How do you manage a large portfolio of initiatives while driving real business value?

In this episode of the Scrum.org Community Podcast, Dave West talks with Nabila Sattar Safdar about her experience leading the transition from a project-based to a product-based portfolio. Nabila shares how she reduced a backlog of over 100 projects to 30 strategic initiatives, aligned teams around value streams, and created a culture of learning and continuous improvement.

Listeners will hear practical strategies for:

• Partnering with leadership and steering committees to prioritize initiatives
• Using data to inform decisions while balancing learning with delivery
• Investing in team capability and training to close gaps
• Taking a holistic view of people, technology, and customer outcomes

Whether you’re a product leader, Scrum Master, or portfolio manager, this episode offers insights on how to make portfolio management more agile, strategic, and value-focused.

In this episode of the Scrum.org Community Podcast, host Dave West sits down with authors Sander Dur and Ryan Brook to explore their new book, The Anatomy of a Product—a practical field guide that uses the human body as a metaphor to demystify modern product management.

Dave, Sander, and Ryan dive into why so many organizations still struggle to define and manage products effectively, and how this book helps bridge the gap between theory and real-world practice. They discuss treating products as living systems, the dangers of “marshmallow backlogs,” the need for evidence-driven decisions, and why continuous care and adaptation are essential for healthy products.

The authors share insights from working with organizations like Miro, unpack common “product diseases,” and offer actionable guidance for Product Owners, product teams, and leaders seeking clarity in today’s complex environment.

Listeners are invited to connect with the authors and join them at their book launch event in Amsterdam on January 13!

Key Points

Why the Book?
Clarifies what a product is and offers a practical guide from definition to retirement.
Human Body Metaphor
Products are like living systems—interconnected, adaptive, and influenced by their environment.
Theory vs. Practice
Helps teams apply product concepts realistically, beyond Silicon Valley-style theory.
Insights from real examples
Real-world examples showing how to balance strategy, business thinking, and everyday product work.
Backlog Health
Avoid “marshmallow backlogs” by filtering work through strategic goals and focusing on value.
Validation & Evidence
Emphasizes validating ideas early and aligning efforts to outcomes, not just requirements.
Product Health
Introduces “product diseases” and how to diagnose and prevent common issues.

Links:

Book Launch event

The Anatomy of a Product

In this Scrum.org Community Podcast episode,  Lindsay Velecina from Scrum.org sits down with Robb Pieper and Jason Malmstadt of Responsive Advisors to answer the real, practical questions practitioners have about self-management in Scrum in a live Ask a PST session.

Listeners submitted questions like:

• How do you get management to support self-management?
• What should you do when a team resists taking ownership?
• How do you handle a disruptive team member without taking over?
• What metrics show that self-management actually works?
• How can junior Scrum Masters enable self-management when they’re not technical?
• AND MANY MORE!

Robb and Jason tackle these questions head-on, sharing stories from the field, strategies for creating healthy team boundaries, and tools to make decision-making transparent — including Delegation Poker, feedback loops, and working agreements. They also discuss how to tie self-management to real business outcomes to gain leadership buy-in.

Whether you’re just beginning your Scrum journey or coaching mature teams, this episode gives you actionable guidance and small experiments you can start using today.

In this Scrum.org Community Podcast episode, host Dave West speaks with Nathaniel Davis, CEO of Barrel One Collective, and PST Yuval Yeret about applying Agile principles beyond software — into the heart of business operations.

Nathaniel shares his journey from working in a large brewing company to leading Barrel One Collective, a brewing group where he’s working to make Agile the foundation for innovation and entrepreneurialism. Together, they explore how Agile thinking can balance experimentation and consistency, drive outcome-oriented leadership, and shape company culture as a product.

Tune in to hear how organizations can expand their definition of “product” — from beverages to behaviors — and how agility helps leaders continuously learn, adapt, and deliver value.

In this episode, Dave West sits down with Darrell Fernandes, executive advisor at Scrum.org to explore the The AI Teammate Framework: A Four-Step Framework for Product Teams, featured in a new whitepaper. They discuss how to treat AI like a true teammate—onboarding it with context, guiding interactions through user stories, and establishing governance to manage performance.

Darrell emphasizes the importance of structured AI adoption, comparing it to onboarding human team members, and highlights how a disciplined approach can improve efficiency, reduce costs, and even protect jobs. From writing AI job descriptions to building prompt libraries and governance strategies, this episode offers actionable insights for teams navigating the evolving AI landscape.

Listen now to learn how to bring AI onboard as a true teammate.

For more, there is a live webcast coming up next week that will also be available as a recording. Learn more.

