Not everything is measurable
New case study: We redesigned Buttondown, which is both the best way to start a newsletter and the reason why you’re reading this. We’re proud of the work we’ve done, and grateful that it resulted in a 18% conversion rate bump.
If you run a software business and want to make the most of your inbound traffic, get in touch.
I’ve been reading an excellent book by David Baker recently, and one quote feels very Draft-y:
I think your clients are more addicted to numbers than they should be, but they are still addicted. One of the concepts Peter Drucker was wrong about was this: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” Now everybody goes around repeating that without careful consideration about whether it’s true. Never mind that it’s nearly impossible to measure attitude, collaboration, cultural health, etc.
Everybody knows you can’t measure internal metrics like general vibe. Consultative work is capable of comparing cultural health & executional velocity against industry benchmarks & their own client portfolios, and providing a clear way forward for improving each.
You can try to measure external perceptions of your business with NPS (heaven help us) or by quantifying post-purchase surveys, but ultimately these efforts will fall short of providing you with the warm blanket that you think you need.
Why bother turning out good products, even, or making people happy, if there’s no direct economic consequence for it? The answer, rather obviously, is that there are in fact economic consequences - you just can’t measure them the same way you can measure conversion rate or ARPU. People may not reorder from you; they may not tell their friends.
Fortunately, fuzzier, more emotional outcomes show up in the research, even quantitative research. Post-purchase surveys show frustrated comments; interviews yield stories of customer service gone awry; behavior recordings show rage clicks. As a result, the value-based designer often acts as the canary in the proverbial coal mine, warning people of the harmful impacts of low-quality design decisions.
This matters because purchasing decisions are deeply emotional, regardless of industry, market segment, or dollar amount. If you don’t nail the emotional side of your work, your economics aren’t going to function.
I spend a lot of spaceholding work around the topic of the unmeasurable. I’d love to be able to connect the emotional narrative to numbers every single time, but it’s never quite that easy.
Some references
Lots of good reads in the past few weeks.
- Some notes on the relationship between beauty & spirit, reminding me a bit of Christopher Alexander’s more formal work on living architecture.
- No.
- The macroeconomics of value-based jobs, by Jared Spool.
- The always-great Scott Berkun on the main reasons low-quality design ships. #9 feels pertinent to today’s letter.
- Ursula’s list, by Erin Kissane. Her work has been essential of late.
Take care of yourselves, take care of each other. And remember that there’s always more to the story than what the numbers tell you.