Arguing Agile: Product Management, Business Leadership, & Org Design

Do you feel Scrum is not helping you to more effectively create software or solve problems? Do you feel Scrum is just another form of managerial control? Do you feel Scrum is not helping your organization be or remain agile?

On this episode, Brian Orlando and Om Patel discuss experiences and share tips to make scrum more effective - thereby producing more value.

0:00 Topic Intro
0:21 Seek First to Learn and Evolve
2:51 Work on Team Accountability
7:56 Get Help (Don't Hide Failures)
11:10 Last Thoughts on Retros (Mostly)
13:32 Future Podcast Ideas
14:33 Don't Shortcut Scrum Event Times
19:17 More on Shortcutting Sprint Planning
22:22 Sprint Planning, Arguing Points
25:48 Continuous Team Building
29:47 Build and Use Finite Goodwill
33:07 Use the Vision(s) to Set Better Goals
37:11 Tips on Changing the Goal/Focus
40:59 Stop Starting, Start Finishing
46:19 Either Clear Blockers or Put Them Aside
52:40 Agree on "Done"
55:50 Wrap-Up

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AP63 - Get More Value from Your Scrum

On this episode, Brian Orlando and Om Patel talk about what occurs when a team fails to meet the agreed on Sprint Goal.

What do you do when a team does not meet the Sprint goal? How do you decide if a Sprint has failed or not? Does your culture promote learning from failures, or is failure a four letter word? We talk through all these things, and more!

0:00 Intro
1:09 Sprint Goals
4:18 Quality of the Sprint Goal
11:22 Tracking Successes and Failures
15:44 Trending Failure
18:21 Partial Success
21:16 Wrong Software or No Software?
22:12 Holding the Team Accountable
24:24 Blame Game Culture
26:20 Effective Planning (During Planning Time)
30:08 Being Available During "The How" Planning
32:45 Taking Accountability, An Example
37:09 Stretch Goals
41:21 Part Time Scrum Master
43:07 Shared Learnings (Both Failures & Successes)
47:21 Future Podcast - Group/Program Retro
49:23 Failure Culture
52:38 Finding Failure
55:42 Wrap-Up

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AA62 - Failing to Accomplish the Sprint Goal

On this episode, Brian Orlando and Om Patel talk through their experiences in corporate buyouts (aka. a merger or acquisition). Why do they typically happen? How do you know they're about to happen? What to expect when they do happen?

...and, most importantly, what we've seen in our combined 8 experiences going through M&As on both the acquiring side and the acquiree side. Also, acquiree isn't a real word, but then, aren't all words made up?

0:00 Intro
0:36 Topic Intro - M&A
1:46 Three Reasons Acquisitions Happen
5:55 Warning Signs of an Acquisition
12:07 More Warnings: Resignations & Stock Manipulation
15:26 What to Expect, Here We Go
16:00 Media Blitz
19:06 Don't Panic & Stick Around
21:41 Or Don't Stick Around
23:40 Nothing is Going to Change
29:56 Feeling Left Out, Lost, or Listless
35:47 Controls & Cost-Cutting
47:51 Loss of Perks or Benefits
52:41 Being the Acquirer
55:48 Byzantine Financial Controls
1:04:40 Pay Attention to Debt
1:07:12 Your Culture will Change
1:12:05 Sticking Around
1:15:37 Wrap-Up

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AA61 - Experiences in Corporate Buyouts (Mergers & Acquisitions)

On this episode, Curtis Lembke returns to talk about change! We all know change is hard -  successful change cannot be managed, it requires capable and driven leaders. Curtis and Brian talk through (most of) John Kotter's eight-step change process, outlined in his 1995 book, "Leading Change."

Find Curtis on LinkedIn!

0:00 Intro & Banter
0:24 John Kotter: Leading Change
1:55 1.) Establish a Sense of Urgency
8:44 Business Value
20:12 Speed to Market vs. Quality Solution
27:17 Sabotaging Urgency
31:40 2.) Create a Guiding Coalition
35:55 Blockers: When Executives Clash
40:24 Failing to Establish a Coalition
42:58 3.) Develop a Vision and a Strategy
47:27 Crafting Vision: Leadership vs. Management
1:00:02 4.) Communicating the Change Vision
1:05:32 Sabotaging Vision Communication
1:12:32 5.) Empower Employees
1:19:16 Fear is a Blocker
1:23:54 Wrap-Up

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AA60 - Leading Change with Curtis Lembke

On this episode, Agile Coach Caurie Waddell stops by to discuss her experiences working with new teams.

0:00 Topic Intro
0:38 Newly Formed Teams
4:23 Changing Behavior
7:39 Fix the Problems
12:16 Planning Improvement
14:57 Just Tell Me What to Do
17:09 The WoLF (Working on Latest Fire)
20:07 New Team (with Agile Experience)
22:46 The Hard Work is Outside the Team(s)
24:43 Middle Managers
27:36 Discovery & Product
29:39 Resistance - A Podcast Series?
34:38 Agility & the Customer
37:06 A New Team (To You)
41:26 New Team to You (with Agile)
42:59 Leaving Things "on the Table"
48:08 Why New Teams are Added
50:42 Uh, oh (SAFe!)
57:31 Reinventing the (Deming) Wheel
1:04:22 Team of Teams Example
1:09:39 Caurie's Final Thoughts

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AP59 - New Teams with Agile Coach Caurie Waddell

Episode 57 is very special for us because we got to sit down with one of our favorite agilists - an individual who has quite literally been on our guest list since episode ONE - Brent Breaux! In this episode, we discuss the Certification Industry and the different ways that it fails the typical team member. We also muse on what a "better" or more helpful training regimen might look like or include.

