Abstract: If you don't know how to measure what you want, you'll end up wanting what you can measure. Most often the thing you want to know isn't easily quantifiable, and common proxy metrics are usually poorly correlated with the information you actually need. Measuring the wrong things is worse than nothing—a toxic metric can damage your teams' performance.
With the right data, you can change the conversation. Tell your team's authentic story to management, your customers, and beyond. Step away from dangerous metrics that punish unfairly. Quit wasting time with metrics that are easily gamed. Instead, choose effective metrics to get everyone on the same page about what's important.
Whether you're the measurer or the measuree, in this session, you'll learn not just which metrics work, but why and how. Our examples will focus mainly on team, project, and program metrics, with theoretical guidance to inform all kinds of measures including portfolio and organization. Understand the difference between true metrics and proxy metrics, and good proxies and evil ones. Discover a framework for evaluating any metric, a Hall of Shame covering some of the worst most popular benchmarks, and one true guide to point you to the very best metrics of all. See some great examples of visualization that make metrics sing, and leave with several concrete measures you can begin tracking as soon as you get back to your desk.
Learning Outcomes: - Difference between true and proxy metrics
- Characteristics of good metrics
- Examples of common bad metrics and why you should stop using them
- Great metrics, including counterintuitive ones, that correlate to the performance you want to influence
- Some examples of measurements where qualitative, not quantitative, works best
