Organization Practice

Revisiting agile teams

after an abrupt shift
to remote
Agile teams traditionally excel when their members are co-located.
Here’s how to ensure they’re effective now that COVID-19 has
forced them to work remotely.

by Santiago Comella-Dorda, Lavkesh Garg, Suman Thareja, and Belkis Vasquez-McCall

© AleksandarNakic/Getty Images

April 2020
 As organizations adapt to the ongoing COVID-19 kinds of targeted actions agile leaders can take
crisis, their agile teams can be a real source of to sustain their people and culture and recalibrate
competitive advantage. Such teams1 are typically their processes.
well suited to periods of disruption, given their
ability to adapt to fast-changing business priorities,
disruptive technology, and digitization. Sustaining the people and culture
of a remote agile team
But the abrupt shift to remote working in response Remote work for agile teams requires a
to the coronavirus has challenged the typical considerable shift in work culture. Without the
approach to managing agile teams. Traditionally, seamless access to colleagues afforded by frequent,
such teams thrive when team members are in-person team events, meals, and coffee chats, it
co-located, with close-knit groups all working in the can be harder to sustain the kind of camaraderie,
same place. Co-location allows frequent in-person community, and trust that comes more easily to
contact, quickly builds trust, simplifies problem co-located teams. It also takes more purposeful
solving, encourages instant communication, and effort to create a unified one-team experience,
enables fast-paced decision making.2 And while we encourage bonding among existing team members,
know from experience that agile teams that have or onboard new ones, or even to track and develop
worked remotely from the start can be as effective, the very spontaneous ideas and innovation
the sudden transition of co-located teams to a fully that makes agile so powerful to begin with. And
remote approach can reduce cohesion and increase these challenges are complicated by the unique
inefficiency (Exhibit 1). circumstances of the current health crisis. Teams
working from their living rooms or their dining-room
The good news is that while it takes real work, much tables are often sharing that space with children or
of what leads agile teams to lose productivity when other family members also working remotely.
they go remote can be addressed. In fact, if the
necessary technology is in place, a talented remote Teams already operating remotely before the
GEScan
team 2020deliver just as much value as co-located crisis are less likely to struggle, given their ability
Revisiting
teams. agile
Assuming teams
a firm’s after an
IT function will abrupt shift to
handle the tohandle
remote ambiguity without losing focus and to
organization’s
Exhibit 1 oftechnology,
3 we’ll focus here on the concentrate on outcomes over processes. But many

Exhibit 1

The experience of remote working can lead to inefficiency and reduced cohesion.
Experience of remote work, % of respondents

80% 43% 52% 84% 41%

said they would have said that more face said didn’t feel as said that workplace believed that
better relationships time would help them though they were challenges or concerns colleagues said bad
with more frequent develop deeper treated equally by dragged on for a few things behind their
team communications relationships with their colleagues days or more backs vs 31% of
team members co-located workers

Source: Harvard Business Review; Workplace Trends; Zoltán Lippényi and Tanja van der Lippe, “Co-workers working from home and
individual and team performance,” New Technology, Work and Employment, March 2020, Volume 35, Issue 1, pp. 60–79

1
Small, independent, multidisciplinary organizational units focused on agile, high-value, project-based work.
2
Daniel Brosseau, Sherina Ebrahim, Chistopher Handscomb, and Shail Thaker, “The journey to an agile organization,” May 2019, McKinsey.com.

