Tag PBC Case Studies

Process Behavior Chart Case Studies: Separating Signal from Noise

These posts use real-world case studies to show how Process Behavior Charts (PBCs) help leaders distinguish meaningful change from routine variation. Drawing from sports, business metrics, healthcare, media ratings, and experiments, each example demonstrates how common reactions to “up” or “down” numbers often reflect noise—not improvement or decline.

Many of these case studies align with the ideas in my book Measures of Success: reacting less to data, asking better questions, and improving systems instead of blaming people. The goal isn’t better charts—it’s better decisions.

Is Andre Drummond Sustaining His Free Throw Improvements? [Updated 2023]

Last year, I looked at the free throw statistics of Andre Drummond of the Detroit Pistons. News headlines talked about how much he had improved his free throws, so I looked at one of his performance metrics (free throw percentage) to see if the increase was "signal" or "noise."

Why write about basketball? Well, there are lessons that we can learn and apply to our own workplace metrics, as I write about in my book Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More.

Why Red/Green Metrics Make Us Miss Important Signals

tl;dr: Red/green metrics and single-point comparisons hide important signals in your data. Time-series charts and Process Behavior Charts reveal when systems actually change–and when leaders should learn instead of overreact. In many organizations, leaders rely on red/green color-coding to evaluate…

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