Type each driver, then rate it 1 (early) to 5 (best-in-class), now and at target. Set leverage 0 to 10: how much moving this one driver moves everything else downstream. A quick win is a high-leverage lever you control, only a short gap from target. For a constraint, a high current score means it's binding (that's bad).
New to this? What the three kinds of driver and each column mean
You're sorting the things on your dashboard into three kinds: the levers you can pull, the outcomes you can only watch, and the constraints that cap everything else. Then you mark how much control you have and how far each is from target. Plain English below.
- Type each driver, then mark it a lever, an outcome or a constraint.
- Set how much control you have: Controlled, Influenced or External.
- Rate it Now and at Target, each 1 to 5, and set Leverage 0 to 10 for how far its effects reach downstream.
- Read your quick wins (high-leverage levers you control, a short gap from target) and the constraints worth relieving.
- Control
- How much say you have over this driver. Controlled = you can change it yourself. Influenced = you can sway it, but can't decide it alone. External = outside your control (weather, the market, regulation).
- Lever
- Something you can act on directly, that moves other things when you do: pricing, sales activity, service quality. Levers are where effort actually pays.
- Outcome
- A result you want, but can only move indirectly by pulling the levers beneath it: repeat purchase, cash conversion, reputation. You watch it respond.
- Constraint
- A limit that caps everything else until you relieve it: a skills shortage, a fragile supplier, a bottleneck. Here a high current score means it's binding hard, which is bad.
- Now and Target
- How good this driver is today and where you need it, each 1 (early or weak) to 5 (best in class). The gap between them is what's fixable.
- Leverage
- How far this one driver's effects reach downstream. 0 = it moves little else. 10 = moving it moves almost everything else with it.
| Driver | Type | Control | Now | Target | Leverage | Read |
|---|
Pull these first
High-leverage levers you control, a short gap from target. The closest thing to a free lunch.
Once your levers are clear, the Prioritisation Scorecard ranks the work behind them; a Commercial Assessment builds the engine from evidence, and the APG Platform tracks each lever against the outcomes it's meant to move.
A structured simplification of something messier. A real business is a web of feedback loops, so a driver can be a lever in one and a constraint in another, and pulling a lever hard can create a new constraint elsewhere. Leverage here is your own judgement of downstream reach, not a computed graph. The quick-win rule mirrors APG's: leverage in the top quartile of your drivers (floor of 7), a gap of 1 to 2 rubric points, and full control. Not financial advice.
You can't push an outcome. You pull the levers underneath it and watch it respond.
Sorting drivers into levers, outcomes and constraints is what stops effort going where it can't work. A Commercial Assessment builds the whole engine from evidence.
Start with a Commercial Assessment →Not ready to talk? Find your constraint in 60 seconds →