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# Goodhart's Law
- URL: https://www.theheadroomhq.com/goodharts-law/
- Published: 2026-06-04T15:32:09.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-28T15:03:56.000Z
- Description: This page explains Goodhart's Law and its relevance to business operations.
- Author: Headroom Editorial Team
- Tags: Glossary, D05 - Measurement Sophistication, D08 - Meeting Design Quality, D10 - Operational Leverage

## D05 - Measurement Sophistication

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### Definition

The principle that when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure because the incentive to improve the number begins to decouple from the incentive to improve the underlying reality.

Goodhart's Law applies to every reported operational metric. The moment a metric appears in a board presentation or a performance review, it becomes optimizable. 

An operations leader who doesn't check for this decoupling is presenting numbers that may be technically accurate while being operationally misleading.

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### Indicators

- A metric has improved quarter-over-quarter, but a related customer complaint or downstream failure has also increased.
- You have never asked the people measured by your metrics how they'd improve the number if their job depended on it.
- No metric in your current dashboard has been formally tested for the possibility that it can be gamed without the underlying outcome improving.

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### Quick Win

- Take your top reported metric.
- Ask the people measured by it, "How would you improve this number if your job depended on it?"
- If their answer doesn't involve the actual outcome improving, you have found a Goodhart failure.

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### Assess

- [Take the HQ Score Assessment](https://www.theheadroomhq.com/hq-score/)

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### Apply

- [The Metric Validity Audit Template](https://theheadroomhq.gumroad.com/l/the-metric-validity-audit-template?ref=theheadroomhq.com)
- [The Metric Validity Audit Checklist](https://theheadroomhq.gumroad.com/l/the-metric-validity-audit-checklist??ref=theheadroomhq.com)

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### Related

- [Vanity Metrics](https://www.theheadroomhq.com/vanity-metrics/)
- [Lagging Indicator](https://www.theheadroomhq.com/lagging-indicator/)
- [Customer Operations Scorecard](https://www.theheadroomhq.com/customer-operations-scorecard/)