The biggest danger to your product isn't bad code. It isn't missed deadlines. It's when your team stops loving to build it.
When teams lose their excitement, even the best plan means nothing. Sure, they'll still meet deadlines. But their energy goes away. What happens next? People stop caring, good workers leave, and nobody feels proud of what they made.
If you lead a team, here's your most important rule: help your team stay excited about their work.
Find the things that make your work process fun and exciting. Build everything else around those things.
Want proof? Watch what happens when you do these 3 things...
Give that team member who gets excited at every daily meeting more chances to shine and teach others.
Focus more on the feature your developers actually get excited to show off—when you're excited, it shows in how good your work is.
Keep that team activity that makes everyone smile, even if it seems like it slows things down.
I know this sounds too soft for a work method focused on getting things done. But here's the hard truth: I've worked with dozens of Agile teams. The best-performing ones really enjoy working together.
Ignore this, and your team won't just slow down, they'll quit. High turnover, weak features, and burned-out workers cost more than any missed deadline.
This is where most Agile transformations fail. Not at the start, but when the team loses excitement in the middle.
Building great products is like running many short races inside one long race. The danger isn't the start or finish, but the messy middle. Teams fail because they've taken all the fun out of how they work.
Sustainable pace means creating conditions where creativity lasts.
As a Scrum Master or product owner, these decisions are yours:
- Invest in that team member who makes meetings productive. They're worth more than gold.
- Try that new tool your team's excited about. Test it next sprint.
- Fight for better computers if it makes daily work more enjoyable. Happy developers write better code.
In Agile, strong teams make decisions—including how they build their culture. You're creating an experience for users and your team.
The most successful changes happen when teams fall in love with their new way of working. Daily meetings become energizing check-ins. Sprint reviews turn into problem-solving sessions and feel like celebrations.
Here's the bottom line: teams with real energy build products users love too. That excitement shows in every line of code. Every design choice.
So don't just try to be fast and efficient. Try to keep that energy going strong. The results will follow.
Here's your challenge: What's one thing your team should protect no matter what because it keeps their excitement alive?
Drop your answer in the comments—and if you want more strategies for keeping teams motivated, hit subscribe. Because if you don't protect what matters, you lose more than energy—you lose the product.
Dejan Majkic
www.whatisscrum.org
