Scrum.org Community Podcast Scrum Beyond Software: Improving Parent-Teacher Conferences at Carroll School
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Feb 5, 2026 Andrew Nimmer, Assistant Head of Carroll Upper School and product owner who led a Scrum-based effort to improve parent-teacher conferences. He recounts applying Scrum outside tech, shifting to continuous product development, and empowering teams to iterate. They discuss balancing classroom duties with project work, using data for better conferences, and lessons from rolling out changes across campuses.
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Nine People In A Single Conference
- Parent-teacher conferences at Carroll could include nine people across specialties for one student.
- Andrew described SLPs, science teachers, advisors and others all contributing, which made the process complex and inconsistent across grades.
Shift From One Off Projects To Continuous Product Development
- Carroll shifted from one-and-done projects to continuous product development using Scrum.
- Andrew realized shipping an initial product for November conferences and iterating was better than chasing a perfect final version.
Empowered Teams Replace Consensus Paralysis
- Empowered cross-functional teams made faster, clearer decisions than broad consensus committees.
- Head of school Renee explicitly empowered the team to decide, shifting Andrew from recommending to owning the product.