What Would Make This Sprint Matter?
When AI makes building fast, deciding better becomes everything.
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You Know This Feeling
Sprint demo day: 47 minutes of "look what we shipped," 3 minutes of "what's next." Everything delivered on time.
But when someone asks "did any of this move the needle?" - silence.
Here's what's actually happening: Most teams mistake motion for progress. They fill sprints like storage units - cramming in backlog tasks instead focused bets on what actually moves metrics.
Why this matters now: AI tools can build features in hours that used to take weeks. But if 80% of features go unused today, what happens when we can build 10x faster? Speed without direction isn't progress—it's expensive motion at scale.
🧠The Principle:
Most sprints are full. But very few are focused.
Ask a team what they're working on: they'll recite the sprint board.
Ask them why it matters: the answers get fuzzy.
This isn't a productivity problem. It's a clarity problem.
When teams can't explain why their work matters, they default to "Factory Settings"—filling time with tasks instead of placing strategic bets on outcomes.
🔗 Want the complete diagnostic?
Sprint focus is just one piece of building momentum.
The 5PM Flywheel™ shows you how to diagnose exactly where your team's momentum breaks down across:
Problem → Prioritization → Process → Proof → People.
When all five parts spin together, teams become inevitable.
Read: "Why I Created THE Different MBA" — You'll see how I discovered this system while turning around a "failed" California healthcare team that went from 10 appointments/day to 15+ by fixing the same momentum breaks your sprints are experiencing.
🛠️Two Practices to Apply This Week:
1. The Strategic Bet Frame
Before sprint planning, complete this sentence:
"We're betting that if [this works], we'll see [this signal] because [this assumption is true]."
Example transformation:
Before: "Build user dashboard with analytics"
After: "We're betting that if users see their usage patterns, we'll see 25% increase in feature adoption because people optimize what they can measure"
Why this works: Framing forces you to surface assumptions before they become expensive mistakes.
2. The Signal Check
Replace "what did we ship?" with:
What did we expect to happen?
What actually happened?
What should we try next?
This transforms sprint reviews from status updates into strategic intelligence gathering.
❓Your Prompt: Try This Tomorrow
Before your next sprint planning, ask:
"If we only got one thing right this sprint, what would it be, and how would we know?"
Use this in planning sessions or async prep. You'll surface hidden assumptions and clarify real stakes before the daily standup shuffle begins.
Report back: What assumption did you discover your team was making? Share your insight—it might prevent someone else's expensive lesson.
🎯The Deeper Insight
Most sprints don't fail from lack of effort. They fail because no one agreed on what would make them matter.
The solution isn't working harder—it's thinking more systematically about what creates real progress vs. just motion.
Reality Check
You know the pattern: You start with a plan, then urgent requests pile up, and suddenly you're just reacting instead of strategically building.
That's Factory Settings—your default mode under pressure.
🧭 Break the cycle: Before your next sprint planning, spend 10 minutes getting clear on what would actually move the needle.
Use MyClaritySprint — to think through the real stakes before decisions get made.
👉 Start here →.