Does your team have a reasonable stable throughput or
velocity? Have they improved and optimised their way to what you would consider
their peak velocity or throughput? Would you say that teams that are at their
peak throughput are High Performing teams? They sure appear to be, relative to
other teams that are less mature, have an unstable velocity or have not reached
their peak velocity. Unfortunately, the assumption in all of that is that
“velocity equates to performance”.
Looking at this race car, if we measured it on the
horsepower of its engine would that equate to the outcome of a race? Of course
not. It would be a contributing factor for sure, but so much else goes into
deciding what place this car will finish in a race: fuel, suspension,
transmission, tyre choice, on and on, and of course the driver.
It is the same for our teams, while velocity is a good
measure of horsepower; it is a poor predictor of where the team would finish in
the corporate race.
Velocity measures our outputs; such as deploying live features, updates or fixes.
For our outputs to be valuable they must produce a positive
outcome. That is, they must change customer behaviour, such customers use our
product for longer, write positive reviews, or we acquire new profitable
customers. A feature that doesn’t change customers behaviour generally has no
value.
For our outcomes to be valuable they must produce a positive
impact: That is, they must increase revenue, increase profit, increase
reputation or for charities deliver greater social benefit. A change in
customer behaviour that doesn’t produce a positive impact for the company
generally has no value.
While it is valuable to produce outputs, it is much more
valuable to produce outcomes; as these have a much closer correlation to
achieving impact; which what we are really here for.
Hence, I propose that a team that is regularly delivering
positive outcomes, is a high performing team. When I think back on all of the
great teams that I have been a part of we were regularly achieving positive
behavioural changes in our customers.
