We're pretty sure we know how to make better software, but do we know how to make better workflows? How do we know and communicate what's slowing us down? How can we confidently decide what to automate? Where can we get the time? How can we escape process prison in agile and non-agile environments? How can we get everyone to agree on where to focus? This experience report will detail my involvement with 3 organizations of 3 different sizes (small startup, small-to-medium enterprise, and giant enterprise) to illustrate how I've used a form of Value Stream Mapping to help them define their current state and leverage data collected in the process to confidently identify (often surprising) risks and opportunities. This talk is for anyone tasked with or striving for measurable improvement in their teams and organizations. Whether you are: - A leader aiming to align their team to a common goal, build a data-driven roadmap or get traction with transformation efforts - A product owner trying to prioritize a backlog - A data junkie trying to quantify team performance and improvement - A program manager transforming from projects to products - A project lead trying to get the most from their process - A change agent trying to rally others to a cause - A frustrated individual contributor just trying to get things done