Building Customer Trust During Agile Project Delivery

After two decades leading Agile projects across industries, one lesson stands above all others: without trust, Agile delivery fails before it starts.

When a consultancy works with a new client — particularly on their first engagement — there’s often a degree of tension and mistrust. The client team may not have chosen the vendor, or they may simply be wary of “consultants.” In some cases, you’re stepping in to rescue a project that’s already in trouble — which makes earning trust essential from day one.

So how can we build that trust, and why does it matter so much?

1️⃣ Show a Genuine Passion for Agile

Your enthusiasm for Agile delivery should be visible from the very beginning. Clients quickly sense when a Project Manager or Scrum Master truly believes in the Agile mindset.

Make your passion clear at project inception. Explain that your goal isn’t just to “get through sprints,” but to deliver meaningful outcomes through transparency, collaboration, and continuous improvement. Give genuine examples of your team's successes. When clients see your sincerity, they’re more likely to share their own challenges openly — the foundation of trust.

2️⃣ Invest in Face-to-Face Bonding

Post-COVID, many organisations rely heavily on virtual meetings. While remote tools are efficient, they rarely build the same level of connection that comes from being in the same room.

I strongly believe that people collaborate better when they like and understand each other. Informal, face-to-face sessions — even just a team dinner or workshop — help create personal bonds that strengthen professional trust.

When teams connect as people, not just Zoom tiles, communication improves, assumptions reduce, and collaboration flows more smoothly. It is so much easier to read a person when you are in the room with them.

3️⃣ Build with a Proven, Stable Team

Trust also grows from reliability and predictability. A cohesive team that’s worked together before offers huge advantages:

• Estimates are based on shared experience.

• The team starts in the “norming” phase, not the “forming” one.

• Everyone is already aligned with your Agile mindset and ways of working.

• The Project Manager or Scrum Master understands each person’s strengths and development areas.

Being able to share this stability and cohesion with your client at project kickoff helps establish confidence from the outset.

4️⃣ Communicate Honestly — Beyond the Status Report

Even in well-run Agile projects, challenges arise. The difference between a trusted partner and a distrusted one is transparency.

If a sprint slips or a dependency blocks progress, don’t hide it behind metrics or formal reporting. Bring the issue to the client sponsor early, explain the root cause, and outline mitigation steps. Clients value honesty far more than perfection — and each honest conversation strengthens your credibility.

Case Study: “Impossibly Smooth”

Halfway through a major website development project in Belgium for a US apparel company, our joint client-consultant team went out for an informal evening together.

At one point, the client’s project sponsor laughed at a beer bottle label that read “Impossibly Smooth,” and said that’s exactly how the project felt so far.

The phrase quickly became our unofficial project tagline — a light-hearted reminder of how well we were collaborating. Eight months later, when the project concluded successfully, a large box arrived in the office. Inside were t-shirts and caps for every team member, featuring one of the client’s most iconic designs — and the words “Impossibly Smooth” underneath.

It was a touching gesture that reflected not just project success, but genuine partnership. That level of camaraderie could only have come from real, face-to-face connection — not from a purely virtual relationship.

Final Thought

Agile methods and tools matter, but they only thrive in an environment of mutual trust. As mentors, project leaders, or delivery teams, we need to invest in building that trust early — one conversation, one collaboration, and sometimes, one shared beer at a time.

At Juline Agile Mentoring Solutions, I focus on helping Agile leaders and delivery teams build exactly this kind of trust and collaboration from the very start — because once it’s there, everything else becomes “impossibly smooth.”

By implementing Agile, you are not just changing how you manage projects; you are transforming your entire approach to work. Embrace the journey, and watch your projects thrive.