Product Agility

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SAFe, also known as Scaled Agile Frameworks, is one of the most popular #agile frameworks for trying to create nimble, adaptable, agile organisations. How successful it is at this seems to divide the #agile community.

As companies prioritise #businessagility, they tend to look for #agile frameworks that closely resemble their current way of working and infrastructure. This confirmation bias makes change hard for large organisations and leads them to be very conservative when considering options for new ways of working.

As such, #SAFe has grown in popularity with traditional leadership teams.

Unfortunately, #SAFe has also required a reputation for being at best, a bridge between being a "traditional" organisation and a truly #agile one. There is a great deal more failed adoptions in #SAFe than there are successful adoptions which have placed #SAFe firmly in the 'trough of disillusionment' using Gartner's Hype Model.

On the one extreme, the hardcore #agile evangelists dismiss #SAFe as nothing more than a corporate wolf dressed in #agile clothing. On the other hand, conservative executives view it as a low-risk transition framework that enables them to tap into some of the low hanging fruit offered by #agile ways of working.

So, which is right?

Ben Maynard, #LeSS expert and #coach, walks us through the differences between #SAFe and #LeSS (Large Scale #Scrum). 

Ben has worked in countless agile environments and balances the visionary ideals of the #agilemanifesto with the pragmatic reality of working in large organisations that embrace logical transitions in favour of bold transformations.

If you are considering a #scrum adoption with a #scalingframework, visit https://www.sheev.co.uk to find out how Ben can help your organisation become more effective.

#agile #scrum #largescalescrum #agileframework #projectmanagment #productdevelopment #projectmanager #SAFe #scaledagileframeworks

Host Bio

Ben is a seasoned expert in product agility coaching, unleashing the potential of people and products. With over a decade of experience, his focus now is product-led growth & agility in organisations of all sizes.  

Stay up-to-date with us on our social media📱!

Ben Maynard

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/benmaynard-sheev/

🐦 https://x.com/BenWMaynard

💻 https://sheev.co.uk/ 

Product Agility Podcast 

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/company/productagilitypod/ 

💻 https://productagilitypod.co.uk/

🖇️ https://linktr.ee/productagility

Listen & Share On Spotify & iTunes

• Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0lkwAYJzVSuk5zfJ1vIDZq?si=4c691fb12f124a56
• iTunes - https://apple.co/3YvTX8p

Want to come on the podcast?

Want to be a guest or have a guest request? Let us know here https://bit.ly/49osN80 

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John Coleman is a wizened and skills agile leader and practitioner.

So when he started talking to me about "Agile Islands" and "Agile Archipelagos" I wondered if success had gone to his head and it was finally his time to come off the boil.

NOT THE CASE IT SEEMS!

Most of us have heard of agile bubbles made popular by Michael Sahota and the commonly held belief was how do you increase the bubble to consume the entire organisation. What John proposes is something very different and terrifically though provoking.

So in this episode, John shares with us his approach to getting organisational agility, just not in the way that many of us had tried and failed to do in the past, by provoking us to ponder:

🏝️ Can forming a culture bubble of agility be an evolutionary approach?
🏝️ Should we start slowly? Expand carefully? Improve carefully? Or just go hell for leather?
🏝️Are the pathways to organizational agility numerous?
🏝️ Should we opt for evolution or revolution?

Remember to check out the LeSS Matters community on Meetup

Host Bio

Ben is a seasoned expert in product agility coaching, unleashing the potential of people and products. With over a decade of experience, his focus now is product-led growth & agility in organisations of all sizes.  

Stay up-to-date with us on our social media📱!

Ben Maynard

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/benmaynard-sheev/

🐦 https://x.com/BenWMaynard

💻 https://sheev.co.uk/ 

Product Agility Podcast 

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/company/productagilitypod/ 

💻 https://productagilitypod.co.uk/

🖇️ https://linktr.ee/productagility

Listen & Share On Spotify & iTunes

• Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0lkwAYJzVSuk5zfJ1vIDZq?si=4c691fb12f124a56
• iTunes - https://apple.co/3YvTX8p

Want to come on the podcast?

Want to be a guest or have a guest request? Let us know here https://bit.ly/49osN80 

Send us Fan Mail

Host Bio

Ben is a seasoned expert in product agility coaching, unleashing the potential of people and products. With over a decade of experience, his focus now is product-led growth & agility in organisations of all sizes.  

