Measurement and Metrics Terms You Should Know
Learn essential measurement and metrics terminology with clear explanations that help you design better metrics and interpret data correctly.
December 2025
Interpreting Data Without Fooling Yourself
Learn to interpret data correctly by avoiding common traps like confirmation bias, p-hacking, and confusing correlation with causation.
Designing Useful Measurement Systems
Learn to design measurement systems that actually improve decisions and performance without creating perverse incentives or gaming.
Measurement Bias Explained
Understand how measurement bias distorts data and decisions—from selection bias to observer effects—and how to minimize its impact.
Quantitative vs Qualitative Metrics
Understand when to use quantitative versus qualitative measurement, their strengths and limitations, and how they complement each other.
What Should Be Measured and Why
Learn how to identify what truly matters to measure, avoid measurement traps, and design metrics that actually improve decisions and outcomes.
Vanity Metrics vs Meaningful Metrics
Learn to distinguish vanity metrics that look good but don't matter from meaningful metrics that actually drive decisions and outcomes.
Why Metrics Often Mislead
Understand how metrics can deceive—through gaming, misinterpretation, and misalignment—and learn to use measurement without being misled.