Glossary
Ratio metric
A ratio metric divides one number by another: win rate, cost per lead, revenue per employee, the percentage of orders shipped on time. Ratios normalize for size, which makes them comparable week to week. They also hide the two numbers underneath, which is exactly how they mislead: a win rate improves when you stop quoting the hard jobs.
01
What a percentage hides on a weekly board
Where a ratio goes on the Scorecard, keep at least one of its parts on the board as well. On-time percentage next to jobs shipped. Win rate next to proposals sent. The extra row costs five seconds in the meeting and stops a green percentage from covering a collapse in volume, which is the most common way a board lies to a leadership team.
Every ratio has two ways to improve and only one of them is good news. Cost per lead falls when marketing gets better and also when somebody stops counting the expensive channels. Utilization rises when work comes in and also when people leave. Before a ratio goes on the board, say out loud how a reasonable person could move it the wrong way.
Worked example: A translation agency celebrated a win rate that climbed from thirty-one to forty-four percent in a quarter. Proposals sent had fallen from twenty-six a week to eleven, because two of the three estimators were tied up on one large project. Revenue followed the volume down two months later, by which point the board had been green for eight weeks.
Sources: kpi.org/kpi-basics/dashboarding-and-analysis; klipfolio.com/resources/kpi-examples
Win rate
Win rate is deals won divided by deals decided in the same period, counting the wins and the losses and leaving out everything still open.
02Input 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.
03Vanity metric
A vanity metric is a number that reliably goes up, feels good to report, and changes no decision: page views, followers, total signups since launch.
04KPI examples by department: sales, ops, finance, HR
Concrete KPI examples for each department in a small company, tagged leading or lagging and weekly or monthly, to help you build a Scorecard that works.
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