Swift Product Acceleration through Rapid Knowledge
A lightweight project management framework for building high-performing teams. It addresses common failure modes in growing organizations—such as decreased velocity, conflicting priorities, and excessive process overhead—by providing a simple, teachable system.
By combining principles from Agile, Lean, and modern product thinking, SPARK delivers three key outcomes:
- Clarity & Focus - Eliminates ambiguity by ensuring every team is focused on a single, measurable objective
- Sustainable Speed - Creates a system of continuous flow, preventing burnout and waste
- Scalable Autonomy - Provides a clear model for organizational growth that preserves the speed and agility of a small team
Key Features:
- Framework positioning - Clear guidance on when SPARK fits vs. when to use alternatives
- Minimal meeting overhead (less than 2 hours/week)
- Forecasting without estimation - Decomposition and lightweight planning approach
- Context preservation - Knowledge compounds across task iterations, preventing information loss
- Principles over rules - WIP limits as teaching tools, intelligent adaptations for complex scenarios
- Smart scaling - Solo developers to large organizations with autonomous pod structure
Read SPARK.md - Everything you need to know in 10-15 minutes.
TL;DR: 4-column board + WIP limit of 1 in Progress column + quarterly OKRs + themes roadmap + 3 weekly meetings (75 minutes total).
- Single-Piece Flow - Work moves continuously, one item at a time per person
- Pull, Don't Push - Team members pull work when ready
- Amplify Learning - Every week, the team gets smarter
- Radically Minimize Waste - Eliminate non-value-adding activities
- Keep It Simple - The framework must be teachable in one hour
SPARK's Unique Approach:
- Radical autonomy - Each pod is fully self-contained
- Outcome obsession - Every work item must advance a Key Result
- Knowledge compounds - Context preservation across all work
- Scale by splitting - Add pods, never add complexity
See the comprehensive framework comparison for detailed differences vs. Scrum, Kanban, Waterfall, and SAFe.
When tasks cycle through Review → Backlog (due to rejection), they accumulate technical context, business insights, and implementation approaches. This means ANY team member can pick up ANY task with full understanding of what's been tried and why.
- Level 0: Use core SPARK without AI enhancements
- Level 1-3: Progressive adoption of AI-assisted development features
- All AI features remain completely optional - framework works perfectly without them
- See SPARK.md#advanced-considerations for details
Flow-based recognition focusing on throughput, quality, learning contributions, and collaboration. See SPARK.md#recognition-and-rewards.
- SPARK.md - Complete framework guide (10-15 minute read)
- Workspace Architecture - One workspace, one board, one objective
- One-Page Reference - Daily cheat sheet
- FAQ - Common questions and implementation guidance
- Who Should Use SPARK - Framework fit assessment
- When NOT to Use SPARK - Clear exclusion criteria
- Visual Guide - Diagrams and examples
- Teaching Guide - Transition from other frameworks
- Transitioning to SPARK - Week-by-week guides
- Is SPARK Working? - Diagnostic checklist and health check
- Forecasting Without Estimation - Themes roadmap and lightweight forecasting
- Cross-Pod Dependencies - Structured approach to team interdependencies
- AI Development Support - Optional AI-assisted features
- Scaling Beyond 10 People - Pod structure and autonomous scaling
- When to Split Your Pod - Clear signals and step-by-step process
- Troubleshooting Guide - Common problems and solutions
- Recognition System - Flow-based team recognition
- Contributing - How to improve SPARK
- Issues - Discussions and support
MIT License - Use it, modify it, teach it. Help make work better for everyone.
Version 1.0.0 - Stable release. The core framework is complete and ready for production use. We welcome feedback from teams using SPARK to guide future improvements.
Remember: The goal isn't to follow SPARK perfectly. The goal is to ship value sustainably while building resilient teams. SPARK is a means to that end.
Created by the startup community, for the startup community.