The Metric That Matters: Why Time to First Draft Beats “Hours Saved” in AI ROI
The most common question I get from operators regarding AI implementation is: "How do I calculate the ROI?"
The default answer is usually "hours saved."
The logic goes: If a task takes 4 hours, and AI cuts it to 1 hour, we saved 3 hours. Multiply that by the employee's hourly rate, and there is your ROI.
This is good math, but bad strategy.
In reality, "hours saved" is a vanity metric. It rarely shows up on the P&L. If you save an employee 10 hours a week, do you fire 25% of them? Do you reduce their salary?
Of course not.
Often, Parkinson's Law kicks in: "Work expands to fill the time available for its completion."
If you want to prove the value of AI to a board or a skeptical CFO, stop measuring time back.
Start measuring velocity.
The metric I've been obsessed with (and the one I recommend you adopt) is Time to First Draft (TTFD).
Blank Page Syndrome:
The most expensive part of knowledge work isn't the editing; it is the creation. It is the "empty page paralysis."
Staring at an empty document, a blank code editor, or an empty email draft creates friction.
It requires high cognitive load just to get the wheels turning.
AI is generally mediocre at finishing things (the last 10% requires human expertise),
but it is elite at starting things (the first 80%).
By optimizing for TTFD, you change the operational tempo of your organization.
How to Apply This:
Here is how you can deploy TTFD across three core functions next week:
1/ For Sales (Proposals & RFPs)
The Old Way: A rep spends 4 hours pulling older decks, copy-pasting specs, and writing a custom intro.
The AI Workflow: The rep feeds the client's website, the meeting transcript, and your pricing PDF into an agent.
The Metric: Measure the time from "Deal Stage: Proposal" to "Proposal Sent."
The Goal: We want the "First Draft" in the rep’s hands in 3 minutes, not 3 hours. This allows them to spend their energy refining the strategy, not formatting slides.
2/ For Operations (SOPs & Policies)
The Old Way: You need a new "Remote Work Policy." You put it on your to-do list. You procrastinate for three weeks because writing it from scratch sounds painful.
The AI Workflow: You dictate a 5-minute voice memo rambling about what you want the policy to cover. You upload it. The AI returns a formatted, professional policy document.
The Metric: Time from "Idea" to "Reviewable Document."
The Goal: Eliminate the procrastination gap.
3/ For Engineering (Boilerplate Code)
The Old Way: A developer sets up a new environment, writes standard authentication logic, and configures the database connection.
The AI Workflow: An agent scaffolds the entire project structure based on a simple prompt.
The Metric: Time to first "Hello World" or functioning prototype.
The Goal: Get to the hard problems faster by automating the boring ones.
The Strategic Shift
When you present this to your leadership team, frame it this way:
"Hours saved" is soft. It implies we are trying to do the same work with fewer people.
"Time to First Draft" is hard. It implies we are increasing the number of "at-bats" our team gets every week.
We aren't trying to replace the human.
We are trying to promote the human from "Writer" to "Editor."
An Editor can process 5x the volume of a Writer with higher consistency.
That is an efficiency gain that actually impacts the bottom line.
Find your next edge,
Eli
Want help applying this to your product or strategy? We’re ready when you are → Let's get started.
