Last week, I shared results from our poll on cross-functional teams. Only about a quarter of respondents said their team was set up to deliver complete increments of value. My #1 tip for those who want to nudge things in the right direction: make it visible.
This week, I want to get specific about what to make visible.
One of the clearest indicators of a healthy team structure is a short cycle time between starting an increment of value and getting it in front of customers. If your team can take a valuable user story from “started” to “shipped” in a few days, that’s a sign the right people are collaborating on the work. If it takes weeks or months, that’s usually a sign of handoffs, waiting, and rework, as work passes between teams.
Here’s what I mean. Two stories:
Story 1: Peter worked with a product leader who was prioritizing work across four specialty teams on a web system: ERP, backend, front-end, and testing. None of them could deliver an increment of value on their own, so work passed from team to team. She analyzed the data and found that the average cycle time was two months from idea to live, with half of requests requiring rework. She put together a three-slide deck for the two VPs who could actually make the change: current stats, a messy process diagram showing the real flow, and a forecast that a cross-functional team could get cycle time down to about a week with far less rework. The VP’s response: “Why haven’t we done this already?” (See Humanizing Work Show episode 112 for more details on this story.)
Story 2: A web development group was split into four functional teams: front-end, back-end, database, and testing. Every marketing request had to pass through all four teams sequentially. Average cycle time: 25 days. They ran a pilot with a single cross-functional team that included developers and testers working together. Cycle time dropped to 5 days.
Very different organizations, but the same pattern: 5-8x faster, just from getting the right people on the same team. We’ve seen this over and over again.
Start where they did. Find your number. How long does it take to go from “started” to “shipped” on an increment of value?
You might have to go up a level from your backlog items to find that increment of value. When teams own just a piece of the work, the backlog often looks more like tasks and components. Identify that increment of value your task or component contributes to, and track how long it takes to get done.
If it’s more than a few days, you might want to dig deeper. Mapping how value actually flows will show you where the time goes. You’ll see active time vs waiting time, new value-added work vs rework.
Then, consider sharing your analysis with leaders who can do something about it. Worst case, they explain why the current structure is actually optimal for some goal, and you can at least know the long cycle time is a strategic choice. Best case, they’ll respond like the VP in story #1: “Why haven’t we fixed this already?”
Interested in helping your team deliver value in weeks instead of months? Schedule a free conversation with us. We’d be happy to help you identify opportunities to shorten feedback loops and accelerate learning.
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