Listen as two friends discuss how small teams (even 2–10 people) can use agile principles to work faster, communicate better, and reduce burnout. Kinga Vajda, a strategic innovator and agile advisor, by drawing on 20+ years in tech, explains how to replace guesswork with clear goals, short cycles, and transparent progress. Leverage how change management, and M&A, from the tech industry can be applied to all businesses today.
For founders, small-business owners, and team leads who want practical structure to deliver faster without burning people out. Stop micromanaging individuals - watch the work move to ‘Done.’ The team will naturally hold itself accountable.
Key lessons
- Agile = simple, not buzzwordy: Be quick and nimble; strip out bureaucracy so people can solve the goal together.
- Define “Done”: Before work starts, agree on outputs, quality bars, and what “good/bad” looks like.
- Time-box the work: Plan in weekly “sprints” so commitments match real capacity (vacations, fires, life).
- Daily standups, not status meetings: 10 minutes to ask “What moved? What’s stuck? Who can help?”—optimize flow, not people.
- Make work visible: Use a shared board (Trello/Notion/post-its) with columns like To Do → In Progress → Doneso the team self-organizes.
- Own the operating system: Set team norms (how we decide, prioritize, and escalate). Clarity beats micromanagement.
- Leaders’ job: Create transparency and trust so right/left hand talk—culture becomes a performance system.
