Trust a proxy when the real outcome takes months

Metric designMedium

Problem. True productivity — shipped, valuable, reliable software — plays out over months, but you need to evaluate changes in weeks. How do you choose and validate a proxy (surrogate) metric?

Before you reveal: say your answer out loud, as if you were in the real interview — get your reasoning across clearly first. There is no single correct answer: reading what the interviewer is really after and defending your own thinking is what makes an answer strong.

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