Tropical MBA: Entrepreneurship & Founder Lifestyle #828 Numbers Gone Wild: The Hidden Cost of Being Data-Driven
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Oct 9, 2025 Chasing metrics can harm your business! Explore Goodhart’s Law and how ambitious targets can lead to unintended consequences. Discover strategies to refine your approach, like revisiting your brand promise and using countervailing metrics. Learn the importance of regularly refreshing metrics to keep them relevant and effective. Plus, hear about the shift in focus from mere numbers to leadership skills that prioritize meaningful metrics. Insightful discussions tackle the essence of entrepreneurship and the surprisingly viral nature of job postings.
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Hair Dye Discovery And Durable Brands
- Ian discovered many peers dye their hair and beard, revealing an unnoticed market behavior.
- Dan used the example of Just For Men to illustrate long-lasting brand durability.
Goodhart's Law Breaks Metrics
- Goodhart's Law: when a measure becomes the target it stops being a useful measure.
- Over-optimizing metrics creates perverse incentives that break the underlying goal.
Revisit Your Brand Promise Weekly
- Revisit your brand promise every week to keep metrics aligned with purpose.
- Remind the team why the company exists so metrics support the underlying goal, not replace it.
