As delivery teams, we want to see that company has set up the right course and captain is steering the ship / fleet so will do our part being more motivated. If the crew can’t see it morale suffers, and the team loses direction or becomes ineffective which happens like in this (hi)story which you can read and learn.
Problem statement:
As the new Agile PM, when I joined company X ~3 months ago, I was assigned to the SDA invest (Software without Hardware) delivery team which one team member clarified it to me and I was motivated a lot with it and shared this with 2 supported teams as they felt highly demotivated.
Both teams agreed on supporting X strategy with the SDA goal but they felt low confidence as they experienced in the past other initiatives like that without results. During next 2-3 months, apparently SDA invest was facing challenges and changed it’s innovative character growing doubts.
Notes with problems analyze and steps proposed:
- Investments failed to provide results leading to demotivation → shared good & bad examples
- PI Objectives reviews after sprints gathers different number of stakeholders and (no?) feedback, e.g. CIP Security reviews clashes with two other investments reviews involving 150 stakeholders → better timing without different Objectives reviews at the same time, ask ES / PM about it
- PI Objectives reviews goal is missing when teams involved do not have dependencies → if sprint reviews are necessary for stakeholder to get progress from all teams involved (dashboard is not enough?), let’s highlight it to teams that without their presentation they are not needed
- PI Objectives with video from laboratories, trade job fair or clients feedback on product usage → most of them are in quarterly kick-offs, low frequency of engineering; updates, recordings, info on tenders, etc.
→ Watch quarterly kick-offs together during organized watching session by leaders with time for it or watch session recordings or read with Q&A discussion in retrospections, e.g. SWC PI46 Super Kick-off – “…described extensive customer-facing activities for Logic and SDA in 2026, including trade shows, webinars, and technical sessions across multiple regions.”
Regarding motivation we also discussed:
- how important US companies like X are for Poland (safety & economical growth)
- that getting involved beyond one’s standard duties can lead to promotion (by actively refining items, proposing technical solutions, taking over some of the architects’ responsibilities, etc.)
Insights were taken on teams retrospections and 1:1 calls with managers (no names shared).
After few days on the leads sync call, when we heard good news that company X is expanding in Poland I proposed to announce that it’s related due to high value of teams performance which was done by VIPs.
I am glad to see that it sparked feeling proud in supported teams, congrats!