Applying Agile Principles

Everyone wants to move faster, think bigger, and waste less time in their day to day, but many don’t know how to achieve it at the personal, practical level. Luckily, if you’re already familiar with Agile principles, you’re ahead of the game.

Many people, especially those new to Agile, think about it at the team or perhaps organizational level, but don’t see how Agile principles can be applied to the way they do work. The truth is, whether you’re the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or a freelance designer, you could benefit from a structured approach to the work you choose to do, and how you do it.

And this is precisely what Agile principles are designed to do, for teams as much as for the individuals working in them. Here are some ideas for applying Agile principles.

Agile Principles

The core principles of Agile are:

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change by following a plan

Agile teams value:

• Doing things instead of talking about doing things
• Soliciting customer insights throughout the entire development process, instead of just at the beginning and end
• Maintaining enough flexibility to move with reality instead of fighting against it or ignoring it

These ideas are surprisingly handy on the individual level as well. Working with people efficiently, creating high-quality things quickly, and maintaining flexibility are good goals for any person to have.

If you’re guilty of relying a bit too much on complex systems of Google Docs, Slack bots, and social media alerts but not spending enough time talking to your team members, customers, or managers, you’re probably not doing the best work you could. You gain perspectives and insights every time you talk about work with anyone; in order to move faster, try discussing ideas face-to-face instead of via Slack.