The Perils of Metrics

Improving mine safety is a great goal. A safer mine has fewer injuries, so counting injury reports might look like an appropriate metric. And, of course, encouraging safety via incentives sounds like a good idea. But… “Besides, Mr. Blankenship was concerned about safety, the miner said. He described an incentive program at Massey where employees… Continue reading Mine? What, mine?

http://apps.npr.org/grad-rates/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20150608

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/03/opinion/sunday/how-not-to-drown-in-numbers.html

“… [he] began reminiscing about his job as a lineman, in the early nineteen-sixties, for a power company in Wyoming. Copper wire was expensive, and the linemen were instructed to return all unused pieces three feet or longer. No one wanted to deal with the paperwork that resulted, [he] said, so he and his colleagues… Continue reading Like some sort of optical illusion, not everyone sees this as a GQM situation right away:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GQM

“To fight the infestation citywide, the colonial administration added vigilantes to its team of professional killers. Appealing to both civic duty and to the pocketbook, a one-cent bounty was paid for each rat tail brought to the authorities (it was decided that the handing in of an entire rat corpse would create too much of… Continue reading A tale of rats, or a rats’ tail?

http://www.gv.com/lib/how-to-choose-the-right-ux-metrics-for-your-product   [update, 2019-12-01:  Kerry moved on from Google after this post was first published.]

http://www.dorsethouse.com/books/mmpo.html

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/04/the-problem-with-satisfied-patients/390684/?utm_source=btn-email-ctrl2