What is quality?

When trying to achieve a goal one needs to define it. For example, in private life it could be running: a certain distance in a certain time. In business, it could be the number (#) of user interviews a product manager does per quarter. 

These goals often have a unit relating to quantity - the distance in the case of running or the # in the case of interviews the product manager should be doing. 

What is the appropriate unit for quality? In the case of running this is simple, it is the speed in which the quantity goal was covered.

In the case of the interview it’s more difficult: is it the number of questions asked by the product manager? The insights (and what is that?) uncovered? 

When setting goals for somebody else or a group of people (like in business) the question of defining quality is important since the quantity component otherwise becomes close to meaningless. It’s a big difference if you run 10km in 42 minutes or 65 minutes - 54% lower “quality” if you will.

Solutions to the problem of defining quality in real life: 

• Break things down to an extreme degree, in sales, for example the number of call attempts 

• Unpredictable standard set by a powerful persona, a Steve Jobs demanding “better” products

A solution I have not seen but find interesting: 

• The manager sets the quantity

• The employee sets the quality 

In case of the product manager doing interviews, if the manager defines the number of interviews, then it is the responsibility of the product manager to deliver what he believes to be the quality possible at that quantity. This is instead of getting into a situation where one side - the manager - demands both more and at higher quality were the employee response with reasons why that is not possible which leads to a tedious interaction. Unless, obviously, the manager is very good and can through basically force of charisma get people to work more and better with the people enjoying it. But, this is very hard to do, so few people can be manager like that.