4 ms·

What metric do you use to judge the success of the blue team, and what prevents them from gaming that metric?

solatic 8y ago
In practice, you wouldn't really need to have a metric for the blue team, for the same reason you don't need metrics in a 5-person startup. Management is close to the blue team to replace being "close" to thousands of people, and because management is close to the blue team, can judge their output without needing a formal metric. Maybe if you had an organization that was big enough to require several blue teams (a military or government?), then you'd need a metric for blue teams. Such a metric would probably compare the sub-KPIs of each sub-organization that each blue team was responsible for, including metrics on customer satisfaction, and warrant investigation if the metrics went under. The blue teams can't really game that metric without the entire organization falling over, and if that happened, the executives would be to blame, not the blue team.
- hammock 8y ago
  I know a girl who works for United Airlines' "blue team." It's a small (5-8 people?) inward-facing operations consulting group that reports directly to Oscar, the CEO. It's composed of engineers and they analyze existing processes and create new metrics all day long. They do worry about their own careers/promotions etc but the group is too small for there really to be any opportunities to "game" anything beyond basic politics.
  - pinko 8y ago
    I trust it's just habitual, but I think it's important to describe her as a woman and not a girl. When a company is casually described as being made up of men and girls, it sends an insidious message to everyone about who's taken more seriously.
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  > In practice, you wouldn't really need to have a metric for the blue team So the metrics are BS, and the company is really being run by subjective intuition, for which th metrics merely provide an impersonal rationalization.
  - solatic 8y ago
    No company is run by robots. There is no AI CEO. The role of metrics is to grant visibility. Any policies governing outcomes, e.g. pay bonuses for high metrics, those policies are set and iteratively improved by people working off intuition. Doesn't mean the metrics are bullshit, just means they're a tool.

In practice, you wouldn't really need to have a metric for the blue team, for the same reason you don't need metrics in a 5-person startup. Management is close to the blue team to replace being "close" to thousands of people, and because management is close to the blue team, can judge their output without needing a formal metric. Maybe if you had an organization that was big enough to require several blue teams (a military or government?), then you'd need a metric for blue teams. Such a metric would probably compare the sub-KPIs of each sub-organization that each blue team was responsible for, including metrics on customer satisfaction, and warrant investigation if the metrics went under. The blue teams can't really game that metric without the entire organization falling over, and if that happened, the executives would be to blame, not the blue team.

hammock 8y ago
I know a girl who works for United Airlines' "blue team." It's a small (5-8 people?) inward-facing operations consulting group that reports directly to Oscar, the CEO. It's composed of engineers and they analyze existing processes and create new metrics all day long. They do worry about their own careers/promotions etc but the group is too small for there really to be any opportunities to "game" anything beyond basic politics.
- pinko 8y ago
  I trust it's just habitual, but I think it's important to describe her as a woman and not a girl. When a company is casually described as being made up of men and girls, it sends an insidious message to everyone about who's taken more seriously.
dragonwriter 8y ago
> In practice, you wouldn't really need to have a metric for the blue team So the metrics are BS, and the company is really being run by subjective intuition, for which th metrics merely provide an impersonal rationalization.
- solatic 8y ago
  No company is run by robots. There is no AI CEO. The role of metrics is to grant visibility. Any policies governing outcomes, e.g. pay bonuses for high metrics, those policies are set and iteratively improved by people working off intuition. Doesn't mean the metrics are bullshit, just means they're a tool.