Goodhart's Law
Once a measure is used as a target, people optimise the measure and the measure stops describing what it used to describe.
Full definition of Goodhart's Law →:: COMPARE ::
Goodhart's lawvsNorth Star Metric
The short answer
The North Star Metric is Goodhart's Law's most confident modern violation. Naming one number as the target is exactly the pressure Goodhart described — the practice and the warning are the same sentence read in opposite directions.
Side by side
| Aspect | Goodhart's law | North Star Metric |
|---|---|---|
| Says | Targets corrupt measures | Pick one measure as target |
| Stated | 1975 | 2010s |
| Aware of the other | n/a | Usually not |
| Both can be right | Briefly | Briefly |
What each one means
North Star Metric
The single metric a company designates as its measure of delivered customer value, used to align every team's work.
Full definition of North Star Metric →