2 Revisiting agile teams after an abrupt shift to remote

teams that just switched to a remote way of working especially in larger remote teams. That will help
are facing new challenges, which may require avoid ambiguity and confusion in individual priorities.
revisiting team norms, cultivating morale, and Similarly, when brainstorming in person, it’s easy to
adapting a team’s approach to coaching. organize and reorganize sticky notes in columns on
a whiteboard. That’s not always something that’s
Revisit the norms and ground rules for easy to replicate using virtual-collaboration tools.
interaction
Virtual whiteboards, instant chat, and video- And while teams should put a premium on personal
conferencing tools can be a boon to collaborative productivity and allow time for it, they may also need
exercises and usually promote participation. But to make a conscious point of allowing themselves
they can also require teams to reconsider existing and others to have more personal interactions. For
norms and agreed-upon ground rules. example, some teams will leave a video feed turned
on for longer periods of time; this conveys visual
Some challenges may require team members to cues that aid in coaching and collaboration and helps
adjust to the tools themselves: team members team members maintain a face-to-face relationship.
should be generous with one another in offering
practical support on navigating virtual tools—such Importantly, teams need to be respectful of personal
as help formatting or recording presentations or choices. Working from home blurs the lines between
informing the host about any technology issues. professional and personal lives. Team members may
Teams need to get up to speed quickly on visual feel added stress about the impression they create
management and virtual whiteboarding and tailor on video, whether because of the appearance of
established ceremonies into standard virtual their home workspace, interruptions from young
routines. New ground rules for communication children, or even family members sharing the same
may be needed to keep people who are interacting workspace. Teams should accept these limitations
virtually from talking over one another. For example, and interruptions graciously—and team members
something as simple as asking each speaker to should feel free to set their own boundaries around
“pass the ball” by calling out the next presenter by scheduling and use of video.
name can help.
Cultivate bonding and morale
Other team norms may also need to be revisited— Many of the kinds of activities that nurture morale
and revised. On an agile team, everyone needs to for co-located agile teams—such as casual lunches,
take responsibility for capturing spontaneous ideas impromptu coffee breaks, or after-work social
and putting up blockers to avoid losing them. When activities—are not possible in a virtual environment.
using virtual whiteboards, for example, teams need Team members should encourage one another
to make extra effort to capture the collective view, to introduce their pets and family members and

Working from home blurs the lines

between professional and personal lives.

Revisiting agile teams after an abrupt shift to remote 3

 to show any meaningful items in their working bring it up with the person who made it directly or
space. Working remotely, teams need to make a with the scrum master to resolve it. Or if needed, a
more conscious effort to be social, polite, precise, small group could stay on the line after a stand-
and tactful—to ensure everyone feels just as safe up meeting to discuss. To ensure that team
contributing remotely as they did in person. members feel psychologically safe to voice their
concerns, one US insurance company conducts an
For many teams working remotely, some anonymous biweekly survey to solicit input. Tribe
approaches to cohesion and comradery have grown leaders and scrum masters use the survey to take
quickly familiar. At one bank in the United States, for the team’s pulse—for example, on whether they’re
example, one agile team established virtual happy feeling overworked, how motivated they are, how
hours. Squad members join a videoconference call many things they are being pulled into each day,
for a half-hour every week, sharing the beverage of whether and how processes are working, and what
their choice and talking about whatever comes up— professional-development concerns they might
other than work. Another team uses a website that have. The scrum masters and tribe leaders then
generates quick and easy surveys. A designated agree on a benchmark goal and identify a list of two
team member (usually one appointed by the scrum or three tangible actions to take over the coming
master) sets up each poll with trivia questions to weeks to improve—which might include visible
test team members’ knowledge of one another. The teamwide actions or more personal one-on-one
whole activity takes under ten minutes, is easy to conversations. All of these are good practices even
do, and winners get bragging rights. These activities in a co-located setting, but they become even more
might sound silly, but they’re also fun—and a useful critical in a remote setting.
way of supporting morale and shaping a shared
experience virtually. Adapt coaching and development.
With coaching, agile teams should aspire to model
Agile teams working remotely may also require a remotely everything they would have done in
more deliberative focus on empathy, openness, person—but more frequently, given the abruptness
respect, and courage. For example, team members of the switch to remote format. If you would do one-
may need to remind themselves to create and on-one coaching over coffee, try doing it remotely—
receive communications with a collaborative while actually having coffee over video. Encourage
mindset and always to assume the best possible all team members to turn on their video and actively
motivation from their colleagues. This practice monitor body language during group meetings,
is important to agile teams in general but to especially those in the role of coach.
remote agile teams in particular, given how easily
electronic communications can be misunderstood. At one US insurance company, for example, coaches
For example, an agile team at one retail company observed meetings while scrum masters led them.
has an explicit agreement that team members Then the two got together afterward to compare
will always assume that the contributions of notes, and the scrum master followed up with team
others are made with positive intent. Especially in members individually. Coaches also increased the
written interactions and brief chat messages, the frequency of feedback—with a regular cadence
agreement observes that a comment that may that included a short meeting every day or every
seem appropriate to one team might not seem so other day. Some even kept a chat window open
to another. Assuming positive intent can create during ceremonies, to give people they were
a safe space for team members to play a role as coaching real-time feedback. Coaches would also
custodians of the culture, flagging such comments host open meetings, so that team members had an
and negotiating new rules for collaborating. The informal forum to seek impromptu support on an
person who flags an inappropriate comment can as-needed basis.

