Practical and Empowering Life Coaching with Agile LifeWorks
Throughout my professional journey, a few themes continually resurfaced—the need for real connection, meaningful progress, and a better way of working and living. After experiencing the damaging effects of corporate cultures stripped of authenticity and human connection, I was drawn to—and ultimately became a champion for—the Agile way of working. It offered something profoundly different: a set of principles and practices that promoted transparency, trust, collaboration, and continuous growth. If these things were valued at work, they surely had a place through practical and empowering life coaching.
What started as a professional shift soon became a personal calling. Agile’s human-centered approach to work sparked a deeper desire in me: to help people thrive in their personal lives with that same sense of clarity, rhythm, and intention. After all, if corporations were beginning to recognize the value in individuals and interactions, adapting to change, and giving others agency through self-organization, surely people could use that in their personal lives. I envisioned parents looking for a way to empower their children to take ownership over their family responsibilities, spouses who had replaced that spark with repeated reminders and unfinished chores. Individuals spiraling in the fast-paced world where ADHD is a way of life.
That’s why I created Agile-inspired life coaching for personal growth—a practical, action-based approach rooted in real momentum and meaningful change.
But this vision for bringing product and software development principles and practices to the real world didn’t start in a boardroom. It started somewhere much more human—much more humane.
The Planted Seed
Back in the late 90s, I worked at the Arizona Humane Society—a job that was as rewarding as it was heartbreaking. I’ll never forget sitting with coworkers as we processed the emotional weight of working in a shelter where euthanasia was part of the reality. It was heavy. It was vulnerable. But it was also very real.
On any given day, my coworkers and I saw each other at our most vulnerable—grieving, comforting, and sometimes laughing through the pain. “I’ve seen each and every one of you cry,” I remember saying. “Most people are out there working in sterile jobs that leave no room for authentic connection. It may sound strange given what we go through, but I think we’re lucky.”
We spend most of our waking hours at work—we should enjoy what we do.
While the conversation occurred more than 25 years ago, that moment never left me. It planted the seed for what would eventually become Agile LifeWorks: a belief that meaning, connection, and humanity belong at the center of how we live and work.
Discovering Scrum—the Power behind the Rhythm
Years later, I moved out of animal welfare and back into publishing—work I was educated in and fairly good at, but which lacked that same emotional depth. Still, I thrived creatively and strategically. I applied my professional skills in writing and design, oversaw online and print publications, and co-created marketing campaigns. It wasn’t until 2007, while working as a designer on a software development team, I encountered something that would change everything—Scrum. This software development practice was named after the formation of Rugby team members moving the ball down the field together. And it would change my life forever.
After this was introduced to our team by one of our team leads, the shift was immediate. Morale lifted. Productivity surged. We were no longer a group of disconnected individuals behind monitors and headphones—we were a team. We were a team tht committed to work every two weeks, checked in daily, and supported one another intentionally. The work had a rhythm. The people had purpose. And we delivered results. For the first time since the Humane Society, I felt that kind of connection again.
The type of work couldn’t have been more different, but the feeling was the same: we were in it together.
Agility Outside of the Workplace
That’s when I knew Agile wasn’t just about software development—it had the potential to be a powerful tool for self-discovery and personal growth. Within a few years, I became an Agile Coach; bringing these grounding principles and practices to individuals, teams, and organizations.
Over time, as my knowledge and experience grew, I began formulating a new kind of practice: Agile coaching for personal growth. Practical, empowering life coaching that would align individuals to their purpose, bringing structure, intention, and rhythm into people’s lives.
While strategizing my approach to rolling this out, I practiced Scrum and used another Agile method known as Kanban at home. The simplicity of these practices worked for virtually anything I was doing. Not only did my Agile practice hold my focus on top priorities—it accommodated fleeting ideas that would have otherwise derailed progress. While using the three columns, To Do, Doing, and Done, I organized goals, ideas, tasks, and even Thanksgiving dinner preparations.
