I don't like to respond to my own posts but I forgot to include something which I think is important.
Unfair "heuristics" create unhealthy incentives that are typically way more damaging than having little clarity.
1. People feel treated unfairly and their engagement drops off a cliff at that point in time. People can be happy even accepting a punishment AS LONG as they FEEL they are being treated fairly.
2. People feel pressed to do things for show, just to appease measurements even if they don't believe it is right. Soon they are fine doing substandard or even completely shoddy work even in areas that are not measured, because that's what people do. People do not just selectively resign from doing good work -- if they feel they are asked to do bad work somewhere they will also do it in other areas and find a rationale for it.
3. People who will not accept bullshit and would want to do right regardless of unfair measurements, will evaporate from your company. They usually leave on their own. This will leave your company worse overall -- with no people who will tell managers the truth when it is needed the most.
4. The corporate, thinking they have measurements, stop looking to actually do better. The measurements become everything.
It is frequently better to not pretend you solved the problem and accept the problem is hard and try to do best anyway.
I've been around for long enough to see how all obvious solutions are flawed, but I don't see any good way out. I have a feeling that the coming decade whoever finds a practical solution to this problem will win the next round of tech wars...
Unfair "heuristics" create unhealthy incentives that are typically way more damaging than having little clarity.
1. People feel treated unfairly and their engagement drops off a cliff at that point in time. People can be happy even accepting a punishment AS LONG as they FEEL they are being treated fairly.
2. People feel pressed to do things for show, just to appease measurements even if they don't believe it is right. Soon they are fine doing substandard or even completely shoddy work even in areas that are not measured, because that's what people do. People do not just selectively resign from doing good work -- if they feel they are asked to do bad work somewhere they will also do it in other areas and find a rationale for it.
3. People who will not accept bullshit and would want to do right regardless of unfair measurements, will evaporate from your company. They usually leave on their own. This will leave your company worse overall -- with no people who will tell managers the truth when it is needed the most.
4. The corporate, thinking they have measurements, stop looking to actually do better. The measurements become everything.
It is frequently better to not pretend you solved the problem and accept the problem is hard and try to do best anyway.