Your Team Is Not Slow. Your Feedback Comes Too Late.

When software teams seem "slow," it's almost never because of execution speed. It's because feedback arrives weeks or months late – when learning has become expensive or impossible.

When a feature takes months to release, and we encounter surprises shortly before go-live, have to pivot, or postpone releases and do rework, the damage is already done. If we only start discussing whether we did "the right thing" at that point, we have a problem.

The root cause is usually that the feature was too large, that teams perceive releases as an event rather than a routine, and that feedback is understood as an event at the end of a release.

That exactly is the fallacy. Feedback does not belong at the end - it is a core component of the Work-Feedback cycle. And this cycle must be small.

If we put feedback at the end, we have no opportunity to learn and adjust course. We are speculating. And that is expensive.

This has nothing to do with discipline, mindset, or motivation. It is a systemic misunderstanding of how agile working must function.

The consequences are harsh but logical. No learning. Activity is mistaken for progress. Those who work this way aren't slow. They just learn too late.

Work is a cycle. Work → Feedback → Adjustment. Everything that prolongs this cycle increases the risk.

If we are unable to accept this, we waste our potential. We have enough measures for this in our toolbox. What is missing is a clear view of this toolbox and the courage to apply it, even when it hurts.

It doesn't require new tools, methods, or roles. It requires the acknowledgment that the Work-Feedback cycle is the core, and it takes the courage to implement measures from the toolbox.

If you can't release your work to learn something, you're not working agily – no matter what your meetings are called.

If you want to know how late you really learn, honestly answer these questions.

• How long does it take from "idea" to real feedback?
• When was the last time you released something just to learn?
• What is currently preventing feedback from arriving sooner?

If you want to learn more about the Work-Feedback cycle, check out my article The Only Cycle That Really Matters.

Teams don't become slow because they work poorly. They become slow because they learn too late.