Stay up-to-date with us on our social media📱!

Ben Maynard

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/benmaynard-sheev/

🐦 https://x.com/BenWMaynard

💻 https://sheev.co.uk/ 

Product Agility Podcast 

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/company/productagilitypod/ 

💻 https://productagilitypod.co.uk/

🖇️ https://linktr.ee/productagility

Listen & Share On Spotify & iTunes

• Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0lkwAYJzVSuk5zfJ1vIDZq?si=4c691fb12f124a56
• iTunes - https://apple.co/3YvTX8p

Want to come on the podcast?

Want to be a guest or have a guest request? Let us know here https://bit.ly/49osN80 

Send us Fan Mail

Will Robots take over the earth? 

Will agile be the catalyst to our demise?

Dinesh Sharma doesn't share his thoughts on the annihilation of humankind but in the little podcast nugget he doe's tell us what he think the next big thing in agile will be (nd it is kind of related)

Stay up-to-date with us on our social media! 

LeSS Matters website - https://www.lessmatters.co.uk 

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/less-matters-community/?viewAsMember=true 

Twitter - https://twitter.com/LeSSMattersComm

Host Bio

Ben is a seasoned expert in product agility coaching, unleashing the potential of people and products. With over a decade of experience, his focus now is product-led growth & agility in organisations of all sizes.  

Stay up-to-date with us on our social media📱!

Ben Maynard

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/benmaynard-sheev/

🐦 https://x.com/BenWMaynard

💻 https://sheev.co.uk/ 

Product Agility Podcast 

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/company/productagilitypod/ 

💻 https://productagilitypod.co.uk/

🖇️ https://linktr.ee/productagility

Listen & Share On Spotify & iTunes

• Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0lkwAYJzVSuk5zfJ1vIDZq?si=4c691fb12f124a56
• iTunes - https://apple.co/3YvTX8p

Want to come on the podcast?

Want to be a guest or have a guest request? Let us know here https://bit.ly/49osN80 

Send us Fan Mail

Tim is an experienced organisational agile coach, I work with individuals, teams, and organisations to help them to improve, he is also (as you would guess) an experienced agile coach, certified trainer and Scrum Master.

Tim's agile mindset grew through experience in a startup and it is this agile mindset that helps to drive this conversation...

Originally we were going to talk about dependencies, something along the lines of 

🤯 "Are they all bad?"

🤯"Is it possible or even beneficial to remove all the "red string" (as made famous by SAFe to track dependencies)"

But then we got distracted by the rather tantalising topic...

Why are some organisations more successful with agile before they know what it is?

Is it because, once we learn, for example, Scrum, we are more self-conscious about following the steps as documented rather than just free styling in the moment?

Or to put it another way, doe's not knowing about Scrum, SAFe, LeSS, for example, helps us to focus on responding to what is made apparent to us, rather than always going back to the sacred text to tell us what the next step should be?

As you listen, perhaps consider this question, Does knowledge over understanding hinder true, in the moment adaptability?

Host Bio

Ben is a seasoned expert in product agility coaching, unleashing the potential of people and products. With over a decade of experience, his focus now is product-led growth & agility in organisations of all sizes.  

Stay up-to-date with us on our social media📱!

Ben Maynard

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/benmaynard-sheev/

🐦 https://x.com/BenWMaynard

💻 https://sheev.co.uk/ 

Product Agility Podcast 

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/company/productagilitypod/ 

💻 https://productagilitypod.co.uk/

🖇️ https://linktr.ee/productagility

Listen & Share On Spotify & iTunes

• Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0lkwAYJzVSuk5zfJ1vIDZq?si=4c691fb12f124a56
• iTunes - https://apple.co/3YvTX8p

Want to come on the podcast?

Want to be a guest or have a guest request? Let us know here https://bit.ly/49osN80 

Send us Fan Mail

Dr. Wolfgang Richter is one of the only, if not the only person I know who has a PHD in Agile.

He is also a lovely person.

In this episode, Wolfgang Richter and host Ben Maynard shortcut spending years researching for a PHD and try and share valuable nuggets all the way through....

