Value is the thing that clients pull from your organization, so it is really important to be good at four things: Understanding value, communicating value, building value, and measuring it. Edward Hutchins, Product Lead at Thoughtworks discusses and shares some frameworks to help you understand, measure and communicate the value of your products.

1. © 2022 Thoughtworks | Confidential
Tech Talks
How to define,
measure and
communicate the
value of your work
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Edward Hutchins

2. © 2022 Thoughtworks | Confidential
Hi, I’m Edward
I’m also a Product Lead at Thoughtworks Singapore.
Email: edward.hutchins@thoughtworks.com
Website: edwardhutchins.com
Pronouns: He/Him
I like RPDR, Pokemon, and
generative art. 🖼

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What is value?
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© 2021 Thoughtworks

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Why is value so important?
Delivering a product or feature is not the
same thing as delivering value.
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Features
What does the product do?
1.
What is value?
We know that ‘value’ is important - but it’s easy to confuse that with what a product
does, or how a product benefits a company
Benefit
How does the product
benefit the company?
2.
Value
What is the value the
customers receives from
the product?
3.
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Four value principles
Not the businesses
perspective.
Value can be shared,
duplicated, or
provided repeatedly.
Value can change
depending on the
situation.
Value must be
measurable against
an alternative.
Value is
defined from
the customers
perspective
Value is not
finite
Value is based
on context
Value must be
comparable

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REWARD
THREAT Value
A model for understanding value

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Description Threat Reward
Status Sense of importance
relative to others
Being fired, being
demoted.
Promotion at work,
winning an award.
Certainty Ability to predict the
future.
Economic uncertainty,
job security.
Support, affirmation that
things will be ok.
Confidence in the future.
Autonomy Sense of control over
one's life.
Lack of choice,
micromanagement.
Ability to make one's own
decisions, trust.
Relatedness Sense of connection with
others.
Exclusion, ostracisation. Inclusion, feeling like you
belong.
Fairness Sense of just unbiased
exchange.
Inequality, secrets,
opaque processes.
Transparency, being paid
fairly.
The domains of social behaviour

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Additional value perspectives
Time Accessibility Perception

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��
Thinking about my rental situation
4 Value Principles:
● Customer perspective (threat/reward)
● Finite
● Contextual
● Comparable
Perspectives:
● Time to value
● Accessibility
● Perception

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How do we measure value?
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temperature
heart rate
blood pressure
calories consumed
weight
BMI
how fast you
can run a mile
push ups per minute

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Just because you can track
everything doesn’t mean you should.
Some data is more valuable than
others because it gives you a unique
insight into your product’s success.

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“Success is helping our
customers achieve their
goals”.

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A M
G E
How do we get started?

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A M
G E
How do we get started?
What goal do we
want to focus on?

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A M
G E
How do we get started?
What goal do we
want to focus on?
What are the key
actions a
customers takes
to achieve that
goal?

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A M
G E
How do we get started?
What goal do we
want to focus on?
What are the key
actions a
customers takes
to achieve that
goal?
Measure the
breadth, depth,
frequency, and
efficiency of
those actions

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A M
G E
How do we get started?
What goal do we
want to focus on?
What are the key
actions a
customers takes
to achieve that
goal?
Measure the
breadth, depth,
frequency, and
efficiency of
those actions
Monitor, evaluate
and create new
hypotheses.

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How do we talk about value?
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© 2021 ThoughtWorks.
When you’re trying to win customers, are you listing the attributes of the
flower or describing how awesome it is to throw fireballs?

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Value articulation
Logic + Comparison + Consistency
“You’re your best when you’re
hydrated and energized, don't
put up with being thirsty and
tired!”*
* repeat this same message across all your
branding.
“This a cup of water. It is clear and
tasteless, and you can drink it.”

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2
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Value articulation
Logic + Comparison + Consistency
“Find your dream home quickly
and easily, with the largest
selection of rental properties in
Singapore”*
* repeat this same message across all your
branding.
This website allows you to search
and browse rental properties.
��

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Summary
● When building products we should always think about more than just building
features, we need to think about value.
● We can use models like the SCARF model to help us understand what
motivates our customers to use products or features.
● To measure value delivered we can use the GAME framework to think about
what metrics we should measure to measure the value.
● When communicating value we should focus on value logic, comparison, and
consistency.

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The path to value
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How our work contributes to business value
ON-TIME
SOFTWARE
RELEASE OF
NEW FEATURES
EASIER TO
ORDER THE
THINGS THEY
WANT
PERCENT
INCREASE IN
ORDERS
INCREASED
REVENUE
CAUSES CAUSES CAUSES
PRODUCT
OUTPUT
CUSTOMER
VALUE
PRODUCT
OUTCOME
BUSINESS VALUE
PLANNED WORK INTENDED RESULTS
WHAT WE CONTROL DIRECT INFLUENCE INDIRECT INFLUENCE
FROM A
PRODUCT
TEAM
PERSPECTIVE

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Value articulation is a team sport
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Product Managers
Everyone has a
responsibility
Identify value drivers,
business impact and
prioritise accordingly
Experience
Designers
Integrate user and
business value into
experience design
Business Analysts
Quantify and build
value into user
stories
Developers
Use value as input
into technical
decisions and
showcase value of
outputs
Delivery Leaders
Identify key
stakeholders and
communicate value
Project Managers
Quantify and
visualize impact
while removing risks
and blockers

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No value articulation in your project
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You don’t have to be an
expert from day 1
Not every team is going to be able to
immediately great at articulating value.
It’s a journey that you need to go on
with your team.
Value articulation maturity
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Start expressing value for each user story
Express how features map to individual
user problems or needs and use this to
drive discussion on prioritisation
Articulate the impact releases make on
business goals and measures of success
Provide evidence using data to
demonstrate the value delivered and
build this into BAU process
Use value as a storytelling device to
inspire teams to change and guide them
through that change

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Getting started on
your project
● Just ask - what are your
stakeholders goals and measures of
success?
● Talk to the team. What do they think
the value delivered is?
● Start talking about value as early on
as possible.
● Build discussions about value into
your regular ceremonies.
● Visualise it. Display it in reports, or on
a dashboard. Make it visible.
Some quick tips!

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Thank you
Edward Hutchins
Product Lead
edward.hutchins@thoughtworks.com
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