I Tried a Sprint Planning Session Without a Team — Here's What I Learned**

Sprint planning is supposed to be a team effort — a chance for developers, designers, product managers, and stakeholders to come together and align on shared goals. But what do you do when you’re flying solo?

As I was transitioning into my role as a product manager, I thought it would be a good idea to apply Agile principles to my personal projects. I wanted to keep things organized, stay focused, and honestly, feel like I was making some headway during a pretty chaotic time. So, I dove into Notion, set up my backlog, created a sprint board, and got to work.

But here’s the kicker: I was the only one in the room.

The Setup: Wearing All the Hats I took on every single role:

As the product manager, I set goals and prioritized features.

As the developer, I estimated time, planned out execution, and logged bugs (yes, I even found bugs in my own work 😩).

As the designer, I sketched out some basic wireframes.

As the user, I tested everything and documented my feedback.

I gave myself a two-week sprint with clear deliverables: write two blog posts, enhance my portfolio, and finish a product case study. It seemed doable. I even scheduled a sprint retrospective. Spoiler alert: I didn’t make it that far.

The Overwhelm: Reality Check By the middle of the first week, I hit a wall.

Every task felt like a mental gymnastics routine. One moment I was strategizing, and the next I was proofreading or debugging a layout. It was like I was constantly shifting gears and getting worn out from decision fatigue. There was no one to bounce ideas off of, no one to share the burden, and no external accountability.

The toughest part wasn’t even the workload — it was the isolation of tackling problems all by myself.

The Unexpected Wins But it wasn’t all doom and gloom.

I figured out how to break down my tasks more effectively. I became more intentional with time-blocking and started using labels like “High energy required” or “Low focus task” to help manage my workflow.

I also developed a newfound empathy for what real teams experience during their projects. It can be tough to gauge effort or spot obstacles when you’re only looking at things from one angle. That experience really opened my eyes to just how valuable collaboration can be.

What I Learned Going through sprint planning on my own taught me a few key things:

Planning is still crucial — even when you’re flying solo.

You need some kind of structure, especially if there’s no one else to keep you on track.

You can’t do it all by yourself. Eventually, you’ll need a community, some feedback, and a bit of support.

Your mental energy is a precious resource. Make sure to guard it.

Final Thoughts: Would I suggest solo sprint planning? Absolutely — but only if you’re ready to adapt and cut yourself some slack. It helped me take charge of my time and see my progress more clearly. However, it also reminded me that going it alone can feel pretty isolating.

Until I have a full team, I’ll keep refining my process, planning sprints with just me, myself, and I — but maybe I’ll bring along some better snacks next time.