A recurring quarterly exercise of scoring and ranking candidate business levers by effort required versus expected impact, used to decide where to focus resources next. Applied honestly, the scorecard can surprise: cost-saving levers (shipping rates, customer service efficiency, return-rate reduction) have recently outperformed pure growth levers as EBITDA drivers, so the exercise should weigh margin/cost levers alongside acquisition and channel-growth levers rather than defaulting to growth-only prioritization. See also Contribution Margin Portfolio Review.
Alvaro Lopez (Flooret): "Do an effort impact scorecard so you can truly hone in and focus on the levers that will drive most value to your business" — run it at least quarterly, and use it to actively deprioritize high-effort/low-impact initiatives, not just to rank the high-impact ones.
Apply: schedule the scorecard as a recurring quarterly exercise rather than a one-off planning artifact, and treat deprioritization decisions as equally important as prioritization ones.