A studio director told me the story on a Tuesday night on the phone. I won't name her, but the story is real.
Her team was using a tool — I won't name it either — that computed a concentration index from keyboard activity, mouse movement, and active tabs. The tool produced a percentage. The team sat at 78 %.
One morning, an eager manager copied the dashboard screenshot and sent it to the client to justify the invoice.
What happened next
The client, not stupid, replied: "Why only 78?"
The rest of the week was spent explaining. Explaining that 78 is actually high. That the index drops when people think, sketch on paper, or talk to a colleague. That the tool miscounts certain things.
The client asked for a discount. Not huge. 12 %. The studio agreed to keep the peace.
The deeper problem
No one on the team believed the number after that. Every time they opened the tool, they saw the percentage and asked themselves: what will the client do with this? Instead of seeing their work, they saw their grade.
Three of them got into the habit of leaving the tool open on a static document while they did other things. Because staring at a static screen counts as concentration.
What Sablio will never do
No percentage. No index. No rating. No moral progress bar.
Durations. Revenue. A count of completed sessions. Factual numbers you can show a client without needing to defend them.
Work is not an exam
A professional doesn't need a grade to know whether they did good work. They know. Their client knows. The tool doesn't need to insert itself with an opinion.
The director's studio eventually changed tools. Not for Sablio — they went to a spreadsheet. Which, if you think about it, is a win.
— Patrick