Agile ≠ Agile? – How Scrum Might Be Hurting Product Management

Agile was supposed to free product teams. But for many PMs, it's become a trap. Scrum stand-ups, grooming rituals, endless sprint planning—and somehow, we’re shipping more tickets but solving fewer problems. In a recent set of interviews, 50% of product leaders said Agile has hurt product management. Why? Because it turned PMs into glorified backlog admins—far from the strategic drivers they were meant to be. Agile was never supposed to mean “ceremony-heavy + vision-light.” Yet that’s where many orgs have landed. We don’t need to abandon Agile. We need to rescue it. Reclaim its purpose. Restore space for long-term thinking, customer empathy, and—dare I say—actual product strategy. Because being Agile shouldn't mean just moving fast. It should mean moving smart.

When Agile was first introduced, it was a breath of fresh air. It promised to replace bloated waterfall processes with fast, iterative cycles and customer-focused collaboration. Who wouldn’t want that?

But somewhere between the manifesto and the latest PI planning session, something went terribly wrong.

Today, what many companies call “Agile” looks less like agility and more like ritualized chaos. Daily stand-ups that solve nothing. Sprints filled with mini-waterfall work. Backlogs overflowing with micro-tasks that no one outside the team understands—or cares about.

And in the middle of this? The Product Manager—now rebranded as the Product Owner. Once a strategic leader shaping long-term product vision, they now spend their days updating tickets, calculating story points, and attending meetings about meetings.

In fact, in interviews with over 100 product leaders, nearly 50% called Agile a disaster for product teams. Why? Because it turned product managers into glorified backlog administrators, severing them from customer problems and strategic outcomes. Agile—meant to enable cross-functional brilliance—has, in many cases, reduced PMs to the role of scrum secretary.

Let’s call it what it is: Scrum Theater.

Stakeholders think “Agile” means shipping faster. Engineers think it means more autonomy. Leadership thinks it’s a silver bullet. Meanwhile, PMs are stuck in the middle—chasing velocity metrics and navigating role confusion, while trying to keep a flicker of product thinking alive.

This isn’t a takedown of Agile. When done right, Agile can be transformative. But too often, the framework becomes the goal rather than the means. We prioritize ceremonies over outcomes. We mistake activity for progress. And we lose sight of the product.

True agility isn’t about burn-down charts or sprint cadences. It’s about being able to adapt—strategically, not just operationally. It’s about knowing when to say, “This isn’t working,” and having the freedom to redesign the system, not just follow the script.

The irony? Many PMs now crave a return to slower, messier, thinking-oriented product development—where space exists for discovery, vision, and customer empathy. In chasing speed, we’ve forgotten that not all movement is forward.

It’s time we stop treating Agile as dogma. Let’s bring back strategic product management—not despite Agile, but by reclaiming its original intent.