Peter Merel: AI Alignment Is the Agile Coach's Next Frontier — Using Throughput Accounting and Pull-Based Transformation to Prove Value

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"Our jobs ARE about alignment. Alignment is how do we get all of the people and all of the tools to work together for mutual benefit." - Peter Merel

Peter Merel brings a provocative perspective on the biggest challenge facing agile professionals today: AI and agile alignment. With AI rapidly advancing, Peter observes that everyone in the agile community is afraid for their jobs — but argues this fear is misplaced. The real challenge isn't replacement; it's alignment. How do we get biological and electronic entities to work together for mutual benefit? Peter's answer begins with pull-based transformation — building a thin steel thread from business through to DevOps, proving it works with a small group, then growing it. He connects this to Goldratt's throughput accounting, arguing that throughput (operating expense plus net profit) is the only metric immune to Goodhart's Law. From throughput, Peter derives three flows: value flow (throughput itself), workflow (the first derivative — what increases value flow), and learning flow (the second derivative — what improves workflow). He then introduces the pirate metrics (AARRR) — acquisition, activation, retention, referral, and revenue — as market constraints that can be analyzed through Theory of Constraints. Peter's frustration is that 25 years after Agile began, most business stakeholders still can't identify their market bottleneck. Without that knowledge, he argues, priorities are meaningless. The path forward for agile coaches? Bring scientific rigor to transformation, measure what matters, and prove value before scaling.

In this episode, we refer to FAST Agile, Joe Justice's work with Tesla and WikiSpeed, and the connection between throughput accounting and agile transformation metrics.

Self-reflection Question: Can you identify the single biggest market constraint limiting your organization's throughput right now — and if not, how confident are you that your current priorities are the right ones?

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About Peter Merel

Credited in the first agile book (XP Embraced), keynoted the first agile conference, invented the first agile training game, founded the xscale alliance, authored the agile way, Peter developed software by hand for forty years, coached agile in person for twenty years, and is working now to revolutionize the AI alignment landscape.

You can link with Peter Merel on LinkedIn. You can also find his work at agile.way.pm.