I’ve been wrestling with this lately: the moment you add more dashboards, cycle time, deploy frequency, PRs merged, whatever, there’s this phase where the team starts gaming the numbers. Not out of bad intent, just because the numbers are visible.
Sometimes it gives a nice push, but other times it pulls focus away from the real outcome. I’ve been trying to use metrics more as conversation starters than as targets, but honestly, I’m still figuring it out.
Has anyone here cracked the balance? How do you keep metrics useful without them turning into vanity KPIs?
Yep, Neel & Anne, this is exactly it. We’ve started treating dashboards more like signal lights than report cards. A quick look triggers a chat: “Hey, why’s this blocked?” rather than “Why aren’t you hitting the numbers?” Makes conversations way more useful and less stressful.
yeah i feel this. dashboards are like those mirrors at the gym, useful to check form, but if you just stare at them you’re not actually getting stronger. i’ve seen teams spend more energy “looking good” on charts than fixing the real stuff. curious tho, do y’all set some metrics aside just for the team (not for leadership), so it feels safer to be honest with the data?
I’ve started experimenting with invisible metrics tracking a few things the team knows exist but aren’t shared with leadership. Surprisingly, it sparks more honest discussions and highlights blockers we’d otherwise hide. Makes me wonder if transparency sometimes backfires when the audience isn’t the right one.