Agree on impact and direction once, so everyone’s agent pulls the same way.
The team friction Agents make solo work so productive that the gravity pulls everyone heads-down and alone — more and more. Each person and their agent generate plausible code fast, in different directions. Without a shared starting point those directions quietly diverge: conflicting approaches, duplicated effort, integration that fights itself. The drift toward everyone-working-alone is the thing to resist.
The pattern Before splitting, the team (or the two people on the story) agrees on what actually matters at the top: the business impact and the general architecture — not every interface and detailed design. Write that down. Then each person works alone, driving their own agent against that shared frame, and reconvenes at integration. Alignment is shared; execution is parallel.
Why it works with AI Your agent is now your pair, so the expensive thing to share is no longer typing — it’s intent. A little shared context up front — impact and direction — keeps parallel solo work converging instead of fanning out.
Watch-outs “Plan together” is lightweight: impact and architecture, not a design committee speccing every interface. “Work alone” is not working in the dark — the shared frame stays the reference point.
Related Executable specs · Two people per story · ADRs — record the why · Compact temporary docs