Sprint and Tell

Sprint and Tell: A Simpler Way to Focus Sprints on Outcomes

At Kaiizen, we started a small tradition that quietly changed how we work. Every Friday, we’d share something—anything—we’d built, explored, or learned. It wasn’t a big production. Just a “show and tell” to give visibility into what product and engineering were up to.

I pushed for it early on, mostly because I’ve seen how long gaps in visibility can make people uneasy. It’s easy to wonder if progress is happening, and from the engineering side, it’s easy to fall into the habit of polishing things endlessly without sharing. The weekly rhythm gave us a gentle nudge to show something—unfinished or not.

Why It Helped

In the early days of a product, when ideas are flying and nothing feels quite real yet, these check-ins helped ground the team. Later, they helped our sales team see where things were going, which made their feedback a lot more useful. And overall, it just added a healthy pressure to keep momentum going without chasing perfection.

Eventually, this evolved into more of a routine. We started asking ourselves: “What do we want to show next Friday?” That question turned out to be surprisingly useful. It gave the week a clearer focus and made our work feel more tangible.

Rethinking the Sprint Structure

At the same time, we were running two-week sprints—but they weren’t really working. They often felt vague, like we were just tossing tasks into a box. No one seemed too invested in what was in the sprint or whether it got done.

So I started wondering: What if we structured the sprint around what we want to show at the end of the week? That led us to a simple experiment: a one-week sprint, anchored around “what we’ll share on Friday.”

That change made a big difference. It gave the team a clearer sense of purpose, and it reduced the need for things like long grooming or sizing meetings—processes that often felt like they were more about planning than building.

Lighter Process, Clearer Focus

We’ve since shifted more of the planning into our daily standups, using a parking lot system to discuss quick topics (usually under 15 minutes). Anything that needs more attention becomes a task on the board. We keep a log of discussions and decisions, just in case we need to look back—but most of the time, we don’t.

One thing we’ve struggled with, especially in greenfield work, is long lists of user stories. They tend to pile up and get ignored. What’s worked better is using them to inform designs, then tackling a bunch of them together once the design is in place. That feels more natural and keeps momentum up.

The Shift

So now, every Friday, we show what we’ve done that week. We keep it simple. Sometimes engineers present their own work, sometimes I do it on their behalf. The goal isn’t to impress anyone—it’s just to stay connected, keep learning, and make sure the work we’re doing is visible and aligned.

It’s still evolving, but anchoring our week around “what we want to show” has made our work feel more focused and less bloated with process. It’s helped us move faster, while still staying in sync.