🎓 What makes an effective elevator pitch
🎓The best Agile and Large Scale Scrum elevator pitch yet?
🎓 What do Bruce Lee and Large Scale Scrum have in common?
🎓Is a "perfect" Definition of Done ever achievable?
🎓What is the one thing Wolfgang loves above all others regarding Large Scale Scrum (LeSS)
🎓If Wolfgang could change one thing about Large Scale Scrum (LeSS) what would it be?
🎓Doe's having too much stuff hinder our ability to perform, as individuals or organisations?
🎓What nerdy hobby do Wofgang and Ben have in common?
🎓Do we need to go to the agile framework crypt to resurrect some long forgotten, but very good ideas?

Stuff that was spoken about

• Wolfgang's Large Scale Scrum Case Study - Merkur
• JIPP.IT
• JIPP.IT YouTube Channel
• The scaling framework, Limbo, by Kent Beck

Stay up-to-date with us on our social media! 

LeSS Matters website - https://www.lessmatters.co.uk 

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/less-matters-community/?viewAsMember=true 

Twitter - https://twitter.com/LeSSMattersComm 

Host Bio

Ben is a seasoned expert in product agility coaching, unleashing the potential of people and products. With over a decade of experience, his focus now is product-led growth & agility in organisations of all sizes.  

Stay up-to-date with us on our social media📱!

Ben Maynard

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/benmaynard-sheev/

🐦 https://x.com/BenWMaynard

💻 https://sheev.co.uk/ 

Product Agility Podcast 

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/company/productagilitypod/ 

💻 https://productagilitypod.co.uk/

🖇️ https://linktr.ee/productagility

Listen & Share On Spotify & iTunes

• Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0lkwAYJzVSuk5zfJ1vIDZq?si=4c691fb12f124a56
• iTunes - https://apple.co/3YvTX8p

Want to come on the podcast?

Want to be a guest or have a guest request? Let us know here https://bit.ly/49osN80 

Send us Fan Mail

Tim is an experienced organisational agile coach, I work with individuals, teams, and organisations to help them to improve, he is also (as you would guess) an experienced agile coach, certified trainer and Scrum Master.

Tim's agile mindset grew through experience in a startup and it is this agile mindset that helps to drive this conversation...

Do dependencies mean that someone has dropped the ball when it comes to your organisational structure? Some think that ZERO dependencies are possible others think that many many dependencies are ok and just need to be managed.

Would it hurt you to find out neither is true?

Me and Tim explore these topics to help better understand what on earth is going on:

🎯 When scaling do organisations forget about the I of INVEST and this is why they design work to that creates avoidable dependencies between teams? 
🎯 Do some approaches make condone organisations having dependencies and promote us having centralised dependency management?

We talk about other stuff too, but these are the things I thought would get you to listen 😘

Host Bio

Ben is a seasoned expert in product agility coaching, unleashing the potential of people and products. With over a decade of experience, his focus now is product-led growth & agility in organisations of all sizes.  

Stay up-to-date with us on our social media📱!

Ben Maynard

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/benmaynard-sheev/

🐦 https://x.com/BenWMaynard

💻 https://sheev.co.uk/ 

Product Agility Podcast 

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/company/productagilitypod/ 

💻 https://productagilitypod.co.uk/

🖇️ https://linktr.ee/productagility

Listen & Share On Spotify & iTunes

• Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0lkwAYJzVSuk5zfJ1vIDZq?si=4c691fb12f124a56
• iTunes - https://apple.co/3YvTX8p

Want to come on the podcast?

Want to be a guest or have a guest request? Let us know here https://bit.ly/49osN80 

Send us Fan Mail

The centralisation of strategy and planning is clearly the best idea anyone ever had.

I mean, what could go wrong?!

💥💥💥💥💥💥

Turns out quite a lot 🤨

Tim Robinson has some strong opinions on this topic, that's why I loved our conversation.

In this natter, we talk about 

🎯Does the reduction of queues (like Product Backlogs) naturally lead to more centralised planning and strategy? 
🎯How much planning should we divest to teams?
🎯Do  component teams lead to centralised planning?
🎯If you have dependences, is empowerment dangerous? Impossible? Sudo? Even Fake? 

This is the first of three conversations with Tim, keep those eyes peeled for the next episodes!

