Weather Reports: How to Make Your Boss' Life Easier (and yours).
- Matt Evans
- Feb 23, 2024
- 6 min read
Updated: Apr 25, 2024
If you work in the tech, chances are you're part of a team with a leader, boss, or executive steering the ship. Navigating the tech landscape, internal politics, accountability, growth, etc. etc. is challenging.
There's one thing you can to do simplify things and make your life easier, as well as your boss': Sending weather reports. Whether you're an individual contributor or a VP of a department, building a cadence of results reporting can be a game-changer.
The Power of Results Reporting:
At the core of any role is to drive results—results for your teams, results for the people you lead, results for the department, the company, your own results, customer's results, etc. Some of the core benefits of building and sending reports
Visibility into your core metrics (you can't improve what you're not measuring)
Saves time for you and your leaders
Helps you improve in your role
Enables you to course-correct quickly
Drives personal accountability (spoiler, leaders love this - and you should too)
Strengthens your analytical skills
Helps you uncover more areas to research (you don't know what you don't know)
etc.
As a team member or leader, making these results visible and easily accessible is crucial. Imagine it as providing regular weather reports that hit your inbox consistently, providing a snapshot of the current conditions and trends in your domain.
Additionally, they hit your leader's inbox and provide timely updates, visibility into the department/role, and mitigates a lot of potential "fire drills."
This Is The Way (and what not to do)
You ever hear someone say "there's no wrong way to do it...?"
Well, that's definitely not the case here. There is absolutely a right way, and a wrong way to build and send results reporting.
The WRONG way to build your reports
You shouldn't be reporting on 50 metrics—or even 15. If any of your reports begin to resemble a NASA mission control panel, you're doing it wrong, and wasting time.
Even if there are dozens of metrics that you could report on, most of the time they'll just be taking away from the most important ones that actually matter.
Also, if your reports require in-depth explanation before anyone can understand, you're likely overthinking it. Don't reinvent the wheel here.
"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" - Leonardo da Vinci
Often, people will make things overly complex to make it seem like you're an operational powerhouse that has everything figured out. This might work with some novice leaders, but the majority will see right through this. Plus, it's a waste of time.
The RIGHT way to build your reports
Think simple and high-level. Here are a few questions to ask yourself when getting started:
What are the main metrics that you track (or should be tracking)?
What are top 1-2 metrics leadership cares about that you impact?
What does success look like for your specific role?
How will you know you're becoming more successful each month?
Once you have come up with a list of metrics, pair it down to just a handful of KPIs—the most important ones. The ones that you and your leadership team couldn't live without seeing frequently.
If you're needing help brainstorming, think about the executive / business-level metrics that you impact? Is it tied to Revenue (sales, conversion, growth, deal size, etc)? Tied to Customer Management (NRR, GRR, expansion, CSQLs, outcomes, velocity, etc)? Start to track metrics that are drivers of these core business metrics.
Building a Winning Cadence:
To operationalize the process, consider establishing three key weather reports: Daily, Weekly, and Monthly.
For those that know American Football - think of the following when compiling your reports:
Daily Report --> What info is needed to help us win the current play?
Weekly Forecast --> What data will help us secure the next first-down?
Monthly Outlook --> Which insights will help us win the quarter?
Just like your favorite weather forecast, these reports should become a predictable part of your routine. This consistency not only makes it easier for you but also for your leader, as they can anticipate when and where to find the crucial information they need.
The Daily Report:
The daily weather report is your quick snapshot of the current conditions. It provides insights into the day-to-day operations, highlighting any unexpected storms or sunny patches. This report is concise, focusing on immediate priorities and potential challenges. As an individual contributor or leader, it allows you to address issues promptly and keep everyone informed.
The goal for the daily report is to get this automated. Without too much effort, you should be able to spin up a daily report in your CRM and have it emailed to you and your team each morning. But keep it simple.
Here's an example of a daily report I build when I'm working as a Fractional VP of Customer Success:
(These metrics are deployed and measured as part of the Renewal Operating System and allow me to see exactly where we're at each day, where I need to work, and with whom)
I have this type of report hit people's inbox every morning anywhere from 12:00a - 2:00a, depending on how long the system takes to close out each business day. That way it's waiting for me as soon as I get to work each day.
The Weekly Forecast:
The weekly forecast is a manual report that I send via email (and/or slack, depending on Exec's preference) each Monday morning.
Think of this report as a companion to the daily report that you send. It's an opportunity to reflect on the highs and lows of the prior week, and help build the right strategy to win (get to first down) by the end of that week.
Here's an overview of what I include in my Monday Weekly Forecast report:
One thing to note - your executive summary should be just that, a summary. Keep it 1-2 sentences/bullet-points max, and give a high level overview of last week and your focus for this week.
Someone should be able to read only the top portion of your email and understand your forecast at a high level.
If its helpful, here's a free template that you can use to fill in your own Weekly Forecast 👇🏻
The Monthly Outlook:
Finally, the monthly weather report offers a comprehensive overview. It zooms out to capture the bigger picture, summarizing the successes, challenges, and overall progress. This report not only keeps your leader informed but also provides a valuable tool for self-assessment and long-term planning.
I send this out via email on the first Monday of each new month. Here's an example of what it could look like:
For those of you that love to dig into data, I'd challenge you to add a deep-dive into specific metrics at the bottom of your monthly report. Some of my favorite types of metrics to track running a Customer Success team (outside of the traditional NRR, GRR, CLTV, etc)
Customer Cohort Survival Charts: Viewed by monthly cohorts, it tracks how well each new cohort of customers are retaining and gives you instant visibility into whether you're doing better or worse with each one. Additionally, this is the best way to diagnose your churn problem and where/how to build the right strategy that will have the most leverage.
Customer Outcomes Score: Broken down by cohorts (monthly for early stage and then lengthening as you scale), this helps to show which cohorts of customers have the correct strategies in place, and what percentage of customers are achieving measurable outcomes. If customers aren't achieving the right outcomes that matter, they're less likely to expand and renew.
Onboarding Time to launch: Tracking speed to value is important, but if you haven't launched what they signed up for, it's going to be difficult to see results. The right onboarding playbook is designed to use expertise to get customers doing the right things to achieve the right outcomes. Tracking TTL allows us to shorten and optimize the launch time, which in turn improves the speed to value and drive expansion from the get go.
Executive Outcomes Score: This shows if our customers are achieving and measuring the right outcomes through a proactive engagement playbook. This isn't measuring "check-in's" or "touches", because check-in's are a waste of yours and the customer's time when they're just that: a check-in.
Obviously there are a lot more metrics you can track here, but I love to use this as a way to explore and research other KPIs based on what I've been tracking and doing throughout the month.
In summary
Communication and accountability are crucial in working in a tech-startup. Is it easy to get these setup? Nope. But its 100% worth it.
Plus, the majority of this work is front loaded, and once you operationalize your weather reporting process (recurring calendar events with links to reports, templates, etc) and enter into "maintenance mode" it becomes significantly less burdensome.
You got this!
Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:
The Renewal Operating System: This is the ultimate set of playbooks for tech-founders and revenue leaders. This system aligns your teams to the outcomes you produce, improves customer retention, and doubles your expansion opportunities.
One-on-one coaching: Get one-on-one support and proven expertise around revenue playbooks, professional skills, operating models, and much more. I offer 1x1 coaching to help you win.
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