Glossary
Input metric
An input metric counts the work a team puts in: calls made, quotes issued, shifts staffed, parts ordered, invoices sent on the day of delivery. It sits at the front of the chain and moves in the same week the effort changes, so most rows on a weekly board are input metrics. Inputs are controllable and cheap to count.
01
Why most weekly rows are inputs
A Scorecard built out of inputs gives the Monday meeting something to decide. The trade is that inputs prove nothing on their own, so a board of nothing else will read green through a bad quarter. Keep two or three output rows in view, so the team finds out the week that busy stopped meaning productive.
Inputs are the easiest numbers in the business to inflate, because the person reporting one usually also produces it. Quotes issued climbs when quotes get cheaper to write, not when more work is coming. Write the definition down with its exclusions, and let somebody other than the owner spot-check the count once a quarter.
Worked example: A plumbing contractor put quotes issued on the board with a goal of thirty a week. It hit thirty-four, then thirty-nine, while jobs won stayed flat. The quotes had shrunk to two-line estimates sent without a site visit. The definition changed to quotes issued after a site visit, the number fell to twenty-two, and jobs won started to move.
Sources: klipfolio.com/resources/kpi-examples; Glossary of Key Terms in Evaluation and Results-Based Management for Sustainable Development, OECD (2023)
Output metric
An output metric counts what came out of the other end of the process: jobs completed, deals closed, revenue booked, support tickets resolved.
02Leading indicator
A leading indicator measures the activity that produces a result, early enough that what your team does this week still shows up in the number.
03Ratio metric
A ratio metric divides one number by another: win rate, cost per lead, revenue per employee, the percentage of orders shipped on time.
04Leading vs lagging indicators, with examples you can use
Lagging indicators tell you what happened; leading indicators tell you what's about to. How to tell them apart, why weekly Scorecards need mostly leading ones.
Start with a real question
Not sure which of these you actually need?
Tell us what the leadership team is arguing about. A person replies within one business day with a straight answer, whether that is a book, a tool or an implementer.
A person reads every one.