Coach Dan's Blog

Are You “Sprinting” Or Just “Running?” TLDR: A Sprint without a Goal isn’t a Sprint — it’s just a random collection of tasks. If you want a team that’s focused, empowered, and actually delivering value (instead of just “checking boxes”), it’s time to stop treating your backlog like a grocery list and start planning with purpose. I was thinking about the concept of “focus” the other day, and I realized something that made me feel a little bit uncomfortable: a lot of us aren’t actually sprinting . We’re just… running. We’ve got the ceremonies down. We have Daily Standups, Retros, and a Backlog that’s as long as a teenager’s Christmas list. But when I ask, “What are we trying to achieve this sprint?” I get a lot of blank stares, or worse, someone reads me a list of ten unrelated Jira tickets. If your Sprint is just a bucket for “stuff that needs to get done,” you aren’t building a product — you’re managing a queue. You aren’t driving toward an outcome, you are pushing for output...

  Focus on what matters... I get to be in some incredible discussions.  This week I sat in on a Crew Leader's Meeting (Crew Lead, Product Owners, Tech Lead, Area Chapter Leads and Coaches.)   The Crew is refining their various roadmaps and aligning them to focus on Crew Goals.  The Crew Lead kicked us off with a review of our company's Five Business Priorities.  The discussion that followed was nothing short of inspiring.   While there is still work to do, I feel like everyone is  aligned with the business priorities and the crew goals .  They are editing their individual priorities to better align together, and are  putting in place a solid approach to work together to achieve their goals , and contribute to the things that are most important for the company! Row in the same direction... Imagine you're in a canoe on a small lake with your friend.  You both decide you  want  to visit the shore, and start paddling....