One of the large financial companies in the US recently made the surprising decision to eliminate their entire Agile job family, affecting 1100 people. Although I don’t have the inside scoop on their reasons, this news has sparked curiosity about its broader implications for our industry.
A while back, I gave a talk to Agile coaches at Crisp’s request. During this talk, I discussed two distinct product team types, which I labeled Team Red and Team Blue.
Team Red includes a certified Agile Coach, Scrum Master, and Product Owner, and they stick to all the Agile ceremonies. Despite this, they aren’t truly empowered—they function as a feature team and release updates infrequently, usually once a month or quarterly.
Team Blue, on the other hand, rejects traditional Agile practices. They don’t have Agile coaches or Scrum Masters, and their product managers aren’t fond of the Product Owner role. Despite this, they are genuinely empowered, solve problems effectively, focus on outcomes, and have been practicing continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) for years.
So, which team is genuinely Agile?
If Team Blue exemplifies true Agility without the need for Agile coaches, how did they achieve this? The answer lies in competent management at good product companies.
Engineering managers and senior engineers take on the responsibility of coaching their teams, helping them develop complex skills, such as reliably and frequently shipping small, independent releases. Similarly, managers of product management and design have to coach their teams to consistently and responsibly discover solutions to the problems they need to solve.
If you’ve never worked to the point where you can reliably release production software on demand or developed your product discovery skills to quickly address risks and find effective solutions, it might seem straightforward—but it isn’t.
If the coach lacks hands-on experience, it becomes challenging to aid the team effectively. An Agile Coach without these skills who focuses only on process is what we call a “process person.” This type of coaching isn’t beneficial for a serious product company.
I was pleased to hear that the company letting go of these Agile personnel supported them in finding other roles within the company. Some have reached out to me, and my advice has been to shift their focus from process to developing specific product discovery and delivery skills where they have the expertise to genuinely assist. For many, this could lead to a rewarding career in true product coaching.