Strategies For Change Management In Agile Teams

Scrum as a Service: When Agile Teams Become Ticket Processors Scrum as a Service is when Agile teams are execution units, taking orders instead of owning value delivery. They don’t solve problems; or shaping the product, they just code and close Jira issues. It’s what happens when companies adopt Scrum mechanically but keep traditional thinking and control structures intact. Symptoms of Scrum as a Service 1) No Product Ownership The PO is a backlog manager, not a decision-maker. Teams can’t challenge priorities. The backlog is a job assignment queue. Sprint Planning is a scheduling exercise, not a conversation about functional or technical trade-offs. 2) No Cross-Discipline Collaboration UX, DevOps, and Security exist outside the team, creating slow handoffs. Developers get fully fleshed-out requirements, not problems to solve. Agile teams are ticket processors, not value creators. 3) Nothing Changes Daily Scrums become status meetings for managers. Retros don’t lead to improvements, just performance reviews. Teams are judged by team outputs like velocity, not business outcomes. How This Happens 1) No Organizational Change Leadership keeps command and control, just renaming old roles. 2) Waterfall Thinking Teams have fixed scope and deadlines, no room for continuous discovery or progressive elaboration. 3) POs as Middlemen, Not Leaders POs relay stakeholder demands instead of shaping product strategy. 4) SMs are Managers. Not Coaches SMs push teams to move faster rather than helping them achieve a sustainable pace. How to Fix It 1) Give Teams Ownership Let teams define and prioritize their backlog. Facilitate direct feedback loops with users, not just stakeholder requests. Make POs strategic leaders, not order-takers. 2) Tear Down Silos Embed UX, DevOps, QA, and Security into the Scrum team. Stop treating devs as coders for hire. Make them coequal partners in product thinking. 3) Shift to Outcome Metrics Stop measuring success by velocity, throughput, or tickets. Track customer impact, retention, usability, and product adoption. Ask: Are we solving problems or just releasing code? 4) Decentralize Decision-Making Replace top-down roadmaps with team-driven prioritization. Let teams influence scope, trade-offs, and release planning. Encourage teams to experiment and innovate. 5) Foster Continuous Improvement Make retros actionable. Give teams time for technical excellence, like refactoring, automation, and innovation. Shift from feature delivery to sustainable, high-quality product development. From Execution Teams to Product Teams Scrum teams should be value creators, not feature factories. Agile is meant to empower teams, not turn them into Jira clerks. If teams can’t challenge priorities, shape solutions, adjust processes, or innovate, then you don’t have Agile. You have Scrum as a Service. Does your organization trust teams to own the product? If not, Scrum isn’t the problem. Your structure is.

We don’t resist change. We resist not knowing where we’ll land. Most pushback is rational. We hold on to what’s worked because the next step isn’t clear. If we don’t see the logic, If it doesn’t feel safe to try we stall. Every time. The job isn’t to “manage resistance.” It’s to de-risk what’s ahead. Here are 7 strategies that have helped my teams (and me) move through change faster: 1. Model it first → If leaders don’t go first, nothing moves. → We follow behavior, not slide decks. 2. Share the why, not just the timeline → Don’t wait for the perfect plan. → Share what’s changing, what’s at stake, and what we’re betting on. 3. Involve the people closest to the work → Real alignment doesn’t come from top-down decisions. → It comes from early input. 4. Make the first step feel doable → We don’t need the full blueprint. → Just a clear first move we can act on with confidence. 5. Train for what’s different → Belief ≠ readiness. → We resist when we don’t feel equipped. 6. Name what’s really going on → Resistance often hides fear or confusion. → Ask early. Ask directly. Don’t let it build. 7. Show it’s working and work hard on what’s not → Small wins build trust. → But trust grows faster when we’re honest about what still needs fixing. Most of us try to scale with complexity. But the real unlock? We simplify. That’s how we move forward - together. * * * I talk about the real mechanics of growth, data, and execution. If that’s what you care about, let’s connect.

You're not just delivering a project You're delivering a behavior shift. A new system, process, or tool means nothing if no one uses it. Except most project plans stop at launch. Not adoption. If you're a PM, you're also a change manager. Here's 3 tips to build for behavior AND delivery: ☝ Define what's changing for the end user Every project introduces friction. New steps. New tools. New habits. Map the real impact. Not just the shift in duties, but the human change. ✌ Bring people in early Change lands smoother when people see themselves in the solution. Co-design communications + plans with users. This will make them champions rather than critics. 🤟 Reinforce even after launch The project isn't done at go-live. Change management doesn't just happen at the end either. It's a living process, so plan for training, support, feedback loops, and follow-ups. That's where real adoption happens. Deliverables don't manage change. People do. Make sure to build behavior change into your projects so they're successful. 🤙