The dashboard has thirty-one metrics. Last quarter, none of them changed a decision.

Most reporting packs are accurate, comprehensive and inert. The useful test isn't what a metric measures: it's what a different number would have caused someone to do.

By Steve 5 min read
Abstract bridge artwork for The dashboard has thirty-one metrics. Last quarter, none of them changed a decision.

A monthly pack arrives with thirty-one metrics on it, colour-coded, accurate to the decimal place, produced by someone who spends two days a month producing it. Ask a plainer question of that pack: in the last quarter, which of these numbers caused anyone to do something they would not otherwise have done? The honest answer is usually two or three. Sometimes none. That is not a reporting failure. The numbers are right. It is a design failure: the metrics were chosen for availability and plausibility rather than for their connection…

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