How do we measure how fast we are going
Cycle time, lead time, throughput. What each one means, which to instrument first, and how to set a target the team owns.
How fast are we going, and can we go faster. Teams hear those questions as an accusation, and usually the memory attached is of a deadline nobody on the team helped set. But the question is fair. From the moment capital is invested a clock is running, and leadership's job is to know whether it is coming back.
The problem is that most teams have no measure to answer with, so the answer gets invented under pressure. Cycle time fixes that, and it does it without asking anyone to estimate anything. Historical cycle times give a probabilistic projection through Little's Law, which beats the sum of a hundred individual guesses and removes the variability that comes from personal bias.
One thing decides whether this helps or hurts: who sets the target. A target the team sets and reports on is continuous improvement. The same number handed down is deadline accountability in a new outfit, and teams will optimize the number instead of the work.
What you get
- The waiting time, cycle time, and lead time relationship in one diagram
- A table for writing your own exact definitions, so the numbers are not arguable later
- What to instrument first and what to stop doing
- A target block the team fills in itself, plus the three things to bring when someone asks for a date
Where should we send it?
One email with the worksheet. You can unsubscribe from anything else in one click.
On its way
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Adapted from the Delivery chapter of The Mindful Product Company by Sam McAfee.