Management Question 1: What is Our Plan and How Do We Measure Success?

Your leadership team just spent 40 hours creating a comprehensive strategic plan. The document is beautiful: vision statements, market analysis, competitive positioning, 17 strategic initiatives, and detailed timelines. You present it to the organization with confidence. Three months later, you ask: "How are we tracking on the plan?" Silence. Nobody knows. The metrics don't exist.

This is the most common strategic planning failure. Organizations spend enormous energy crafting plans but never define what success actually looks like in measurable terms. Vision without metrics is aspiration. Strategy without measurement is hope. And hope, as they say, is not a plan.

The first of the 5 Management Questions in the Waymaker Leadership Curve addresses this directly: "What is our plan, and what metrics tell us if we are successful?" This isn't two separate questions—it's one integrated discipline. A plan without metrics isn't a plan at all. It's a story you tell yourself about the future.

The Problem: Plans Without Measurement

Most business plans fail not because the strategy is wrong, but because success is never properly defined. Teams execute activities without knowing if those activities are producing results. Dashboards track vanity metrics that don't connect to strategic goals. Quarterly reviews become subjective debates rather than data-driven assessments.

The Cost of Unmeasured Plans

Let's quantify what happens when plans lack proper metrics:

50-person company example:

Wasted effort: 30% of work doesn't contribute to strategic goals = 15 FTEs working on misaligned activities
Missed targets: Without measurement, teams drift off course = 6-12 month delays in strategic initiatives
Opportunity cost: Resources allocated to wrong priorities = $500K-$1M in unrealized value annually
Decision paralysis: Leaders can't make adjustments because they don't know what's working = Strategic drift and competitive disadvantage

Research from McKinsey on strategy execution shows that organizations with clear, measurable plans achieve 2.5x higher success rates in reaching strategic objectives compared to those with aspirational plans lacking metrics.

The brutal truth: If you can't measure it, you can't manage it. And if you can't manage it, you're not executing a plan—you're hoping for luck.

Why Plans Fail to Include Metrics

Failure Pattern 1: Confusing Activities with Outcomes

Plan says: "Launch new marketing campaign"
Missing metric: What outcome does the campaign need to deliver? (Leads? Brand awareness? Conversions?)
Result: Campaign launches, team celebrates, but no one knows if it worked

Failure Pattern 2: Vanity Metrics Without Strategic Connection

Plan tracks: Website traffic, social media followers, email subscribers
Missing connection: How do these metrics connect to revenue, retention, or strategic goals?
Result: Numbers go up, business doesn't improve

Failure Pattern 3: Too Many Metrics, No Priorities

Plan includes: 47 different metrics across 17 initiatives
Missing clarity: Which 3-5 metrics actually matter for strategic success?
Result: Dashboard overwhelm, nobody focuses on what matters most

Failure Pattern 4: Metrics Without Ownership

Plan defines: Growth targets, retention rates, efficiency goals
Missing accountability: Who is responsible for each metric? Who has authority to act on results?
Result: Metrics tracked but never improved because no one owns them

Learn how the 5 Management Questions create the execution discipline that turns strategy into results.

What "Plan + Metrics" Actually Means

"What is our plan, and what metrics tell us if we are successful?" This Management Question requires two integrated elements:

The Plan: Translating Leadership Vision Into Execution

A good plan frames the big picture using the context of the 7 Leadership Questions:

Vision: Where are we going and why?
Market: Who are we serving?
Strategy: How will we differentiate and win?
Business Model: How do we create and capture value?
Customer Experience: What journey drives acquisition, retention, growth?
Employee Experience: How do we attract, develop, retain talent?
Goals: What are the 1-3 things that will shift the needle?

Then strong management skills turn those high-level leadership answers into actionable tasks with clear accountability and metrics.

At its simplest, a plan is a goal that derives from leadership vision and strategy. While larger organizations may have complex plans touching multiple business areas, any plan—whether large or small—should distill into:

Clear goal (what we're achieving)
Measurable outcomes (how we'll know we succeeded)
Accountable ownership (who's responsible for delivery)

The Metrics: Measuring What Matters

Metrics are not just numbers on a dashboard. They are the concrete measures of success that answer critical questions:

Are we on track?
Are we achieving our goals?
What adjustments do we need to make?

