For data teams
How do I show leadership where my data team's time really goes?
Measure one week. Sort it into planned work and the kinds of interruption that took the rest.
Meetings, incidents, support questions and urgent asks rarely show up on a roadmap. They still take the hours, and a single week of numbers is enough to start the conversation.
Six numbers, about a minute.
What to look at first
Planned versus unplanned
How much of the week was the roadmap, and how much was everything else.
Which interruption costs most
Meetings, incidents and ad-hoc asks behave differently and need different answers.
A number leadership can use
Hours and share of the week, not a feeling of being overwhelmed.
43%
of the average week went to planned work.
8 hours
of meetings a week, the biggest single interruption.
10 of 25
had 60% or more of their week unplanned.
Self-reported. One week. Anonymous. Data Berlin meetup, October 2026. A small room, not a survey.
The longer version: Why is my data team always busy but nothing improves?