Damien asked for help resolving some delivery issues with their fledgeling SAAS product. He was dreading the next planning meeting and couldnโt see a way forward. As the technical team lead, Damien was good at maintaining a calm demeanour and warm smile, but behind that, he was anxious and feeling overwhelmed, unsure how to turn around the time-consuming discussions and poor team dynamics that characterised planning.
Damien confessed he was seriously thinking about moving on.
We talked through what was happening – planning took an entire day to step through the tickets, discussing each one as they went, and on one occasion it spilled over to the following day. A few individuals dominated the discussions and some developers told him it was a waste of their time. Damien was overwhelmed at having so many developers and was finding he barely ever had time to plan for planning meetings, the irony of which wasnโt lost.
It wasnโt always like this.
The largely remote team used to enjoy meeting up in person and planning as a team. Everything had been going well until the commercial success of their fledgling SAAS product and an influx of investment put growth on the agenda. Growth had been rapid, and one of the VCs dropped in an agile coach to help scale engineering capacity. However, Damien struggled to keep up with his own technical work whilst managing the much bigger team, and the recent departure of the agile coach was the final straw.
Damien needed good technical support so he could focus on leadership responsibilities. We agreed to give it three months, and then reassess.
I started running the planning meetings, ensuring sufficient tickets were well defined ahead of time. Damienโs anxiety reduced. I also transitioned much of the โon the dayโ planning to regular refinement sessions ahead of time, attended by only those who needed to be there. Damienโs anxiety reduced further, and he started enjoying his work once again. Planning meetings reduced to about 2 – 3 hours, no one was bored or frustrated, and everyone enjoyed a good team lunch afterwards.
I eventually hired my own replacement and said goodbye to Damien, confident the new approach was bedded in and would continue working.