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> Humans have proven time and time again that we are very good at optimizing for specific metrics, and apparently generally very poor at choosing the right metr
by biswaroop 6y ago
> Humans have proven time and time again that we are very good at optimizing for specific metrics, and apparently generally very poor at choosing the right metrics to target.
Maybe it's Goodhart's Law: "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure."
- jonpurdy 6y agoAs another example: Agile dev team measuring velocity (story points per sprint) to predict how much work they can do in the future. If velocity gets turned into a target, corners will be cut (less testing, poor code quality) in order to get those story points for that sprint. Code quality suffers and tech debt accumulates, reducing output down the road. On the flip side, as time goes on teams could just progressively estimate a greater number of points to stories of similar difficulty during the planning process. So velocity goes up but actual deliverable features goes down or stays the same.
- shellum 6y agoI agree that it is easy for a metric to loose it's original meaning. I've had luck with OKRs; Having a non quantitative goal, and possibly changing quantitative based targets aimed at making the goal happen.