4 Revisiting agile teams after an abrupt shift to remote

Recalibrating remote agile processes Consider breakouts, for example. Group meetings
The challenge for remote agile teams is that they’ll that use certain video-chat forums can allow large
be tempted to try to replicate exactly whatever has groups to break up into smaller ones for discussion,
worked for them in a co-located setting. But what just as they’d do in person. At one US insurance firm,
worked in the office setting won’t always work agile team members joining the virtual group late
remotely—or isn’t always necessary. The trick is sometimes found themselves in an empty chat room
to work backward—start with the outcomes you because everyone else was in a breakout. Their
were getting in the office and modify your scrum teams were taking more time than they took during
ceremonies as appropriate (Exhibit 2). It’s all about in-person meetings to cover the same ground. And
adapting
GES to the situation rather than sticking to
2020 they would often return to the general group without
a guide. having assigned a spokesperson. In person, they’d
Revisiting agile teams after an abrupt shift to remote
Exhibit 2 of 3

Exhibit 2

Remote agile ceremonies come with unique challenges.

Ceremony Objectives Challenges for remote teams Solutions
Daily scrum Share progress Team members switch to problem Use video to encourage teams
Identify impediments solving and stand-ups become engaged and focused
Plan for the day ahead unstructured conversations Extend meetings from 15 to
30 minutes, with the second half
blocked for problem solving

Sprint Agree on goals and Decentralization is a barrier for Break longer meetings into two—
planning scope of commitment dynamic communication one to discuss stories and the other
Split up the work agree on refined stories
Encourage prep work ahead of
time, and agree on what can be
done offline

Backlog Update and refine Difficult to drive complex problem- Ensure access and familiarity with
refinement backlog solving with content-heavy whiteboarding or collaboration
Define plan to mitigate whiteboarding tools and document information
impediments Difficult to align a large group in real time so team members can
follow along
Host smaller sessions with
functionally aligned groups and then
share progress with the larger group

Sprint Celebrate Demonstrations without face-to- Make it as vibrant and engaging

review accomplishments face conversations and energy a possible for stakeholders,
Collect feedback might devolve into status updates without generating additional
Presentation issues while sharing work (eg, share videos of customer
content interviews, etc.)
Keep presentation content crisp
and concise; integrate content to
one place, with one person

Sprint Reflect on team Video might affect the perception of Use anonymous digital tools and
retrospective interaction safe environment for retrospective make sure team members know
Identify opportunities conversations about it
to improve working Let team members pick video or
style audio interaction mode

Revisiting agile teams after an abrupt shift to remote 5

 have had a host or group of hosts going back and Working remotely, teams may need to consider
forth to different breakouts to check progress, a different approach to documenting team
direct latecomers to the right room, and then call discussion—producing a so-called single source
everyone back to the main room. They soon realized of truth to memorialize agreements. This can then
that in a virtual meeting, they’d need someone be kept in a single shared workspace. A remote
performing those same logistical functions. Teams stand-up can be more involved than an in-person
may need to adapt their norms to let individual team one, depending on a team’s cohesiveness and its
members jump in as support, which isn’t possible in maturity. If team members don’t all participate in the
a live setting. event—or if there’s a risk that they’ll be distracted
during the call—then it’s important to calibrate
Remote work may also require new ceremonies. For the process to the context. The right approach
example, keeping teams aligned with organizational is likely to be team specific, depending on team
objectives can be even more challenging. This is maturity and existing norms. Others might find it
easier for teams working together in person, where sufficient to simply submit their notes to a shared
they can lean more heavily on organic interactions. online workspace, with a bot to collect and compile
But working remotely requires more purposeful and everything for the records.
structured communication. To navigate that, agile
teams at one company adopted biweekly division- Similarly, most agile teams find that the importance
wide meetings to identify and agree on objectives of keeping their backlog clean, up to date, and well
for the following weeks. documented increases when working remotely.
A user story inadvertently left active would be a
As performance stabilizes and teams grow more minor matter for a team working in the same room,
comfortable with working remotely, they may because a team member could quickly confirm its
eventually be able to trim down the ceremonies and status verbally. But working in a remote setting, team
make them more organic. When an agile team at members might work on a story for hours before
one insurance company first transitioned to remote getting an alert that it should have been closed.
working, team members found it necessary to
double down on backlog-refinement sessions and Adjust to asynchronous collaboration
documentation because the output of conversations Asynchronous communication, such as messaging
was getting lost. Over time, they’re seeing more boards and chat, can be effective means to
organic conversations and collaboration and are coordinate agile teams working remotely. In fact,
beginning to refine ceremonies so that they’re we have already seen some teams replacing
more lightweight. certain traditional ceremonies with asynchronous
communication. For example, a team in a services
Establish a single source of truth institution has replaced some of the daily huddles
Agile team processes are fairly informal when by a dedicated messaging channel to which
working in person, and there’s little need for team members submit their updates and identify
capturing notes and documenting agreements. impediments to further work. This has the benefit
Conversations are organic and in real time. Take of allowing team members to raise red flags at any
morning stand-up meetings, for example. This is point during the day, and it serves as the registry of
the daily huddle that keeps teams informed, concerns that have been raised and addressed.
connected, and aligned—and in person it usually
takes 15 minutes of discussion. Teams make Note that asynchronous communication needs to
decisions with everyone in the room, so there’s be used carefully. Teams that grow overly reliant on
little need to record them. asynchronous channels may see team members
feeling isolated, and the trust among them may suffer.

