When tech leaders measure progress, velocity is often the first metric that comes to mind. But while story points burned or PRs merged can be helpful signals, they don’t tell the full story.

In fact, focusing solely on velocity can hide serious quality issues, poor alignment, or wasted effort.

At Ubiminds, we’ve seen this firsthand. That’s why we help our partners go beyond surface-level productivity and build teams that drive real business value.

The Problem with Chasing Velocity Alone

Velocity is easy to track—but it’s also easy to game. Teams might:

  • Rush tickets without thorough reviews
  • Prioritize low-impact work just to “move faster”
  • Avoid refactoring or documenting to maintain speed

All of which leads to:

  • Mounting technical debt
  • Misaligned product decisions
  • Decreased morale among engineers

🚩 High velocity with poor outcomes isn’t a win—it’s a red flag.

Value > Volume: 4 Priorities of High-Performing Teams

#1 Business alignment

Does the work meaningfully contribute to customer or revenue goals?
 Ubiminds engineers are embedded in your planning and rituals to ensure context and purpose guide every line of code.

#2 Sustainable code quality

Is the codebase maintainable, testable, and scalable?
 We enforce coding standards, automated tests, and peer reviews—regardless of location or contract type.

#3 Cross-functional collaboration

Do devs collaborate with designers, PMs, and QA—or work in isolation?
 Ubiminders join Slack, Jira, daily standups, and sprint reviews—just like your internal team.

#4 Ownership and accountability

Do developers take initiative and push for better solutions?
 Our embedded model emphasizes continuous feedback and shared responsibility for outcomes—not just task completion.

How We Help Companies Move from Velocity to Value

Traditional staff augmentation models tend to focus on time-to-fill and task delivery. Once the engineer is placed, the provider disappears.

At Ubiminds, we stay involved—helping you:

  • Define what value looks like per role (e.g., quality standards for frontend vs. ML engineering)
  • Run pulse checks and coaching sessions to address performance gaps
  • Use productivity data alongside engagement and quality metrics for a 360º view

We believe top-performing engineers don’t just deliver more—they deliver better.

How to Shift Your Own Team’s Focus

Not a Ubiminds customer (yet)? Here’s how you can start realigning your teams around value:

Instead of… Focus on…
# of tickets closed Customer impact of delivered features
Story points per sprint Cycle time + lead time for high-priority items
Dev hours logged PR quality, test coverage, and tech debt reduction
Individual velocity Team throughput and collaboration quality

The key is not to throw out velocity—but to contextualize it. Track quality, business alignment, and collaboration alongside delivery speed.

Speed Without Substance Is Just Burnout Waiting to Happen

Engineering teams should be fast—but only if speed helps them build the right things well.

If your current team is shipping fast but struggling to maintain quality, hit product goals, or collaborate smoothly, it’s time to reassess what you’re really measuring.

Ubiminds helps software leaders build distributed squads that optimize for value, not vanity metrics.

Let’s talk about what that looks like in your org. Drop us a line below.

FAQs on Velocity vs. Value

Velocity measures the speed at which work is completed—usually tracked by story points or tickets closed. Value, on the other hand, focuses on the business impact of that work: does it improve the user experience, generate revenue, reduce risk, or align with strategic goals?

Teams that focus exclusively on velocity may rush work, cut corners on quality, or prioritize low-impact tasks just to hit numbers. This can result in technical debt, misaligned features, and long-term inefficiency.

Value can be measured by tracking outcomes such as customer satisfaction (e.g. NPS), feature adoption rates, revenue impact, or reduction in support tickets. Pairing these metrics with qualitative feedback from cross-functional teams gives a fuller picture.

Shipping a feature that no one uses is output. Shipping a feature that increases user engagement by 30% is impact. High-performing teams focus on the latter.