What is continuous improvement?

Continuous improvement is an interactive approach to uncover the root cause of problems and fix them so they never happen again.

For example, Toyota allows employees to stop the production line whenever a problem happens. They want to ensure that the root cause is fixed to avoid additional issues. Toyota focuses on continuous improvement, and the result is a high-quality product and a stronger team.

To cite one of the many great quotes on continuous improvement:

“To succeed in this world, you have to change all the time.”  –  Sam Walton

Metrics to measure continuous improvement

I think questions can help teams identify opportunities. I like to create metrics and challenge whether the status quo is the best the team can do. Let me give you some examples:

• Product backlog
• Cycle time
• Release time
• Work-in-progress (WIP)
• Throughput
• How to talk about metrics

Product backlog

What’s the average age of your product backlog items? Listen to signs; the older your items are, the more waterfall you become.

Cycle time

How long does it take for an idea to materialize into something valuable? The shorter, the better. Sound product companies relentlessly strive to reduce their cycle time, which empowers them to create value faster.

Release time

How often does your team release changes, and how long does it take? The longer it takes, the slower you can learn. State-of-art teams release changes several times a day.

Work-in-progress (WIP)

How long do your team members take to conclude their tasks? Long WIP means you either have dependencies, unskilled professionals, or items that are too big.

Either way, you have plenty of opportunities to reduce WIP and deliver value sooner.

Throughput

How much can your team produce per cycle? This metric can be tricky because it can mislead teams. You don’t want your teams to create more features just for the sake of it, but you do want them to deliver at a sustainable pace to enable you to learn from end users.

How to talk about metrics

The metrics above are just examples to help you uncover opportunities for continuous improvement. You can define more according to your scenario.

“What gets measured gets improved.”  –  Peter Drucker

Alone, metrics aren’t enough. A common mistake is to create metrics and not talk about them.

It’s a good practice to look at metrics at least once a week and discuss them with your team. Here are some examples of questions I like to ask:

• What could we change now that will pay off in the future?
• Which metric are we unsatisfied with and how might we change the scenario?
• How could we accelerate our learning time?

The more questions you ask, the more opportunities you create.

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