Over the past ten weeks, our team experimented with running single-week sprints. This focused period helped us refine how we handle operational work, plan and prioritize requests, and, most importantly, work as a team. Instead of immediately jumping on every catalog item or ticket, we began taking time to discuss, plan, and document our approach together.

One of the biggest wins has been a shift to true shared understanding. Rather than working in isolation, team members now collaborate to explore solutions, surface limitations, and learn from each other. This has led to better documentation, a more transparent process, and stronger team alignment around how we estimate and tackle different types of work.

Reviewing the types of incidents and requests we’ve handled has given us valuable data. We’re now clearer on which operational items can be addressed mid-sprint and which should be planned, helping us balance responsiveness with long-term focus.

Now, we're moving to a two-week sprint cadence. This change will let us dedicate more focus to larger, strategic initiatives—strengthening our core systems, streamlining key processes, and making real progress on foundational improvements like platform reliability and data quality. With this added focus, I'm excited to see how much further we can go as a team.

Looking ahead, I want to build on this momentum by increasing our outreach to customers and business units. In a previous product owner role, regular business engagement helped us truly understand objectives and set goals that mattered for the next 3, 6, or 12 months. My hope is to bring that same approach to our current team: making business alignment a regular part of our process, and ensuring that the work we deliver is directly tied to real organizational needs. If we can do that, we’ll keep improving—not just our own processes, but the impact we have across campus.