From Journalism to Agile: A Journey of Adaptation

My name is Troy Heinzman. If you’re reading this, you’ve either worked with me, stumbled across my writing, or are related to me. Regardless of how you got here, thanks for stopping by.

Early Days: Words, Web, and the Wild West of Tech

I grew up in Washington State in the early days of the internet, where I spent more time playing The Oregon Trail on an Apple ][ than actually learning how to type. My first experience with the online world was through a dial-up connection to Pacifier Internet. At that time, homepages were either bad GeoCities sites or slightly worse ones.

Journalism was my first love. I worked my way from college newspaper editor to covering the NFL, with bylines at RotoWire, SB Nation, and Fansided. My work appeared on ESPN, Sporting News, and NFL.com, and I juggled articles, radio hits, and TV appearances. It was fast, exciting, and relentless. And then, I walked away.

The Pivot: From Breaking News to Breaking Bottlenecks

One day, I ran across a quote that stopped me in my tracks:

“Identify the essential, eliminate the rest.”

I realized I had been optimizing for the wrong things, chasing output instead of impact. I pivoted to business analysis, product ownership, and eventually Agile leadership. It turns out, the same skills that made me a good journalist made me a great Agile practitioner. These skills include cutting through noise, asking the right questions, and making sense of complex stories.

Now, I help teams and leaders navigate uncertainty, break down work in meaningful ways, and deliver value without burning out. This blog, Unleashing Agility, is where I share insights and challenges. Sometimes, I include completely unnecessary pop culture references about Agile, leadership, and change management.

If any of that sounds interesting, stick around.

If not, I’ll just assume you were looking for someone else named Troy Heinzman.