Federal Performance Measures: Are We Measuring What Matters?
Most federal performance metrics tell us everything except what matters. Walk into any agency today and you'll find dashboards overflowing with data points – time to process applications, number of transactions completed, volume of cases cleared. Leadership teams pride themselves on tracking dozens, sometimes hundreds, of metrics. Sure, we can tell you how many applications we processed, meetings we held, or reports we filed. Yet ask a simple question: "Are those activities actually delivering better outcomes for citizens?" the room often fills with silence and discomfort—and that's what causes most agencies to struggle with delivering on mission.?
This isn't just a measurement problem—it's an execution crisis. When agencies can't connect activities to outcomes, they can't execute effectively against their mission. The result is a vicious cycle in which more measurement leads to little mission impact, as teams chase metrics that don't drive real change.
This disconnect isn't due to a lack of effort or commitment on the part of our dedicated public servants. For whatever reason, we've built vast measurement infrastructures focused on what's easy to count rather than what truly counts. The outputs we track are convenient, immediate, and make us look productive. Meanwhile, the fundamental outcomes that drive our missions—the real measure of public service—remain frustratingly obscure and out-of-reach.
The cost of this misalignment is staggering. Agencies pour resources into improving metrics that don't necessarily translate to better citizen service. Teams grow demoralized as their efforts consistently fail to yield outcomes and impact, as they’re evaluated on measures that are disconnected from their actual impact, and as they feel the pressure to course correct when they don’t know where to start. Most concerningly, we lose sight of whether we're truly advancing our core mission or just getting better at counting the wrong things.??
Programs that can't demonstrate real impact become vulnerable, regardless of how efficiently they operate. In the federal landscape, measuring the right things isn't a nice-to-have—it's a necessity, now more than ever.?
But there is a path forward. Over the past 5 years, we've worked with federal clients that have fundamentally transformed their approach to performance measurement. One such client was a federal agricultural program that faced a critical inflection point. Their mandate focused on increasing access to resources for American farmers and producers. Initially struggling with constraints in tools, frameworks, capacity, and training that hindered effective performance measurement, they transformed their approach from basic reporting to comprehensive evaluation of mission impact. By developing a logic model that clearly connected the program's activities with intended outcomes for rural communities, along with structured metrics and data collection procedures, they secured broader organizational support. More importantly, they became a strategic priority and exemplar for other programs—all because they could finally demonstrate tangible results that justified transitioning to a larger agency with substantially more resources and experience. This elevation provided greater stability, strengthened mission buy-in, and secured resources for continued evaluation and optimization. Most importantly, it sparked meaningful discussions about program restructuring based on solid evidence. Instead of simply growing in size, they positioned themselves to achieve greater impact through enhanced integration with stakeholders pursuing the same outcomes, effectively leveraging broader agency resources and expertise. They discovered that meaningful metrics aren't about collecting more data – they're about asking better questions:?
Through years of implementing performance measurement systems in federal, we’ve learned that effective performance measurement isn't a top-down exercise in compliance. It's a catalyst for action that starts with mission alignment, engages employees at all levels, and creates a culture of continuous improvement.?
Over the next ten posts, we'll explore how federal agencies can transform their approach to performance measurement. We'll examine how to:?
This isn't just theory. We'll share practical frameworks and real-world examples of agencies that have successfully made this transition, turning their measurement systems from compliance exercises into catalysts for mission excellence.??
The journey isn’t an easy one. It requires rethinking deeply embedded practices and challenging comfortable assumptions. But the alternative is continuing to measure everything except what drives mission success.?
Take a hard look at your agency's metrics. Can you trace a clear line from your measurements to mission outcomes? Do your front-line teams see these metrics as guideposts for the work they do day-in, day-out? As tools for improvement or just compliance requirements??
Your answers might explain not only why federal performance metrics tell you everything except what matters, but also why improving execution remains frustratingly out of reach.?
The next installment of this series touches on how transformation starts with recognizing where you're stuck and why, why escaping the "output trap" changes everything, and how to shift towards outcome-driven measurement.?
?