Product Description

What are the Six Dimensions of Performance?

The Six Dimensions of Performance are a practical lens for measuring how a work system really performs — not on a single metric, but across six competing forces: Quantity, Speed, Quality, Value, Consistency, and Resilience.

Success needs more than output. Push any one dimension too hard and you pay a hidden price somewhere else (raise throughput by cutting quality, raise speed by piling up rework). Every metric needs a counter-measurement from an opposing dimension — otherwise you sub-optimize. This toolkit makes that balance visible and discussable.

Underlying framework: Troy Magennis (2020), building on earlier work by Larry Maccherone — adopted in the Flight Levels book (Ch. 6.3, "Measuring system improvement").

Who is this for?

• Flight Levels coaches and facilitators
• Teams and leaders deciding what to measure and what it costs
• Agile coaches and Scrum Masters moving beyond single-metric thinking
• Anyone running a balance / trade-off conversation about delivery performance

What's in the package?

Pattern Cards (7 pages, PDF)

A cover card plus one card per dimension. Each dimension card carries a short description, the failure modes when you focus on it too little and too much, and typical metrics:

1. Quantity — "Do Lots": flow of raw work product; throughput, velocity
2. Speed — "Do it fast": responsiveness; time in state, cycle time, lead time
3. Quality — "Do it right": how well delivery solves the problem; escaped defects, rollbacks
4. Value — "Do the right stuff": outcome over output; cost of delay, alignment to strategy
5. Consistency — "Do it predictably": steady pace vs. feast-or-famine; throughput variability
6. Resilience — "Keep doing it": can the pace be sustained; team health ("happiness")

Performance Dimensions Map (poster, PDF)

A facilitation poster: a blank six-axis radar with six placement zones for the cards. A team plots its current vs. target balance (0–5) on the radar and discusses the trade-offs using the cards.

Card PNGs (7 individual files)

All cards as high-resolution PNGs (2480×3496px, transparent background). For presentations, training materials, and digital use.

Facilitation Play (Markdown)

A ready-to-run facilitation guide for a human facilitator: principles, a two-pass flow (current state → target state) on the 0–5 radar, opening questions per dimension, and how to capture values and trade-offs on the map. Use it to run the session straight out of the box.

Online Documentation

Detailed descriptions of all six dimensions with "too little / too much" and typical metrics: https://worksystems.design/essentials/paradigms/six-dimensions-of-performance

Delivery & Access

Delivery Method: Digital download (ZIP archive)

Included formats:

• 2 PDF documents (print-ready): card set + performance dimensions map
• 7 PNG files (2480×3496px, transparent background)
• Facilitation play (Markdown)
• Release notes (Markdown)

Version Information

• Version: 0.1.0 (Early Release)
• Created: June 2026
• Language: English
• Status: Early release, actively evolving

Notes

This is an early release. The materials are fully usable for:

• Workshop preparation and facilitation (see the facilitation play)
• Team coaching and balance/trade-off conversations
• Measurement design and review
• Self-study of the Six Dimensions

Feedback is explicitly welcome and directly shapes the next version.