Vanity metrics are not useless. They are just easy to misread.
Founders get trapped when attention signals (traffic, impressions, followers) are treated as outcome signals.
What to track instead
Use three metric groups tied to decisions:
- Demand signals - are the right people paying attention?
- Conversion signals - are they taking meaningful action?
- Delivery signals - can your team ship reliably against priorities?
If a metric does not change a decision, it is probably noise.
Founder-level rule
In weekly reviews, ask:
“What decision did this metric help us make?”
If the answer is unclear, replace the metric.