Avoid This Critical Mistake If You Rely on Progress — Use These Project Metrics Examples That Actually Work
Today’s Tip: A massive mistake product teams make when building apps or systems is fumbling their initial metric selection. Here’s how to avoid this trap…
When you understand how to track the right project metrics, it will feel like a cheat code.
But until then…everything will seem reactive and unclear.
Here is a massive mistake you have to avoid if you want your project to stay on time, on budget, and in control.
Mistake: Choosing the wrong project metrics examples at the start
This will sound obvious, but you need to measure what actually matters.
There are dozens of things you can track (velocity, story points, error rates, sprint burndown)…but which ones give you the clearest signal of progress?
Start there.
You shouldn’t monitor every single metric until you know which few directly affect project outcomes.
So how do you decide what to measure first?
Here’s the framework:
Confirm Project Success Criteria – Do you know what a “win” looks like? If you could define success clearly in one sentence, what would it be? Is it launching on time? Keep costs under $50k? Retain 80% of users in week 2? Without clarity here, metrics are just noise.
Identify Stage-Based Metrics – Figure out which metrics actually matter at your current stage of the project. Early-stage MVPs need different metrics than post-launch optimization. For example, design completion % or story throughput might matter pre-build; post-launch you may focus more on crash rates or user adoption curves.
Pick Your Core 3 – Choose just 3 core metrics to rally around. These will guide decisions, flag issues early, and help with team accountability. For example:
– Sprint Velocity
– Deployment Frequency
– Bug Count by Severity
Choose the right ones for your context. The goal is signal, not vanity data.
Focus & Track Consistently – Once you lock in your metrics, don’t change them every week. Track the same 3–5 metrics across the next few sprints/releases. Use them in retros, planning, and standups. Great teams don’t chase more data — they chase better signals.
Too many teams make these two critical mistakes when it comes to project metrics:
Tracking before clarifying outcomes – They start pulling dashboards and measuring Jira boards before they even know what matters most. This leads to busywork and misalignment.
Monitoring too many things at once – They split focus across 10–12 metrics and overwhelm themselves with noise. This leads to decision fatigue and lack of direction.
Don’t make these mistakes.
Pick the 3–5 project metrics examples that matter most to your build stage, track them religiously, and only expand once you’ve built a reliable decision-making engine around them.
PS – If you want a full list of the most useful project metrics examples broken down by team type, build stage, and business model, book a Free Zoom call with me.
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