Focus and Speed Metrics Masterclass

Overview

In this webinar, Matt will lead a deep-dive masterclass into two of Plandek’s four productivity pillars: Focus and Speed. Building on the 2026 Engineering Benchmarks launched in March, this session moves from the “what” to the “how” — exploring what these metrics actually measure, why they matter, and how engineering leaders can use them to drive meaningful improvement.

We’ll touch on what separates top-quartile teams from the rest when it comes to where they direct their effort and how quickly they deliver, and discuss how AI tooling is beginning to reshape performance in both areas.

Key Points We're Going to Cover

• What the Focus pillar is really measuring, and why Value Delivery % is so hard to move

  • The relationship between Focus and code quality

• A walkthrough of the Speed metrics and what each one reveals

  • Lead Time to Value: the “idea to production” view and why it’s often 5x longer than Cycle Time

  • Cycle Time: what healthy flow looks like and where time is typically lost

  • Time to Merge PRs: why this often-overlooked metric accounts for 20–30% of cycle time

  • Throughput Quotient and PR Efficiency Quotient: what these newer metrics add to the picture

  • Merge Frequency per Author: what high-frequency merging signals about team health

• The performance gap between bottom and top quartile teams on Focus and Speed

  • Top-quartile teams deliver software 3x faster and merge PRs in half the time

  • How AI tools are disproportionately benefiting lower-performing teams on Lead Time to Value

  • How AI tools are helping lower-performing teams reclaim roadmap capacity

• Common anti-patterns and how to avoid them

  • Cherry-picking easy wins that flatter metrics without improving underlying performance

  • Optimising Speed at the expense of quality

  • Misreading Cycle Time improvements as Lead Time improvements

Key Takeaways

• A clear understanding of what the Focus and Speed metrics actually measure, and how to interpret them accurately

• Confidence in how to use these metrics with engineering teams without creating perverse incentives or gaming behaviours

• A view of where top-quartile teams are winning — and the specific behaviours and practices that drive that performance

Who This Webinar Is For

• Directors and VPs of Engineering seeking a deeper understanding of their team’s performance relative to industry benchmarks

• Heads of Engineering and Delivery Leaders responsible for identifying and removing bottlenecks in the delivery process

• PMO and Transformation Leads driving data-led improvement programmes across engineering functions

Organisations

• Companies that have begun measuring Lead Time or Cycle Time but are unsure how to act on the data

• Organisations where unplanned work and reactive firefighting is consuming a significant proportion of engineering capacity

• Scaling teams that need to improve delivery speed without simply adding headcount