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Doc Norton

Time and time again, I find teams struggling with velocity as a genuinely helpful metric.

In some cases, it is a relatively harmless albeit poor tool for planning work. But too often, it is a detrimental means of holding teams to ill-informed commitments which ultimately exacerbates many of the team’s core issues. All of this in search of the answer to “How long will it take?”

In Escape Velocity we consider better alternatives to velocity as a metric and look at how other data such as lead time, flow, customer satisfaction, and team joy can not only help a team improve delivery, but provide better answers to “When will this be done?”

Escape Velocity is the result of over 15 years of experience working with teams on improving the way they deliver software products.

In the mid 2000s, I started seeing detrimental patterns of behavior across teams practicing some form of agile; especially those who had chosen the Scrum framework. These patterns were directly related to or at least influenced by the use of velocity as a metric, and I found myself coaching teams away from velocity.

As time passed, my understanding of metrics, their potential influence on teams, alternatives to velocity, and more successful and sustainable approaches deepened. My ability to explain why velocity was insufficient as a metric grew more informed, as did my knowledge of what to do instead.

I eventually codified much of that knowledge into the book, Escape Velocity. While on the surface, Escape Velocity may appear to be an anti-velocity treatise, it is actually about how to use metrics in a healthy way, what pitfalls to look out for, and what metrics can better serve the team and the organization in the pursuit of excellence.

This work was written and produced entirely by the author. We are proud to be distributing it.

Founder of Doc Norton & Associates, Doc is passionate about working with teams to improve delivery, helping leaders be more effective, and building great organizations. Once a dedicated code slinger, Doc has turned his energy toward helping teams, departments, and companies work better together in the pursuit of better software. Working with a wide range of companies such as Groupon, Ford, and Covered Insurance, Doc has applied tenants of agile, lean, systems thinking, and host leadership to develop highly effective cultures and drastically improve their ability to deliver valuable software and products.

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