[wyuenho]

It appears to me this is another case of the slow evolution of European businesses and management practices.

There exists a practice called OKR. Intel has been using it since the early 70s, Google since year 2, and pretty much everyone in SV has switched over since around the time that John Doerr book came out. It’s designed to solve exactly all the problems of KPI. You shouldn’t spend much time figuring out what to measure and whether you are measuring the right thing or how to put what you measured into context. You should be defining simple objectives and key results what will give you a binary answer at regular intervals. Practicing KPI solely is putting the cart in front of the horse. You should know your objectives and milestones before you figure out how to measure them.

[AlexandrB]

This "just use OKRs" comment is funny when contrasted with another comment that described how OKRs were "gamed" at his company: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37221787

[wyuenho]

It’s even funnier when it’s apparent that company isn’t really doing OKR. First of all, the Os are supposed to be somewhat resistant to change in direction. Second of all, you shouldn’t be doing KPI on top of OKR. If you set the OKRs right, you’ll set stretch goals so ambitious, even if you game the completion percentage, the simple answer to whether you are doing the right things or performing should still be immediately answerable.