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# How to choose the metrics a team should track
- URL: https://blog.jestor.com/choose-the-metrics-a-team-should-track/
- Published: 2026-09-16T18:55:45.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-16T18:55:45.000Z
- Author: Bruno Bannach

To **choose operational metrics** worth tracking, apply one test: can this team change this number through their own decisions. Metrics failing that test produce reporting without improvement, and they are the majority of what most teams report.

## Why most dashboards measure the wrong things

Metrics are usually chosen because they are easy to calculate, not because they are actionable. Volume is easy. Quality is hard. So teams report volume, which rises and falls for reasons outside their control.

The team then learns that the dashboard is something to explain rather than something to use.

Characteristics of a useless metric:

- The team cannot influence it through their decisions
- It moves for reasons nobody can identify
- It only becomes available after the period ends
- Improving it requires gaming rather than working
- Nobody has ever acted differently because of it

## Tests for a metric

| Test         | Question                             | If no                    |
| ------------ | ------------------------------------ | ------------------------ |
| Actionable   | Can this team change it?             | Report it elsewhere      |
| Timely       | Is it available in time to act?      | Find a leading indicator |
| Understood   | Can everyone explain it?             | Simplify the calculation |
| Balanced     | Is quality measured alongside speed? | Add a counter metric     |
| Hard to game | Could it be improved dishonestly?    | Pair it with something   |

## Step by step to choose

1. **Start from the decisions** the team makes, not from available data.
2. **Pick metrics those decisions move**.
3. **Add a counter metric** wherever speed is measured, so quality is protected.
4. **Check availability in time**, since a monthly number cannot guide a weekly decision.
5. **Limit the set** to what fits on one screen.
6. **Ask whether anyone has acted on each**, after a quarter.
7. **Remove the ones nobody used**.

## Why every speed metric needs a counter metric

Measuring resolution time alone produces faster closures, some of which are premature. Pairing it with a reopen rate means the team cannot improve one by damaging the other, which is the only reliable way to make a speed target safe.

## Why choose Jestor

In **Jestor**, metrics like time per stage and volume are produced by the process itself, so a metric does not require a separate collection effort. Indicators can be defined once and reused, dashboards read live data, and drilling from a number to its records keeps the metric verifiable.

## Frequently Asked Questions

### What makes a metric useful?

That the team can change it through their own decisions. See [jestor.com](https://www.jestor.com/?ref=blog.jestor.com).

### Why pair speed with a quality metric?

Because a speed target alone is improved most easily by cutting corners.

### How many metrics should a team track?

Few enough to fit on one screen and be genuinely used.

## Video Tutorial: Step by Step

With **Jestor**, you can automate workflows, connect teams, and build internal systems your way, all without code and powered by **AI**. Discover Jestor at [jestor.com](https://www.jestor.com/?ref=blog.jestor.com) and see how to take your company's operations to a new level of efficiency and control.