Step 1: Tie Ops Metrics to Financial Goals

Connect your ops KPIs directly to financial metrics like revenue per FTE, CAC payback, and contribution margin. Use these links to diagnose bottlenecks, track performance, and pressure-test decisions across the business.

Why This Matters

By Series B, you’re scaling fast — more people, more customers, more complexity. If your operations metrics don’t translate into financial outcomes, you risk optimizing for activity instead of impact. Aligning these metrics ensures your entire org is building toward capital efficiency and valuation growth.

Key Activities

Identify key financial goals (e.g., CAC payback, gross margin, revenue per FTE)
For each goal, define 1–2 ops metrics that directly influence it
Instrument dashboards to track these metrics weekly
Analyze trends and link changes back to specific ops levers (e.g., onboarding, support efficiency)
Review in exec meetings and quarterly planning sessions and take action where needed

Common Mistakes

Treating ops metrics as separate from financial goals
Optimizing for local efficiency (e.g., CS response time) without considering margin impact
Failing to update metrics as strategy evolves
Letting teams report KPIs without accountability to outcomes
Only measuring at the department level, not system-wide

Signals You're Doing It Right

Financial outcomes improve alongside operational performance
Teams understand how their work impacts key metrics
Dashboards show both activity and outcome measures
Ops bottlenecks are diagnosed with data, not guesswork
Efficiency wins are tied directly to valuation growth

Red Flags

You hit ops KPIs, but margin or CAC payback suffers
Teams track outputs, but not business impact
Leadership debates metrics because definitions are unclear
Ops teams can't articulate how they contribute to financial goals
You’re spending more, growing more — but not earning more

Who Should Own This

COO and CFO, in collaboration with team leads and analytics