It's not a non-answer. Good managers need to figure out what metrics make sense for the team they are managing, and that will change depending on the company and team. It might be new features, bug fixes, new product launch milestones, customer satisfaction, ad revenue, or any of a hundred other things.
I would want a specific example in that case rather than "the good managers figure it out" because in my experience, the bad managers pretend to figure it out while the good managers admit that they can't figure it out. Worse still, if you tell your reports what those metrics are, they will optimize them to death, potentially tanking the product (I can increase my bug fix count if there are more bugs to fix...).
So for a specific example I would have to outline 1-2 years of history of a team and product as a starter.
Then I would have to go on outlining 6-12 months of trying stuff out.
Because if I just give "an example" I will get dozens of "smart ass" replies how this specific one did not work for them and I am stupid. Thanks but don't have time for that or for writing an essay that no one will read anyway and call me stupid or demand even more explanation. :)
I get it, you are a true believer. I just disagree with your belief, and the fact that you can't bring credible examples to the table just reinforces that disagreement in my mind.
The thing is even bad managers can thrive in a company with a large userbase like Google. There is a lot of momentum built into product and engineering.
