sit within a retainer; see pricing. Call, text or email to talk it through.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a KPI and an OKR?
A KPI is a number you watch continuously, such as gross margin or on-time completion. An OKR is a time-boxed change: an objective for the quarter and two to four key results that prove it happened. KPIs show health; OKRs drive improvement.
How many measures should a scorecard have?
About ten for the company as a whole, rarely more than twelve. Each department can have a few of its own, but the leadership scorecard must fit on one page.
Do OKRs work in a company of 30 people?
Yes, if you keep them small. Three company objectives per quarter, each with two to four key results, is plenty. Cascading OKRs to every individual tends to create paperwork rather than progress at that size.
Who maintains the scorecard after you leave?
A named person in your company, usually the controller or an operations lead. We design it so updating it takes an hour or two a month, not a week.