Whenever we tie a Scorecard measurable to outbound outreach or ticket resolution speed, employees find clever ways to hit the target while damaging downstream quality. How do we design paired metrics on our weekly Scorecard to stop this gaming?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When you measure an activity in isolation, human nature optimizes for the metric rather than the intended business outcome. Sales reps send boilerplate spam to hit activity numbers. Support technicians close tickets prematurely to protect resolution speed. The solution is never to abandon the metric. The solution is to introduce a counter-measurable that balances quantity with quality.

Every operational velocity metric needs an opposing friction metric. On your leadership or departmental Scorecard, pair volume indicators with downstream health indicators owned by the same seat or an adjacent seat:

- Pair raw sales outreach volume with prospect response rate or qualification percentage.
- Pair ticket resolution velocity with first-contact resolution percentage or reopened ticket count.
- Pair project milestone completion speed with client defect reports or internal rework hours.

When employees know that hitting an activity number at the expense of quality immediately trips a red counter-metric, gaming stops. If an individual continues to hit volume numbers while their quality counter-metric stays chronically red, you no longer have a data problem. You have an Accountability Chart issue. The employee lacks GWC for the seat because they value personal scorecard compliance over company health.

Review both numbers together during your Level 10 Meeting. If outbound calls hit target but qualified discovery calls plummet, the seat owner must identify the root cause in IDS rather than celebrating an artificial green box.