KPI

You're seeing it when a sales team measured on calls-per-day makes dozens of shallow calls instead of a few deep, qualified conversations. The KPI optimised for activity, not outcomes.

You're seeing it when a product team hits its engagement metric by adding notification spam that drives daily active users up and user satisfaction down. The KPI moved; the product got worse.

Limit your company to three to five KPIs that directly represent your most important outcomes. For each one, define a counter-metric that catches perverse optimisation. Rotate and reassess quarterly as the business evolves.

Doerr popularised the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) framework — a system built on selecting the right KPIs and tying them to clear objectives. He introduced OKRs at Google when it was a startup, arguing that the company needed measurable key results linked to meaningful objectives, not just activity metrics. The framework forced teams to ask: what outcome matters, and what number would prove we achieved it? Doerr's insight was that KPIs divorced from objectives become vanity metrics, while objectives without measurable KPIs become wishful thinking. Founders should learn that the selection of KPIs is a leadership act — it signals priorities, shapes behaviour, and determines what the organisation actually optimises for.