Hey Reader
Last week, I talked about sprints and why short, focused windows change how work feels.
This week, I want to zoom in on something quieter.
And far more dangerous when it’s missing.
Not knowing who you’re building for.
Here’s what I see all the time.
Smart people.
Capable teams.
Plenty of effort.
And work that feels oddly heavy.
Decisions take longer than they should.
Feedback feels mixed.
Nothing quite lands cleanly.
When you dig into it, there’s usually one thing underneath all of that.
The work is for “everyone”.
Or worse.
“For whoever needs it.”
That sounds generous.
It’s actually paralysing.
When you don’t know who you’re helping in this sprint, everything becomes negotiable.
What to include.
What to prioritise.
What “good enough” looks like.
So you hedge.
You add a bit more “just in case”.
You leave edges fuzzy.
You delay finishing because someone might want something else.
This is how work expands without improving.
Agile figured this out early, but you don’t need the language to see the truth of it.
Value only exists if someone actually receives it.
If you can’t describe the person who benefits at the end of the sprint, you don’t have a sprint yet.
You have activity.
This isn’t about being exclusive.
It’s about being deliberate.
You’re not saying “we’ll never help anyone else”.
You’re saying “for this sprint, this is who matters most”.
That single decision sharpens everything.
Suddenly:
- Trade-offs are easier
- Feedback makes sense
- Finishing feels possible
I’ve seen teams unlock speed simply by answering this clearly.
One ops team I worked with stopped framing work as “improving reporting”.
Instead, they asked:
“What does the Head of Finance need to make a better decision next week?”
That changed the scope instantly.
Half the work disappeared.
What remained actually got used.
That’s the power of specificity.
And here’s the uncomfortable bit.
If naming who it’s for feels hard, that’s information.
It usually means one of three things:
- You’re trying to please too many people
- You’re avoiding a decision
- Or the sprint goal isn’t clear yet
None of those are moral failures.
They’re signals.
The fix isn’t more effort.
It’s more clarity.
So before you plan tasks.
Before you open a doc.
Before you book another meeting.
Ask this:
Who wins if this sprint works?
Not in a vision-statement way.
In a real, human way.
One role.
One team.
One person you can picture.
Get that right, and the rest gets lighter.
Next week, I’ll talk about why waiting for things to be “ready” quietly kills momentum, and how to ship without lowering standards.
But for now, sit with this one.
Clarity first.
Then progress.
