Forecasting (mostly sales & marketing metrics) things to consider
- top down vs bottom up
- inputs, conversion rates
- expected results from existing campaigns
- expected results from planned campaigns
- previous year performance
- previous time period performance
- hires, fires
- ramp time, quota, quota attainment
- vacation time, holidays, seasonality
- pandemics
- time lag (ex. rolling 30 day metric post holidays)
- green, yellow, red targets - I do: >=95% of forecast, <95%-90%, <90%
- anomaly big deals
forecast by week for the quarter ahead and monthly for the next three years