Jack Skeels is the CEO and Founder of AgencyAgile. There are many organizations devoted to helping companies transform to agile, but AgencyAgile is the only one that is solely focused on helping Digital Agencies adopt Agile. In this interview Jack shares his thoughts on Agile and what makes it succeed or fail in a Digital Agency context.

SHOW NOTES

00:10 Interview Begins

00:40 Background on Jack and Agency Agile

01:24 How Jack ended up helping Digital Agencies adopt Agile

05:10 Trying out different types of Agile

06:10 Taking a job so you can run experiments in how to manage projects

08:12 You can’t make people trust

09:13 Jack’s initial questions for management: How much pain are you in? How much gain do you want?

09:52 What is the hardest part for a Digital Agency adopting Agile?

11:52 Transforming the agency AND their clients. Training is not enough

13:40 Do we need a new flavor of Agile tailored to Digital Agencies?

17:26 Does Agile actually make things work better? Are there actual business benefits?

18:38 How does AgencyAgile “sell” Agile to companies?

21:32 We need to stop disempower team members. They care as much as we do.

24:39 Can we actually get consistent cross-functional teams in an Agency?

25:22 Designing work stream teams of 25

26:07 Transforming the whole agency at once

27:31 Are there clients who are not ready to transform yet?

31:10 Letting go of learned behavior

32:30 What do we need for Agile to work in a Digital Agency?

33:19 Agile will work when it becomes a management initiative NOT a Project Management Initiative

34:53 How you can learn more about the AgencyAgile approach

36:10 Books about Agile that Jack recommends

37:00 Jack response to “We can’t do Agile because we’re fixed bid.”

38:10 Advice from Jack for those who want to adopt Agile in a digital agency

39:07 Where you can learn more about Jack

40:11 Interview Ends

Links Mentioned in the Podcast

2017 Digital PM Summit: http://bureauofdigital.com/summits/digital-pm-2017/

Books by Bas Vodde and Craig Larman

Practices for Scaling Lean & Agile Development http://amzn.to/2uCR6AV

Scaling Lean & Agile Development http://amzn.to/2wXVKWG

Contacting Jack:

Website: https://www.agencyagile.com

Blog: https://www.agencyagile.com/insights/

Medium: https://medium.com/@jackskeels

Twitter : https://twitter.com/agencyagile

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackaskeels/

If you are interested in this topic, please stay tuned for more. In preparation for a session I am leading at the 2017 Digital PM Summit (ttp://bureauofdigital.com/summits/digital-pm-2017/), I have been doing lots of interviews about how to make Agile work in a digital environment.