Effective metrics have three characteristics:

Actionable: You can influence the metric through your actions
Accessible: Everyone can understand what it means and why it matters
Auditable: The data source is reliable and can be verified

Metrics often fall into common categories:

Financial: Revenue, profit margins, ROI, CAC, LTV
Customer: NPS, retention rates, market share, churn
Operational: Efficiency, delivery times, cost per unit, quality
Sales/Marketing: Conversion rates, pipeline value, lead generation

The key: Use metrics expressed as percentages (%), numbers (#), or currency ($) to create specific, unambiguous success criteria.

This article introduces the Plan Canvas framework for answering Management Question 1. For the complete canvas templates, detailed facilitation guides, and step-by-step planning processes for each growth phase, get Resolute by Stuart Leo on Amazon.

The Plan Canvas: Turning Complexity Into Clarity

The Plan Canvas is a one-page framework that summarizes key elements of your plan into a straightforward, visual format for management execution. It ensures that teams and leaders focus on specific, measurable outcomes.

The canvas uses the 7 Leadership Questions as a guide, but starts with a summary. The point of the Waymaker Leadership Curve framework is to continuously improve your responses and sharpen clarity as you cycle through each set of questions.

How the Plan Canvas Works

For each of the 7 leadership areas, the Plan Canvas captures:

Summary statement (the plan for this area)
Outcome metrics (%, #, $ that define success)

Then it synthesizes into: 3. Overall goal (the big-picture objective) 4. Top 3-5 metrics (the key measures that matter most)

This structure creates a single page that anyone in the organization can understand, eliminating the ambiguity that plagues most strategic plans.

Real-World Example: Off-Road Electric Vehicle Launch

Let's see how a company launching a new off-road electric vehicle (EV) in the Australian market would use the Plan Canvas:

Vision: Launch a new off-road EV to fill a gap in the Australian market for affordable off-road electric vehicles.

Outcome Metrics: 5% market penetration in Year 1, 2,500 units sold, $75M revenue generated

Market: Target adventurous consumers in Australia looking for sustainable off-road vehicles.

Outcome Metrics: 35% brand awareness in target segment, 15M marketing impressions, 50,000 ideal customer profiles reached

Strategy: Differentiate by offering affordable pricing ($45K vs. $60K+ competitors) and high-performance capabilities (300km range, 4x4 capability).

Outcome Metrics: 85% customer satisfaction, 5 competitive advantages clearly articulated, $15K average cost savings vs. competitors

Business Model: Drive revenue through direct-to-consumer online sales with financing options.

Outcome Metrics: $30K revenue per unit, 60% financed sales, 2,500 direct sales

Customer Experience (CX): Deliver a seamless digital purchase journey supported by top-tier customer service.

Outcome Metrics: 4% website conversion rate, +65 NPS score, 95% support tickets resolved within 24 hours

Employee Experience (EX): Develop a culture of innovation to attract talent passionate about sustainability and technology.

Outcome Metrics: 85% employee satisfaction, 25 new hires in key roles, 90% retention rate

Goal: Achieve significant market entry and brand loyalty for our new off-road EV by year-end.

Top 5 Metrics:
- 2,500 units sold (#)
- $75M revenue generated ($)
- +65 NPS score (+%)
- 5% market penetration (%)
- 85% customer satisfaction (%)

The power of this approach: Anyone in the organization can look at one page and understand exactly what success looks like. Sales knows their target (2,500 units). Marketing knows their goal (35% awareness). Finance knows the model ($30K per unit, 60% financed). Customer experience knows their standard (+65 NPS).

No ambiguity. No confusion. Just clarity.

Metrics as the Backbone of Execution

Metrics are fundamental to any plan because they provide the concrete measures of success. A plan without metrics is like navigating using a map without a scale—you may be moving, but you can't know how fast, how far you've traveled, or what remains.

