Make Usefulness the Point means building work that creates real benefit and eliminating anything that doesn’t. “Good” looks like validating usefulness early, designing outputs around the people who rely on them, and continuously adjusting to ensure value. Leaders shift from producing work to producing impact.
This imperative drives two outcomes: higher manager-to-IC leverage and less hidden work that burns budget. Teams reclaim hours spent on redundant or obsolete tasks. Leaders gain time as oversight decreases. Work becomes purpose-built and directly tied to business results.
Teams waste hours producing low-value work. Redundant tasks multiply. Leaders lose leverage as they oversee unnecessary activity. Cycle time lengthens because teams carry outdated processes. Output per FTE falls. Cross-functional partners disengage, and operational costs rise as hidden work drains time and resources.
Work becomes lean and high-impact. Teams regain capacity, increase throughput, and direct effort toward strategic priorities. KPIs improve: output per FTE rises, redundancy drops, and cost-per-deliverable shrinks. Cross-functional partners experience clearer, more actionable outputs that improve execution across the workflow.
A customer experience team spent 12 hours each week producing three recurring reports. After validating usefulness, they discovered only one report was still valuable—and even it required simplification. They eliminated two reports entirely and redesigned the remaining one around stakeholder needs. The team reclaimed 8 weekly hours, shortened reporting cycle time by 30%, and delivered insights that improved customer response SLAs.
Purpose levels operate independently. To deepen your usefulness filter, see Learning 100: Follow Your Confusion to identify where work fails its intended user and Resilience 200: Lengthen the Pause to slow down reactive decisions that create unnecessary effort.
