Article · 10 min read

The One Metric That Matters (OMTM)

Alistair Croll and Benjamin Yoskovitz · Lean Analytics Free Intermediate

This is the operating manual for the cut you are avoiding. Pick the single number that defines this stage, over-focus on it deliberately, and let everything that does not move it fall off the board. The authors argue it is better to over-focus and miss a secondary metric than to spread thin across a dozen, which is exactly the anxiety-list-versus-conviction-list trade you are stuck in.

  • Choose one metric for the current stage and run the risk of over-focusing rather than tracking everything and steering nothing
  • The OMTM is a forcing function: it makes the whole team know what to do and what to ignore right now
  • It is not permanent; nail one metric and it reveals the next one, so the discipline is sequential focus, not a fixed KPI
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The question it answers

  1. How do I decide what to ignore, not just prioritize, when everything genuinely looks important?

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