Identifies the ten most common causes of slow product velocity-from weak product ownership to technical debt-and shows how addressing each can dramatically boost team throughput.
Technical leaders often blame developers for slow delivery, but the real culprits are product and process gaps. The article surveys patterns seen across many product teams and pinpoints the single biggest inhibitor: a weak product owner who cannot steer the team toward clear outcomes. It then layers additional friction points that compound churn and erode morale.
The ten reasons include the absence of a strong product owner, lack of dedicated project management (a true ScrumMaster), release cycles that are longer than two weeks, and failing to involve lead engineers early in discovery. It also calls out the habit of postponing user experience design until sprint execution, which creates endless waiting for assets, and the lack of a coherent product vision that keeps teams pulling in divergent directions.
Further structural issues are highlighted: teams shuffled between projects never build deep expertise, mixing new development with rapid-response work creates constant interruptions, and inflexible architectures or unmanaged technical debt stall progress. Finally, missing a holistic view of the product ecosystem leads to hidden dependencies and needless rework. The piece argues that each of these problems is tractable and that fixing them can dramatically increase velocity while preserving software quality.
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