Survival Metrics – Making Change in a Fast, Data-Informed, and Politically Safe Way
Summary
When teams don’t know how to pivot, the resulting waste can lead to a slow down in product delivery. Unfortunately, such confusion occurs commonly in UX/Product teams where roles can blur, and overlap between responsibilities can be rampant. In this session, product expert Adam Thomas introduces the concept of “Survival Metrics” — an approach to team collaboration that not only encourages healthy pivots, but puts in place the mechanisms to achieve them. Stick around to join the conversation and ask Adam your questions during our post-session Q+A, moderated by Christian Crumlish.
Key Insights
-
•
60-90% of product ideas do not improve intended metrics, causing waste and burnout.
-
•
Steve Jobs’ reality distortion field exemplifies pushing forward without feedback, which can lead to failure in today’s environment.
-
•
Good strategy consists of diagnosis of the problem, a clear guiding policy, and coherent actions aligned to it.
-
•
Repeated incongruence—continuously reassessing incentives and data—strengthens decision-making muscles vital for pivots.
-
•
Building trust through recognition, challenge stress, discretion, and vulnerability is key to politically safe change.
-
•
Moving fast requires limiting options through predefined language and focusing on reversible, coin-flip decisions.
-
•
Being data-informed means using data to inform decisions, not blindly driving them; ignoring gut and context can be fatal (e.g., Challenger disaster).
-
•
Sensing metrics are time-bound, contextual, tied to decisions, and linked back to strategy—unlike traditional feature-focused roadmaps.
-
•
Stopping, pivoting, and investing early are essential decisions teams must iterate on to avoid sunk cost fallacy.
-
•
A clear story anchored in company culture with a villain (problem) helps communicate strategy and build trust for decision-making.
Notable Quotes
"60 to 90% of our ideas do not improve the metrics they were intended to improve."
"Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth, said Mike Tyson."
"Feature roadmaps are bad because over time coherent actions become noise."
"Being data informed is not data driven—blindly following data can kill you, like the Challenger explosion."
"Stop, pivot, or invest early—these are the survival metric decisions that save companies."
"Trust is built by recognizing excellence, inducing challenge stress, giving discretion, and showing vulnerability."
"Most decisions are coin flip decisions—easily reversible and should be treated as defaults."
"You have to ask, what are we deciding, and what are we quitting, on a regular basis."
"If you’re not investing or quitting something, what is the point of having a strategy?"
"Repetition, representation, and association are the keys to great theater and great product development."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Managers don’t have to go it alone; principal ICs can be key partners for coaching and strategic initiatives."
Edward CuppsThe Principal Path: Journeying from Management to Individual Contributor
June 11, 2021
"Clear outcomes and defined secure behaviors are better than vague goals like 'be more secure'."
Heidi TrostTo Protect People, You Have to Protect Information: A Human-Centered Design Approach to Cybersecurity
January 23, 2025
"The app was a huge flop because we let our excitement about helping people let our design principles slide."
Emily Danielson“I mean, I can lift a shovel”: Design Skills in Disaster Response
June 9, 2022
"Pat Helisco funds projects that have social impact and provides designers space to exhibit and connect with stakeholders."
Sofía Delsordo Kassim VeraPublic Policy for Jalisco's Designers to Make Design Matter
December 8, 2021
"My job was to find out why. Why was he frowning? Why was he sighing?"
Susan Simon-DanielsWar Stories LIVE! Susan Simon-Daniels
March 30, 2020
"Scaling training happened by finding people in the community who could run sessions independently."
Kara KaneCommunities of Practice for Civic Design
April 7, 2022
"More context is not going to make a better product; everything you put in the context competes for attention."
Paz PerezContext Architecture for AI systems
September 11, 2026
"If you’re generating buy-in, don’t forget what it will mean for your difficult stakeholders—they may have external pressures you don’t know about."
Darian DavisLessons from a Toxic Work Relationship
January 8, 2024
"The biggest learning is it’s about understanding the people and organization beyond just the design team."
Nora Tejeda Giovanna AlonsoScaling Design Capabilities at BBVA Through a Self-service Design Model
June 10, 2021
