Overheard : Watermelon Metrics

Watermelon Metric : Green (good) on the outside and red (bad) once you dig in.

Daniel Shapero (LinkedIn COO) on a post on LinkedIn

Some examples

  • If churn is down (looks green)… but when you look into why it’s down is because all of your customers left last year (very bad)
  • A manager’s EVS scores are up because everyone who was unhappy left
  • Brand awareness could be considered watermelon if it’s high but brand perception is poor.
  • The click-through rate of an email campaign is high, but when you dig in you learn that it’s because so many users are clicking in the footer to change their email preferences or opt out.
  • YOY Revenue is increasing (Green) – especially currently as businesses are raising prices to accommodate inflation – but when you dig in, you see profits are actually suffering (red)