Mismetrics

Metrics that make a system appear to be working better than it actually is because they fail to account for how people alter their behavior in response to the system.

Workarounds can look like functionality. Adaptation can look like efficiency. Abandonment can look like improvement.

A mismetric occurs when the numbers may be technically accurate, but what they appear to tell you about the system is wrong.

Mismetrics Example:

Support tickets dropped 40%, and management thinks that means the functionality problems have been fixed, but nobody fixed the software. Everyone just stopped using that module. That’s a mismetric.

Mismetrics by Midwesternmick August 29, 2026