Host Bio

Ben is a seasoned expert in product agility coaching, unleashing the potential of people and products. With over a decade of experience, his focus now is product-led growth & agility in organisations of all sizes.  

Stay up-to-date with us on our social media📱!

Ben Maynard

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/benmaynard-sheev/

🐦 https://x.com/BenWMaynard

💻 https://sheev.co.uk/ 

Product Agility Podcast 

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/company/productagilitypod/ 

💻 https://productagilitypod.co.uk/

🖇️ https://linktr.ee/productagility

Listen & Share On Spotify & iTunes

• Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0lkwAYJzVSuk5zfJ1vIDZq?si=4c691fb12f124a56
• iTunes - https://apple.co/3YvTX8p

Want to come on the podcast?

Want to be a guest or have a guest request? Let us know here https://bit.ly/49osN80 

Send us Fan Mail

Dr. Richter has more experience with agile and project management than so many of us and a solid knowledge of approaches to help organisations be agile that spreads far beyond just Scrum and Kanban...

So when I asked the question "What in the agile world should have been bigger" his answer came from a deep understanding of what works and what does not work when coaching individuals, teams or organisations through an agile journey.

Listen to this and be learn why Wolfgang and I believe that Kanban and Scrum should never be the only options we have.

Who is Wolfgang?

Dr. Wolfgang Richter is the founder and CEO of JIPP.IT GmbH, an Agile Change Agency. He is a Certified Scrum Trainer (CST), Certified LeSS Trainer (CLT) and Coach and works with Scrum and Agile Methods since 1998. He and his team specializes in improving processes and structures by using agile methods and principles. Agile Transformations is one of the main activities. The portfolio comprises Software Development, Portal Development, Agile Training, Agile Consulting, and Innovation. 

Host Bio

Ben is a seasoned expert in product agility coaching, unleashing the potential of people and products. With over a decade of experience, his focus now is product-led growth & agility in organisations of all sizes.  

Stay up-to-date with us on our social media📱!

Ben Maynard

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/benmaynard-sheev/

🐦 https://x.com/BenWMaynard

💻 https://sheev.co.uk/ 

Product Agility Podcast 

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/company/productagilitypod/ 

💻 https://productagilitypod.co.uk/

🖇️ https://linktr.ee/productagility

Listen & Share On Spotify & iTunes

• Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0lkwAYJzVSuk5zfJ1vIDZq?si=4c691fb12f124a56
• iTunes - https://apple.co/3YvTX8p

Want to come on the podcast?

Want to be a guest or have a guest request? Let us know here https://bit.ly/49osN80 

Send us Fan Mail

Everyone loves hopping on a bandwagon that will seemingly make them happier, more successful or for some, just richer.

For the last 20 years of agile there have been many supposed and actual next big things, so what is next?

Wolfgang Richter has over 20 years of experience in working in agile environments (and an agile based PHD to boot) so hearing his answer to this was an education for me (and probably for you too)


Who is Wolfgang?

Dr. Wolfgang Richter is the founder and CEO of JIPP.IT GmbH, an Agile Change Agency. He is a Certified Scrum Trainer (CST), Certified LeSS Trainer (CLT) and Coach and works with Scrum and Agile Methods since 1998. He and his team specializes in improving processes and structures by using agile methods and principles. Agile Transformations is one of the main activities. The portfolio comprises Software Development, Portal Development, Agile Training, Agile Consulting, and Innovation. 

Host Bio

Ben is a seasoned expert in product agility coaching, unleashing the potential of people and products. With over a decade of experience, his focus now is product-led growth & agility in organisations of all sizes.  

Stay up-to-date with us on our social media📱!

Ben Maynard

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/benmaynard-sheev/

🐦 https://x.com/BenWMaynard

💻 https://sheev.co.uk/ 

Product Agility Podcast 

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/company/productagilitypod/ 

💻 https://productagilitypod.co.uk/

🖇️ https://linktr.ee/productagility

Listen & Share On Spotify & iTunes

• Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0lkwAYJzVSuk5zfJ1vIDZq?si=4c691fb12f124a56
• iTunes - https://apple.co/3YvTX8p

Want to come on the podcast?

Want to be a guest or have a guest request? Let us know here https://bit.ly/49osN80