Violating this principle will [completely] go astray.
Often, however, we use a sufficiently unnecessary metric as a measure of our goals. How to understand it?
For example, as a content platform, the platform atmosphere is poor and needs to be managed. But how to measure that this thing is done well, the atmosphere email list is good, the experience of viewers and producers will be improved, and the improvement of experience will bring about better retention. According to this logic, it is natural to use retention as a measure, which seems to be no problem at first glance.
Therefore, everyone took action around the indicators and tried various ways to improve retention, such as pushing to recall old users and stimulating users to become active. In the end, it was found that the retained data has improved, but the atmosphere has not improved.
This is typical of a sufficiently unnecessary metric as a measure of a goal. In other words, the atmosphere has improved, and the retention will definitely improve. However, the improvement in retention may not be caused by a better atmosphere, so it is very important to choose the right indicators.
Just like when someone asks you what is your goal in life, you say a happy life. How to measure a happy life? You answer: power and a lot of money.
So you formulate the indicators of happy life, the wealth reaches XXX billion at the age of 50, and how much management radius should be at the age of XXX. Luckily, you did it, but your physical condition is getting worse every day, and it is even difficult to move. Is this the happy life you want? Obviously not.
The above phenomenon can be simply abstracted as follows: