Platform Growth Metrics is dAU/MAU goals override product safety and wellbeing investments. It sits in the Incentives dimension (INC) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-INC-0206, within the Technology Perverse Pattern family. The core principle: dAU/MAU goals override product safety and wellbeing investments. In incentive terms, it matters because it changes the payoff people perceive before they choose — which means it can be designed for, or exploited.
Scientific Definition
DAU/MAU goals override product safety and wellbeing investments.
Plain-English Definition
DAU/MAU goals override product safety and wellbeing investments.
Feynman Explanation
Safety doesn't fit on the growth dashboard.
Core Principle
DAU/MAU goals override product safety and wellbeing investments.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
DAU/MAU goals override product safety and wellbeing investments.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
What's on the OKR shapes what gets cut first.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
Safety doesn't fit on the growth dashboard.
Examples
- Repeated trust-and-safety cuts during growth pushes.
- What's on the OKR shapes what gets cut first.
Pending editorial review.
Original analysis from The Incentives Lab — how this element behaves inside real payoff structures.
Why this element matters to incentive design
The mistake with this element is treating it as irrationality. It is almost always a rational response to a payoff nobody wrote down. The mechanism underneath it is straightforward: dAU/MAU goals override product safety and wellbeing investments. You can recognize it in the field by its signature: safety doesn't fit on the growth dashboard. Every element in the Incentives dimension changes the perceived payoff of an action before the action happens, which is exactly where incentive design has leverage.
How it gets exploited
Left undesigned, what's on the OKR shapes what gets cut first. It is amplified whenever what's on the OKR shapes what gets cut first. Inside organizations that shows up as what's on the OKR shapes what gets cut first. The pattern is the same one Goodhart's Law describes: the measurable proxy attracts the effort, and the purpose behind it quietly loses funding.
How the Lab designs around it
The redesign move is to wellbeing KPIs at board level. Watch for it at the boundaries: handoffs, promotions, incident reviews, and budget cycles are where this element gets its power.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Wellbeing KPIs at board level.
Measurement Approaches
Pending editorial review.
Evidence
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- Wellbeing KPIs at board level.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Interactive Mini Network
Click any neighbor to re-center the graph and follow the threads of connection.
Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
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CTR-driven distribution rewards misleading framing over accurate reporting.
Retroactive extensions privilege legacy estates over public-domain enrichment.
Per-view payouts reward volume and frequency over craft and depth.
Tax/inspection exemptions on low-value parcels subsidize a flood of unverified imports.
Revenue from behavioral targeting structurally opposes user privacy.
Ranking systems trained on engagement amplify outrage, fear, and tribal content.
Time-on-app is the wrong thing to maximize for users — but the right thing for revenue.
Removing natural stopping cues turns intentional use into compulsive use.
Notifications calibrated for return visits, not value.
USPTO budget tied to grant fees encourages permissive examination.
Notification systems hijack attention by manufacturing urgency for trivial events.
Where Platform Growth Metrics is cited in the corpus
Essays, field guides, and diagnostics from The Incentives Lab that apply this element.
- Field guideIncentives: definition, types, examples
The parent field guide for this element.
- ReferenceThe laws of incentives
Goodhart, Campbell, and the Cobra Effect.
- EssayThe Perverse Incentives Hiding in Your KPIs
The measurement failure mode for this element.
- ReferenceThe incentive glossary
Definitions for every mental model, bias, and fallacy in the corpus.
- CourseIncentives 101
The free ten-part primer on reading a payoff structure.
- ReferenceThe Periodic Table of Human Behavior
The full 1,267-element map this page belongs to.
Questions about Platform Growth Metrics
- What is Platform Growth Metrics?
- Platform Growth Metrics is dAU/MAU goals override product safety and wellbeing investments. It sits in the Incentives dimension (INC) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-INC-0206, within the Technology Perverse Pattern family. The core principle: dAU/MAU goals override product safety and wellbeing investments. In incentive terms, it matters because it changes the payoff people perceive before they choose — which means it can be designed for, or exploited.
- What is an example of Platform Growth Metrics?
- What's on the OKR shapes what gets cut first. The Incentives Lab catalogs everyday, organizational, and historical instances of this element on its Human Behavior Taxonomy™ page (HBT-INC-0206).
- How is Platform Growth Metrics exploited?
- What's on the OKR shapes what gets cut first.
- How do you design around Platform Growth Metrics?
- Wellbeing KPIs at board level.
- Which behavioral dimension does Platform Growth Metrics belong to?
- Platform Growth Metrics is classified in the Incentives dimension (INC) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™, family "Technology Perverse Pattern", class "Perverse Incentive". Its permanent identifier is HBT-INC-0206 and its evidence grade is C.