The unknown price
Years ago our car was having issues. Something was weird with the electrical system and various parts of the car would stop working while we were driving (the radio would quit, the air condition would stop, etc.)
We'd just moved to a new city, had only been married for 3 months and this was our only car that we had just bought with a good chunk of savings ($3,000).
A trusted person referred us to an auto mechanic. So with relative confidence and hope that it could be resolved quickly, we dropped our car off. He didn’t quote us a price, but said “I’ll work on it”.
Every 2-3 days I called the mechanic asking for an update. And every 2-3 days he would tell me “Still not sure what’s going on”. During each call he shares with me why he is confident in his skills, the quality of his training, the reputation of his company, etc. But no resolution yet.
At the end of the second week, I had a couple of choices:
Pick up the car with the issue unresolved.
Continue to let him work on it and hope he finds the solution soon.
All this time, I’m unsure what the bill is going to be.
Another week goes by. Three weeks and no resolution. My car is in the same shape it was at the beginning.
We decided to pick it up. And he tells me what the bill is: $3,000. The same price we had bought the car for just a few months earlier.
I fumbled with words for a few minutes, unsure how to process that number. Seeing my confusion he says: “Well, I have to pay my mechanic for the hours he put in”.
Many lessons from that story, but here’s the chief one for now:
Spending more time on something doesn't make it valuable.
All the many hours the mechanic put into working on my car produced zero value to me. I left with the same problems.
If you are measuring your team by how many hours they work you aren’t measuring value.
If you judge the productivity of your team based on how many story points they deliver, you aren’t assessing value.
If you pay consultants an hourly rate to work on a project or provide strategic direction you aren’t paying them for the value they give.
You are measuring, judging, and paying for time.
And time is a terrible substitute for value.
Sawyer
from The Data Shop
p.s. There is a better way to measure value than input or time.
