3 Set user-centered performance goals
This chapter covers
- Why vague performance goals waste effort and create confusion
- Effective performance goals: specific, realistic, and user-centered
- Platform-specific metrics that predict user satisfaction
- How to combine lab data and field data for complete insight
- Setting targets that account for user context and product maturity
Good intentions do not guarantee good outcomes when it comes to performance work. Many organizations fall into the same trap: teams optimize what they can measure and control rather than what users actually experience. This pattern, sometimes called "silo optimization," feels productive at the time but rarely delivers results that users notice. The solution is straightforward: set performance goals that reflect complete user journeys rather than component-level metrics.
A performance goal is a specific, measurable target for how fast something should be, replacing vague aspirations like "make search faster" with concrete commitments like "95% of search queries return results in under 200ms." The difference between vague intentions and real goals is precision: goals need to be clear enough that they cannot be interpreted differently by different people.