Goodhart's law: why a number stops telling the truth once it becomes a target
Gaming a metric: the number gets better while the goal gets worse
Put a bonus on how fast a support team closes tickets, and the time to close drops to its best ever. Meanwhile, more customers are stuck than before, and nobody lied.
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1
Monday morning, the note goes up beside the time to close: the fastest closer of the month wins a bonus. Now the number pays, and a metric that pays is what managers call a target.
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2
A rider's lock is jammed. Miva sends a tip that often works, marks the ticket solved and moves on to the next one.
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3
Rono does it his way: he marks a ticket solved only when the rider says the lock opened. Some tickets take him all afternoon.
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4
By the end of the month, the time to close has never been lower. Out in the street, though, more riders are stuck than before.
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5
Both roads end in a ticket marked solved, so the number can't tell them apart. When the number moves and the goal stays where it was, people call it gaming the metric.
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6
Miva wins the bonus, and riders keep writing in. Nobody lied: Miva did exactly what the bonus paid for.
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Quick check
Pizza for dinner, with a promise on the clock.
Show the answer
Send the pizza out with whatever is ready: cold, or missing a drink. The clock looks great, the dinner doesn't.