Designing KPIs Back to Humans
■ What Optimization Misses
Robot performance is often measured by efficiency—deliveries, distance, uptime.
But in real environments, small stresses always exist: being startled at corners, losing focus for a moment.
These don’t appear in metrics, yet they directly impact the quality of experience.
■ Reframing KPIs as “Reduction of Discomfort”
A goal like “reducing how often people are startled” may seem trivial.
However, it optimizes for experience, not efficiency.
By evaluating not “how much was delivered” but “how much burden was avoided,”
KPIs shift from performance tracking to designing relationships.
■ Conclusion: Kindness Can Be Designed
“Not startling people” and “not creating stress” are not vague ideals—they are designable outcomes.
By embedding human emotion into KPIs, robots evolve from efficiency tools into partners that truly support the workplace.
