The hottest Metrics Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Technology Topics
Technology Made Simple β€’ 99 implied HN points β€’ 19 Jun 23
  1. Observability in distributed software systems is crucial as they grow in complexity and scale.
  2. The 3 pillars of observability are logs, metrics, and traces, each offering unique insights into the system's operations.
  3. Combining logs, metrics, and traces is essential for building tools that enhance observability and improve system performance.
Wisdom over Waves β€’ 59 implied HN points β€’ 28 Dec 23
  1. Adding more people to a late software project can make it even later due to various factors like onboarding time, increased coordination needs, and additional deployments causing outages.
  2. When a measure becomes the target, it loses its effectiveness, leading to actions like renaming variables or engaging in practices that prioritize metrics over true code quality.
  3. The structure of the software often mirrors the communication structure of the organization that designed it, showcasing the impact of company dynamics on software architecture.
UX Psychology β€’ 158 implied HN points β€’ 03 Oct 22
  1. Identifying clear goals is crucial in choosing the right UX metrics, involving team and stakeholders can help define meaningful and actionable metrics.
  2. Mapping goals to signals helps track progress towards goals; gathering user feedback and reviews can be essential signals to measure UX success.
  3. Refining signals into specific metrics is the final step, where data scientists can assist in ensuring metrics are measured accurately; focus on key metrics and avoid adding unnecessary data.
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Shivansh β€’ 19 implied HN points β€’ 26 Apr 24
  1. P/E ratio compares a company's stock price with its earnings per share, providing insight into investor perception and market sentiment.
  2. Calculating P/E ratio involves dividing the current stock price by the company's earnings per share (EPS).
  3. Different types of P/E ratios like trailing and forward help in assessing past performance and future earnings, aiding investors in comparing valuations and identifying trends across industries.
UX Psychology β€’ 119 implied HN points β€’ 20 Sep 22
  1. UX metrics are vital for making evidence-based UX decisions instead of relying on opinions and beliefs.
  2. Using a combination of attitudinal and behavioral metrics can provide a comprehensive understanding of user experience.
  3. The HEART framework - Happiness, Engagement, Adoption, Retention, and Task Success - offers a structured way to select and track UX metrics for data-driven decision-making.
Maestro's Musings β€’ 105 implied HN points β€’ 14 Sep 23
  1. Software development involves more than just writing code; it's a symphony of collaboration, communication, and coordination.
  2. Developers spend a small fraction of their day writing code; other activities like collaborating, debugging, and planning play significant roles.
  3. AI can enhance developer team productivity by focusing on automated testing, augmented code reviews, automated project management, and more beyond code generation.
Creating Value from Nothing β€’ 79 implied HN points β€’ 14 Mar 24
  1. Evaluation of performance in the Product organization focuses on inputs like quality of thinking over outputs.
  2. Avoiding using output targets to evaluate performance is important to maintain a customer-centric culture, prevent tunnel vision, and discourage risk aversion.
  3. While metrics are essential, team members are rewarded for excellent inputs rather than just meeting success criteria, emphasizing the priority of creating value for customers.
Hard Mode by Breaking SaaS β€’ 39 implied HN points β€’ 13 Nov 23
  1. An ARR book is essential in SaaS analysis to track customer contracts and calculate key metrics.
  2. The underlying data for an ARR book comes from customer contracts, detailing customer information and contract specifics.
  3. To convert contract data into an ARR book, organize logos and periods, calculate ARR changes, and categorize them into New Logo ARR, Expansion ARR, Logo Churn, and Downsell/Shrinkage.
Dev Interrupted β€’ 102 implied HN points β€’ 20 Jul 23
  1. Efficiency improvements in engineering come from continuous habits, not just one-time decisions.
  2. Real-time visibility into metrics and guidance on 'good' metrics can drive organic productivity improvements.
  3. Automating pull requests & code reviews can significantly reduce cycle time and improve productivity in dev teams.
platocommunity β€’ 19 implied HN points β€’ 15 Feb 24
  1. Empowering people to discover their strengths and amplify their impact is key in leadership.
  2. When measuring team effectiveness, consider the three buckets: what (strategic value), how (execution), and who (team dynamics).
  3. Combining measurement with follow-through techniques is crucial to determine if you're measuring the right things and drive continuous improvement.
Developing Leadership β€’ 39 implied HN points β€’ 25 Apr 23
  1. Engineering leaders have two main responsibilities: improving developer experience and delivering impact to end-users.
  2. The Engineering Leader's Process for Continuous Improvement involves identifying, discussing, deciding, aligning, acting, and measuring.
  3. It is important for engineering leaders to continuously loop through the improvement process, not just during times of issue.
