Draws on the management by objectives of Peter F. Drucker (1954), the objectives and key results of Andy Grove (1983), the Balanced Scorecard of Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton (1992), and Amazon's input metrics (Colin Bryar and Bill Carr, 2021).
Pairs each result metric with the input drivers a team can move and the guardrails that must not slip, then ties a decision to every threshold.
When to reach for it
Building a dashboard, scorecard, or set of OKRs, or fixing a current metric that rewards behavior nobody wanted.
How it runs
- State the objective in plain words.
- Pick the output metric closest to it.
- Add input metrics the team can move directly.
- Add at least two guardrails that must not degrade.
- Define each metric's calculation, threshold, and the decision it triggers.
- Ask how the set could be gamed, and close the gaps.
Where it sits in SOLVE eX
Go to the source
- The Practice of Management, 1954
- High Output Management, 1983
- The Balanced Scorecard: Measures That Drive Performance, Harvard Business Review, 1992
- Working Backwards, 2021