From Learning Agile to Thriving in Agile: Building a Community

From Learning Agile to Thriving in Agile: Building a Community Around Coaching, Experience Sharing, and Continuous Growth

NICE AGILE started with a simple observation: certifications, courses, and technical knowledge are valuable, but they are often not enough to help professionals navigate the real challenges of their careers.

In this session, Zahra Motlagh and Kevin Swartwood, Co-Founders of NICE AGILE, will share how a small initiative focused on helping friends and colleagues evolved into an international Agile community and digital business supporting Agile, Product, Technology, and Leadership professionals across multiple countries.

The idea emerged from our own experiences. While Zahra was pursuing Product Leadership opportunities and Kevin was developing his Scrum Master career, we both discovered that many of the challenges professionals face—interviews, confidence, stakeholder management, leadership growth, difficult workplace situations, career transitions, and navigating organizational complexity—cannot be solved through certifications alone. Coaching, mentoring, and learning from people who have already walked the path often make the difference.

What began as informal experience-sharing sessions gradually grew into a thriving community. Over the past two years, NICE AGILE has hosted more than 60 weekly sessions, roundtables, workshops, coaching discussions, and leadership conversations, bringing together Agile coaches, Scrum Masters, Product Owners, Product Managers, software development leaders, recruiters, and professionals from around the world.

Through continuous feedback and community engagement, our conversations evolved from foundational Agile topics into deeper discussions around Scrum Mastery, Product Ownership, Agile Coaching, Product Leadership, stakeholder engagement, AI, career development, team challenges, and professional growth. We also introduced roundtable discussions featuring experienced Agile practitioners, trainers, coaches, and leaders who share lessons learned from years of real-world practice.

Alongside the community, NICE AGILE has evolved into a software development, AI-enabled digital solutions, and Agile transformation company. We are building digital products, workforce capability platforms, learning ecosystems, and AI-enabled solutions while continuing to support professionals through coaching, mentoring, and community-driven learning.

As the community expanded, we established collaborations with organizations and communities that share similar values around learning and professional growth, including Chingu, ECS communities, Agile communities, software development organizations, and independent experts across the UK, Europe, America, the Middle East, and beyond.

During the session, we will share practical lessons learned from building a global community, creating meaningful professional connections, gathering continuous feedback, facilitating coaching and mentoring conversations, and helping professionals move from learning Agile to thriving in their careers.

We will also share stories from community members who have built valuable networks, increased their confidence, secured new opportunities, overcome career challenges, and accelerated their professional growth through the support of the community.