Your Team Doesn't Want to Work on "Tickets"

Your Team Doesn’t Want to Work on “Tickets”

In your team, what’s the term for a unit of work?

Long ago, “story” (short for “user story”) was the term of choice. Then came “task.” In the last few years, the almost-universal term has been “ticket.”

If you’re going for empowerment, customer focus, and value delivery, that word won’t help. Why?

“Ticket” implies a transactional model: the team is accountable for delivering work from a queue. Their job is to implement requests, not question them. Tickets represent isolated things to do, so the subtle implication is that team members should work in isolation, one person per ticket.

Most of all, it weakens connection to meaning and value. When everything is a ticket, it’s easy to forget why the work matters to human beings on its receiving end. Output over outcomes.

Words carry weight. Choose ones that have positive connotations or that align with your mission and approach. “Item” is pretty neutral; “story” suggests a personal connection between asker and doer. Some teams use “piece,” “opportunity,” “work request,” or simply “work.” Just don’t default to whatever your planning tool calls it (like “issue”) without questioning it.