Evan Fishman - Quely for Jira Atlassian Partner

That “drowning in meetings” feeling? You’re not alone. A while back, I shared something an engineer posted on Reddit: “Since switching to Scrum, my entire days are nothing but meetings.” It stuck with me. More meetings ≠ more alignment. More meetings ≠ more productivity. We've created a culture where being in meetings…

Fixing a bug in prod can cost up to 100x more than fixing it during design. Wild, right? But it happens all the time. Someone makes a tiny assumption in a planning session. A Jira ticket doesn’t get enough context. No one questions the edge cases. And then… that “minor” detail shows up in prod. Now it’s a full-blown…

This is one of the most powerful habits I wish remote teams adopted more. Documenting everything. Not because you love writing things down for the sake of it. But because clear, accessible documentation is what makes async work. When decisions live in your head (or in some Slack Channel), people have to ask to catch up.…

Sprint planning is supposed to give you guardrails, clear, reasonable boundaries for what your team can actually deliver. But in practice? Most teams commit to 20–40% more work than they have the capacity to complete. Not because they’re lazy or bad at math—but because the system nudges them to do it. Here’s what’s really…

Everything looks fine on #Jira But your team? Drowning. That’s the Capacity Illusion when work looks reasonable on paper, but in reality, your team is maxed out, constantly context-switching, and silently burning out. Jira does a solid job at tracking tasks. But it rarely tells you: Who’s stretched too thin – Whose skill…

I hear this pushback constantly: “Async slows everything down” But that's simply not true. Most async fails because teams wing it: → No clear response time expectations → Scattered communication across 12 different tools → Zero structure for complex discussions → People getting lost in endless message threads. That's not…

“When are we actually going to hit our sprint commitments?” ‍ It’s the question that hangs in the air at the end of every sprint review—the one nobody wants to ask, but everyone’s thinking. And it cuts deeper than missed dates. It speaks to predictability, trust, and team morale. Time estimates aren’t just numbers you…

Have you ever left a meeting and instantly forgotten half of what was said? Not because you weren't paying attention—your brain's just juggling too much at once. I saw this post on Reddit recently, and honestly, same. I've lost count of how many times I've had to retrace my steps just to remember why we chose one path over…

Saw this post from an engineer venting about their team’s switch from Kanban to Scrum, and honestly… it’s rough. Here’s the thing: it’s not that SCRUM is the villain. Or that meetings are bad. It’s when meetings pile up so much they get in the way of the actual work, that’s where it breaks. This post hit me because I’ve…

The best Agile Coaches don’t stick to just one style. They adapt, shifting their approach based on what the team actually needs. Here are four key stances they tend to move between: The Teacher - Sharing knowledge about Agile principles and practices to help teams understand and implement their methodologies. This stance…

I hate how I can't do any meaningful work during this gap between meetings. 😅😅 How do you spend this time??

Agile Coach vs. Scrum Master vs. Project Manager Ever mixed these up? You’re not the only one. Each role plays a unique part in how teams move forward, but their purpose and impact are very different. 👣 Agile Coaches guide the whole org. They coach teams, mentor leaders, and shape culture. They focus on mindset, not just…

Agile Coaches don’t just “introduce Agile.” They embed it into how people think, lead, and work, at every level of the org. From smoothing out team dynamics to helping execs shift their leadership style, their impact runs deep. Here’s what great Agile Coaches actually do: Help teams collaborate better, not just follow a…

Async isn’t just in-sync work with a delay. It’s a different rhythm entirely. Trying to force meeting centric tools into async workflows doesn’t work because they rely on live participation, fast decisions, and one-time events. But async work is continuous. Evolving. It needs structure that’s flexible, not fixed. The…

Agile coaching isn’t just about teaching a framework. It’s about guiding people through a mindset shift, and that’s where things get tough. Here are 3 common roadblocks coaches run into (and what actually helps): 🚧 Resistance to change “But we’ve always done it this way.” People don’t resist agile, they resist uncertainty.…

Five years ago, engineering teams made decisions on the fly ✅ Whiteboard sessions ✅ Hallway chats ✅ Emergency meetings Today, we’re scattered across continents and time zones. Decisions unfold slowly in Slack threads, GitHub comments, and Loom replies. This shift gave us more flexibility. But it broke how we document why…

AI tools are multiplying faster than we can test them. But when the hype dies down, only a few actually stick. So I’m curious, what’s that one AI tool you use regularly? Mine is currently ChatGPT😄 The one that’s saved you hours, become a tab you never close, or maybe even changed how you work. 🟣ChatGPT (OpenAI) 🟣Claude…

Slack threads only feel productive in the moment. But they’re terrible for long-term memory. They get buried. Derailed. Disconnected from actual work. Async teams need something more than “just using Slack better.” They need continuity ➡️ Conversations tied to work items ➡️ Accessible after weeks or months ➡️ Organized and…

Everyone’s talking about AI. But most teams aren’t set up to benefit from it. According to Atlassian’s State of Teams 2025 🟣71% of teams say they aren’t using AI effectively to manage or discover information 🟣96% of execs aren’t sure how to get their teams to use AI better The problem isn’t the tech. It’s the way we work.…

“AI has no place in agile estimation”—we hear this a lot, and we get it. After all, estimation isn’t just numbers on a screen. * It’s conversation. * It’s shared context. * It’s a team aligning around the work ahead. The last thing we want is to lose those valuable planning conversations. What if AI could improve these…

“Why did we choose that API design again?” If your team is async, that answer probably isn’t in your sprint notes or Zoom recordings. It’s buried in a Slack thread from 6 months ago. Between an engineer in Berlin and a tech lead in Boston. Over 3 days. In 2 channels. This is a problem for modern teams. Important decisions…

Our official Rally pin model If you will be at Team ’25, keep an eye out for these pins and us lol. The Rally crew will be on the ground to talk about navigating team’s blind spots and async workflows. Come say hi, we’d love to meet you

What’s the one thing you’ve done that made a real difference in async communication? We’ve been diving deep into async team workflows lately, and I’d love to hear what’s worked (or hasn’t) for others.

I am excited for Atlassian Team '25! This will be my first time at the event, and we're bringing Rally to the floor. Can't wait to show you how we're helping teams navigate their blindspots. If you're attending, look out for our Rally t-shirts lol. P.S.: They look fun. 😄 Let's talk about how teams are working today and…

Rally takes a different approach to async collaboration. It gives every work item its own async “room” for focused discussion. You don’t need to dig through old threads. You don’t need to schedule a meeting. Just start a Rally session tied to a Jira ticket, invite your team, and collaborate at your own pace. No more…

JSYK Rally is the perfect replacement for those unnecessary meetings. 👀🟣

Too many founders think async work is just about letting people work whenever they want. But that's missing the point entirely. The truth? Async isn't about time - it's about empowering your team to make decisions and move projects forward without constant check-ins. I've seen teams struggle with this transition. Here's…

I have been in team meetings where, they were basically " free-form discussions." We'd start with good intentions, but two hours later, no real decisions have been made. It was frustrating, and the team's energy was draining with each meeting. The problem? We needed structure, not just good intentions. So, we started…

I've been in countless meetings over the years, and I can tell you firsthand that an agenda is a game-changer. It's not just me saying this; according to Atlassian - 79% of professionals agree that having an agenda boosts meeting productivity. But here's the thing: it's not enough to simply have an agenda. You need to…

When your team is spread across time zones, those 'quick daily stand-ups' could become productivity blockers. Here are three clear signs your remote agile meetings need rethinking: ☑️Team members sit silently in video calls while one person shares their screen, updating Jira tickets. The same update could have happened…