The 13-week scoreboard: how to measure a 90-day sprint

What a scoreboard is, and isn't

A scoreboard is a single page with five to seven figures and 13 weekly columns. It isn't a dashboard, a monthly report or a set of charts.

The difference matters. Dashboards show everything you could measure; a scoreboard shows only what changes a decision this week. If a figure has never once changed what your team does on Monday, it doesn't belong on the page.

Step 1: choose the five lines

Use this structure for almost any sprint:

1. Target figure. The one number from your sprint charter, such as qualified enquiries per week, close rate on quotes, or returning customers per week.
2. Leading figure A. Something that moves before the target and is directly under your team's control, such as median first-reply time.
3. Leading figure B. A second controllable input, such as the share of quotes followed up at least twice.
4. Guardrail. A figure that must not get worse while you chase the target, such as average sale value or the unsubscribe rate.
5. Cost. What the sprint is spending that week, such as ad spend or cost per enquiry.

You can add one or two lines if they truly earn their place, but stop at seven.

Examples by sprint lane

Step 2: define every figure in one sentence

Most scoreboard arguments are really definition arguments. Before week one, write a sentence for each line that two different people would apply identically.

Weak: "Leads." Strong: "A qualified enquiry is a call, text, email or web message from a buyer in our service area about a service we sell, excluding spam, job seekers and suppliers, counted on the day it arrives."

Weak: "Response time." Strong: "Median minutes from an enquiry's arrival to our first human reply, during business hours, across all channels, for enquiries arriving Monday to Friday."

Also write down where each number comes from and who fills it in. A figure without an owner goes blank by week four.

Step 3: set up the sheet

A spreadsheet is enough. Lay it out like this:

• Column A: the line name and its one-sentence definition.
• Column B: the baseline, from the diagnostic or your own count.
• Column C: the target for the sprint.
• Columns D to P: weeks 1 to 13.
• Below the figures: a decision log with one row per week: date, decision, owner, result.

Colour is optional. Some owners like a simple green or red against the target; others find it distracting. What matters is that the sheet is filled in before the review starts, never during it.

Step 4: run the 30-minute review

Same day, same time, every week. A fixed agenda keeps it short:

1. Read the numbers (5 minutes). One person reads each line aloud, with no discussion yet.
2. Explain the movement (10 minutes). What moved, what didn't, and the most likely reason. Stick to facts.
3. Choose one change (10 minutes). Not three. One change that should move a leading figure next week.
4. Write it down (5 minutes). In the decision log: the change, the person responsible, and the date it will be checked.

Two rules make the review work. First, it doesn't end without a written decision, even if the decision is "keep going unchanged for one more week". Second, it isn't cancelled because the team is busy; busy weeks are exactly when decisions slip.

Step 5: read the trends, not single weeks

Small businesses have noisy weekly numbers. A long weekend, a storm or a single large order can swing a week badly. To avoid over-reacting:

• Use a four-week rolling average for the target figure from week five onward.
• Act on two weeks, not one. One bad week is noise; two in a row is a signal.
• Watch leading figures first. If reply time has halved and follow-ups doubled, the close rate usually follows, even if it lags by a few weeks.

A worked example: in a quote-to-sale sprint, the close rate reads 21%, 19%, 24%, 22% in weeks 3 to 6, and the four-week average is 21.5%, the same as the baseline. Meanwhile median reply time has dropped from 3 hours to 40 minutes. The right decision is to hold steady on reply speed and turn attention to the quote itself, because faster replies alone haven't moved wins yet.

Step 6: use the scoreboard on day 90

By week 13 the scoreboard and decision log hold the whole story of the sprint. The day-90 review uses them to answer three questions: did the target figure move against the baseline, which decisions moved it, and which changes are worth keeping as routines?

That's why the decision log matters so much. Without it, you'll know that the number moved but not why, and you won't be able to repeat it.

Common mistakes

• Too many lines. A 20-line scoreboard is a report nobody reads.
• Only lagging figures. If every line is an outcome, the team can't influence anything week to week.
• No guardrail. Close rates can be "improved" by discounting; enquiry counts by accepting poor-fit buyers. A guardrail catches this.
• Filling it in during the meeting. It wastes the 30 minutes and invites argument.
• Blaming people. Measure the process. If one person's numbers lag, it is usually the system around them.

Where to go from here

If you'd like help designing your scoreboard or running the weekly review, that is our scoreboard and owner rhythm service, included in every sprint. If you haven't yet chosen what to measure, start with how to pick your bottleneck. Questions? Call, text or email.