I had the privilege of working on a mission-critical SDK that powers third-party ticketing integrations through 8th Light. I taught the team to shift from thinking in isolated tickets to thinking in systems. We used flow diagrams and sequence diagrams to map entire feature flows before diving into individual tasks. This helped them see dependencies, spot gaps early, work in parallel, and ship features as cohesive units.

I also worked with them on capacity planning and sustainable sprint commitments, ensuring no one was overloaded and work was distributed thoughtfully.

The result: 45% reduction in sprint spillover and consistent delivery of revenue-critical features that met the team’s quality targets (SDK crashes under 2%, service latency under 200ms, error rates below 0.1%).

What made it work: the team’s openness to learning and willingness to trust the process. They didn’t just adopt new practices – they embraced them, iterated on them, and made them their own. When teams are this engaged and adaptable, great outcomes follow.

Originally posted on LinkedIn