Think, before you pivot

Today I just want to quote a recent post by @andrewchen from @a16z which I really liked. It’s from an interview Andrew gave to @AdamRisman from Intercom an (ex) start-up I also truly like. The podcast can be listened to here: https://blog.intercom.com/andrew-chen-on-growth.
The pivoting passage I want to quote goes like this:

“Adam: You’ve consulted with a lot of growth teams; what’s one common mistake you keep seeing them make when it comes to running experiments?

Andrew: A lot of folks spend their time picking the metrics first and then trying to increase them as much as possible. That’s a good place to start, but the problem is that you have to be careful about picking your metrics. In fact, the thing you should pick first is your strategy: “Hey, I’m going to make money on these business customers who are going to pay me, and then I’m going to use that money to buy more business customers.” Or some kind of loop like that. Then, you pick the metrics that validate whether the strategy is working, and you run the experiments afterward. It’s very easy to get caught up in picking random, off-the-shelf KPIs, like MAU or MRR, without really thinking through how it all fits together.”