Dispatches · Category

Team Systems

The operating systems behind healthy teams: product ownership, planning, process, and flow.

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№ 014 Apr 2026

In Celebration of the Product Owner

The product owner is the most undervalued role in software. Every team that skips it pays the price in rework, missed sprints, and developers building the wrong thing.

Product OwnershipDelivery
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№ 012 Apr 2026

You're Reading DORA Backwards

DORA metrics tell you what elite teams look like. They don't tell you how to become one. Most engineering leaders get this backwards. And it's costing them.

DORAMetricsCapability
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№ 011 Mar 2026

Developers on Islands

When each developer owns their slice of the codebase and nobody else knows how it works, your team's velocity number is a fiction. Here's what it costs.

Knowledge SilosTeam Design
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№ 009 Mar 2026

Splitting Stories: The Skill That Makes or Breaks Sprint Velocity

One of the surest ways to kill a team's productivity is to saddle it with large stories. The tricky part is they don't always look large on the surface.

Story SplittingScrumSprint Planning
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№ 006 Mar 2026

Your Team Is Doing Scrum. Does It Understand Scrum?

Most teams that 'do Scrum' have learned the ceremonies but missed the point. The ceremonies are not the methodology. They're just the surface.

ScrumAgileFeedback Loops
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№ 005 Dec 2024

Skills You Need as a Dev Manager: Product Owner

A development manager cannot lead delivery without understanding product ownership. Someone has to turn vision into sequence, protect priorities, and define work small enough to ship.

Product OwnershipManagement Skills
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