Mastering Jira Product Discovery: Time-Based Metrics That Drive Project Success

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Everyone has already familiarized themselves with the benefits of the Jira Product Discovery project and is actively using them in their work. Ideas are being actively created, insights are added, and the machine for generating project improvements works fully. But do you know what the most challenging part of generating ideas is? Implementing them.

It's indeed exciting to come up with numerous new features or improvements for a product. However, the real test is in our ability to prioritize, research, and implement them effectively. 

That's why most people think of the JPD project as a big, unstructured box of Christmas decorations. Everything seems beautiful and necessary, but the ornament is cracked somewhere, and the garland is tangled in one continuous sea knot.

To avoid this, a project needs constant grooming. You must separate valid ideas from meaningless ones to clean up the chaos.

Then, all other ideas must be transferred to the plane of time metrics. Track how long they are at different workflow stages and understand whether botnets are sometimes created in their development and implementation. So, we will tell you what metrics you need to measure and how to approximate them below.

Time-based metrics and their measuring in Jira

We suggest using the Time Between Statuses add-on for research and measurement of time metrics. 

The essence of the measurements and setting up the add-on is quite simple.

First, you must examine the workflow used in your Jira Product Discovery project to determine your statuses and what transitions can occur between them. 

If your project workflow needs to be structured and there are no apparent connections between statuses, you should first work on organizing it.

After installing the Time Between Statuses, you must configure Status Groups.

Status Groups are a combination of transits between different statuses within which time calculation for different time metrics will occur.

The setup is simple. In addition, you can configure the highlighting of time limits if a specific metric value goes beyond acceptable limits (critical or warning time limits). Also, when the limit is exceeded, the user specified in the configurator will receive a notification in the idea and by email. 

What time metrics can be applied to Jira Product Discovery project ideas?

Lead Time

The total time it takes for an idea to go from the "Parking lot" to "Done" status. This metric gives you an overview of the entire process's efficiency and can help identify potential bottlenecks or delays.

Cycle Time

The time it takes for an idea to go from "Reviewed by PM" to "Done" is a practical metric. It focuses on active working time, excluding the initial waiting period in the Parking lot. This tool lets you understand your team's productivity and the time required to deliver a feature once it's been reviewed and approved.

Discovery Time

The time it takes for an idea to move from "Parking lot" to "Added to plan." This metric helps you understand the time required for initial idea validation, research, and prioritization.

Development Time

The time it takes for an idea to move from "In Development" to "Ready for Delivery." This metric focuses on the development process and can help you identify potential inefficiencies or bottlenecks in your development pipeline.

Review Time

The time it takes for an idea to move from "Reviewed by PM" to "Added to plan." This metric helps you understand the time required for a PM to review and approve an idea, which can indicate potential bottlenecks in the review process.

Delivery Time

The time it takes for an idea to move from "Ready for Delivery" to "Done." This metric helps you understand the time required for final testing, deployment, and release.

So, we have set up all the necessary Status Groups.

And we got this grid in the app:

1—Select the desired project. You can filter ideas by label, assignee, and status in the filters. A little further down, you can create a selection of ideas for a specific time period.

2—In Column Manager, you can add additional columns to your grid. In this case, we have chosen the date of the idea update, goal impact, effort, and creator names. 

3—You will see the calculation according to the created Status Groups as separate columns on the grid itself. The titles of these columns contain the names, configurations of these metrics and display the average value calculation for each time metric.

By measuring these time-based metrics, you can gain insights into various aspects of your project, such as:

• Identifying bottlenecks in the development process or review stages
• Understanding the efficiency of your team and the time required to deliver features
• Evaluating the effectiveness of your discovery and validation process
• Monitoring trends and improvements over time
• Informing future planning and resource allocation decisions

These insights can help you optimize your project management, improve team productivity, and ultimately deliver better products.

To help you, we offer a 30-day trial for the Time Between Statuses app and the opportunity to book a demo call with our team.

We wish you an excellent idea-generation process and the fastest and most effective implementation! 🙂