All the while, in the back of my mind, I knew the Agile values and principles fit life coaching beautifully. While they were created by software development experts in 2001, they were human-centric. Even though software developers are known for their 1’s and 0’s logic, they landed on something far more emotionally intelligent. In the end, these 17 individuals found that the commonalities between their development practices were based on core values such as trust and respect. During their retreat in Snowbird, Utah, they drafted an Agile Manifesto that was all about the “mushy” stuff, made of values and culture.
Agile isn’t just about getting work done—it’s about bringing people to the forefront in how we work.
Over the next several years, I coached leaders and teams, helped drive Agile transformations, and discovered how powerful these principles were when when applied with care and truly supported by upper and middle management.
Yet still—despite best efforts of leaders who “got it,” and Agile practitioners who made valiant attempts to shift paradigms, I saw the same counter-behaviors over and over. Broken systems. Poor leadership. Cultures that rewarded compliance over creativity. I’ve worked in places where speaking up meant being labeled as “difficult,” where being a woman too often meant being talked over, and where loyal people burned out because no one knew how to work differently.
All too often, corporations bring in Agile coaches with little idea of what they are actually there to do. Surprise—we don’t exist to teach employees how to use better tools. We’re also not there to “fix your teams.” Agile coaches exist to make the workplace more humane. We are there to systematically strip away toxic leadership behaviors that have been rewarded for decades. To strategically introduce principles and practices that promote self-organization, accountability, transparency, and trust. And as a result of all of this, performance will improve. Teams will become more predictable in their delivery. And customers will love your products, because you made necessary changes that promoted incremental delivery, continuously gathered and applied their feedback, and trusted your employees, respecting them as human beings and allowing them to work at a sustainable pace.
Yet Agile coaches continue to walk into corporations that fail to recognize the fact that agility is a culture shift towards empowerment and connection. A culture shift that is necessary to sustainably improve performance and delivery—ultimately delighting customers with products they want and need.
Ever since witnessing my first opportunity to serve a team as their Scrum Master in 2007, I’ve championed and advocated for agility and the core Agile practices. I didn’t do so because it’s trendy, but because it brings humanity into the workplace. And as humans spending our lives shoulder-to-shoulder, don’t we deserve that much?
The Birth of Agile LifeWorks
Practical and Empowering Life Coaching
Ever since first reading the Agile Manifesto, I’ve held an unwavering vision: to bring the power of Agility outside of organizations. I dreamed of introducing the Agile principles and practices through practical, empowering life coaching to everyday people. Several years ago, I created an online Etsy store featuring products that promote agility, because I believe in its power, not only in the workplace, but in life. While that was a good start, it wasn’t my dream. The real dream is to help people who feel stuck, overwhelmed, or out of sync. To help them find a rhythm to their lives; a cadence they can leverage to set intentions, break down tasks, and make incremental progress towards meaningful goals. It sounds simple. And it is. But it requires discipline and commitment as the practices draw attention to the things in life that we allow to distract us—to prevent us from getting all we want out of life. All we deserve.
My dream has long been to create something for those who want structure and space, accountability and compassion, action and reflection. Finally, after more than a decade, I’m making that dream a reality. And I hope you will join me.
Who is Agile LifeWorks for?
Agile LifeWorks is for people who want to flow with the rhythm—to align their lives with what really matters, one intentional step at a time.
- The recent grad who’s lost in the noise of “what now?”
- The professional exhausted by a system that doesn’t see them.
- The parent trying to hold it all together.
- The creative who can’t quite get going.
- The person on the edge of reinvention who wants more than just a productivity hack.
This is more than a coaching program. It’s a practice. A lifeline. A way to reconnect with yourself and the things in life that mean the most to you. It’s a way back to yourself.
I created Agile LifeWorks to introduce Agile principles for personal growth—for anyone who’s ever felt stuck, unseen, or out of sync—and who’s ready to move forward with clarity, structure, and intention. You don’t need to have it all figured out. You just need to begin.
— Kimberly DeVault
