Ever wondered how creativity and collaboration can ignite your professional journey? We had a blast chatting with our longtime friend, Kevin McClure, Senior Manager in the Digital Experience team at Ford Motor Credit. He revealed the fascinating story of how he transitioned from a finance degree and sales career to a product manager, rekindling his creative spark along the way.

In this riveting conversation, we delved into the importance of visualization skills and empathizing with customers for successful product development. Kevin shared his experiences with powerful tools for mapping out his mind and illustrating the flow of value in a way that is tangible and easily presentable to stakeholders. We also discussed the exciting journey from BA to Scrum Master, the evolution of our partnership, and how treating product development like a business can lead to impactful results.

This episode is jam-packed with valuable insights, from UX maturity to the entrepreneurial spirit and metrics-driven decision-making. Don't miss out on learning from Kevin's experiences and discovering ways to channel your creativity into success. And hey, if you love the episode, post a repost with the hashtag #AgileSticks and tag us for a chance to win a free Agile for Agilist sticker pack! Let's keep the creativity flowing!

Join hosts Drew and Brad on an exciting episode of The Agile for Agilists Podcast, as they welcome special guest Kevin McClure, a Senior Manager at Ford Credit with a wealth of experience as a Product Manager for multiple Fortune 500 companies. In this captivating conversation, Brad and Kevin reflect on their experiences at Meijer and explore the fascinating journey that led Kevin to excel in the field of product management. Gain valuable insights into the power of visualizing work and effectively presenting those visualizations, while also discovering Ford Credit's innovative strategies for deepening their understanding of customers. Tune in to this episode to gain useful perspectives on agile practices, effective product management techniques, and the pivotal role of customer-centric approaches.

Welcome to another exciting episode of "The Agile For Agilists Podcast" hosted by Brad Nelson and Drew Podwal. In this episode, we have the pleasure of welcoming our special guest, behavioral design and product coach, Dom Michalec. Join us as we explore the elements of behavioral design and how this method can unlock the potential within your teams and revolutionize the way agile coaches approach facilitating transformation journeys.

During this insightful conversation, Dom shares his wealth of experience in creating user-centric and behavior-driven design solutions in contrast to facilitating organizational change by combining the principles of human behavior and agile methodologies. As an avid student of Dr. BJ Fogg and Tiny Habits Certified Coach, Dom highlights how the Fogg Behavior Model enables coaches to identify and align motivations, abilities, and prompts within individuals, fostering a fertile ground for agile adoption.

Dom shares how this approach can be used both for good and evil, as well as how to apply it in your own life to finally build the habits you have been struggling with for years. While this method is definitely a life hack, Dom assures us that it is not the Jedi Mind Trick. It can be just as powerful though in the right hands!

Throughout the episode, Brad, Drew, and Dom engage in a dynamic conversation that delves into the practical applications of behavioral design principles and how they can be seamlessly integrated into both product design and the agile transformation process. Listeners will gain a high-level understanding of what Behavior Design is, along with actionable tips for integrating these strategies into agile events, such as sprint planning, daily stand-ups, and retrospectives, to optimize collaboration, enhance productivity, and foster a continuous improvement mindset.

Join us on "The Agile For Agilists Podcast" as we uncover the immense potential of leveraging behavioral design strategies in driving an enterprise's agile transformation. Get ready to transform your organization into an agile powerhouse that thrives on human-centric principles!

Episode Links:

The long-awaited Agile showdown is finally here, Story Points vs No Estimates!  Amanda Rae Arseneau is back to team up with co-host Brad Nelson to go head-to-head with Drew Podwal, in a debate that you won’t want to miss!

3. https://itrevolution.com/product/accelerate/

4. https://cloud.google.com/devops

5. https://support.puppet.com/hc/en-us/articles/221368047-The-2023-State-of-DevOps-Report-is-here-

6. https://www.ebayinc.com/stories/news/expert-joshua-kerievsky-discusses-modern-agile-at-ebay/

Are you tired of office politics and personality clashes standing in the way of your team's or organization's growth of Agile capabilities? In this episode we discuss how to navigate workplace friction reveal how examining startup culture can provide valuable insights for accelerating the delivery of value in larger organizations.

