When Metrics Actually Count
- Sarah Gruneisen
- 7 days ago
- 4 min read
Stop Measuring Performance. Start Measuring Value.
There is a reason metrics feel dangerous.
It’s not because numbers are bad.
It’s because most leaders measure the wrong thing, and measure it for the wrong reason.
Metrics were never meant to prove competence.
They were meant to test hypotheses.
And somewhere along the way, we forgot that.
Scientists Don’t Prove Themselves Right
Before I moved fully into computer engineering, I studied chemical engineering.
The most powerful lesson I carried with me wasn’t about formulas.
It was about mindset.
Scientists don’t design experiments to prove they’re right.
They design experiments to break their own assumptions.
A hypothesis is not a belief.
It’s a testable question.
Failure isn’t shame.
It’s data.
Imagine if leaders treated goals that way.
Instead of:
“Achieve 95% bug-free release by end of Q3.”
What if the goal became:
“If we automate 80% of test cases, will it reduce bugs by 95% by Q3?”
The first is a performance demand.
The second is a learning experiment.
The first measures obedience.
The second measures insight.
That shift changes everything.
Move Beyond SMART, Toward Worthy
SMART goals are tidy.
Specific.
Measurable.
Attainable.
Relevant.
Time-bound.
They feel disciplined.
But discipline without curiosity becomes rigidity.
When leaders obsess over perfect OKR achievement, they train teams to:
🖤 Protect metrics
🖤 Hide uncertainty
🖤 Optimize appearances
🖤 Avoid risk
A scientific approach thrives on the unknown.
It asks:
💚 What are we assuming?
💚 What are we testing?
💚 What did we learn?
💚 What should we refine?
Metrics are not there to confirm performance.
They are there to refine direction.
The Real Question: What Is This Metric For?
Most organizations measure activity:
🔥 Cycle time
🔥 Story points
🔥 Deployment frequency
🔥 Velocity
None of these are evil.
But they are not the goal.
They exist to serve something else.
The real question leaders must ask is:
What business value does this metric protect?
Because metrics that don’t map to value drift toward control.
In The Leadership Leap: Now Without Crash Landings, I describe six core value types that anchor impact:
❤️🔥 Commercial Value: revenue, growth, profitability
❤️🔥 Market Value: competitive positioning
❤️🔥 Customer Value: experience, retention, loyalty
❤️🔥 Efficiency Value: operational leverage
❤️🔥 Sustainability Value: environmental, social, ethical resilience
❤️🔥 Future Value: long-term capability building
Metrics must answer:
Which value pillar are we strengthening?
If you can’t answer that, the metric is noise.
The Golden Thread and the Red Thread
The Golden Thread connects action to value.
The Red Thread aligns individual effort to organizational direction.
If engineers cannot articulate the value of their work, the Golden Thread is broken.
If leaders cannot align metrics to meaningful outcomes, the Red Thread frays.
Metrics should illuminate these threads.
Not replace them.
When metrics align action with value, clarity emerges.
When they don’t, control fills the void.
Impact Is Not Task Completion
Impact is not finishing tickets.
Impact is ripple.
A leader who empowers a team member to solve a complex problem doesn’t just close a task.
They increase:
🐉 Confidence
🐉 Capability
🐉 Collective intelligence
🐉Long-term system resilience
Small decisions compound into architecture.
Metrics should reflect ripple.
Not just output.
But amplification.
Performance Evaluation Is Not the Enemy
Let’s add nuance.
Performance evaluation is not inherently harmful.
Organizations need clarity on:
🔥 Expectations
🔥 Growth
🔥 Accountability
🔥 Capability
Evaluation belongs in that domain.
But evaluation must not contaminate experimentation.
If every experiment becomes a performance test, learning dies.
Separate the domains:
Evaluation asks:
Did we deliver what we committed to?
Learning asks:
What did we discover along the way?
When leaders blur these, safety evaporates.
When leaders separate them clearly, maturity increases.
The “How” Is Experimental
Here’s the distinction that saves teams:
You measure business value at the what level.
You experiment at the how level.
The “how” belongs to scientific thinking:
Test.
Adjust.
Refine.
Iterate.
Break assumptions.
The “what” anchors direction.
If leaders confuse the two, they micromanage the how and lose the why.
And that’s where metrics become suffocating.
Balance Short-Term and Long-Term Value
One of the most dangerous metric traps is short-term obsession.
🖤 Chasing deployment speed while ignoring sustainability.
🖤 Chasing quarterly revenue while starving future capability.
🖤 Chasing feature velocity while eroding architecture.
Future value often looks inefficient in the present.
Refactoring legacy code looks like cost.
Mentoring junior engineers looks slow.
Investing in infrastructure looks like delay.
But they unlock scalability, resilience, and adaptability.
Metrics must balance:
Short-term hypothesis
with
Long-term vision
Otherwise, you train teams to win sprints and lose the marathon.
The Dark Side of Measurement
Let’s say the uncomfortable part clearly.
Metrics become toxic when leaders use them to:
🖤 Compare teams without context
🖤 Judge individuals without nuance
🖤 Replace dialogue with dashboards
🖤 Avoid courageous conversations
This is not a data problem.
It’s a leadership maturity problem.
Because numbers are easier than people.
But people are where value is created.
My Conviction
I don’t believe in controlling people.
I believe in the light and potential that emerges when people are met with trust, context, and clear boundaries.
I don’t believe people need control.
I believe fear-based systems do, and they mistake control for safety.
Most humans are not trying to exploit systems.
They are trying to contribute meaningfully.
Even those with darker dragons, ego, insecurity, defensiveness, behave differently in professional contexts with clear boundaries and accountability.
When we design systems assuming the worst,
we don’t prevent harm.
We create it.
How To Make Metrics Count
If you want metrics that elevate rather than diminish:
Frame goals as hypotheses.
Tie every metric to a value pillar.
Compare teams to their past selves, not to each other.
Measure ripple, not just output.
Make experimentation psychologically safe.
Retire metrics that no longer serve their purpose.
Separate evaluation from exploration.
Most importantly:
Use metrics to ask better questions.
Never to close conversations.
🐉 Dragon Insight
There are two dragons in every organization.
One guards certainty.
One guards possibility.
The certainty dragon loves fixed targets, comparison, and proof.
The possibility dragon loves experimentation, curiosity, and refinement.
Great leaders don’t slay the certainty dragon.
They tame it.
They let it guard direction,
but never let it silence inquiry.
Metrics should serve value.
Value should serve purpose.
Purpose should serve people.
When that hierarchy is clear, metrics stop being weapons.
They become instruments of growth.
Now Without Crash Landings. 🐉
Some screenshots from The Leadership Leap where I delve even deeper into these topics with real examples. Buy my book.
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