- Milly Barker
- 4 days ago
- 7 min read
Welcome to a new series of articles that I'm calling "Strategy Spotlight" because I love alliteration. Also Strategy. I love that most of all.
Strategy Spotlight is a fortnightly series that's going to help to demystify popular business strategy methodologies for early-stage founders and operators like you so you can decide which one works best for you and your business.
There are so many different ways to think about planning and achieving your goals for your business (including my own methodology) and it's overwhelming enough to think about getting all that done without first also having to think about which framework you're using before you can even start.
Thankfully, I've got your back.
Over the next few weeks, we'll continue to unpack the essentials of five powerful frameworks for company design:
Agile (this article), and
Six Sigma
In each instalment, I'll dive deep into the origins of these methodologies, outline five key strengths and weaknesses for their application in a startup environment, and offer my perspective on their suitability for businesses of different sizes. Most importantly, I'll provide ten practical questions you can ask yourself to determine if a particular approach is the right fit for your unique company.
The goal is to cut through the jargon and provide you with actionable insights, so that you can make informed strategic decisions, reduce overwhelm, and build a stronger, more resilient business. Let's dive in.
What is Agile?
Agile didn't spring from a single visionary's book like some other frameworks we've discussed in this series. Instead, it emerged from the trenches of practical software development back in the late 1990s, from engineers who were increasingly finding friction in the prevalent but slow and rigid 'waterfall' approach to building software.
The potential for development to speed up was increasing, but projects were held back by process and by the time something launched, it could be already out of date or no longer quite what the customer wanted.
In 2001, a group of seventeen software development heavyweights, who went on to call themselves the The Agile Alliance, met in Snowbird, Utah, to figure out a better way.
The result was the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, a concise declaration of four core values and twelve supporting principles. It’s not a rigid rulebook, but a guiding philosophy. The manifesto prioritises:
individuals and interactions over processes and tools;
working software over comprehensive documentation;
customer collaboration over contract negotiation; and
responding to change over following a plan.
The essence of Agile is an iterative and incremental approach. Instead of trying to build everything in one go, work is broken down into small, manageable chunks, often called 'sprints' or 'iterations'.
Typically lasting a few weeks, each sprint aims to deliver a working piece of the product, which is then reviewed and adjusted based on feedback. This constant 'build-measure-learn' loop, not too dissimilar from the Lean Startup's model, allows teams to adapt quickly to new information, like evolving customer needs and market shifts.
Popular frameworks that you may have heard of such as Scrum (with its daily stand-ups and fixed-length sprints) and Kanban (which is focused on visualising workflow and limiting work-in-progress) are widely used ways to implement Agile principles in practice.
Ultimately, Agile is about being highly adaptable and relentlessly focused on delivering real value to the customer, quickly and continuously.
Why might Agile be GOOD for startups?
Rapid adaptation to change
Building a new piece of commercially-viable tech means learning how to balance a constant whirlwind of shifting priorities, unexpected challenges, and new opportunities. Agile's core principle of 'responding to change over following a plan' is perfectly suited to this unpredictable environment.
Instead of getting bogged down by rigid, long-term roadmaps, Agile teams can swiftly pivot, incorporate new information, and adjust their course - a lot of which is central to ensuring they remain relevant and responsive to market demands.
Faster delivery of value
Agile methodologies break down large projects into smaller, more easily-digestible chunks, known as 'sprints' or 'iterations'. Instead of waiting months or even years for a complete product, functional features or early versions are delivered regularly.
This quick delivery cycle allows startups to get tangible value into customers' hands faster, generating early feedback which is fantastic not just for customer satisfaction but also for demonstrating progress to future-focussed stakeholders like employees and investors too.
Enhanced customer satisfaction
Not gonna lie, this one really speaks to me. At the heart of Agile is continuous customer collaboration.
By involving customers throughout the development process and consistently incorporating their feedback into each iteration, the product evolves to meet their actual needs and desires and the final offering is genuinely useful and valued - great for generating higher customer satisfaction scores and building stronger product stickiness from the off.
Improved team collaboration and morale
Agile promotes self-organising, cross-functional teams with clear roles and daily communication.
An Agile environment is a highly collaborative one where transparency is key, and everyone feels empowered to contribute to the solution. Shared ownership and frequent, small wins are fantastic for boosting team morale, which is, in turn, excellent for creating a more engaged and productive workforce.
Reduced risk and waste
By working in small, iterative cycles, Agile dramatically reduces the risk of building the wrong thing or wasting valuable resources on features nobody wants.
