War-game a metrics review before teams optimize for a scorecard that measures the wrong thing and rewards the wrong shortcuts.
Metrics reviews fail when definitions drift by team, when leading indicators are treated as outcomes, when gaming paths are obvious, and when the review calendar invents urgency without owners. A clean dashboard is not evidence that the company will make better decisions once the numbers become goals.
Freeze the scorecard
State the decision the metrics are meant to change, the definitions you will publish, the owners who can explain each number, and the success metric for the review itself. Name the meetings that will use the scorecard first. If the memo mixes a metrics redesign, a compensation change, and an OKRs reset, split them. One scorecard under fire at a time.
Write the decision you will make if the war game finds nothing new. Also write the kill criteria: the definition fight, data gap, or incentive clash that would force a delay within a stated window.
Hostile seats
- Ops seat: metrics that look crisp and cannot be produced weekly without heroics.
- Finance seat: numbers that disagree with books, forecasts, or board tabs.
- Product or GTM seat: goals that push shipping or selling against quality or retention.
- Frontline seat: gamable paths and work that disappears because it is not counted.
- Skeptic seat: the KPI that looks strongest and is least sourced.
Ask each seat for material objections, missing owners, and the smallest change that keeps the intent without the gaming. Optional people seat if the scorecard feeds performance or bonus decisions.
Private pass
Run that package in Pingpong. Sequential review helps because an early pass can defend the narrative while later passes try to kill soft definitions and dual-counted wins. Keep a change log of definitions clarified, owners named, and risks accepted. If survival requires silence about a known data quality gap, stop. Rewrite the plan or delay the lock.
Publish the review calendar inside the package: who brings which chart, how disputes get resolved, and when a metric can be retired. A scorecard without a dated ownership map is a slide deck with feelings. Ask the ops and finance seats to break that calendar before anyone sees the final dashboard.
Related: war-game an OKRs reset, war-game a budget reforecast, war-game a comp review, pretend you are the CFO, and AI for high-stakes decisions. Mechanics: how it works.