Design Downtime Design Overtime: Agile, Design, and the Gap Between Promise and Practice (with Pavel Samsonov)
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Mar 24, 2026 
Pavel Samsonov, Principal Experience Designer and writer who frames problems before solutions. He traces Agile’s drift from intent, the omission of designers in its origins, and how two-week sprints can hide waterfall. They discuss how tools and rituals harm shared problem understanding and why design principles, small feedback loops, and low-fidelity prototypes can push teams back toward real learning.
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Why Agile Was Sold As A Speed Fix
- Agile was sold as a speed solution to businesses but primarily protected developers from waterfall blame by making them the accountable deliverers.
- Pavel traces this to consultants pitching faster delivery and the manifesto framing the business as the developer's customer, not designers or problem-framers.
Agile Missed Problem Framing
- The Agile manifesto omitted problem framing and design, creating a system where teams build what is asked but not necessarily the right thing.
- Guy explains Agile supports double-loop learning but lacks the third loop that questions whether the goal itself is correct.
Let Teams Choose Their Process
- Give teams autonomy to pick practices that work rather than enforcing one-size-fits-all Scrum rules.
- Pavel and Guy advise focusing on goals and local context instead of copying processes like Spotify or strict two-week sprints.