2024 brought a wave of realignment for Product, Agile, and UX roles. After years of growth and specialization, economic pressures, organizational fatigue, and the widespread adoption of these practices have prompted organizations to rethink their approach. This pragmatic reassessment involves reevaluating team structures, consolidating roles, and prioritizing efforts that deliver measurable outcomes while maintaining strategic focus. Instead of being seen as an outright contraction, 2024 reflects a period of recalibration, where companies are rethinking roles, responsibilities, and priorities to better align with leaner budgets and shifting expectations.
Product roles have seen significant changes in 2024. While Product was once celebrated for bridging business strategy, customer needs, and technical teams, the focus has shifted to delivering tangible execution alongside vision. Economic realities mean fewer dedicated roles, with responsibilities redistributed to technical leads, senior developers, and hybrid contributors.
Agile has firmly moved beyond dedicated roles like Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches, as organizations increasingly internalize Agile principles as a mindset rather than a formal practice. While these roles once played a critical part in Agile transformations, mature teams in 2024 have demonstrated an ability to self-organize without external facilitation.
The UX discipline, which had expanded into an array of specialized roles like UX Researchers, Content Designers, Interaction Designers, and more, is now facing a return to pragmatism. Companies are increasingly consolidating these positions, expecting fewer professionals to cover broader design and research needs.
The rebalancing across Product, Agile, and UX reveals a broader theme: the return to the “generalist role.” Organizations are seen to be moving away from hyper-specialized teams, recognizing that over-specialization often leads to silos, inefficiency, and higher costs. Instead, there’s renewed value in individual professionals who can integrate strategy, design, and execution across disciplines.
The story of 2024 is not necessarily one of collapse but of realignment and pragmatism. While we did see many of our friends and colleagues in Product, Agile, and UX roles experience layoffs - and our hearts go out to them - these key skills remain vital in creating good products.
The crunch comes from companies demanding more from fewer people. Doing more with less is not easy – this requires skilled professionals with expertise in UX, Product, and Agile. Companies will need to be willing to pay for this talent by way of full-time professionals or by bringing in highly experienced consultants.
For professionals, the lesson is adaptability, and a willingness to span multiple areas of expertise are critical to thriving in this environment. For organizations, the challenge is to balance efficiency with the innovation and creativity necessary for long-term growth.
The challenge for all projects in this new environment will be to balance efficiency with innovation and creativity, ensuring both short-term adaptability and long-term sustainability.
With 2024 now in the rear-view, the industry, specifically larger organizations, are likely to emerge with a leaner approach to Product, Agile, and UX. The realignment of 2024 serves as a reminder that growth is cyclical, and recalibration often precedes the next wave of innovation. For your organization to truly stand out as a differentiator, focus on hiring more robust talent. The status quo is no longer enough for success. Seek out strong facilitators and skilled problem solvers who can drive meaningful impact.
At Callibrity, our Product Consultants are already a combination of what you have come to expect from Product and UX roles, all with an agile mentality. This unique blend addresses the challenges of modern product development by bridging strategic insight with user focus and operational agility, enabling teams to overcome the constraints of doing more with less. We approach agile with a small 'a'—meaning we understand the value of communication, planning, cadence, and clarity of expectations.
If you are faced with a lean team in 2025, our Product Consultants are ready to meet the challenge. They combine the strategic insight of Product roles with the user focus of UX and the adaptability of Agile practices, seamlessly integrating into your team to drive results. Our holistic approach ensures alignment across strategy, execution, and user needs, helping clients achieve meaningful outcomes. Whether it’s accelerating timelines, improving efficiency, or training your team to grow sustainably, we’re here to help navigate the complexities of modern product development and ensure success for your organization.