Is your HR department slowing you down? Do you feel like they’re a major impediment in your agile journey? We will tell the story of how Vistaprint’s HR team, now known as Talent + Experience Transformation Team (T+E), transformed from a traditional HR team of office dwellers and privacy screens to a more agile way of working (we don’t even have desks now!). We discuss what propelled our transformation, which parts of agile were easy to adopt and which parts didn’t work as well for our team, and the critical steps to make it happen. We’ll even share how our agile coaches are now embedded within our T+E team!
I want to share the story of how our HR team adopted an agile mindset and evolved the way we think. But first, let me do a quick introduction of myself. Jason introduced a bit about me, but I am based in our Waltham, Massachusetts office, and I have spent my entire career in community resources.
I’ve held various roles in HR, and I’ve been with Vistaprint for eight years. I started exploring how the agile mindset could be applied outside of technology around 2015.
About Vistaprint
Before we dive into the story, let me provide a brief introduction to Vistaprint. Our company is in the business of helping small business owners realize their dreams. We do this by providing custom-printed, embroidered, and digital products that help them market themselves professionally.
We are best known for our business cards, but we have well over a hundred different product lines. Accelerating that product line growth was one of the key tenets of our agile transformation.
We have about 7,000 employees across 17 locations worldwide. Our workforce includes individuals working in marketing, technology, manufacturing, customer care, and, of course, general administrative functions like finance and HR.
Vistaprint was founded in 1995 by Robert Keane, who is also the CEO of our parent company, Cimpress.
The Agile Transformation Journey
Now, I want to set the stage with a high-level understanding of our agile transformation before diving into the HR story. Our journey began in 2013 as an idea within our technology teams, as you would expect. It was a response to the need for faster project delivery and greater value creation for our customers.
Initially, we didn’t declare that we were "going agile." Instead, we started with small experiments to see if it could work. We saw quick success—delivering value to customers faster and completing projects more efficiently than ever before.
At Vistaprint, when good things happen, word spreads fast. Soon, other parts of the organization, including marketing and creative teams, started asking, “How might we apply the agile mindset?”
Similarly, our HR team—what you would traditionally call an HR department—began considering how agile principles could be applied to their work. That’s when I personally became interested in agile.
HR's Shift to Agile
Our HR team is called Talent & Experience. It functions like a traditional HR organization, but our strategy evolved over time. We didn’t change the name in 2015—that transformation happened gradually.
Our shift toward agile started in response to feedback that our performance management process felt outdated. Employees felt that the system no longer reflected the way we worked in an agile environment.
Rethinking Performance Management
Previously, performance feedback was delivered annually and collected by managers. Employees would submit a list of people they wanted feedback from, and managers would gather and summarize it. The feedback was anonymous, making it difficult to engage in meaningful conversations about growth and improvement.
We knew other organizations were moving away from annual reviews, but rather than implementing a new system outright, we wanted to get employee input first.
We reached out to colleagues in our technology teams—who were further along in their agile journey—and asked for advice. They suggested hosting an Open Space session.
Open Space and Employee Feedback
We invited all employees to an Open Space event, posing the question: "What should we do differently to grow and develop talent?" The invitation was open-ended, allowing employees to choose the topics they were passionate about.
We ran sessions in multiple offices, with around 40 employees in each location. Over the course of a half-day session, we gathered valuable insights. Employees overwhelmingly wanted faster feedback loops to enable continuous learning and adaptation.
As a result, we gradually moved away from the annual review process. We created a flexible, employee-led system where individuals owned their feedback. We equipped them with the necessary tools and shifted the focus from evaluating past performance to improving future growth and development.
Engaging employees in the design of this process was a pivotal moment for our HR team. It demonstrated the power of co-creation—ensuring that we were delivering something meaningful rather than imposing a top-down process.
Scaling Agile Coaching
While our HR transformation was taking shape, other parts of the company—particularly marketing and creative teams—were also deepening their agile practices. We saw the need for a centralized coaching team.
Initially, we had just two or three agile coaches. We expanded this team, adding seven new coaches in locations including Barcelona, Berlin, and Waltham. I personally took part in a six-month intensive training program to become an agile coach.
During this time, I partnered with Melissa Rahman, one of our Waltham-based agile coaches. As part of our training, we needed to coach a team, so we chose to focus on Talent & Experience, given my HR background and the team’s growing interest in agile.
HR’s Agile Mindset in Action
We had a few key goals for our coaching engagement:
- Deliver value faster
- Be more proactive
- Develop a strategy to create a differentiated employee experience
HR is often seen as slow and reactive, focused more on compliance than on creating an exceptional employee experience. We wanted to change that perception.
To start, we introduced the HR team to the Agile Manifesto’s values and principles. However, we quickly realized that the software-centric language was a barrier. To make it more relevant, we developed the "Vistaprint Business Agility Values and Principles"—adapting the wording to be applicable across the organization.
Implementing Agile Practices
We hosted a session where the team discussed these values, shared feedback, and reflected on how they might apply them in HR. The response was overwhelmingly positive.
Next, we focused on visualizing work. We introduced Kanban, starting with a simple physical board where the team could see their tasks. We didn’t overwhelm them with all Kanban principles at once—just the first: "Visualize the work." This small step led to immediate improvements in communication and work transparency.
We gradually introduced daily stand-ups, retrospectives, and product reviews—rolling them out incrementally over three months. The team engaged deeply with these practices, refining them to fit their needs.
Establishing an Employee-Centric Purpose
A year into our journey, the HR team wanted to clarify their purpose. During a facilitated offsite, they co-created their new mission:
"To create and enable a customized and exceptional employee experience that inspires and supports our teams to deliver their best work for our customers."
They recognized challenges but didn’t let obstacles slow them down. Instead, they reframed their work as a product: "The Employee Experience."
Final Thoughts
This journey has been transformational. We’re continuously learning, iterating, and adapting as we grow. Our approach has gained industry recognition, with articles and podcasts highlighting our work.
If you’re considering starting your own agile HR journey, here are some key takeaways:
- Meet teams where they are—change is hard, so be empathetic.
- Start with mindset—values and principles drive transformation.
- Use language that resonates—adjust terminology to fit your context.
- Experiment and celebrate small wins—test ideas before scaling.
- Set clear expectations—help employees understand the "why."
We haven’t figured it all out yet, but we’re excited about the progress we’ve made and the road ahead. Thank you!