How can Product Value be measured?

Teams deliver value to customers by releasing product Increments. Customers use product Increments to achieve outcomes that they find valuable. Evidence-Based Management (EBM) expresses this value using a concept called Current Value to refer to the outcomes that a user of a product is able to achieve today.

Current Value is important because it measures what a product can do for its users today.  Each product Increment seeks to improve the Current Value that users of the product experience.

Simple questions to find example measures of Current Value include:

  • Was the product purchased or downloaded (even for evaluation purchases)?
  • Is the product actually used?
  • Are some features not used?

To develop more complete measures of Current Value, focus on whether the product actually helps the user to achieve their desired outcomes. Doing this requires more qualitative measurements such as:

  • Observing people using the product to see how they are using it and what they are able to achieve using it. Observation provides the greatest amount of information about user experiences, but it can introduce biases through observer effects that change how people behave when they know they are being observed. Observation may also not be possible in cases where users have concerns about privacy.
  • Asking people about their experiences and what they achieved, either through interviews or surveys. Surveys can be effective, but they lag behind the user’s actual experience, and they reflect what users think they did or achieved, which may differ from what they actually did or achieved.
  • Looking at lagging aggregate measures obtained through general customer satisfaction surveys. Lagging aggregate measures like customer satisfaction surveys or Net Promoter Scores are useful in telling the product’s producing organization that the product has some value, although the specific measures are not detailed enough to be able to tell which aspects of the product are useful and which are not.

Whatever measurements you choose to use, they should be helpful in your context in understanding Product Value. What is important is that you do not over-invest in looking for the most data points. Two or three measures is good enough to get started with, and change and add or remove as your context and goals change.

 

Resources:

Learning Series
Product metrics help assess the customer and business value a product delivers. They provide insights from the perspective of users and the market.

 

Learning Series
By understanding its customers and users, a Scrum Team can identify opportunities, be more innovative and create products that people need and use. Here are different techniques ways to do this.

 

Learning Series
The Increment is the latest version of the product that conforms to the Definition of Done. During each Sprint, the Developers work toward the current Product Goal by implementing Product Backlog items (PBIs) and integrating their individual work together. Learn about the Increment and its commitment, the Definition of Done. Investigate some common myths about the Increment.

 

 

 

Book: Unlocking Business Agility with Evidence-Based Management: Satisfy Customers and Improve Organizational Effectiveness (The Professional Scrum Series) by Patricia Kong, Todd Miller, Kurt Bittner, and Ryan Ripley; Addison-Wesley Professional, October 31, 2023. ISBN-13: ‎ 978-0138244576
 

What did you think about this content?

Included In

Learning Series
The objective of a Scrum Team is to deliver value to customers and stakeholders. Product Value actively drives customer satisfaction, loyalty, brand reputation, and the longevity of a business by providing customers with benefits that satisfy their needs.