Sprint Goals DON'T Work - Or Do They?

Sprint Goals sound beautifully simple.

Set a goal for the team, organize the work around it, track progress daily, and finish with success.

Sounds easy enough. And that’s exactly why it’s so hard.

Behind this deceptively simple concept hides one of the most difficult ideas in Agile. As the Scrum Guide says:

“Scrum is lightweight, simple to understand, difficult to master.”

Sprint Goals are the perfect example of that. Even when you think you’re doing them right, you’re probably not.

On the surface, Sprint Goals add a lot of value. And therefore, make a lot of sense. But do you really need them?

What if I told you, there is a better way?

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The Moment Everything Changed - A Shoutout To Humanity

In late 2025, what began as an ordinary beach day at Bondi became a living, breathing argument for why humanity is still worth believing in.​

Bondi Beach was crowded—families, tourists, locals all spread along the sand, kids playing at the shoreline while surfers watched the swells further out. The ocean looked deceptively calm, but beneath the surface a strong rip current had formed, one of those invisible rivers that can drag even strong swimmers out in seconds.​

A few swimmers drifted farther than they meant to.
Then, almost in unison, their body language shifted—arms flailing, heads dipping under, that unmistakable look of panic when people realize they’re not just tired, they’re in real trouble. Shouts carried over the sound of the waves: people on the sand pointing, yelling for help, some frozen, some fumbling for their phones.​

In that chaos, one person didn’t hesitate.

Ahmed Al‑Ahmed, an ordinary beachgoer that day, saw the struggle and stripped off what he needed to, sprinting straight into the water. He had no rescue board, no flotation device, no backup—just a gut‑deep conviction that he couldn’t stand there watching while people disappeared under the water.​

He fought his way through the surf toward the nearest struggling swimmer, timing his breaths between waves, pushing past the shock of cold, the drag of the current, the sting of salt in his eyes. When he reached the first person—a stranger, gasping, eyes wide with terror—he wrapped an arm around them and kicked hard, angling diagonally to escape the rip, dragging them inch by inch back toward safety.​

On the shore, lifeguards were already launching into action, but the current was pulling more than one person out. Most people would have gotten that first swimmer in and collapsed. Ahmed did something else.​

He turned around and went back.

Witnesses later described watching him make multiple trips into the danger zone, each time more exhausted than the last, each time choosing to go anyway. He helped pull more swimmers—some barely conscious, some crying, some shaking with shock—back toward the reach of lifeguards and other helpers who were now in the water too.​

Every time he came in, the safe choice was to stop.
He could have told himself: “I’ve done enough. Someone else will get the rest.”
Instead, he treated “enough” as if it didn’t apply when lives were on the line.

By the time the rip had released its grip and everyone was accounted for, multiple people were alive who almost certainly would not have survived those minutes without someone intervening that fast and that decisively. Lifeguards later said the rapid response from Ahmed and others bought them those critical breaths, those extra seconds, that made the difference between rescue and recovery.​

When it was finally over, Ahmed staggered out of the water, shaking from exertion and adrenaline, and collapsed on the sand. Around him, families were sobbing—parents holding their children like they might never let go again, friends clinging to each other, people staring out at the waves in stunned silence.​

Then a different kind of wave began.

Beachgoers started approaching him—not with cameras first, but with tears, hugs, and gratitude that words couldn’t quite contain. Some of the very people he had helped pull from the water wrapped their arms around him, drenched and trembling, saying “thank you” over and over as if repetition might somehow be enough.​

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Why are managers there at all? - The Agile Mindset

Just recently my colleague and friend Zoran Vujkov has drawn my attention to the following clip discussing trends in adoption of agile in large companies. I recommend the clip (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgBhZIjgTw4&feature=youtu.be) for watching if you already haven’t.

Among a lot of information about the speed of agile adoption and critical factors for it, one thing caught my eye — importance of executive sponsorship.
No doubt, this is a very important factor. However, it might be misinterpreted and misused by managers. One of the crucial roles of management in Agile organization is to remove obstacles or impediments that are preventing their teams from being efficient in their work.

While this seems obvious, it does happen that managers start being involved into operational things, tactical decisions, even trying to influence, or limit product owners’ roles by making operational decisions and leading the product.

This is potentially very dangerous situation as this sort of behavior can be concealed behind the veil of good intentions which sometimes it undoubtedly is (you know the one about the road to ruin being paved by good intentions). Urged by desire to show to the teams that they are committed to agile way of work, managers become a burden and an obstacle.

I’m not gonna go into the role of management in agile setup, there’s a good article here on the topic.

Here, I would like to remind managers that their role is not to control, direct, create tasks or organize their teams’ daily work. Their main role in agile way of work is to help team develop, create proper environment for the team, set strategic guidelines, believe in their teams and give them freedom to organize their work in the best way they need, know and can.

Only with such a help, teams (and with them the whole organization) can be agile.

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