I recently learned that Finland is the happiest country in the world; while my country, the United States, is number 18. Ironic, considering the US is the richest country in the world and happiness is mentioned in its constitution as an inalienable right.

As I read this, one central question emerged, how do you measure something as qualitative as happiness?

The creators of the World Happiness Report rely on the Cantril Ladder (See photo on the right):

“It asks respondents to think of a ladder, with the best possible life for them being a 10, and the worst possible life being a 0. They are then asked to rate their own current lives on that 0 to 10 scale.”

Is that all? No fancy differential equations?

It is eerily similar to other popular metrics from the business world: the Net Promoter Score which asks a different question: How likely is it that you would recommend [brand] to a friend or colleague. The respondents are asked to rate from 1-10.

Why I like this approach

I am often asked to gather metrics to test whether or not the change is effective. The gut reaction of managers is to measure productivity by way of code commits or story points or some variation. All of which are subject to both Goodhart’s and Campbell’s laws:

Goodhart's Law: When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure
Campbell’s Law: "The more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it is intended to monitor."

I then engage them in a series of 5-whys about what they are trying to achieve. As we go down the rabbit hole, we usually end up with what we want to see if the customer or internal stakeholders are getting value.

“Why don’t you just ask them if they are happy or not with the last release?”

This is usually met with a quizzical look, trying to decide if I’m an idiot or if it's a good idea.

“If you want to find out if they are happy with what they got, why don’t you just ask them?” This approach seems to be the go-to approach for the PhD.’s that are trying to find out the happiest counties in the world, why can't we use it to find out if our customers/product owners/ internal stakeholders are happy?

What is missing

This is a useful approach, but it’s not sufficient because they are all lagging indicators. Lagging indicators tell us something after it is too late. What we also need are leading indicators that point us to the true north.

The world happiness index suggests 6 key leading indicators for happiness: income, healthy life expectancy, having someone to count on in times of trouble, generosity, freedom, and trust (measured by the absence of corruption in business and government).

The question for those who choose a happiness metric as a lagging indicator is: what are the key leading indicators that need to be measured? Here are mine:

Happy/fulfilled team members
Quality (Post-production)
Product Owners that own the product
Low lead time