Brad Nelson and Drew Podwal sit down with Organizational Fixer, Entrepreneur Coach, and Culture Consultant Elizabeth O'Neill to unpack the secrets of startup agility, innovation, and behavioral strategies that enable such rapid delivery of value to its customers. We highlight the practices and modalities that enterprise companies can adopt from startups in order to support a more engaged, empowered and customer focused workforce. (Spoiler we talk about culture!)

We wrap up our discussion by examining how self-awareness and active listening help agile coaches manage biases, build trust, and tailor their approach to individual clients. Elizabeth provides insight that allows coaches to connect to their clients and leadership on a deeper level, and identify underlying issues that may be impeding progress.

So, if you're ready to bring some startup culture to your enterprise organization, then you're in the right spot because it's time to think like a startup and take your enterprise to the next level!

After two weeks of travel to Miami and Dallas, Brad has returned to the podcast with tales of his travels. In this episode, Drew welcomes Brad home and attempts to tap into his goldfish memory with a discussion on lessons learned, recognition to fellow presenters, and highlights of Brad's presentations "The Velocity Trap" and "Platforms as a Product." The Velocity Trap highlights the dangers of only measuring productivity and shares how to get started with outcomes, whereas Platforms as a Product reveals how Product Thinking can transform component teams from barriers to enablers.

Brad discusses briefly what Transform at Insight is, including Brad's presentation on Platforms as a Product, leading Drew and Brad to have a high-level discussion on scaling with platform teams, guilds and tribes, and SAFe.

Brad also shares AIC highlights from Rick Reguiera's work with the leadership at TracFone, David Hartmann's skill-tree approach to career development, Quincy Jordan creating personal awareness and space with Agile Psychology (and Eminem), and Veronica Stewart treating her agile transformation like a product with Radical Product Thinking and lessons learned from Shark Tank.

Lastly, Brad provides a brief overview of his talk, The Velocity Trap, and Drew and Brad tease the impending but never scheduled talk with Amanda Rae Arseneau on #NoEstimates.

Jump into this episode to hear Brad butcher names, an overview of some great events, and a more casual conversation between Drew and Brad.

Checkout Brad's upcoming conference dates:

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In this episode of Agile for Agilists, we explore the often-overlooked fact that corporations are made up of human beings, and therefore, when we are coaching an organizational transformation we are actually coaching people with emotions and feelings. Hosts Brad Nelson and Drew Podwal team up with former school teacher turned Agile Consultant Patty Aluskewicz to share practical strategies for supporting individuals through the emotional challenges of transformational change.

Knowledge of the Agile values, principles, practices, and tools is what makes a coach an "Agile Coach," but effectively coaching the adoption of Agile is more about creating a safe space for individuals to express their concerns, fears, and uncertainties. Coaches can build trust and mitigate resistance by acknowledging the individual and harnessing a collaborative approach to continuous improvement. With lessons from the classroom and years of experience facilitating the growth of agile environments, this conversation offers a thoughtful and nuanced approach to coaching organizational transformations.

Tune in to discover how recognizing the importance of human emotions can lead to a more successful transformational initiative, how to tailor coaching approaches to support individuals through the transformational process, and the benefits of creating a culture of collaboration and co-creation.

Having a wildly successful product takes more than solving the right problem for the right users. It also requires paying customers. We are joined in this episode by Director of Product and Growth Strategy Expert, Diego von Sohsten, who shares his experience in his own failed startup and how that has made him a better Product Manager today. Tune in to learn tips and tricks, as well as hear about Diego's journey from Brazil to Canada and from developer to product manager, and his successful quest to capture that mythical unicorn.

Diego von Sohsten - https://www.linkedin.com/in/diego-vs/

Clayton Christensen's Jobs to Be Done - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXYm-CVzPQ0

We did it! We recorded and published our first season of the Agile For Agilists Podcast. In this bonus episode, Drew and Brad reflect on the efforts that have gone into launching a podcast from scratch, the challenges along the way, and the lessons they have learned. If you are interested in hearing more about the behind-the-scenes of the Agile For Agilist Podcast, then tune into this transparent and vulnerable bonus episode where the guys try to live what they preach.