Ever seen a team celebrate record-high velocity while customers quietly vanish? This satirical fable will make you laugh, cringe, and maybe rethink what you measure next sprint. The Velocity Cult (A modern corporate fable about rewarding A while hoping for B) Let me tell you about Sophie. She joined bright-eyed, caffeinated, and carrying just enough imposter syndrome to fit right in. Day one, her manager pointed at the wall-sized Jira dashboard glowing with KPI green. “See that number? That’s...
21 days ago • 2 min read
Let’s be real: dependency management isn’t progress – it’s maintenance of dysfunction. In this article, I unpack why these fancy PI planning boards might be making things worse, and how to actually design for flow instead. Stop Managing Dependencies. Start Eliminating Them. Let’s start with a blunt truth: Managing dependencies is a trap. (Yes, I’m looking at you, PI Planning boards with your red strings and sticky-note spiderwebs. 🔍) These boards don’t make your organization agile. They just...
28 days ago • 3 min read
In the 20th century, the biggest cost in product development was waste. But the world has changed – and your metrics probably haven't. Let’s talk about the shift every company needs to make to survive and thrive in the 21st century. The Real Cost Driver Has Changed – Has Your Company Noticed? Once upon a time – not that long ago – product development was a slow, stately dance. A new idea emerged every few years, maybe once a decade. Companies would then spend years perfecting its execution:...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Story points were invented with good intentions–and then slowly turned into a mess. Here’s what I’ve seen over the past decade, how I stopped using them, and what I teach teams now instead. This one’s practical, detailed, and a bit liberating. Beyond Story Points: A Practical Guide for Grown‑Up Agile Teams Story points aren’t the problem. They were created with good intent. A soft way to guide planning without the stress and politics of time estimates. Ron Jeffries, one of the original...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
The Agile Compass Matthias Orgler Hey Reader, why do companies want to be "agile"? Did you ever ask that question? What were the replies you got? And did you do the "5 whys" to dig deeper? I've seen so many who wanted to be agile for all the wrong reasons. I believe our job as coaches is to solve their REAL problems for them. Here's a little article about why companies want to be agile… Why Do Organizations Want to “Go Agile”? A Brutally Honest Look at Real and Misguided Motivations—for...
5 months ago • 5 min read
The Agile Compass Matthias Orgler Hello Reader, respect is not a fluffy add-on – respect is the infrastructure on which high performance runs. Let's look at the busiest train station in the world to learn for creating high performing organizations. Respect: The Missing Ingredient in Your Agile Transformation Why respect isn’t just a soft value — but your system’s only real chance at speed. Shinjuku Station is the busiest railway station in the word. 4 million people passing through it every...
5 months ago • 4 min read
The Agile Compass Matthias Orgler Hello Reader, today is about learned helplessness in teams. A concept crucial to understand and know how to remedy for agile coaches, scrum masters, and anyone pushing for change. Learned Helplessness: The Hidden Barrier to Agility Why your team isn’t stepping up—and what you can do about it. You’ve probably seen it. You’re working with a team that’s been told: “You are now self-managing!” Freedom! Autonomy! Accountability! And then… nothing. They wait to be...
6 months ago • 4 min read
The Agile Compass Matthias Orgler Hi Reader, Ever notice how, deep down, a lot of us still believe work is supposed to hurt? Let me add my perspective from 25 years in the trenches of corporate (and start-up) productivity. Before we start: Here is another article I wrote a few weeks ago. It nicely complements today's newsletter by posing the question: Does a 60-Hour Workweek Make You a Productivity Beast—or Just Burnt Out? Thanks for supporting my work by being a paying subscriber of The...
6 months ago • 5 min read
The Agile Compass Matthias Orgler Hello Reader, provocative opinion: AI will increase the demand for skilled software engineers.Why I think that? It's in the article below 👇 Thanks for supporting my work by being a paying subscriber of The Agile Compass! 🙏 The AI Developer Apocalypse Might Be the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Software Engineering There’s a lot of anxiety in the air. AI is coming for developers. Coding assistants are getting smarter by the month. Junior roles are vanishing....
6 months ago • 4 min read