Choosing your metrics, KPIs, etc...

The concept of efficiency — how much one can accomplish per unit of time (or per dollar, etc.) — requires a quantitative numerator as well as a denominator. It requires a metric. Therefore, it tells us nothing about results we cannot quantify or measure. When we gear our society around efficiency, we produce more and more of the measurable, while... See more

We believe that being data-informed comes down to internalizing a set of values. These are simple, few, yet exceedingly powerful:

1. Conviction around a purpose  rather than searching for meaning in numbers


2. Setting verifiable goals  rather than vague aspirations


3. Company-wide familiarity with metrics  rather than outsourcing to “data people”


4. Active

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“One of the reasons the tech industry is so creatively bankrupt is that people just focus on attributes you can measure,” said Jony Ive, when told of the insecurity Kushner had confided to Rick Rubin. “I was very lucky at Apple, because Steve [Jobs] showed me there was a way to articulate things like sensibility, intuition, taste, which all start... See more

One of the most bizarre contradictions in modern software is that the people building these engagement systems don’t like them either!

Ask anyone who works on onboarding popups, feature tours, lifecycle messaging, or in-app announcements how they feel when an app interrupts them mid-flow to announce something they didn’t ask for. The answer is... See more