0:00 Topic Intro
0:57 The Market, As-Is
4:47 Certification Treadmill
7:17 Certification via Mentorship
11:29 Innovation in the Certification Industry
15:26 SAFe
17:38 Fundamentals
20:58 Management & Organizational Agility (or lack thereof)
25:15 Incremental Value - an Untapped Market
27:32 Five Whys to Management
30:22 Business Technologists
32:49 Can Large Enterprises Really "be Agile"
35:38 Short Term Management
41:19 Value of Agile Skillsets in "the Business"
43:55 Back to Agile Values & Principles
47:18 Benefits or Improvements to Certs
50:22 No Thanks, We're Too Busy!
55:19 The Path to Product Management (a Future Podcast)
57:21 Wrap-Up

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AP57 - Can We Fix Certifications? with Brent Breaux

In this episode, Brian and Om read through an article making its rounds on LinkedIn right now titled: "Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt on why in-office work is better: 'I don't know how you build great management' virtually." Listen as we discuss the points of the article, react to its contents, and argue about what it all means (or doesn't mean).

Will Om be able to talk Brian off the ledge? Find out - only on the Agile Podcast!!!

The article:
https://www-cnbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2022/04/05/ex-google-ceo-eric-schmidt-on-why-people-should-return-to-the-office.html

0:00 Topic Intro
0:43 Article First Impressions
3:20 We Have Tools & Methods
6:50 PrOvEn EfFeCtIvEnEsS (of Being In-Office)
10:48 Face-to-Face, but with a Purpose
15:03 Telecommunication vs. Telepresence
17:52 Disdain for Young(er) Professionals
21:16 Working from the Sofa
24:42 Fear of the Future
29:18 Leading the Way in Software (or not)
33:55 Bad Reasons for Returning
35:42 Article Summary
37:46 Free Feature Idea (for Google Board Members to Consider)
39:25 Wrap-Up

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AP58 - Article Review: "Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt on why in-office work is better"

Are you a Product Manager or Owner who needs a metric separate from Velocity that better represents value delivered to the customer? Well then, this episode is for you! In this episode, we discuss Business Value - what is it, how to use it, why to use it, when to use it, and who assigns it.
 
0:00 Topic Intro - Business Value
1:22 A Different Kind of Metric
4:28 Business Value = 0
10:15 Jira-Related Example
11:41 Who Assigns Business Value?
14:47 Communicating Why
17:18 Involving Others in Business Value
20:35 Pricing, Risk, and Collaboration
24:47 When to Assign
27:58 Negative Value
29:54 Which Scale to Use
32:59 Assigning via Community
38:05 How to Start
42:02 Better Conversations with "the Business"
47:35 Conclusion
50:01 Wrap-Up

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AP56 - Business Value

On this episode, Brian Orlando and Om Patel are joined by our favorite Special Mystery Guest to ponder an important question that does not get asked enough - does a Scrum Master really need to attend every single Scrum event (and every non-scrum event) that involves their team?

0:00 Intro & Topic Intro
0:32 What Else Are You Doing?
3:58 Scrum Events without the Scrum Master
6:12 Scrum Master and Refinements
11:07 Three Teams is Two Too Many
13:33 Can You Skip Sprint Review?
16:35 Fact Checking Time
18:08 Essential Scrum Master Event
19:59 Tangent on Taking Advantage of Commitments
26:06 Scaling without Scaling
30:21 Not Doing Three Question Stand-Ups
35:38 PO Protecting Psychological Safety
36:20 Brian as a Scrum Master
38:06 Different Ways into Product Manager/Owner
43:10 Communicating and Importance of the SM
46:44 Hold Leadership Accountable with Kanban
49:25 Positive Influence through Visualization
53:57 Wrap-Up
54:15 Blooper Reel

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AP55 - Can a Scrum Master Skip Meetings?!?

On this episode, Brian Orlando and Om Patel talk with Sr. Product Owner Anitra Pavka about her experiences across the software development and agility field - from Web Developer, to Business Analyst, to Scrum Master and Agile Coach, to Product Owner/Manager and beyond.

...and BEYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOND!

0:00 Intro
0:22 Anitra's Background
3:57 Exploring Cultures
6:48 Agility Enters the Picture
11:58 Learning by Trying
13:09 Creating Great Teams
16:17 Resistance, Perfection, and Bad Actors
19:56 Agile Aggravations
23:09 Job Descriptions in Agile (they're getting worse)
26:25 Improving Agile
29:02 Adding Perspectives to Agile
33:46 Intentional Exclusion
36:23 Changing Agile: Systems Thinking & Agility at the Top
42:06 Being an Organizational Change Agent
44:58 Advice
49:25 Influences and Influencers
54:55 Forming Trust and Teams
58:45 Coaching Up (Coaching the Organization)
1:03:33 What's Next for Anitra
1:04:13 Wrap-Up

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AP54 - Anitra Pavka: Sr. Product Owner