05 — KPI Dashboard (Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly)¶

Numbers tell the truth. Feelings lie. This dashboard is what you track — no more, no less. Track everything on this page and nothing else. Do it Sunday evenings during the 30-minute retro slot.

Why KPIs (And Why Only These)¶

Ambitious plans die from two directions: invisibility (you don’t notice you’re drifting until you’ve been drifting for 6 weeks) and over-instrumentation (you spend so long tracking that you stop building). This dashboard threads that needle. Seven weekly metrics, four monthly, three quarterly. Nothing else.

If you find yourself adding metrics, stop. If you find yourself skipping the dashboard, that’s a red flag — see ../99_pre_mortem/03_burnout_month_6_to_8.md.

The Weekly Metrics (7)¶

Tracked every Sunday evening. All binary or small integer. Should take 5 minutes to fill.

#	Metric	Target	How to measure
W1	Sprint deliverable status	Shipped / Partial / Slipped	The one deliverable you named at start of sprint
W2	Lab notebook entries	3+	Count of new entries in your notebook
W3	Papers read this week	1+	Papers with notes committed
W4	Source-code reading sessions	4+	30-min sessions, per `04_weekly_rhythm.md` rotation
W5	Public artifact activity	Any progress	Commits to portfolio repo, draft blog paragraphs, PR review comments
W6	Community touchpoint	1+	GPU MODE message, r/LocalLLaMA post/comment, PR opened/updated
W7	Health floor	3/3	Slept 7h+ avg / lifted 3× / walked daily

Green week: All 7 hit target. Yellow week: 5–6 hit target. Red week: ≤4 hit target. Two red weeks in a row = read the reset protocol.

The Weekly Retro Template (Copy Into Lab Notebook)¶

=== WEEK <n> RETRO ===
Date: <YYYY-MM-DD>
Sprint: S<n> (day <x> of 14)

What I shipped:
- [ ] <one line>
- [ ] <one line>

What I read (papers):
- <title, 1-sentence takeaway>

What I read (source):
- <repo/file, 1-sentence takeaway>

What surprised me:
<2-3 sentences — this is the memorable part>

KPIs:
W1 sprint deliverable: SHIPPED / PARTIAL / SLIPPED
W2 lab entries: <n>
W3 papers: <n>
W4 code-reading sessions: <n>
W5 public artifact progress: yes / no
W6 community touchpoint: yes / no
W7 health floor: sleep <y/n> / lift <y/n> / walk <y/n>

Week color: GREEN / YELLOW / RED

Next week: <one-sentence intent for next sprint half>

Am I OK? <yes / no / mostly>

Five minutes. Not more. Yes/no answers are honest; long prose is often avoidance.

The Monthly Metrics (4)¶

Tracked on the last Sunday of each month, in the retro slot. Take an extra 15 minutes for these.

#	Metric	Target	Notes
M1	Portfolio rung progress	On schedule per `03_north_star_artifacts.md`	Which rung is in flight? What percent complete?
M2	Public artifacts published	1/month minimum	Blog post, GitHub repo release, PR merged, r/LocalLLaMA post
M3	Zoho alignment plays advanced	Per quarterly plan in `06_zoho_alignment.md`	Which of the 4 plays are in flight?
M4	study conversion readiness	See M10+	(M1–M9: N/A. M10+: loops opened, resumes sent, screens completed)

The Quarterly Metrics (3)¶

Tracked on the last Sunday of each quarter (M3, M6, M9, M12). Take a full hour — during a buffer week is ideal.

#	Metric	Target	Notes
Q1	Phase exit criteria met	Per phase README	Phase 0 done at Q1, Phase 2 done at Q2, Phase 4 core done at Q3, all shipped by Q4
Q2	Momentum (sustainable pace)	Green >8 weeks / quarter	Count of green vs yellow vs red weeks
Q3	Life integrity	No relationship / health / family cost	Honest gut check. See `../99_pre_mortem/08_family_health_life_risk.md`

If Q2 shows <6 green weeks, the pace is too aggressive — adjust down before Q3. If Q3 shows any cost, stop and read pre-mortem file 08 in full.

The Traffic Light Rule¶

At the end of every week, month, quarter — assign a color. Then act on it:

Color	Meaning	Action
Green	On track, energy sustainable	Continue. No change. Notice you’re winning.
Yellow	Some drift, no crisis	Look at which KPIs slipped. Small correction. Extra rest if health.
Red	Two+ core metrics missed OR health degraded	Read `../99_pre_mortem/09_summary_and_reset_protocol.md`. Consider buffer week. Do not push harder.

Red is not shame. Red is signal. Ignoring red is the actual failure.

The M9 Checkpoint (The Only One That’s Load-Bearing)¶

At the end of March 2027 (~end of Q3), one specific check:

R5 (mini engine) shipped publicly?
R6 (first merged PR) landed?

Both yes → M10–M13 becomes study conversion. Proceed to 07_thirteen_month_pitch.md. One yes → Use buffer B3 (April 2027) to complete the missing one. Then proceed. Both no → Not a failure. But extend the roadmap by 2 months. M11–M13 becomes: complete the M9 artifacts, ship R7 lite. studies shift to M13–M15. Honest and fine.

Portfolio Rung Dashboard (Master Table)¶

Keep this in the front of your lab notebook. Update monthly.

Rung	Target Month	Draft Started	Shipped	Public URL
R1	M2
R2	M4-M5
R3	M6-M7
R4	M8
R5	M9
R6	M9-M10
R7	M11-M12
R8	M12-M13+

Fill in URLs as they ship. By M13 this table becomes your portfolio landing page (see 07_thirteen_month_pitch.md).

What NOT To Track (Anti-KPIs)¶

Explicitly do not track these things. They lie or waste effort:

Hours studied. Two focused hours > eight distracted. Time is not the metric; shipped is.
Papers “on the reading list.” Read papers get committed to the notebook. Unread ones are aspiration, not progress.
GitHub stars on your repos. Vanity metric. Uncorrelated with hire signal.
Twitter/X followers. Same.
Blog post views. Same. Comments and DMs from practitioners matter; view counts don’t.
How much you “know.” Useless. What you have shipped is the only proxy.

Yearly Review Template (M13, Last Sunday)¶

At month 13, before you decide anything about offers:

Reread this file. Look at the KPI history.
Which weeks were green? What was true about those weeks? Replicate that in year 2.
Which weeks were red? What was true about those weeks? Design that out.
Which rungs shipped? Which slipped? Why?
Am I now the person the plan intended? Honest answer. If no, is that because the plan was wrong, or because I drifted?
What is the 5-year version of this? The 13-month plan was a bootstrap. What’s the next 5 years?

Write it up. That writeup is R8’s meta-artifact.

The One Sentence¶

Seven weekly, four monthly, three quarterly. Green / yellow / red. Track it Sunday evenings for 30 minutes. Everything else is noise.

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