If you're reading this, there's a good chance you've heard the term "value stream" tossed around in meetings, training sessions, or industry articles but you've never quite gotten around to reviewing your own. You're not alone.
In theory, reviewing your value streams sounds like a great idea: map out how value flows through your organization, identify friction points, and then improve. But in practice? Many teams stall before they even begin. Why?
Let’s break down the top myths that keep people from taking that first step and the simple actions you can take this week to start moving forward
Misconception #1: "It’s a massive, complex undertaking."
Value stream reviews are often perceived as large-scale initiatives that require weeks of workshops, process mapping software, and consulting engagements. That’s just not true.
Yes, if you want to conduct a full enterprise-wide Lean Value Stream Analysis, that’s going to take time and structure. But reviewing a value stream doesn’t have to be complex to be valuable. You can start small. Review one stream, one product, or one service. Think of it as peeling back the first layer, not flipping the whole system upside down.
Start with where you are. Use what you know.
Misconception #2: "We don’t have ‘value streams’ just processes."
This is a big one. Teams often assume that “value stream” is a buzzword reserved for manufacturing, DevOps, or big Agile organizations. But if your team delivers something to someone whether is customers, stakeholders or internal users, you have value streams.
A process is a component. A value stream is the whole path from idea to outcome, request to resolution, or order to delivery. You don’t have to change what you’re doing. Just shift how you see it.
Your incident response, onboarding process, or donation processing workflow? That’s a value stream waiting to be understood.
Misconception #3: "We have to fix everything before we can map anything."
Some teams feel like they need clean data, perfect documentation, or solid SLAs before they can start. But the whole point of a value stream review is to discover inefficiencies and gaps.
You don’t need perfection, you need curiosity. And sometimes, looking at a “messy” value stream is the best way to figure out where improvements are most urgently needed.
You can’t improve what you won’t look at.
Three Things You Can Do This Week to Start Reviewing Value Streams
If you’ve been sitting on the sidelines, here are three simple things you can do this week to get started, no big project charter or fancy toolkit required.
1. Pick one service or process you want to understand better.
Start small. Choose a service your team delivers regularly, like new employee onboarding, IT support request fulfillment, or order processing. It helps to pick something that already “feels” clunky or slow.
Write it on a sticky note: “Let’s explore how we deliver X.”
2. Draw a high-level flow from request to delivery.
Grab a whiteboard or a sheet of paper and sketch the major steps involved. Don’t worry about detail or perfection. Your goal is to visualize how value moves through the system.
Ask:
- What kicks off this process?
- Who’s involved at each step?
- Where do handoffs happen?
- How does the customer or user receive the final output?
- This alone will start surfacing insights.
3. Ask two people involved in the process what slows them down.
This is where the real value begins. Talk to people doing the work. You don’t need surveys or interviews just honest, curious conversations.
Ask:
- “Where do things tend to stall?”
- “What do you spend the most time waiting for?”
- “If you could change one thing, what would it be?”
Capture these insights. You’ll start seeing where your first improvements could come from.
You Don’t Need to Be an Expert to Start
Reviewing your value streams isn’t about adopting new jargon or launching a transformation. It’s about improving the way your organization delivers what matters. Starting with curiosity and a willingness to learn can get you farther than you think.
If you’ve been putting it off this is your nudge.
Start small. Start now. Start seeing your work through the lens of value.