How to Measure the Effectiveness of Agile Coaching?
How to Measure the Effectiveness of Agile Coaching?
Understanding how coaching is evaluated
👋 Hello, I’m Vibhor, and welcome to the 🔒 subscriber-only edition 🔒 of my weekly Training Series powered by Winning Strategy. Every week, I answer one reader question and publish 2 posts about Agile Products, Role-Based Skills, and anything else that you need answered about your Career Growth. You can send me your questions here.
On to this week’s question!
Q: Dear Vibhor, I hope you are doing great 🤗. Firstly, I want to say thank you for your exceptional content. Your articles consistently provide invaluable insights, and I truly appreciate the value they bring. In fact, your subscription is the only one I am currently paying for! Recently, I read your article titled "What Does an Agile Coach...Coach?" and found it incredibly validating. Your description resonated deeply with my own experiences.
Recently, I had a conversation with one of our leaders about the role of the Agile Coach and the additional areas I could cover. The discussion became quite intense when the leader argued that the Agile Coach's role is often seen as vague and not tied to measurable outcomes.
While I understand that the outcomes of adopting an Agile mindset and mentoring can manifest in various ways, it raised an important question for me: should Agile Coaches focus on measurable improvements in numbers? If so, which metrics should we consider, and how can we ensure that our role directly impacts these figures? I am aware of some metrics like cycle time, lead time, and velocity, which are essential. However, I have primarily used them to educate the team on how to use them and understand where and how they might improve. But these metrics were not my numbers to own... perhaps I am mistaken.
Throughout my career, I have witnessed teams significantly improve by adopting Agile practices. However, there are instances where teams do not perform as expected, often due to factors like morale or individual performance rather than the Agile methodology itself.
Given the growing concern about the visibility and measurable impact of Agile Coaches, I would greatly appreciate your thoughts on this matter. Do you believe it is essential for Agile Coaches to focus on quantifiable metrics? If so, which ones should we prioritize, and what strategies can we implement to ensure our contributions are recognized?
Thank you for the question and thank you for the kind words 🤗
I can relate!
The age-old problem about proving your worth as an Agile Coach.
It is indeed a real problem.
I faced it. The people who came before me faced it. And let’s be honest, the people who will be in this role in the future will face it.
There’s no escape.
Having said that…
There are some people who have solved this problem for themselves.
Why only for themselves?
Because when it comes to measuring the effectiveness of “coaching,” the problem becomes “subjective.”
And that’s because “every team that undergoes coaching is different and unique.”
Some might require:
hand holding
constant reminders, and
proof
While for some, it may just be sufficient to provide a gentle nudge in the right direction.
In this post, I will show you how I solved this problem for myself.
But first, let’s understand the why.
Why is “measuring coaching effectiveness” such a difficult nut to crack?
Let’s have a look.