Each short sprint serves as an experiment, allowing startups to test assumptions, gather early feedback, and make necessary adjustments before too much time or money is invested; resources are always directed towards the most valuable outcomes.
Why might Agile be BAD or less relevant for earlier-stage startups?
It can lack long-term vision clarity
While Agile excels at adapting to short-term changes and delivering incremental value, its iterative nature can, if not carefully managed, sometimes lead to a loss of focus on the grand, long-term vision.
Teams might become so engrossed in the next sprint's deliverables that they inadvertently drift away from the overarching strategic goals, which can mean that they're at risk of building a product that's well-built in parts but lacks a cohesive whole.
It requires high level of discipline and self-organisation
Agile thrives on empowered, self-organising teams. However, this level of autonomy demands significant discipline, clear communication, and a strong sense of shared responsibility from every team member - which can be a real struggle in a company's early days when budget for grownup hires is limited.
Without considered internal processes and a commitment to Agile principles, what's intended as flexibility can quickly devolve into chaos, missed deadlines, and a general lack of direction - truly fatal for a startup.
There can be challenges with fixed budgets and deadlines
That flexibility can also be its Achilles' heel when dealing with external constraints. The emphasis on responding to change and delivering value iteratively can make it difficult to commit to rigid, upfront fixed budgets or immovable launch deadlines, a lot of which are non-negotiable requirements for cashflow/funding management.
Documentation can be undervalued
Agile's preference for 'working software over comprehensive documentation' is brilliant for speed, but it can create issues further down the line.
As a startup scales and new team members join, a lack of detailed documentation about past decisions, feature specifications, or things like technical architecture can lead to misunderstandings, rework, and a slower onboarding process. Hiring and onboarding new team members is inherently draining on internal resources and this can make that worse whilst also impacting a new employee's speed towards positively impacting revenue.
There can be resistance from non-tech teams
While Agile originated in software development, its principles can be really easily applied across other functions.
However, implementing Agile in non-technical departments like marketing, sales, or operations can face a decent amount of resistance if the principles aren't properly introduced, understood, and adapted. The cultural shift required can be challenging, and a mismatched approach can create friction rather than foster efficiency - but, to be fair to Agile, the same can be said for any change...
Who is Agile BEST for?
You may at first glance think that Agile is only suited to software development, rather than to any other sorts of products or any service-based businesses, but it does have core principles that can be adapted to other functions - particularly in earlier-stage businesses.
Agile truly thrives in environments where quick learning and rapid adaptation are absolutely critical for survival (so, you know, basically any new business), especially those in dynamic markets with changing customer priorities and a lot of new competitive threats popping up.
However, it's worth noting that while the principles are broadly applicable, industries that are highly traditional, ones that have extremely rigid regulatory requirements or where errors carry particularly high stakes (think things like aerospace or pharmaceuticals), might find a full Agile adoption a bit more challenging.
For those, I'd lean towards a more hybrid approach or a slower transition to these kinds of fast iteration methodologies. For the vast majority of startups, though, Agile can be excellent for building and demonstrating early steps towards Product-Market Fit.
How can I decide if Agile is right for ME?
Ok, now you're clear on what Agile is from a general perspective, let's figure out if it's right for you and your specific circumstances.
Here are ten questions to ask yourself to figure out if Agile is the right methodology for you:
Is your market or customer base changing frequently, are you finding yourself having to adapt your product or service quickly?
Are you looking for a way to get functional parts of your product or service to customers more often, rather than waiting for a big, finished launch?
Do you genuinely value continuous feedback from your customers and want to use it to shape what you're building?
Is your team keen on working collaboratively, taking ownership, and solving problems together?
Are you comfortable with plans evolving and adapting as you learn new information, rather than sticking to a rigid, upfront blueprint?
Do you want to reduce the risk of building something that no one actually wants by testing ideas in small increments?
Is your team happy to communicate frequently and openly about progress, challenges, and next steps?
Are you building a product or service for which requirements might not be fully clear at the outset, but will likely emerge over time?
Do you want to empower your team to make decisions and solve problems without constant top-down direction?
Are you prepared to embrace a culture of continuous improvement and learning from both successes and failures?
If you can answer 'YES' to a lot of these, then Agile might be a great fit for you.
Take the time to answer these questions honestly. Your answers will give you a good indication of whether Agile is the strategic sidekick your early-stage business needs.
If you're struggling to answer any of them, or want any additional help, just give me a shout:
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