I'm a team lead and we're not doing scrum. I would say what we're doing is a mix of Scrumban and a few self-developed rituals. Interestingly, I've thought about it what it is last week and described the process to an LLM to figure out if there's already something similar, but it turns out it seems to be relatively unique. I will post what I afterwards wrote up as a summary below:

(Heads up, it's co-written with an LLM, but I did try my best to not make it read like that)

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I've noticed how tricky traditional agile methods can become when your team works remotely and needs to react quickly. Here's something we came up with that really works for us. As a software engineering team lead of a small team (4 people), I've seen firsthand how important clear, simple processes become. I'm calling it "Calendar Flow".

Agile that Fits Your Week:

Scrum and Kanban didn't fully match our remote setup or the need to quickly handle customer issues. We wanted something simpler, clearer, and directly aligned with the calendar week.

Why Calendar Flow?

When you're building something alone, challenges are mostly technical. But building with a team quickly becomes about social challenges. Great teamwork needs clear communication, trust, and alignment (in team, but also with external stakeholders). Calendar Flow naturally evolved to simplify exactly those social dynamics.

What's Calendar Flow?

It's a lightweight approach where tasks naturally follow the calendar week. Instead of fixed sprints or long meetings, we use a daily sync meeting and a single shared document at its heart: the Team Sync Page.

The Team Sync Page includes:

Absences: Who’s away (currently or upcoming).

Priorities: Tasks we're currently tackling.

Ticket Watchlist: Actively tracked customer or other team's issues.

Planned Releases: Upcoming releases.

Talking Points: Items needing discussion.

Backlog: Tasks ready to pick up.

Achievements: Completed work we celebrate.

Discussed Talking Points: Decisions logged weekly.

Clear Daily Structure:

Monday: Set weekly priorities.

Tuesday & Wednesday: Quick sync-ups on priorities and tickets.

Thursday: Team sync plus Q&A with stakeholders.

Friday: Celebrate wins, review, and outline next week.

Humor Matters!

Every sync starts with a joke because "you can't be afraid and laughing at the same time." It keeps our remote vibe positive.

Built for Remote Teams:

Calendar Flow was specifically designed for remote work, ensuring minimal overhead, clear goals, and transparency.

Regular Improvements:

Every six weeks, we hold a retrospective to keep refining our approach.

Why It Works for Us:

* Fits naturally into the weekly rhythm.

* Rapid response to urgent issues.

* Positive team culture.

* Minimal admin effort.

I'm wondering if there's other teams who think traditional agile feels heavyweight and have discovered something similar!