---
title: "Beyond Agile: a new playbook for the AI era arriving this autumn"
description: "Over 70% of digital transformation projects fail—not due to technical shortcomings, but because of how change is managed. The Mearra Method is a commercially proven framework built to change that, and it is being published as a business book this autumn."
date: "2026-06-25T00:00:00+00:00"
category: "Strategy"
excerpt: "Over 70% of digital transformation projects fail—not due to technical shortcomings, but because of how change is managed. The Mearra Method is a commercially proven framework built to change that, and it is being published as a business book this autumn."
reading_time: "3 min 9 sec"
image: "/uploads/images/1782391182722-mearralogocropped.png"
image_alt: "Mearra Method app icon with gradient background transitioning from purple to teal with circular moon-inspired logo"
path: "Insights > Beyond Agile: a new playbook for the AI era arriving this autumn"
---

It remains a sobering and persistent industry statistic—frequently validated in long-term global studies by [McKinsey & Company](https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/transformation/our-insights/how-to-beat-the-transformation-odds) and the [Harvard Business Review](https://hbr.org/1995/05/leading-change-why-transformation-efforts-fail)—that over 70% of major change initiatives and digital transformation projects fail to achieve their original objectives.

The root cause of these failures rarely lies in a lack of technical capability. Instead, the breakdown occurs in how the change is managed, communicated, and adapted. When the people heavily affected by a new digital tool do not feel genuinely involved from the outset, a disconnect occurs. If stakeholders and end-users cannot fully grasp the vision, or feel they lack the agency to affect the outcome, they cannot truly commit to the process. Without that foundational commitment, it is impossible for them to champion or become ambassadors for the change within the wider organisation.

At Mearra, our slogan is: **Business. People. Tech. Together.** But that is not just the slogan — it is how we think, act and collaborate.

Faced with a challenge as universal as digital change management, we wanted to ensure we were walking our talk. We turned our slogan from a core belief into an everyday operational reality. The outcome is a comprehensive methodology engineered to drastically enhance all phases of the change lifecycle — ensuring commercial goals, human adoption, and elite engineering.

This autumn, that commercially proven framework is being published as a definitive business book: _Change that people want – How to make software people actually want to use: the Mearra Method_.

## Managing the whole change, completely

While the book explicitly explores what lies beyond Agile, it is not an indictment of iterative development. Agile revolutionised software engineering by introducing flexibility to code deployment. However, many enterprise organisations have found that Agile "ceremonies" can become hyper-focused on engineering sprints, often neglecting the wider, more complex ecosystem where business strategy, human behaviour, and technology intersect.

In the AI era, this gap becomes even more critical. Modern technology dials up the uncertainty on every kind of work. Yet, it simultaneously collapses the cost of visualising and building software. Prototyping used to require months, and alignment still failed. Mearra Method solves this problem.

To successfully manage a project today, leadership teams need a method that goes beyond standard development loops to govern the entire transformation.

Our core operational principle is straightforward: **uncertainty shrinks the moment you can touch the work**.

## A playbook grounded in practical reality

By moving away from abstract documentation and bringing real, clickable, running software into the room on day one, the entire dynamic of a project shifts. When people can interact with a tangible product immediately, they are no longer passive observers of change — they become active participants. This completely alters how decisions get made, who gets a say, and how securely budgets can be defended to the board.

The book represents a unique synthesis of two distinct professional perspectives within Mearra: **Maija Helminen**, an educational scientist turned business designer who focuses on dismantling operational gatekeeping, and **Vesa Palmu**, a computer scientist and CEO with 30 years of software experience who maintains a disciplined, productive scepticism toward technology hype cycles.

This book is written for product owners, CTOs, and business leaders who are tasked with turning high-level strategy into working reality. It provides the tools to ensure that your technical velocity actively serves a measurable business outcome, while keeping your people aligned, engaged, and in control.

The digital landscape has fundamentally changed, and the old rituals are no longer enough to guarantee success. It is time for a more complete playbook.

**_Change that people want – How to make software people actually want to use: the Mearra Method_** _will be published this autumn._

We have launched a dedicated preview page outlining the core pillars of the methodology, a look inside the upcoming chapters, and a breakdown of how to establish complete control over your next software decision.

**[Click here to explore the book preview and join the early-access list](https://www.method.mearra.com)**