The more metrics you have, the less courage you need — because you always have a ready-made excuse for whatever bad call you just made.
This is not a virtue. Torturing data to defend any decision, including the wrong ones, is not rigour. It’s cowardice with a spreadsheet.
Sure, you can always say “the data said so” — but that’s precisely what makes it so much harder to say “I took a risk.” And what risk, exactly, if you’ve engineered metrics that don’t measure anything — they just protect whoever is doing the deciding?
Some concrete examples
1. ROAS is positive, therefore the campaign is working
A catastrophically stupid take, which translates to: you’re looking at short-term advertising return and ignoring real margins, promotional pressure, and — almost certainly — you’re not even asking whether CAC < CLV.
2. We increased our email open rate by +25%
Fantastic, darlings. In isolation, all you’ve done is improve a number that doesn’t — on its own — move the business. For all I know, you put “free pistachio ice cream for everyone” in the subject line. Of course your open rate went up. Well done.
Meanwhile, conversions are flat because customers find zero connection between the subject line and the actual offer. And while you’re busy celebrating, churn is quietly climbing — because your customers thought they were buying fashion and you just pushed them a pistachio gelato.