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I would say it's a recipe for continuation rather than innovation. You're unlikely to invent anything revolutionary just by looking at metrics, but you're also

I would say it's a recipe for continuation rather than innovation. You're unlikely to invent anything revolutionary just by looking at metrics, but you're also unlikely to keep a business going without them. It's easy to look at something like the iPhone and say, "metrics didn't invent that!" but metrics absolutely put millions of phones in the hands of customers, built an effective production and supply chain, optimized the whole experience, and turned Apple into a trillion dollar company. As with most things, there's a balance and a place for each.

jbob2000 7y ago
I disagree that metrics helped Apple scale, but we’d have to wade in to a semantic debate to settle this. When you have a killer idea, scaling is obvious; just do more. More people, more machines, more materials, etc. You don’t need a number to tell you how much more to scale, because you always want the max anyways. Tim Cook was told there weren’t enough CNC machines in the world to manufacture the unibody MacBook. So he bought the company that makes CNC machines. What’s the point of metrics when you can shift the entire world to meet your needs? Great things are like that. Metrics are for mediocre products and services. We use them in banking because people fucking hate the banking system and we have to pull teeth to get customers to spend money. McDonald’s uses metrics to gauge how shitty they can make their beef without people noticing. Hollywood uses metrics to decide which movie franchise to reboot or make a sequel of. Metrics are a sign that you are done innovating and you are squeezing the sponge before someone else’s innovation dethrones yours.
- nitwit005 7y ago
  > You don’t need a number to tell you how much more to scale, because you always want the max anyways. And you bankrupted the company building factories you didn't need, because iPhone demand has its limits.
- leeoniya 7y ago
  i mostly agree with you. great intuition and experience can largely reduce the need for metrics. the problem is that not every business decision is clear cut and people who have to make them are not always Jobs or Gates. what metrics give you is a way to give the average joe (which is most of us) a way to take calculated risks when there are multiple stakeholders each with their own opinion of what should be done. metrics - like statistics - can be used effectively as a guide or can be used obsessively like dogma.
- deleted 7y ago
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jbob2000 7y ago

I disagree that metrics helped Apple scale, but we’d have to wade in to a semantic debate to settle this. When you have a killer idea, scaling is obvious; just do more. More people, more machines, more materials, etc. You don’t need a number to tell you how much more to scale, because you always want the max anyways. Tim Cook was told there weren’t enough CNC machines in the world to manufacture the unibody MacBook. So he bought the company that makes CNC machines. What’s the point of metrics when you can shift the entire world to meet your needs? Great things are like that. Metrics are for mediocre products and services. We use them in banking because people fucking hate the banking system and we have to pull teeth to get customers to spend money. McDonald’s uses metrics to gauge how shitty they can make their beef without people noticing. Hollywood uses metrics to decide which movie franchise to reboot or make a sequel of. Metrics are a sign that you are done innovating and you are squeezing the sponge before someone else’s innovation dethrones yours.

nitwit005 7y ago
> You don’t need a number to tell you how much more to scale, because you always want the max anyways. And you bankrupted the company building factories you didn't need, because iPhone demand has its limits.
leeoniya 7y ago
i mostly agree with you. great intuition and experience can largely reduce the need for metrics. the problem is that not every business decision is clear cut and people who have to make them are not always Jobs or Gates. what metrics give you is a way to give the average joe (which is most of us) a way to take calculated risks when there are multiple stakeholders each with their own opinion of what should be done. metrics - like statistics - can be used effectively as a guide or can be used obsessively like dogma.
deleted 7y ago
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