Why the Front Office Measures Everything—Except the Mind

"What do I do?" It is a question I have been asked for decades by front-office leaders, players, coaches, trainers, and agents. At its core, my work is simple: I use data to assess, and scientific research to develop, performance north of your neck.

Across professional baseball, data drives understanding and improvement. Front offices rely on it for player selection. Coaches use it to guide development plans. Strength and conditioning staffs assess readiness, and athletic trainers use it to reduce injury risk. Each discipline has clear objectives, identifies its most valuable data points, and uses purpose-built tools to act on them.

Psychology was—and still is—behind in this process. During my twelve years as Director of Psychological Services for the Milwaukee Brewers, I could not find an assessment that measured enough of the variables I was looking for and had a great sample.

Fourteen variables, three categories

So I set out to identify the psychological variables that truly matter for performance, and to find a way to measure them. Over more than 10,000 evaluations—including over 500 first-round draft picks—fourteen variables separated themselves in the data. Seven are well established in existing research. Seven emerged from applied work in high-performance environments. They fall into three domains:

• Performance — how you compete.
• You with others — how you interact with coaches and teammates.
• You with you — your internal headspace.

That framework became the foundation for NOYN^®: North of Your Neck. The goal is the same one every other department already has—define what matters, compare it to the best, and align development with how each player's brain actually works.