Topics covered:

Introduction to the AI Teammate Framework

• Why a framework?
• The need for a structured, holistic approach to AI in teams

AI as a Team Member

• Treating AI like a teammate rather than a tool
• The importance of onboarding and providing context
• Comparing AI onboarding to human onboarding

The Four Steps of the Framework

1. Identify AI’s Role – defining the problem and writing an AI “job description”
2. Onboard with Context Management – giving AI access to product, customer, and process context
3. Interact Using User Stories – structuring collaboration through clear, outcome-based interactions
4. Governance and Performance Management – ensuring accountability, compliance, and efficiency

Challenges of Working with AI

• Context management and maintaining prompt libraries
• Balancing AI experimentation with structure
• Cost, scalability, and efficiency concerns

Lessons from the Early Days of Cloud Computing

• Parallels between the AI adoption curve and cloud evolution
• The shift from unregulated enthusiasm to disciplined governance

Future of AI in Product Teams

• The importance of a disciplined, thoughtful approach
• How structured AI collaboration can enhance — not replace — human work

Actionable Next Steps for Teams

• Read the white paper
• Assess current onboarding and management practices
• Apply the four-step framework to integrate AI effectively

On this episode of the Scrum.org Community Podcast, Dave West welcomes Professional Scrum Trainer Bogdan Onyshchenko to explore the Agile Product Operating Model (APOM). They discuss how APOM offers a holistic, principle-based approach for product organizations—going beyond Scrum to address team motivation, vendor management, strategic decision-making, and more.

Bogdan shares insights on the importance of transparency, frequent delivery, and self-organization. The episode also gets into balancing prescriptive advice with flexible principles, understanding the “why” behind agile practices, and using APOM as a practical tool for improving outcomes and value delivery.

Listeners will gain practical guidance on applying APOM in their own organizations and learn how this evolving model continues to support teams and leaders in delivering value effectively.

Learn more about APOM. 

Topics covered:

Defining the Agile Product Operating Model (APOM)

Practical Applications of APOM

Balancing Prescriptive and Principle-Based Approaches

The Importance of Understanding the "Why"

Operating Models vs. Frameworks

Building on last week’s episode on AI and Operating Systems in SMBs, Dave West and PST Yuval Yeret dive into the challenges of scaling small and medium-sized businesses.

Dave shares lessons from growing an organization from a small team to over 100 people—navigating silos, new stakeholders, and keeping teams outcome-focused. Yuval highlights common scaling pitfalls and explores frameworks like EOS, Scaling Up, and D4X, emphasizing vision, strategic goals, and evidence-based management.

Learn how to maintain agility at scale, build cross-functional teams, and create an operating system that drives sustainable growth.

Resource - Mastering Organizational Traction Trail Map

AI is forcing organizations to rethink how they operate. In this insightful conversation, Dave West and Yuval Yeret discuss the emerging need for a new organizational “operating system” that integrates AI into strategy, structure, and execution. They highlight the role of product thinking, OKRs, and continuous improvement in turning AI from hype into real business value.

In this special episode of the Scrum.org Community Podcast, Dave West sits down with Ken Schwaber, co-creator of Scrum, to celebrate 30 years since the initial introduction of Scrum at OOPSLA 1995, from which the paper, The Scrum Development Process was based.

Ken reflects on the origins of Scrum, the cultural challenges faced during early adoption in large organizations, and the critical importance of transparency, honesty, and teamwork. He shares insights into how Scrum has influenced software development practices such as DevOps and continuous delivery, and offers his perspective on AI as a tool to support—rather than replace—human teams.

From early pioneers to the modern evolution of Scrum, Ken shares stories, lessons, and hopes for the future: that Scrum will continue helping people and organizations achieve fulfillment, innovation, and success.

Join us for a thoughtful, candid conversation with one of the foundational voices of Agile.

In this episode of the Scrum.org Community Podcast, host Dave West is joined by Dr. Alan Brown—professor, executive advisor, and expert in AI and digital technologies—to explore how Agile teams can adapt and thrive in a rapidly evolving AI landscape.

Dr. Brown discusses the current state of AI adoption across industries and the need for thoughtful integration of AI into knowledge work. From model and prompt engineering to context and governance, he outlines the four key engineering disciplines that Scrum teams must understand. The conversation also highlights five critical pressure points organizations face—complexity, change management, alignment, value delivery, and people—and how Scrum can help teams respond to these challenges.

Rather than replacing Agile, Dr. Brown argues, AI augments it—opening up new opportunities for delivering value, improving decision-making, and accelerating learning.

Listen now to learn how to harness AI responsibly while staying true to Agile principles.