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

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

Photo by Dylan Gillis on Unsplash

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 teaching myself product management, 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. Sheesh).

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 hit 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. As if that wasn’t enough, my ADHD side began to kick in, meaning that I procrastinated certain tasks and got distracted. I am only human after all. It got so bad that I eventually abandoned ship.

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. That also made me believe that I wasn’t cut of for the product management life.

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 not. I will never ever do that again and I do not suggest you do that either. Especially if you are prone to a lot of overwhelm. Use that time to recharge and chill.