Modeling each club stakeholder's time-horizon preference as a discount factor: head coach (near-zero — needs results this week), sporting director (moderate — needs results this season/next), academy director (high — developing players over years). Analytics work must align with the right decision-maker's time horizon rather than a generic "win more games" mandate. When building tools and presenting analysis, the framing must match the stakeholder's discount factor.
Map each stakeholder to their discount factor. Present analysis in terms that match their horizon: for the head coach, "this player helps us win Saturday"; for the sporting director, "this player's value increases over 2 years"; for the academy director, "this player profiles as a first-team prospect by age 22." The same underlying data supports all three framings.
Each club stakeholder has a different time-horizon discount factor: head coach (this week), sporting director (this season/next), academy director (3-5 years). The same underlying data and analysis supports all three framings, but presenting a long-term recruitment insight to a coach in long-term terms guarantees it will be ignored. The framing must match the stakeholder's discount factor, not the analyst's time horizon.