KPIs and EOS
KPIs and EOS: the Scorecard that makes both work
In EOS®, your KPIs have a name, a format and a meeting: five to fifteen weekly numbers, one owner each, thirteen weeks visible, reviewed in five minutes and turned into issues when they go red. Here is how to build one that predicts instead of reports.
01
Where KPIs live inside EOS
KPIs sit in the Data component, one of the Six Key Components™, and take the form of a Scorecard: five to fifteen weekly measurables, one owner per row, thirteen weeks of history on screen. The team reviews it near the top of the Level 10 Meeting™, and any number that misses its goal becomes an item on the Issues List.
The thirteen weeks matter. A single red week is noise. A row that has missed four times in a quarter is a pattern, and the pattern is visible without anyone having to remember it, which is the entire reason the format insists on a trailing view rather than a single current figure.
The review is deliberately fast: five minutes for the whole board. Each owner reads their number and says on track or off track, nothing more. Discussion of a red row happens later in the meeting, once every number has been read and the team can see which issues are worth the time.
02
Five rules for a Scorecard that predicts
A Scorecard that works looks boring. It's short, weekly, mostly activity measures, a name against every row and a number next to every name. Teams that struggle have almost always broken one of five rules, and fixing the format is quicker than arguing about whether measurement is worth it at all.
- 01
Weekly
Same day, same time
Every row must be collectible each week. A monthly figure on a weekly board is blank three weeks out of four, which teaches the team to skim the whole thing.
- 02
Mostly leading
Two-thirds is a good ratio
Activity measures give the team something to change before Friday. Keep a few results rows to prove the activity is producing something.
- 03
One owner
One name on the row
The owner is whoever can change the number. Two names on a row means the red week gets explained twice and fixed never.
- 04
A goal on every row
A figure to hit
Without a target there is no on track or off track, and the review turns into interpretation. Set the goal at a good week today and raise it once it is met three weeks running.
- 05
Reviewed, not discussed
Five minutes for the whole board
Read the number, say on track or off track, move on. Off-track rows drop to the Issues List and get solved in the part of the meeting built for it.
03
Mistakes we see most
The same five problems account for nearly every Scorecard a leadership team abandons in its first year. All five are format problems rather than discipline problems, which is good news: you can fix them in one sitting without asking anyone to care harder about measurement.
Every row is lagging
Revenue, margin, profit, churn. All true, all settled. The team spends the meeting explaining a month it can no longer influence.
Thirty rows
Built by merging every department board. Nobody reads past row twelve, and the rows that matter get the same eight seconds as the rows that do not.
No goals
A column of numbers with nothing to compare them against. On track becomes a matter of opinion, and the loudest opinion wins.
Numbers nobody owns
A row owned by the team, by a department, or by two people. When it goes red, the meeting produces sympathy rather than a decision.
Monthly data on a weekly board
Rows that only update at month end sit blank for three weeks. The blanks train everyone to stop looking at the board at all.
04
Build a first draft in two clicks
Pick your industry and the team you are building the board for, and this gives you seven measurables weighted toward leading numbers, with a starting goal on each. It's a draft to react to: change the goals to figures your team believes, add a name to every row, and cut anything nobody will collect on a Monday.
| Measurable | Type | Cadence | Goal to start with |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash in bank vs 13-week forecast | Leading | Weekly | Within 5% of forecast |
| Rocks on track % | Leading | Weekly | ≥ 90% |
| Scorecard rows on track % | Leading | Weekly | ≥ 80% |
| Issues closed this week | Leading | Weekly | ≥ 3 |
| Pipeline coverage vs quarterly target | Leading | Weekly | ≥ 3x |
| Revenue vs plan % | Lagging | Weekly | ≥ 100% |
| Cash collected this week ($) | Lagging | Weekly | ≥ weekly target |
Seven rows is a starting draft rather than your finished Scorecard. Change the goals to numbers your team believes, put a name against every row, and drop anything nobody will collect on a Monday.
Email me this Scorecard05
The words on this page
Three of the terms above have a specific meaning inside EOS, and teams trip over them in the first month. Each one has a glossary entry with the plain definition, how the system uses it, why it earns its own word, and a worked example. Start with the Scorecard if you are building your first weekly board.
Scorecard
The weekly table itself: five to fifteen numbers, one owner and one goal per row, thirteen weeks in view.
02Rocks
The three to seven priorities the team commits to finishing in the next ninety days, one owner each.
03Level 10 Meeting
The weekly leadership meeting where the board is read and every red row turns into an issue.
Start with a real question
Send us the Scorecard you have
Paste in your rows, tell us your industry, and we will mark up which numbers are lagging, which have no owner, and which two we would swap in. One reply from a person who has built these before, inside a business day.
A person reads every one.