Designing a National Scorecard: North-Star Metric and Decade Targets for the US

In a Google product manager interview, you are asked to treat the United States as a product you are responsible for. Which metrics would tell you whether the country is succeeding, and what goals would you set for them over the next ten years? Explain how you choose the metrics, which one you would treat as the north star, what guards against unwanted side effects, and how you turn the metrics into ten-year targets. ```hint Mission first A country has no revenue line to optimize. Start by stating what the country exists to deliver for the people living in it, then derive metrics a typical resident would recognize as their life getting better. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - From whose point of view are the metrics set: the federal government acting for the public, or residents judging the country? - Should success be judged for the typical resident and for groups such as income levels, regions and age groups, or by national averages? - Should the goals be numeric targets against today's baseline, limited to outcomes that policy can realistically move within ten years? - Should the United States be judged against its own past or against other high-income countries? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A clear mission for the country that justifies the choice of metrics - Segmentation of residents, for example by life stage, to check that the metrics cover what different groups need - One north-star metric chosen against alternatives such as GDP, plus a small set of supporting metrics - Guardrails that stop the headline metric from being met at an unacceptable cost, such as fiscal or environmental damage - Ten-year goals with baselines, targets, interim milestones and data sources ### Follow-up Questions - GDP per capita rises for ten years while median income stays flat. Is the country succeeding by your metrics? - Which of your metrics could be improved on paper without people's lives improving, and how would you guard against that? - If you could track only one number for the decade, which would it be and what would you give up?