Structuring Metrics for team Accountability
Cascading Metrics are a game changer that allow you to distribute a Metric across a team, allowing individuals to own a portion of the overall target. This helps with accountability and tracking performance at multiple levels.
With Cascading Metrics, you can:
- Roll up multiple child Metrics into a single parent Metric
- Automatically sum or average actuals and targets from child Metrics
- Assign ownership of child Metrics to different team members
For example, each sales team member can track their own sales target, contributing to the overall company sales goal.
How to Create a Cascading Metric
1. Create the Parent Metric
- Add a new blank Parent Metric
- Do not enter targets or actuals—these will be pulled from child Metrics
2. Add Child Metrics
- Within the properties for the Parent Metric on the right-hand side, click + Add Child Metric
- In the Add Child Metric pop-up:
a. Enter a Metric title
b. Frequency and Metric Type will be automatically copied from the Parent (which you can edit if necessary)
c. Click Add to save
Now, the Parent Metric will have a chevron (>) to expand and show all linked child Metrics.
3. Enter Targets in the Child Metrics
- Add individual targets to each child Metric
- These targets will roll up into the Parent Metric
4. Enter Actuals in the Child Metrics
- As team members update their child Metric actuals, these numbers will cascade up into the Parent Metric
- You can also look at an annual view by navigating to the Rolling Metrics page
Cascading an Existing Metric
If you already have a Metric with actuals and targets but want to make it part of a Cascading Metric, follow these steps:
- Create a new Parent Metric
- Link the existing Metric(s) as child Metrics
- Add any additional new child Metrics
- Continue tracking as team members update their assigned Metrics