Why Growth Isnt Our First Metric

Growth is an easy metric to chase and a difficult one to contextualise.

Numbers going up can look like progress even when the underlying experience is degrading. Attention increases. Noise increases. Pressure builds. Decisions start being made to sustain growth rather than serve the original purpose.

We didn’t want to anchor ourselves to that cycle.

At this stage, growth tells us very little. What matters more is whether the system behaves the way we intended. Whether it remains understandable. Whether trust increases rather than erodes as more people engage with it.

There’s a time when growth matters. We’re not pretending otherwise. But using it as a primary signal too early often leads to distortions that are hard to undo.

For now, stability, clarity, and alignment are better indicators that we’re on the right path.