By Claire Cundill, Chief Revenue Officer, Leighton.
Across every sector, organisations are under pressure to deliver more with less.
Ambitious digital roadmaps remain firmly on the agenda, but with tighter budgets, leaner teams, and increasing scrutiny on ROI, the margin for error is shrinking. There’s little room for drawn-out delivery cycles or initiatives that fail to show immediate business impact. It’s no longer enough to talk about transformation; stakeholders want to see impact, and they want to see it now.
That’s why “time to value” has become one of the most pressing themes in technology and business leadership circles. It’s no longer just about deploying technology, it’s about how quickly a product, service, or initiative can start generating real, measurable outcomes for the business and its customers.
As a team, we’re exploring this theme throughout the year as we look to understand what truly accelerates value delivery and what still stands in the way.
Why time to value now?
Time to value isn’t a new concept, but it’s in higher demand than ever. The gap between planning and measurable impact is now under intense scrutiny, especially within larger organisations that are grappling with legacy systems, rigid governance structures, and rising customer expectations.
Across the board, digital and technology teams are being asked harder, more focused questions. Business leaders want to know how soon a new initiative will start making a meaningful difference, and whether it can be delivered without compromising quality, security, or resilience. They want clarity on which investments are actually moving the needle, and which are simply consuming time and resources.
Time to value puts outcomes ahead of outputs. It reframes the conversation, moving away from delivery milestones, feature sets, and backlogs, and toward business results, customer impact, and strategic relevance.
What gets in the way?
Despite the appetite for speed, many organisations still find themselves moving more slowly than they’d like. The barriers are rarely about technology. More often, it’s the surrounding processes, structures, or mindsets that hold teams back.
Legacy infrastructure continues to be a major drag on agility. Changing or integrating with older systems can be expensive, time-consuming, and fraught with risk, making teams hesitant to move quickly or try new approaches. Siloed operating models limit collaboration and slow decision-making, particularly when ownership is unclear or communication breaks down between departments.
Overloaded delivery teams also struggle to deliver value at pace. When priorities are constantly shifting or when teams are asked to juggle too much, focus suffers and momentum stalls. Add to this a lack of clarity around what “value” really means, and it becomes difficult to make confident, aligned decisions about where to invest time and energy.
What makes a difference?
Some organisations are finding ways to accelerate time to value by making intentional shifts in how they prioritise and deliver digital work. A common trait among them is a sharper focus, choosing to do fewer things, better. By concentrating on high-impact initiatives and being disciplined about deprioritising low-value work, they create space for faster delivery and more meaningful outcomes.
Modernising technical architecture is another critical enabler. Cloud-native services, serverless infrastructure, and event-driven architecture are helping teams reduce complexity, scale easily, and experiment with greater confidence. These approaches support agility and reduce the dependency on slow, centralised systems.
Teams that consistently deliver value, faster, tend to be cross-functional and empowered. With clear ownership and autonomy, they can make decisions quickly and stay aligned with customer needs. Supporting these teams with the right platforms, automation, and tooling also removes friction and allows them to focus on what matters most.
Finally, we’re seeing a shift from project to product mindsets. Long-lived teams focused on outcomes, not just delivery, are better equipped to learn, adapt, and improve over time. When supported by clear leadership direction and a shared understanding of what “value” really means, these teams can move with greater speed and purpose.
Looking ahead
Over the next 12-18 months, the drive for faster value delivery will only increase. Technologies like AI and automation will help, but they’re not silver bullets. Success will come down to how effectively organisations bring together the right tools, ways of working, and mindset shifts.
Time to value isn’t just a delivery metric, it’s a mindset. And as businesses navigate the next wave of digital ambition, those who can shorten the distance between vision and impact will be the ones who lead the way.
For some, improvement might mean halving the time it takes to go from idea to live. For others, it might mean finally removing a long-standing bottleneck. But for everyone, the north star is the same: delivering value early, often, and sustainably.
leighton.com