This one of the funniest commercials I have ever seen for Superbowl…it also highlights how incentives can very much alter the behaviours of people at work.
People begin to aim towards a north star or metric (less swearing in this case) with unintended consequences that benefit the masses (fill the jar purposely).
These metrics are known as vanity metrics. You may have heard of some of these…
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Code commits
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Features released
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Feature counts
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Tasks completed
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Burndown in a sprint
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Project hours completed
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Overall time to deliver
These metrics look great in a report but don’t tell you ANYTHING about the value of the work being done or if you are delivering on the expected outcomes.
Enjoy the video. I watched it a few times. #hilarious
…and don’t take the bait on vanity metrics. Dig deeper. Measure what matters. #firstprinciples
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