Measurement and Metrics Terms You Should Know
Metrics vs KPIs: Metrics measure anything; KPIs measure what matters for goals. Leading indicators predict future; lagging indicators show past results.
February 2026
How Goodhart's Law Breaks Metrics
When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. People optimize for metrics, not goals, creating distortion and gaming.
KPIs Explained Without Buzzwords
KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are the few metrics that actually matter for your goals. Not all metrics are KPIs—only those that drive real decisions.
Vanity Metrics vs Meaningful Metrics
Vanity metrics look impressive but don't drive decisions: total users, page views. Meaningful metrics change behavior: active users, retention, revenue.
Quantitative vs Qualitative Metrics
Quantitative metrics measure numbers like revenue and time. Qualitative metrics assess quality like feedback and satisfaction. Both are needed together.
Why Metrics Often Mislead
Metrics mislead through gaming the numbers, proxy failure not representing what matters, context loss, and aggregation hiding important details.
What Should Be Measured and Why
Measure what drives outcomes, not what's easy to measure. Focus on outcomes over activities, and use leading indicators to predict future results.
December 2025
Analytics Tools Explained: Understanding Your Data and Metrics
Analytics tool categories: Web analytics for traffic and behavior, product analytics for user actions, business intelligence for reporting and insights.
October 2025
Productivity Metrics Explained: Measuring What Actually Matters
Productivity metrics: measure outcomes and results achieved, not activities like hours worked or tasks completed. Focus on impact, not busyness.
Project Metrics Explained
Project metrics: velocity measuring work completed per sprint, burn rate tracking budget consumed, cycle time from idea to delivery, and quality indicators.
August 2025
Measurement and Metrics Problems
Measurement problems: measuring easy metrics instead of important ones like lines of code versus value, and Goodhart's Law where metrics become gamed goals.
July 2025
How Metrics and Measurement Work
Metrics quantify performance. They create visibility, enable improvement through tracking, establish accountability, and drive behavior toward outcomes.
Metrics That Destroyed Performance: Case Studies
UK hospitals held patients in ambulances to meet four-hour emergency room targets. Teaching to test scores narrowed education focus.
Metrics Design Checklist
Metrics design checklist: Is it aligned with goals? Actionable and influenceable? Gameable by cheating? Leading or lagging indicator? Simple to understand?
KPIs vs OKRs Explained
KPIs measure ongoing operational health with stable metrics. OKRs drive ambitious goals through objectives and key results focused on growth and stretch.
Qualitative vs Quantitative Metrics
Quantitative metrics use numbers that are scalable and objective but miss context. Qualitative metrics use stories rich in context but subjective.
June 2025
How Metrics Influence Behavior
Metrics create visibility making performance transparent. Accountability follows visibility. They enable improvement but encourage gaming the measures.
Intellectual History of Metrics
Scientific management quantified work. Accounting standardized financial measurement. Modern analytics expanded to all aspects of organizational performance.
Step-by-Step: Designing Effective Metrics
Keep simple with three to five key metrics. Make actionable so measurement drives improvement. Align with goals avoiding distortion.
May 2025
What Is a KPI: Key Performance Indicators Explained
A KPI (Key Performance Indicator) is a measurable value that shows how effectively an organization is achieving its most important goals.
October 2024
What Is the Cobra Effect: When Metrics Become the Enemy of Goals
Goodhart's Law states that when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. Learn how gaming metrics destroys value — and how to design better ones.
December 2023
Campbell's Law: Why Measuring Performance Corrupts It
Campbell's Law states that the more a quantitative measure is used for high-stakes decisions, the more it corrupts the process it was meant to monitor. A principle that explains teaching to the test, metrics gaming, and the collapse of useful indicators.
February 2023
What Is the Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Does It Work
NPS measures customer loyalty with a single question. Learn how it's calculated, what the research says about its validity, and when to use alternatives.
August 2022
What Is the Cobra Effect in Organizations: Gaming Metrics
When employees optimize for KPIs instead of goals, metrics lose their meaning. Learn how metric gaming happens, why it's rational, and how to design better measures.