Dev Interrupted β€’ 37 implied HN points β€’ 20 Feb 24
  1. The core sections of The Startup CTO's Handbook include Management Fundamentals, Technical Leadership Concepts, and Hard Technology Decisions.
  2. Conducting career history interviews when hiring can reveal a candidate's mindset and how they handle challenges.
  3. Engineering leaders can stay technically relevant by reviewing pull requests and taking courses, even when not coding regularly.
Sunday Letters β€’ 59 implied HN points β€’ 20 Dec 22
  1. Measuring developer productivity is really hard. Common metrics like lines of code or bugs fixed often don't tell the full story and can even be manipulated.
  2. It’s important to think about how a metric could be misused before applying it. Focusing on the wrong metrics can lead to unhelpful outcomes and confusion.
  3. Organizations learn and respond to metrics, but sometimes they take things too literally. Choosing the right metrics carefully is crucial to avoid unintentional negative effects.
Build To Scale β€’ 19 implied HN points β€’ 15 Sep 23
  1. Focus on a small set of key metrics at the executive level to avoid conflicting views and promote progress.
  2. Be cautious of over-analyzing data and creating a culture where analysis overshadows taking necessary actions.
  3. For startups, while revenue predictability is important, it's natural to experience volatility, especially in early stages.
Balancing Act β€’ 19 implied HN points β€’ 07 Apr 23
  1. North Star Metrics are crucial for measuring business success, but accurately comparing them to competitors can be challenging.
  2. Real estate data, particularly from the MLS, provides companies like Zillow and Redfin with precise market insights for measuring market share.
  3. Selecting and refining a North Star Metric as a business grows is essential, and leveraging industry-specific data sources can improve metric accuracy.
UX Psychology β€’ 79 implied HN points β€’ 16 Dec 21
  1. Standardized usability questionnaires have many advantages like objectivity, reliability, and validity.
  2. There are various post-test standardized usability questionnaires available, such as QUIS, SUMI, PSSUQ, SUS, and SUPR-Q, each with unique features and applications.
  3. Choosing the right questionnaire depends on factors like the nature of the project, stage of research, goals of the study, and budget limitations.
Engineering Enablement β€’ 23 implied HN points β€’ 12 Jan 24
  1. The SPACE Framework for developer productivity includes dimensions like satisfaction, performance, activity, communication, and efficiency.
  2. SPACE is useful for software organization leaders defining productivity, teams seeking comprehensive measurements, and leaders involving teams in productivity improvement.
  3. Implementing SPACE involves understanding various metrics, balancing workflow and perception measurements, and considering the holistic approach to developer productivity.
Engineering Enablement β€’ 31 implied HN points β€’ 01 Sep 23
  1. Developer productivity can be conceptualized through three dimensions: Velocity, Quality, and Satisfaction.
  2. Leaders should clarify their goals for measuring productivity by considering stakeholders, level of measurement, and time period.
  3. Transitioning from dimensions to selecting metrics can be done using the Goals, Signals, Metrics approach.
Engineering Enablement β€’ 14 implied HN points β€’ 01 Mar 24
  1. The DevEx framework focuses on the lived experiences of developers by measuring feedback loops, cognitive load, and flow state to enhance developer productivity.
  2. Teams interested in using metrics to improve developer productivity, such as platform engineering teams, engineering managers, and engineering executives, can benefit from implementing the DevEx framework.
  3. To successfully implement the DevEx framework, organizations should focus on getting feedback from developers, setting targets, driving impact through projects, running experiments, and then measuring progress to improve developer experience and productivity.
Apperceptive (moved to buttondown) β€’ 32 implied HN points β€’ 31 Jul 23
  1. Many businesses struggle to measure the true value of implementing AI solutions.
  2. The key problem lies in defining and measuring what 'good driving' or 'good writing' actually means.
  3. Executives should be cautious about overly relying on AI like ChatGPT for creative tasks, as they may miss out on the unique perspectives and insights that humans offer.
Engineering Enablement β€’ 38 implied HN points β€’ 10 Mar 23
  1. Deciding what metrics to track and report to stakeholders is a common challenge for engineering leaders.
  2. Reframing the problem and using a three-bucket framework can help in choosing relevant engineering metrics.
  3. The three buckets for engineering metrics include business impact, system performance, and developer effectiveness.
The Product Channel By Sid Saladi β€’ 40 implied HN points β€’ 19 Feb 23
  1. KPIs and metrics help product managers track product performance and areas for improvement.
  2. Developing effective KPIs involves aligning them with business objectives and defining specific metrics.
  3. Choosing the right KPIs and metrics is crucial for measuring progress, making data-driven decisions, and communicating with stakeholders.