CONCEPT Cited by 1 source

Golden metric selection criteria

Definition

Golden metric selection criteria is a governance gate that determines which metrics are important enough to be centrally governed in a semantic layer. Not all metrics warrant the overhead of centralized ownership, dual-owner approval, and package distribution — only those that cross team boundaries and have multiple consumers.

Lyft's threshold

At Lyft, a metric qualifies as a "Golden Metric" if it has at least two distinct use cases or applications (e.g., monitored on key dashboards AND leveraged in operational ML models). Anything too niche — unique to one team — creates more governance overhead than it's worth.

(Source: sources/2026-06-10-lyft-metric-semantic-layer)

Why it matters

Without a selection gate, a centralized metric layer becomes a dumping ground of team-specific metrics, diluting the value of the "single source of truth" promise and increasing maintenance burden. The threshold forces teams to demonstrate cross-cutting importance before onboarding.

Seen in

• sources/2026-06-10-lyft-metric-semantic-layer — Lyft's MSL uses the ≥2 use-case threshold as the canonical example