For an hour long talk about our metrics, see Is Anything Worth Maximizing? or take our class HS202: Monitoring for Values and How They’re Working Out . This is just a quick summary.
Metrics May Indicate Delivering on Goals, Preferences, or Values
The traditional metrics used by technology companies and businesses are not adequate to see whether a product or service is actually a step towards, or away from, the ways that users or customers want to live. Traditional metrics can indicate whether a product addresses users preferences or goals, but not whether it helps them live by their values.
To read more about the difference, see Operationalizing Metaethics or, for a very short introduction, How I Wasted My 20s (Pursuing Goals).
To see what happens when software maximizes for engagement, see Can Software Be Good for Us? or Is Anything Worth Maximizing?.
Getting Values Information from Your Users or Customers
In HS101 Deluxe and HS202: Monitoring for Values and How They’re Working Out , we cover many ways of collecting values information from users.
- There are more intensive ways that involve bringing in users for Epiphany Interviews (Structured Interview).
- There are other methods suitable for polling larger userbases which involve surveys and custom user review processes.
In every case, we ask questions that pull apart the users' motivations (see Four Social Worlds 🕵️♂️🌳💍📈) and help them analyze when they are able to live by their values and when not.
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