Metrics Fetishism

Chris Hecker…

Now, metrics and closed feedback loops are great in the abstract, but like any tool, they can be misused. Just as it’s usually a bad idea to design a game based totally on your intuition without grounding that intuition in the cold hard reality of another human being touching the controls, it’s also bad to blindly gather and follow metrics data.

In the old days, we erred too far on the intuition side of the equation, but now I fear we’re erring too far on the metrics side of the equation. This is what I call metrics fetishism

Replace a game with [anything].

Filed under: metrics  perspective  chris hecker