If story points worked the way people hoped they would, this post wouldn’t need to exist. But here we are.
Two decades after the Agile Manifesto told us to value “individuals and interactions over processes and tools,” entire organizations are still burning hours debating whether that bug fix is a 3 or a 5.
Somewhere along the way, story points—originally intended to liberate teams from rigid timelines—became just another performance metric to weaponize in a status meeting.
And the worst part? Most people using story points know they’re broken. They’ll even say it out loud. But they keep using them anyway—because “that’s how we do planning here.”
So this isn’t another “how to estimate better” piece. It’s a breakdown of why the story point system so often fails, what it’s actually signaling, and how to replace it with something more useful: real conversations about impact, trust, and how teams actually get work done.
Story points were never supposed to do this
At their core, story points were meant to reflect the relative effort or complexity of a piece of work, abstracted away from time. A 5-point story isn’t “5 days”—it’s just bigger than a 3 and smaller than an 8. That abstraction was deliberate. It freed teams from the illusion of precision and helped them align on scope and sequencing.
And honestly? It wasn’t a bad idea. It was supposed to reduce pressure. Give teams room to learn. Encourage conversations about complexity, risk, and ambiguity. It was a hack to make estimation less painful.
But over time, story points became a proxy for velocity tracking, then performance evaluation, and now in some orgs, a full-blown individual scorecard.
“In the absence of better signals, estimates often become a proxy for trust—especially when leaders struggle to stay connected to the work.”
– Dave Mosher
That’s when the problems start.
When metrics become a minefield
The real problem with misusing story points isn’t that you’re “doing agile wrong.” It’s that your team slowly stops caring about the right things.
Instead of focusing on solving real user problems or understanding the why behind a feature, engineers start playing it safe. They learn to treat estimation like a poker game—where the goal is not to be accurate, but to avoid getting burned later.
“I said it was going to take this long, and it didn’t? Great, now I’m on the hook. Next time, I’ll triple my estimate so nobody’s mad.”
– Everyone ever
Story points stop being a planning tool and start being something you have to defend.
And the more leadership leans on story points as their one “engineering metric,” the more they incentivize exactly this behavior: sandbagging, gaming, and optimizing for outputs that look good on a dashboard—but mean nothing to the business.
When that happens, it’s not just engineering that suffers. It’s product. It’s users. It’s your ability to make smart bets and course-correct when you’re wrong. And delivery devolves into box-checking.
“You’re getting so much less worth from your engineers if delivering that widget is the only thing that matters.”
– Tammy Lawlor
What’s missing? Context. Outcomes. Conversation.
Flipping the script: From estimates to appetite
If you want to see an engineer mentally check out, just ask them how long something will take.
Not because they’re lazy. Because they’ve done this dance before. They know how this story ends—with a guesstimate turned commitment, a deadline turned threat, and a retrospective where everyone pretends to be surprised the estimate was wrong.
Instead of asking, “How long will this take?,” teams should be asking: “What can we accomplish in this amount of time?”
You can still plan. You can still forecast. But now you’re doing it in a way that’s honest about uncertainty—and respectful of the people doing the work.
That small shift—framing around appetite instead of estimates—unlocks scope negotiation, autonomy, and healthier team dynamics.
“I’ve seen how much more productive teams get when leadership shares their appetite: ‘Here’s the time we’ve got—what’s possible?’ It builds trust and unlocks creativity.”
– Dave Mosher
This idea isn’t theoretical. It's working inside startups, consultancies, and product-led orgs right now. Teams that align on goals and trust one another to navigate complexity can move faster with fewer estimate-driven rituals.
Engineering metrics that actually matter
If you’re looking to evolve your organization beyond story points, start by focusing on outcomes, not outputs. Here are a few categories of metrics that tell a better story:
Flow & delivery
- Cycle time
- Throughput
- Work in progress (WIP)
- Cumulative flow
- DORA metrics (e.g., deployment frequency, MTTR)
Business & product impact
- OKRs
- Product adoption or usage
- Customer retention or satisfaction (e.g. NPS)
- Operational cost savings
Team health & collaboration
- PR review time
- Cross-functional pairing & discovery involvement
Sprint goals tied to OKRs
“A good metric is going to be something that helps inform and cut through the crap.”
– Tammy Lawlor
How to evolve from story points (without blowing everything up)
No, you don’t need to kill story points tomorrow. But you can start nudging your team toward better behaviors and metrics.
1. Stop using story points to measure individuals.
That’s the fastest path to dysfunction and distrust. Story points are a team-level planning tool—nothing more.
2. Start with sprint goals and tie them to OKRs.
Even if you’re in a hybrid-agile org, sprint goals offer a natural way to connect short-term delivery with long-term value.
3. Introduce appetite-based planning.
Ask product: “What’s your appetite for this?” Then let engineering respond with what’s realistic. This enables joint accountability and encourages creativity.
4. Run a no-points experiment.
For one quarter, skip pointing altogether. Track cycle time and throughput. See if delivery improves—or at least if trust does.
5. Educate and align.
Most misuse stems from lack of understanding. Run a metrics workshop. Bring design, product, and engineering into the same room. Define what success actually looks like—together. Need help getting that going? We can help with a metrics workshop or more tailored product coaching.
Story points aren’t evil—but they aren’t enough
If all your team is measured by is output, you’re not just limiting their potential—you’re blinding yourself to what’s really working.
“We hypothesize it might be these features that help us get to our destination, but ultimately the best answer is going to be something like having objectives and key results.”
– Tammy Lawlor
High-trust teams don’t obsess over points. They talk about impact. They ask better questions. And they use data to inform decisions—not to control them.
It’s time we stopped measuring what’s easy—and started measuring what matters.
Teams need to know the impact related to their work.
Curious how to shift your team’s metric mindset? Let’s talk.
Whether you're dealing with legacy thinking, planning pressure, or remote trust gaps, evolving your approach to metrics can unlock real business value—and better engineering culture.
Tammy Lawlor is an engagement partner, product leader and Agile coach. Dave Mosher is a staff software consultant.
