Time to value
Time to value is the elapsed time from contract signature to the customer’s first realised outcome, measured against a defined outcome, not against go-live.
Go-live is an internal milestone. Value is a customer outcome, and the two can be months apart. Measuring to go-live produces a comfortable number that does not predict renewal; measuring to a defined first outcome produces an uncomfortable number that does.
The definitional work is choosing the outcome per offer and making it observable in product or delivery data. Once it exists, time to value becomes the most actionable retention lever available, because it is the one post-sale variable the company controls unilaterally.
Where it breaks
Onboarding completion is tracked instead of value realisation, so accounts are marked healthy while the customer has not used the product for anything yet.
Related terms
- Onboarding
- Onboarding is the governed transition from signed contract to realised value, with defined entry conditions, milestones and an exit criterion.
- Customer health score
- A health score is a predictive model of renewal likelihood built from observed signals, and it is only a model if it has been validated against actual renewal outcomes.
- Churn
- Churn is the loss of a customer or of their revenue, and it must be measured with a stated basis, logo or revenue, and a stated recognition point.
- Entitlement
- An entitlement is a specific right a customer has purchased, seats, usage volume, feature access, service level, expressed structurally rather than in contract prose.
Field notes on this
- Read NRR with GRR
NRR can combine base retention with concentrated expansion. Pair it with GRR and a cohort bridge, then investigate the causes separately.