If you can’t say whether your ads manager had a good week without opening the ad account yourself, you don’t have a people problem. You have a missing scorecard.
The scorecard is the first system I install in almost every engagement, because nearly everything else depends on it. Without one, “how’s it going?” is the only performance conversation you can have, and you end up doing the checking because nobody else knows what good looks like.
What a scorecard is
One page per role. It says what the role owns, and it lists one to five numbers that show whether the person in it is winning. That’s all.
It can live in a spreadsheet, a database, or your project tool. The format matters far less than the habit: the numbers get recorded at least monthly, and somebody looks at them.
Keep it to five numbers at most. Past five, nobody can remember what they’re aiming at, and the review turns into a status meeting.
What it does for you
Writing a scorecard forces a decision most founders have been putting off: what does success in this role actually mean? Once that’s written down, you stop judging people on how busy they look, or on how often they show up in your Slack.
It also gives every review a structure. The conversation starts from the numbers, not from your impression of the month, and you can see a role drifting off track weeks before it becomes a problem you have to step in and fix.
What it does for your team
Remote teams are mostly guessing what the founder wants. A scorecard ends the guessing. Your SEO lead knows what a good month looks like before it starts, and doesn’t have to wait for you to tell them afterwards.
Agree each scorecard with the person who owns it, rather than handing it down. A scorecard someone helped write is a target. One that was imposed on them feels like surveillance.
Measurable or vague
The test for a metric is simple: could two people look at it and disagree about whether it was hit? If they could, it isn’t a metric yet.
| Measurable | Vague |
|---|---|
| 24 sales calls per week | Made good progress with sales calls |
| >80% positive feedback on customer support issues | Most customers happy |
| ROAS ≥ 4 / 400% | Ads are making us more than they cost |
| 3 potential new JV partners contacted | Called a few potential joint-venture partners |
Start from what the business needs, not from what’s easy to count. Write down why the role exists and what it’s responsible for, then ask the question that matters: how would I know this person had a great week? If you’re scorecarding a whole team, agree the team’s purpose first and work down to each role from there.
Some starting points:
Sales
- number of ads placed
- sales calls booked
- inbound leads
Operations
- customer churn rate
- content pieces delivered
- stock levels in defined range
Customer satisfaction
- net promoter score
- call handling time
- call resolution time
Team health
- staff satisfaction score >80%
- 95% of scorecards completed
- vacant positions filled in 3 weeks
Reporting and review
Numbers go in weekly if you can manage it, and monthly at the very least. Review each scorecard with its owner once a month, or more often if you’re growing fast. Keep the formal performance review for once or twice a year; the monthly review is where the real work happens.
Make the review two-way. You go through the numbers and the responsibilities; they tell you what’s getting in their way. A missed number is often a blocker the business put there, not a person underperforming.
Done properly, it’s a short meeting, and people leave it knowing exactly where they stand.
Key takeaways
- Every person in the business gets a scorecard, including the senior ones
- One to five numbers each, specific enough that nobody can argue about whether they were hit
- Agree each scorecard with its owner; don’t hand it down
- Review monthly, and make the review two-way
- Use it to spot a role drifting off track early, not to build a case against someone
Get the template
This is the Scorecard & Monthly Review template I use with clients. Make your own copy and it opens straight into your Google Drive. No sign-up.