Want To Do Twice The Work In Half The Time? You Need To Know This Framework

Put simply, Agile is an approach that helps people work more effectively. Just like it sounds, Agile is a nimble, flexible, and adaptable way to work. Companies use this approach to better manage work and get to market faster. It’s a methodology based on the Agile Manifesto values and principles. Most of us are familiar with the trials and tribulations of project management. Whether a startup or Fortune 500 company, projects often take longer and cost more than expected. That’s where Agile comes in.

Agile improves the speed, transparency, and adaptability of a company’s process by breaking big projects into smaller pieces that are more suitable for release or testing. This can be applied to software development, product development, manufacturing, just about any industry, even marketing. Think of it as “micro-testing” smaller elements of a product being developed, with improved efficiency being the driving goal as you prioritize and deliver small segments of each project.

So for example, if a company needs to launch a new website but can’t wait months for it to be finished, an Agile approach would be to put up a homepage with a nice photo, the company name, mission statement, and phone number. This would be a Minimal Viable Product (MVP). Then, each week, add a page that describes their services, then a page that shows their portfolio of work or customer testimonials, and continuing to add more pages until it’s finished. Break the project into small, manageable tasks and get going. For each website page that is finished, we can make that page go live before the rest of the site is finished. That’s an Agile approach. Many companies see great results in getting to market faster using an Agile approach, often with the Scrum Framework.

So, where does the term Scrum come from? In rugby, Scrum is a method of bringing the ball back in play after a pause in the game. The two teams are huddled together around the ball, all pushing up against each other to see who can gain possession of it—and they have to pass the ball backward in order to then move forward and score. It's a very collaborative approach. So, in Agile, we need everyone on the team working together toward a common goal. And we work in time boxes (either a week or two where we plan to complete something) then iterate upon our product as we release incrementally.

There are many types of Agile approaches including Scrum, Kanban, Extreme Programming (XP), and others. According to a survey done by an Agile software tool company called Version One, Scrum is the most commonly used Agile framework. They do a “State of Agile” survey every year, and recently found that about 58% of companies that use Agile actually use the Scrum approach, while more than 80% use Scrum or a hybrid of Scrum.

Whenever I get too technical about the framework when talking to people, I watch their eyes begin to glaze over. But as soon as I say, “Listen, this will help you do twice the work, but in half the time,” everybody’s response is “I need that. I need that in my life.”

Don’t we all?

This is the simplified message that Jeff Sutherland, one of the creators of Scrum, loves to drive home. He says “Scrum helps you do twice the work in half the time.” However, when done properly, the output is much greater than just double, it really is exponential.

By working in short iterations, informed decisions and improved results in less time means way more bang for your buck.

But here’s the thing: Agile can actually be applied to a whole range of industries, not just marketing or project management. In fact, the same approach can even be applied to your life, your personal habits, and your everyday goals.

How I got interested in Agile says a lot about the impact the process can have on both a business and any individual person.

I have never been the type of person to sit in an office all day, working 9 to 5 and finding fulfillment from just that. That concept of corporate slavery (for lack of a better term) was never the future I imagined for myself. I’ve always believed there is more to life than repeating the same, seemingly meaningless cycles day in and day out.

When I was 22 years old, fresh out of college, I was working in project management already leading $5 million projects at State Farm, while simultaneously managing people twice my age to ensure milestones weren’t being missed.

Now, was this my “be-all-end-all?” Not particularly. But I was fascinated by what I was learning, and I saw the value in it.

I felt a little out of my league at first, being a recent college grad managing such large projects, but I’ve always loved the opportunity to learn on my feet and prove myself. I really never have been one to remain within my perceived comfort zone, because I knew there was greater reward to be found beyond it.

Whatever the task, I always knew I would find a way to figure it out.

It wasn’t long before I began applying the streamlining techniques I had learned within previous roles to reduce State Farm’s yearly budget for an enterprise project from $3 million per year to $1.5 million. With these improvements, we were able to ramp up the project to include three releases per year instead of two, and develop a repeatable process that we could outsource to free up our onsite people for more strategic work within the company.

This was when I discovered my interest in improving project management and began to turn the page into Agile.

Here I was, just a young kid working at a huge company, managing multi-million-dollar projects, learning and adapting as I went, while aligning myself with mentors I knew could guide me in the right direction. Yet, I noticed a common theme across my colleagues: no one wanted to learn this new concept of “Agile”.

Why?

Because it was a new and unfamiliar approach. They were perfectly content sticking to their traditional methods, instead of considering that there might actually be a better way to do things.

My colleagues viewed this change as a threat, but I saw it as an opportunity to become an expert in a new, cutting-edge concept that others in my industry were afraid to touch.

I was ready to break the mold.

Following a few certifications and initial projects, I quickly became the go-to “Agile” person in the company, leading weekly lunch-and-learns to speak on delivering projects more effectively using Scrum.

Now, I speak all over the world on the importance of Agile, and I help train leadership teams and development teams across many countries and industries in implementing these processes into their businesses. I became one of only 220 Certified Scrum Trainers (CSTs) in the world. Then, my team and I discovered that applying Agile to Marketing yields incredible results in generating more revenue the way we see Agile applied to software development resulting in increased speed to market.

By learning and understanding how the Agile process worked, you could say I applied that same methodology to my life. I left the 9 to 5 world, have my own businesses, and get to travel to countries I never before dreamed of being able to visit.