6 Revisiting agile teams after an abrupt shift to remote

Keep teams engaged during long ceremonies be more deliberate when engaging with customers
A remote-working arrangement creates new and teams, especially when you have limited
challenges to keeping agile teams motivated and in-person interaction. Leaders in this context can
avoiding burnout. Working in isolation is hard for any be anyone on the team, whether product owners,
person, but particularly for agile teams accustomed scrum masters, or even a developer demonstrating
to face-to-face communication and frequent leadership. Working in the same location, agile team
interpersonal engagement. Multitasking and home- leaders often empower teams to push work forward.
based distractions also take a toll, depending on Working remotely, they need to be closer to—and
how things are set up. more proactive at—guiding their own team members.

But approaches to keep team members engaged They also need to be purposeful at engaging
aren’t unique to agile teams, even if the imperative external customers and stakeholders. They must be
may be more acutely felt. At one US financial transparent and reassuring in their communication
institution, for example, a scrum master realized that about team performance and objectives. The
staring at a video screen for more than a couple of tools and approaches can vary (Exhibit 3). But the
hours was draining without the dynamic interaction individuals and interactions should be the main
of an in-person workshop. Her solution? For longer consideration. Leaders need to show, in their tone
meetings, she began to schedule in a ten- to and approach, that everyone is in this together.
15-minute exercise break every 90 minutes—with
a shared videoconference tool to recommend At one insurance company, for example, the product
different exercises. owner does five-minute individual check-ins with
her team members throughout the week, asking if
Adapting leadership approach there’s anything she can assist with or any problems
GES 2020
The core mission of leadership stays the same, she can help trouble shoot. She’s also scheduled
Revisiting agile teams after an abrupt shift to remote
whether co-located or remote. But leaders need to sessions with customers and stakeholders every
Exhibit 3 of 3

Exhibit 3

Various approaches can help teams engage customers and external stakeholders.

Challenges Engaging purposefully Providing transparency Effective collaboration

Tools Virtual sessions to continue to Emails and broadcast messaging Rethinking customer and external
engage and solicit feedback from Social media stakeholder engagement model
individual customers, focus Live portals for updated health, Simplified surveys and polls, that
groups, suppliers, partners, and operations, and engagement help provide deeper insights
other stakeholders guidelines 1–1 calls with customers and
Proactive sprint demos partners
Offering specialized perks and
services

Revisiting agile teams after an abrupt shift to remote 7

 week, in addition to the usual sprint ceremonies, The abrupt shift to a remote-working environment
to see if there’s anything more the team should was a dramatic change that particularly affected
be doing to get their feedback. Too much agile teams. The hope is that these changes won’t
communication can overwhelm people working be permanent. But for now, teams can reinforce
remotely with emails and instant messages. So it’s productivity by taking a purposeful approach to
worth putting extra emphasis on making sure they sustaining an agile culture and by recalibrating
feel heard without overwhelming them further. processes to support agile objectives while
working remotely.

Santiago Comella-Dorda is a partner in McKinsey’s Boston office, Lavkesh Garg is an associate partner in the Silicon Valley
office, and Suman Thareja and Belkis Vasquez-McCall are partners in the New Jersey office.

The authors wish to thank Geet Chandratre, Alex Guo, Ashok Mohanty, Ahmad Zaidi, and the McKinsey Agile Tribe for their
contributions to this article.

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Copyright © 2020 McKinsey & Company. All rights reserved.

8 Revisiting agile teams after an abrupt shift to remote