Why Metrics Matter

1. Alignment Across the Organization

Metrics create a shared language for evaluating progress. When everyone tracks the same measures, teams naturally align their efforts toward common goals.

Example: Toyota's production system relies on metrics to track everything from product quality to production efficiency. This approach allows the company to continuously refine its processes, ensuring alignment across teams and providing clarity on whether goals are being met.

2. Early Problem Detection

Good metrics act as an early warning system. When numbers start moving in the wrong direction, you catch problems before they become crises.

Example: A SaaS company tracking daily active users (DAU) notices a 15% drop over 2 weeks. Investigation reveals a recent product change that broke a key workflow. Fix deployed immediately. Without the metric, they'd have discovered the problem months later through churn.

3. Data-Driven Decision Making

Metrics replace subjective debates with objective data. "Should we invest more in this initiative?" becomes "What do the metrics say about its impact?"

Example: An e-commerce company tests two checkout flows. Flow A has 12% conversion, Flow B has 18%. The metric makes the decision obvious. Roll out Flow B.

4. Accountability and Ownership

When metrics are tied to individuals or teams, accountability becomes clear. You know who's responsible, and they know what success looks like.

Example: Sales leader owns "Pipeline value >$2M by quarter end." Every week, they know if they're on track or need to adjust tactics. No surprises at quarter close.

The Three Types of Metrics: %, #, $

The Plan Canvas emphasizes expressing metrics in three formats:

Percentages (%): Rates, ratios, and proportions

Customer satisfaction: 85%
Market penetration: 5%
Conversion rate: 4%
Employee retention: 90%

Numbers (#): Counts and quantities

Units sold: 2,500
New customers: 500
Support tickets: 1,200
Team members: 25

Currency ($): Financial measures

Revenue: $75M
Cost per acquisition: $450
Lifetime value: $8,500
Profit margin: $22K per unit

Why this matters: These three formats create concrete, unambiguous success criteria. "Improve customer satisfaction" is vague. "Achieve 85% customer satisfaction measured by quarterly survey" is measurable.

Planning in Larger Organizations

As organizations grow, plans become more complex, with multiple teams and departments involved. In these cases, a leader must maintain the broader vision while using strong management skills to break the plan into actionable steps across different areas of the business.

How Apple Executed the iPhone Launch

When Apple launched the iPhone, the leadership team defined the vision—revolutionizing the mobile phone market—while ensuring that each department had clear roles and outcomes to support that vision.

Vision-level plan (Leadership):

Create a device that combines phone, music player, and internet
Redefine mobile computing
Capture premium market position

Department-level metrics (Management):

Hardware: Device specs meet quality targets (%, #)
Software: iOS performance benchmarks ($CPU utilization, # crashes)
Supply chain: Production capacity (# units), cost targets ($)
Marketing: Brand awareness (%), consideration (%)
Retail: Store training completion (%), sales per square foot ($)
Customer support: Satisfaction scores (%), response times (#)

This balance between vision and execution allows organizations to remain focused, even when operating at large scale. Leaders articulate the big-picture vision with strong management discipline ensuring that execution is aligned, driven by clear, measurable goals and outcomes that guide every team.

Learn more about how leadership and management work together to create the positive tension that drives both innovation and execution.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Mistake 1: Metrics Disconnect from Strategy

The Problem: Tracking metrics that don't connect to strategic goals.

Example: Company strategy is "Become the leader in enterprise sales." Metrics tracked: website traffic, social media followers, email open rates. None of these measure enterprise sales progress.

Fix: Ensure every metric directly connects to a strategic objective. If you can't explain how a metric supports strategy, stop tracking it.

Mistake 2: Lagging Indicators Only

The Problem: Only tracking outcome metrics (lagging) without leading indicators that predict those outcomes.

Example: Tracking revenue (lagging) but not pipeline value, conversion rates, or sales activity (leading). By the time revenue drops, it's too late to fix.

Fix: For every lagging indicator, identify 2-3 leading indicators that you can influence now to change future outcomes.

