What Seinfeld Taught Me about Iterative and Incremental - Mike Cohn
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Aug 13, 2025
Explore the fascinating connection between comedy and agile practices! Discover how Jerry Seinfeld's journey back to stand-up illustrates the importance of both iterating and incrementally building a crafted performance. Learn why refining existing material is just as crucial as adding new material for success. This discussion reveals that the right balance can lead to mastery, whether in comedy or product development. It's a blend of experimentation and progression that keeps both audiences and projects thriving.
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insights INSIGHT
Iteration And Incremental Are Complementary
Agile combines iteration (refining) with incremental delivery (building up) to achieve complex goals.
Iterating improves parts while incremental adds capacity until the whole product exists.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Seinfeld Rebuilds His Act From Scratch
Mike Cohn (via Lee Henson) describes Jerry Seinfeld rebuilding a new standup act from five minutes to an hour.
Seinfeld tests jokes in small clubs, refines wording, and then gradually lengthens the show.
insights INSIGHT
Balance Polishing And Adding New Work
Iteration without new additions or increments without refinement both lead to poor outcomes.
Successful development needs a balance: polish what exists and keep adding validated new pieces.
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What Seinfeld Taught Me about Iterative and Incremental - Mike Cohn
Agile is both an iterative and incremental process. I’ve taught this in classes for 25 years. Yet I’ve never felt like I had the right way to explain how they both differ and relate. Until now. I recently watched the documentary “Comedian,” about Jerry Seinfeld deciding to return to standup comedy after ending his long-running hit television series. The film shows Seinfeld developing a completely new act. He couldn’t rely on jokes from his standup routines from a decade earlier. He begins by performing for just a few minutes at small comedy clubs. After each performance he refines the wording, sequence, and pacing of his jokes. He’s iterating over each joke. As he finds material that works, he adds time to his show. His performance goes from five minutes to ten. He is incrementally building his show. He continues adding increments (new jokes) until he achieves his goal of more than an hour of new material. Refining each joke is iterating. Adding jokes bit by bit until he has a full show is incremental. This example also shows why iterating and incremental aren’t very good on their own. Imagine a comedian who only iterates over existing material but never adds new material. Or one who keeps adding new jokes but never iterates to ensure each is funny. Another thing the “Comedian” movie teaches is the value of experimenting. When Seinfeld (and another comedian profiled in the film) perform, their shows contain a mix of material they know will get laughs and some new jokes they’re trying out. Experimenting is equally important in product development. Teams can experiment with their process or the product—by delivering small, partial features to confirm their value before going all-in. I knew agile teams need to be iterative and incremental, but this documentary taught me comedians need to also if they want to succeed at comedy,
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