Tech Fleet News - August 2026 - Building Empowered Teams, Together

This month, we're looking at what empowerment actually looks like when teams face uncertainty, make decisions together, and support each other along the way.

"The quality of the relationships between qualified players is usually more important than the individual performances.” – Corey Ladas in Scrumban."

Community Spotlight

Meet the “We Independent Project Team”

A team that navigated challenges, supported one another, and put empowerment into practice throughout their project.

Alyssa Murphy, Andrea Maiato, Lilia Halitov, Nehar Sultana, Vichea Tephang

Finding a way forward when plans changed: Working with an outside organization was a great lesson in real-world challenges. In a perfect world, everything would happen on our timeline so we could power through our sprints without missing a beat. But in reality, their team had its own internal processes to navigate. They needed to get board approval to align on the target user, which put our progress on temporary hold. Instead of just waiting for answers, data, and files we needed, we figured out how to keep moving forward. We leaned heavily into an agile mindset, focusing on iteration rather than a strict linear path. Our team put our heads together, stayed adaptable, and strategically chose workshops and tasks we could make progress on in the meantime.

Feeling comfortable asking for help: Whenever someone hit a roadblock, the team stepped in with help and advice. This collaborative environment allowed us to learn so much from each other, whether it was a new way to tackle a task, a tool we could use, or just figuring out a direction when we were stuck.

Helping each other grow with confidence: We naturally became each other's biggest cheerleaders overtime. Since we split our time between live meetings and working asynchronously, communication was key. Whenever we posted async updates in Discord, everyone would jump in to look at the work, share positive feedback, and acknowledge each person's effort, both in the chat and during our live calls. We really focused on highlighting each other's strengths. Ultimately, cultivating this positive environment and sharing words of encouragement made a massive difference in how confident we all felt.

How We Practice Empowerment

On a Tech Fleet project team, empowerment is visible in day-to-day execution, sprint ceremonies, and team governance. Rather than receiving top-down task assignments, a cross-functional team of UX researchers, designers, developers, and product managers collectively negotiates sprint commitments and defines how work gets done. For instance, during a project building an open-source platform for a non-profit partner, an apprentice designer or developer is fully authorized to propose architectural changes, lead stakeholder interviews, or modify the team's process flowchart during a retrospective when a workflow creates friction. Ownership rests with the team, decisions are made by consensus, and peer support replaces top-down supervision.

Here's our recipe for what that looks like in practice.

Become a Founding Member

Be part of the community that learns by doing, builds empowered teams, and helps each other grow.

Membership gives you access to Agile UX and leadership training ($200 USD value), monthly group mentoring, and exclusive communities of practice where you can learn, practice, and connect with other practitioners.

Inside Founding Membership

Here’s what Founding Members are doing together this month. Practice Clubs bring members together for a four-week, learn-by-doing series. This month, they’ll create a case study using Tech Fleet’s storytelling template.

Get Involved This Month

The We Independent team showed us what empowerment can look like in practice. Want to experience it too? Join a team and see what you can do together.

Projects You Can Join

• We Independent Phase 3: Redesign the website and customer experience and build scalable learning pathways for Asian immigrant women.
• Geeks for Social Change Phase 2: Learn from the client's pilot, refine its business model, and identify product and design improvements.
• Lupie Fam Phase 3: Launch a website supporting people living with Lupus and their caregivers.
• OPU Phase 1: Help improve OPU’s mobile app for volunteers and refugees. A small-team project for experienced Tech Fleet practitioners.

Help Run Tech Fleet

Become a Project Coordinator

Volunteer · 3–5 hrs/week

As a Project Coordinator, you run the project training program. You recruit and onboard teams, write requirements, and get projects off the ground. You help keep communication flowing across clients, Agile Coaches, Business Analysts, and teammates, making sure information gets where it needs to go, gaps are surfaced early, and everyone stays connected throughout the project.

Ready to get involved? Explore all project and volunteer openings on our platform.

Explore Our Masterclasses & Residencies

All masterclasses and residencies are open for signup. Visit our Gumroad page to explore each offering, learn more, and find the right fit for you.

• Agile Coaching Residency with Morgan Denner
  Practice coaching and leading empowered teams with an Agile Coach Trainer and project teams.
• AI-Enabled Systems Design with Morgan Denner
  Design and problem-solve for complex interactions between people, places, and screens.
• Agile UX with Julia Debari and Morgan Denner
  Run a Google Design Sprint series with an experienced Agile coach. Free for Founding Members.
• Collaborative AI Data Analysis with Crystal Pugh
  Practice data analytics through a real project.

Come See Us in Action

Weekly Community Onboarding: Open office hours for questions about programs, opportunities, and community. → Join us

Observe Live Projects: Observe a project team and see what apprenticeship looks like. → Join a meeting

• Automated Hand-Off System: Observe live working sessions as we build an automated project phase hand-off creation system using Figma APIs, Ollama, and Claude Code. Sessions run three times a week under the meeting title “Hand-Off System – AI Development – Working Session” in our Google Calendar.

Catch Up on What You Missed

State of the Union: Where Tech Fleet is headed in 2027 and beyond, including our new mission narrative, 2025 impact, 2026 goals, and membership model. → Watch the recording

Community Design Thinking Session: The community spent 1.5 hours redesigning how we can improve Tech Fleet's own project layers. → Watch the recording

Member Experience Sprint Demo: See what the Member Experience volunteer team shipped this phase. → Watch the recording

Stay Connected

Thank you for being part of the Tech Fleet community.

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