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Metricsstretch
Your team hit its main goal, but customer complaints doubled. What went wrong in how the goal was set?
How to approach it
Name the trap: a single metric without guardrails invites gaming or tunnel vision. Then explain how you would reset the goal.
How a strong answer opens
“This sounds like a goal without guardrails. I'd first confirm the complaints are linked to how we chased the goal, then look at how the goal was set.”
Outline of a strong answer
Try answering out loud for a few minutes before you open this.
- Confirm the link between the goal and the complaints
- Explain how the metric got optimized at users' expense
- Identify the missing guardrails, such as complaint rate or refund rate
- Propose a better goal: outcome plus guardrails
- Plan to fix the harm now
- Share what you would change in goal-setting next time
Where this question usually goes wrong
Blaming the team's execution instead of the goal itself, which had no guardrail to stop it being hit at customers' expense.
Learn the method
Common traps and how to recover in Module 2, Metrics and execution.
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