Part four · Running it · Chapter 13

THE SIGNAL SCORECARD

One page, every week. Each number with its limits and its denominator, the live bets against their kill criteria, and the decisions due for review.

Most weekly scorecards show this week, last week and the change between them. That’s the format most likely to produce a story about noise. The signal scorecard shows each number against its own limits, so the page tells you where to look before anyone starts explaining.

NumberShown asRead
RevenueProcess behavior chart, limits from 12 normal weeks; promotion weeks charted separatelyWeekly
Orders and average order valueA chart each, so you can see which one movedWeekly
Site conversion rateChart, with sessions beside itWeekly
Cost per first orderChart, by channel for the two biggestWeekly
Revenue per recipient, campaigns and top flowsChart each; any series under about 100 orders a week marked “read monthly”Weekly, acted on monthly
Repeat rate, latest full cohortChart by cohort month, with the cohort sizeMonthly
Live betsEach one’s metric against its kill line, with the check dateAt each check date
Decisions due for reviewJournal entries past their review dateQuarterly

The meeting, in four parts

  1. SignalsAny number that broke a rule. Each gets an owner and one question: what happened that week? Not “what do we change?”
  2. Noise, notedEverything else, read out in one sentence: “inside the limits.” No discussion. This is the hardest part of the meeting and the one that saves the most time.
  3. BetsAny live bet whose check date has arrived. Apply the kill criteria as written.
  4. DecisionsAny decision made this week that belongs in the journal. Write the entry before the meeting ends.

No explanations for numbers inside their limits. Not even good ones.

Two rules for the page

First, no rate appears without its denominator. A conversion rate that rose because sessions fell is a different story from one that rose with sessions flat, and the page should show which. Second, every chart carries the dated notes from chapter 3: launches, price changes, flow rewrites, site changes. When a signal appears, the first place to look is the nearest note.

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Written by Andrew Lauchner, a growth and retention operator for consumer brands. The paid work is one ninety-day Sprint.

This is one chapter of The Noise Floor, which is free and readable in full on a single page with no form in front of it.