Context

An internal product team at a global IT consulting company faced a critical challenge. Composed of individuals primarily experienced in delivery and maintenance, the team struggled to adopt an innovation-focused, agile mindset. Accustomed to detailed requirements and structured processes, they found it difficult to embrace the customer-focus, rapid iteration, and self-organisation essential for developing new products. The division leader recognized that simply implementing Agile techniques wasn't enough; a deeper behavioural shift was needed to shift from the "bug fixing mindset" to a truly agile one.

Approach

TAO’s leadership development program was the trigger for this project. After the division leader completed TAO's leadership journey, he requested a behavioural intervention to help his team adopt Agile methodology. Though his team was already trained in and implementing Agile methods, the focus was on cultivating an agile mindset to complement their existing tools and techniques. Key team members participated in a similar leadership workshop to establish a shared language. This was followed by a re-design of the team to being more customer-focused rather than manager-focused. This involved experiential simulations to uncover the fundamental assumptions of a hierarchical structure vs a customer-facing one, and its consequences. The idea was to understand each member’s role in the team’s ecosystem as a series of suppliers, customers, sponsors or supporters. The process involved periodic interventions supported by coaching and reviews.

Throughout the months - long intervention, the emphasis shifted beyond Agile methods to foster self-organization, outcome ownership rather than task ownership, and a customer-focused iterative mindset driven by direct feedback.

Impact

The team's revenue increased tenfold within 18 months. This set a precedent for other teams to follow. Members reported a significant shift in their ways of interfacing and working with each other. They recorded a marked shift in throughput and reduction in attrition. Overall, the behavioural shift empowered the team to build innovative products with greater speed and customer focus.