Value Smells: Are You Really Building The Right Thing?

In the world of software development, we’re familiar with code smells – those subtle indicators that something might be wrong with our codebase. But what about the smells that signal a disconnect between our development efforts and actual customer value?

The Hidden Disconnect

Most software teams believe they’re building valuable products. Yet, many struggle to prove that their features genuinely solve customer problems. It’s a paradox that plagues even well-intentioned development organizations: we build, but are we truly building the right thing?

Introducing ‘Value Smells’

Just as code smells signal potential issues with how we are building, value smells provide insights into what we are building. They are simple yet powerful indicators of how connected our development truly is to customer needs. When the smells arise, there is a good chance we are building something that our customers don’t need and ultimately won’t value.   

The Four Value Smells

1. Opaque Usage 
   • Question: What percent of our features have built-in measures that give us insights into customer usage?
   • What It Reveals: This smell suggests we may be building blind. The lack of built-in measures impair visibility into how customers are interacting with our software. Without this feedback, we are left to guess if our solutions are valuable.
   • Preventing The Smell: If most of your features lack usage metrics, implement simple feature instrumentation to collect feedback and accelerate learning.
   • What Is A Healthy Threshold: > 50% 
2. Too Much Stakeholder Influence
   • Question: What percent of our features are internally prescribed by stakeholders or subject matter experts?
   • What It Reveals: Our solutions emit this smell when we let internal voices drown out customer needs. If internal ideas are not properly vetted with customers, there is significant risk that customers may not use our solutions.  
   • Preventing The Smell: If this is a high percentage of your features, begin to inject discovery testing early in your development process to validate ideas with customers. 
   • What Is A Healthy Threshold: < 50%
3. Too Much Output – Not Enough Outcome
   • Question: What percent of our features are delivered in multiple iterations to our customers?
   • What It Reveals: This smell occurs when deliveries become more about the output and not enough about a desired outcome. When shipping becomes the goal, we risk treating delivery as a transaction instead of a learning opportunity. 
   • Preventing The Smell: Try defining some simple, measurable outcomes early in your development process. Design features with the intent of moving key results iteratively.
   • What Is A Healthy Threshold: > 50% 
4. Anecdote-Driven Development
   • Question: What percent of our features are backed by test-driven evidence?
   • What It Reveals: When this smell arises, it indicates we may be leaning too heavily into assumptions. When our assumptions lack evidence, we risk building things that won’t be valued by our customers. 
   • Preventing The Smell: Inventory your evidence prior to building a feature. If you recognize too many assumptions and not enough testable evidence, conduct a few tests before you get too far into development to validate your beliefs.
   • What Is A Healthy Threshold:  > 50%

How to Use These Metrics

The beauty of these metrics lies in their simplicity. Take your last 10 delivered features and answer these four questions. If any of them fall below the threshold, you’ve detected a value ‘smell’ that needs attention. Identify one metric you’d like to start improving first, and conduct an improvement kata or apply your favorite improvement technique. Assess progress and repeat until you have achieved healthy thresholds in all four areas.

Real-World Application

Let’s go through an example. Imagine a development team discovers:

• Only 30% of features have usage insights
• 70% of features come from internal stakeholders
• 40% are delivered iteratively
• 45% have test-driven evidence

These metrics immediately highlight opportunities for improvement. They’re not just numbers. They’re a roadmap for becoming more customer-centric.

A Complement to DORA

You might be familiar with or even use DORA metrics within your organization. While DORA metrics focus on delivery performance, these ‘smell’ metrics zoom in on customer value. They’re not a replacement but a complementary lens, helping teams not just deliver faster, but deliver what matters. Like DORA, the aim of these value metrics is to provide insights so you can ‘get better at getting better.’ 

The Bigger Picture

In a world where technology changes rapidly, customer understanding is a true advantage. These ‘smell’ metrics can be a great entry point to begin introducing more customer-focused efforts within an organization and create a shared language for improvement. They transform abstract concerns into concrete, measurable focuses for team growth.

Remember: The goal isn’t perfection. It’s continuous, measurable improvement.