A monthly business review is a recurring meeting in which leaders compare each key metric with its target and with last month, then agree on what to do about the gaps. Colin Bryar and Bill Carr describe a weekly version: metrics are plotted against a comparable prior period, often over the trailing six weeks and twelve months, and each business owner explains their own numbers. Results within normal variation get a quick pass, and the time goes to exceptions and the response to them. A monthly rhythm suits many smaller companies, where the numbers move more slowly. Source: Colin Bryar and Bill Carr, Working Backwards (2021).

Output metrics show results, such as revenue or profit, and input metrics measure the controllable activities that produce those results. Bryar and Carr put the weight of a business review on inputs, because a team can act on them directly within the month. Examples include time to first response, qualified demos booked or the share of orders shipped on time. An input earns its place on the scorecard only when the team controls it and it moves an output. Test that link over several months, and replace inputs that turn out to move nothing. Source: Colin Bryar and Bill Carr, Working Backwards (2021).

One named person should own each metric: the person who can explain it and act on it. In the review practice Bryar and Carr describe, each owner is expected to know their numbers in detail and to explain any anomaly. When the cause is still unknown, the accepted answer is that the team is analyzing it and will report back, which is more useful than a guess. Put the owner's name on every scorecard row and every issue. When a whole department owns a number, nobody in particular prepares the explanation. Source: Colin Bryar and Bill Carr, Working Backwards (2021).

State the decision as a question, list the options, add your recommendation and name the date it is needed by. Then say how reversible it is. Jeff Bezos separates one-way-door decisions, which are hard to undo and deserve slow, careful thought, from two-way-door decisions, which can be changed and should be made quickly by a small group or one person with good judgment. Labeling each request this way tells leadership where to spend meeting time. It also invites them to hand the reversible ones back to the team on the spot. Source: Jeff Bezos, 2015 Letter to Shareholders (2016).

A KPI dashboard is for monitoring, and a business review is for deciding and assigning action. Stephen Few defines a dashboard as a single-screen display of the most important information people need, built to be read at a glance. A review document adds targets beside actuals, a status, an owner, the issues behind the numbers, the actions agreed and the decisions still open. Many teams use both, with the dashboard feeding the review. The dashboard shows the state of the business, and the review records what the team will do about it. Source: Stephen Few, Information Dashboard Design (2006).