What happens when you try to implement rule of law where most people can’t read and courts have no electricity?

What happens when you try to implement rule of law where most people can’t read and courts have no electricity?

During my time supporting the Afghan National Directorate of Security (their version of the FBI) we were in a period of the Afghan War called transition.

The goals: Afghans in the lead. Rule of law instead of military action.

One of our key efforts was helping Afghan police conduct high-risk arrest operations in warrant-based rule of law operations.

But there were two critical realities: Many Afghan National Police officers, and much of the population, couldn’t read or write and courts couldn’t reliably count on electricity.

So how do you enforce legal processes in a system where those processes aren’t accessible?

We adapted:
• Afghan prosecutors drafted the warrants.
• Afghan police were issued Polaroid-style instant cameras: photos were taken post-arrest: the suspect, the seized weapons, and the building or vehicle all clearly in frame.
• These photos became the arrest report, usable in court, regardless of literacy or power.

Working with the Canadian military police officers in our task force, we developed this practical solution and implemented it across our operations, one of many examples where field-ready innovation trumped textbook processes.

The Core Insight:

You can’t just push process from the top down. You must design it for the ground it’s going to land on.

Takeaway for Product Leaders & Agile Teams:

Whether you’re leading a mission or managing a product:
• Start with empathy, not assumptions.
• Design for constraints, not theory.
• If the user can’t carry out the process, it’s the process that’s broken, not the user.

This is especially true for agile transformations. Teams new to agile often get caught up in “doing ceremonies right” instead of focusing on outcomes. As product managers, we need empathy for teams learning new ways of working, they’re adapting their entire mindset, not just their meeting schedule. Just like those Polaroids weren’t standard police procedure but achieved justice, your daily standups don’t need to be textbook perfect, they need to drive collaboration and delivery.

This experience fundamentally shaped how I approach product ownership today.

When adoption fails, I don’t blame the users, I examine the process. If someone on the team “isn’t following the process,” I pause and ask:

Does the process reflect their reality, or just our ideal?

Have you ever had to adapt a process in a constrained or high-stakes environment?
I’d love to hear your story.