Measure Value (not Scrum)

Scrum is not an end unto itself. It's a great tool for helping a team focus on value, but the goal isn’t to “do Scrum.” The goal is to maximize value for the customer.

(That being said, Scrum really is a great tool. It's the best thing out there for helping teams to deliver complex products, because it's easy to use and has just enough - but not too much - structure to help the team collaborate and problem solve. When teams use Scrum well, they are able to deliver more value to the customer and to the organization.)

But I digress. It's important to keep our eye on the prize - customer value.

And how do we measure value? It's not velocity, or throughput - it’s whether value is improving - or not.

Finding the Right Metrics

Before we can choose meaningful metrics, we need clarity about our product and its direction. Who is our customer? What problem are we trying to solve? What is our Product Goal? Without that clarity, metrics are meaningless.

Metrics should never exist for their own sake - they should help us understand whether we are delivering value and moving toward our desired outcomes. Before choosing what to measure, it’s important to step back and ask a few critical questions that connect measurement to purpose, customers, and impact.

Here are five questions you can ask to help you find the right metrics for your product.

1. What are we trying to accomplish?

2. What is the outcome we are trying to achieve?

3. What is the Product Goal and how can we measure progress towards that?

4. Who is our customer, and why are they using our product?

5. What observable evidence would tell us we are delivering value?

Answering these questions first makes it far easier to select metrics that are meaningful, outcome-focused, and aligned with delivering real value.

Use Metrics to Improve Focus

In Scrum, we have just one Product Goal at a time, because it helps us focus. In the same way, while we may measure a lot of things, we should focus in on just one or two of those metrics at a time.

How do you focus on metrics? Bring them up in the Sprint Review. Talk about them in Refinement and in the Retrospective. Report on them to senior leadership. Let the metrics that you are focusing on expand to fill the room. Whenever you are talking about your Product Goal, bring up your metrics to show how it's going and to help the team decide what to do next.

Conclusion

In baseball, teams track dozens of statistics — batting averages, strikeouts, errors — but the only number that ultimately matters is the score. Scrum is no different. Velocity and throughput may help us plan and forecast, but they don’t tell us whether we’re winning. The real question is simple: are we improving outcomes for our customers? When we measure value, we align our teams around what truly matters.

Interested in learning more? Join us for Rebel Scrum’s Evidence-Based Management course for a fuller discussion on the various types of metrics that can help your team focus on strategic initiatives and drive meaningful improvements for the Scrum team.