I think over-reliance on scrum or other heavyweight methodologies create a very low ceiling of performance for your team. You can't hire good people into that e

I think over-reliance on scrum or other heavyweight methodologies create a very low ceiling of performance for your team. You can't hire good people into that environment, and you're teaching a form of learned helplessness. I wonder if instead you could teach better practices to a broader swath of engineers. I don't think you have to be a 90th percentile engineer to respond well to empowerment, accountability, and an expectation to collaborate with others. They may not have seen that behavior modeled before, but I bet a lot of them would rise up and meet the challenge. Even if 50% of the team didn't meet the challenge, you're likely still better off with that smaller but more productive team.