Mistake 3: Metric Overload

The Problem: Tracking 40+ metrics across the organization. Nobody knows what actually matters.

Example: Dashboard with 47 different KPIs across 12 categories. Leadership reviews them all monthly. Nothing improves because focus is diluted.

Fix: Identify the 3-5 metrics that matter most for strategic success. Track others operationally, but don't let them distract from what truly drives the business.

Mistake 4: Static Plans in Dynamic Markets

The Problem: Creating annual plans and never revising them despite changing conditions.

Example: Company plans to launch product in Q4. Competitor launches similar product in Q2. Company sticks to original plan. Competitor captures market first.

Fix: Review plans quarterly using the 12 Questions framework. Adapt metrics and targets as conditions change while maintaining strategic direction.

From Planning Document to Execution Tool

Here's the fundamental shift the Plan Canvas creates:

Traditional Approach (plan as document):

40-page strategic plan created annually
Detailed analysis, market research, financial projections
Presented to board, stored in shared drive
Rarely referenced during execution
Quarterly reviews become "Why didn't we hit targets?" debates

Plan Canvas Approach (plan as tool):

One-page canvas updated quarterly
Clear goal and 3-5 key metrics
Visible to entire organization
Referenced in weekly execution meetings
Quarterly reviews become "What do the metrics tell us?" conversations

The difference: Traditional plans optimize for comprehensiveness. The Plan Canvas optimizes for clarity and execution.

In a VUCA world (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous), clarity beats comprehensiveness every time. A simple plan that everyone understands and executes beats a sophisticated plan that nobody follows.

Practical Application: Creating Your Plan Canvas

Step 1: Answer the 7 Leadership Questions

Start with the leadership context from the 7 Leadership Questions:

"What is our vision, is it driven by our purpose, and what is holding us back from reaching it?"
"What is our market, who is our ideal customer, what do they value, and what perceptions do we need to build?"
"What is our strategy, where is our growth focused, and how do we improve our positioning?"
"What is our business model, is it creating value, what metrics tell us this, and what practices improve our value proposition?"
"What is our customer's experience, how do we acquire, retain, and grow customers through our journey & promise, and what improvements need to be made?"
"What is our employee's experience, how do we acquire, retain, and grow talent through our journey & promise, and what improvements need to be made?"
"What are the one, two, or three things that, if delivered in the quarter or half, will shift the needle on the business?"

Step 2: Define Outcome Metrics for Each Area

For each leadership question, identify the specific metrics (%, #, $) that would indicate success in that area.

Template:

[Leadership Area]: [Summary of your answer]
- Outcome Metrics: [%], [#], [$]

Step 3: Synthesize Into Overall Goal and Top Metrics

From all the outcome metrics across the 7 areas, identify:

Overall Goal: The big-picture objective that ties everything together
Top 3-5 Metrics: The key measures that matter most for strategic success

Step 4: Assign Ownership and Review Cadence

For each metric:

Owner: Who is accountable for this metric?
Review Frequency: How often do we assess progress? (Daily, weekly, monthly?)
Data Source: Where does the metric come from?
Target: What's the specific success threshold?

Step 5: Communicate Broadly

Share the Plan Canvas with the entire organization. Everyone should be able to answer:

What's our goal?
What metrics define success?
How are we tracking right now?
What's my role in achieving these outcomes?

Experience the Plan Canvas in Practice

This article introduces Management Question 1 and the Plan Canvas framework. For the complete canvas templates with step-by-step facilitation guides, metric selection frameworks, and detailed planning processes for each organizational growth phase, get Resolute by Stuart Leo on Amazon.

The book provides:

Complete Plan Canvas template
Leading vs. lagging indicator frameworks
Metric selection decision trees
Cross-functional alignment tools
Quarterly review processes
Industry-specific planning examples

The result: The capability to turn leadership vision into executable plans with clear metrics that drive accountability, alignment, and measurable results.

Plans without metrics are wishes. Metrics without plans are dashboards. Together, they create the execution discipline that turns strategy into results. Learn more about the complete 12 Questions framework and explore how to translate vision into execution.