METRICS

RULE #1: Measure for a purpose

What gets measured gets managed, and what gets managed gets done. It’s a cliché because it’s true!

You must always understand why you are measuring. The metric is not a goal in itself. Never forget that it’s just a means to an end. It all starts with why.

RULE #2: Shrink the unknown

A metric is just a surrogate for what you really want to know. Don’t jump to conclusions. Always try to reduce the size of what is still unknown.

A single number indicating health does not exist. Neither does one single value for happiness, or for most other qualities for that matter

We can at least reduce our ignorance by using multiple imperfect metrics. But don't jump to conclusions.

RULE #3: Seek to improve

Don’t only measure things that will make you look good. There is plenty of data around, but you must focus on what enables you to do better work.

Not all metrics are created equal

RULE #4: Delight all stakeholders

Your work depends on others, and others depend on you. Never optimize for just one stakeholder. Instead, measure your work from multiple perspectives.

The ultimate test of agility is whether you can keep all your stakeholders happy: customers and employees, owners and suppliers

RULE #5: Distrust all numbers

Observers usually influence their own metrics, and they suffer from all kinds of biases. Have a healthy, skeptical attitude towards any reported numbers.

Hawthorne Effect: The fact that a person’s productivity is being measured causes that person to pay more attention to his work and his productivity goes up.

RULE #6: Set imprecise targets

“When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.”

As soon as you set a target for others, they will pursue the target instead of the original purpose

Most support have targets/get rewarded for number of tickets solved.

RULE #7: Own your metrics

Everyone is responsible for their own work, and metrics help us improve that work. Therefore, everyone should be responsible for their own metrics.

The metrics are available for people’s self-improvement rather than for managerial coercion and control.

Managers: Before you try to measure someone else’s performance, please explain how you measure your own.

Individual Contributors: See measurement as a positive thing, as something that empowers you to improve your work and your outcomes in the areas under your control.

RULE #8: Don’t connect metrics to rewards

What is rewarded (and can be measured) is never exactly the same as the true purpose of the organization (which cannot be truly measured).

Rewards kill motivation and lead to dysfunctional behaviours: for every person you make “employee of the month” you turn dozens, hundreds, or thousands of colleagues into “losers of the month”.

RULE #9: Promote values and transparency

Human beings are smart and able to game any system. To prevent gaming, be transparent about values, intentions, and the metrics everyone is using.

At Google, employees add their objectives and targets into the employee directory and everyone can see each other’s results, including those of the top managers. [Yarow, “This Is the Internal Grading System Google Uses”]

RULE #10: Visualize and humanize

Numbers tend to dehumanize everything. Replace digits with colors and pictures, and keep the measurements close to where the actual work is done.

RULE #11: Measure early and often

Don’t delay measurements until symptoms of problems are popping up. If you don’t have regular check-ups, your diagnostics and interventions might be too late.

Measuring well usually means measuring more often than you’re doing now.

RULE #12: Try something else

It’s rarely a good idea to do the same things over and over. The environment changes all the time. The same should apply to how and what you measure.

WHAT NEXT?

1. Learn about Google’s OKRs system for performance measurements and start experimenting with a similar system yourself.
2. Evaluate the things you measure regularly and see if they help you learn to improve toward your purpose.
3. List all your stakeholders (the teams and groups you belong to) and check if you measure your performance for each of their perspectives.
4. Visualize your metrics in a way that makes them interesting, and keep them close
5. Be transparent about your metrics. Show them to others and ask the same courtesy from them. Discuss it all together, and feel free to collaborate and compete on measures.
6. Now scale this to the whole organization, where everyone maintains responsibility for their own measurements.