The Daily Standup

What Do Product Managers Do All Day?If you read a typical product manager job description, the role sounds very polished.Define vision.
Own the roadmap.
Drive strategy.
Work cross-functionally.
Deliver impact.It all sounds important, structured, and clear.And to be fair, none of it is wrong.
But it also doesn’t quite capture what the role actually feels like day to day.
So let me take you through a day in my life as a PM.How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠- [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠- [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

Lagging Behind? Metrics and Reporting MatterAsk any team what metrics they track, and you’ll get some version of the same list…
Velocity.
Story points completed.
Burndown.
Sprint goal hit rate.
Maybe defect counts if someone’s been paying attention.These numbers feel solid. They’re concrete, they’re consistent, and they show up reliably at the end of every sprint.
I get why teams hold onto them. There’s comfort in a number that doesn’t require interpretation — it either went up or it didn’t.The problem isn’t that these metrics are wrong. The problem is what happens when a team tries to improve them.How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠- [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠- [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

Happy Pioneer Day! Pioneer Day is a July 24th holiday that commemorates the arrival of the first group of Latter-day Saint (Mormon) pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, and it matters to American history because it captures both the courage of frontier migration and the complicated story of westward expansion, religious freedom, and colonization in the American West.How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠- [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠- [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

7 Principles on Building Trust From Ted LassoA few weeks ago, I found myself watching Ted Lasso, and what started as entertainment became something else entirely: a masterclass on what makes teams actually work, and I couldn’t stop thinking about what I was witnessing, this peculiar alchemy where incompetence somehow creates excellence.What struck me wasn’t the humor, though there’s plenty of it, but rather the central paradox that drives the entire narrative: here is a man who knows nothing about football, managing a professional sports team, and somehow his team doesn’t just perform better, they transform into something qualitatively different from what they were before.How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠- [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠- [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

Focus Requires Saying Not Yet ~ Mike CohnMany Scrum problems are really focus problems.
Organizations try to do too many things at once. They have too many initiatives, too many urgent requests, too many stakeholders, too many priorities, and too little willingness to say “not yet.”
Scrum makes this visible.
A sprint creates a short planning horizon for deciding what the team can accomplish next. A sprint goal identifies the outcome that matters enough for the team to organize around it. A product backlog makes visible what is more important than what.
Those are uncomfortable conversations in an organization that wants everything at once.
So the difficulty often gets pushed onto teams and product owners.
Product owners are asked to satisfy too many stakeholders. Teams are asked to start more work than they can finish. Leaders ask for predictability while priorities continue to change. Everyone wants the benefits of focus without making the tradeoffs focus requires.
That does not work.
A product owner can help by bringing focus to the team. That means saying what should be done and, just as importantly, what should not be done right now.
But product owners need support.
A product owner surrounded by stakeholders who believe every request is urgent will struggle to create focus unless leaders help establish the expectation that not everything can be first.
This is one reason Scrum can feel frustrating.
The team is asked to commit to a sprint goal, but the organization keeps behaving as if everything is urgent. The team is asked to be predictable, but priorities keep changing. The product owner is expected to make good priority decisions, but every stakeholder wants a different answer.
Scrum exposes the need for difficult prioritization.
That exposure is useful. It gives the organization a chance to make better decisions.
Try this: Before the next sprint, ask stakeholders and leaders to complete this sentence:
For this team to succeed in the next sprint, we are choosing not to work on ____ yet.
If no one can fill in the blank, the team probably does not have focus. It has a list of competing demands.How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠- [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠- [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

How to Give Clear Direction as a Leader, Without MicromanagingGiving clear direction is difficult. Honestly, we prefer that the people we talk to “just get it.” We go a step further, convincing ourselves that if they were smart enough, we shouldn’t have to speak too much before they “run with it.”If you give an instruction to a team member but only discover they weren’t aligned when the task is completed, you are a lazy leader. The best leaders ensure proper understanding, down to the context and nuances, if need be, before any execution starts.How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠- [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠- [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

The Most Important Leadership Skill No One Talks AboutWhen you perform improv, you step on stage without knowing how long the scene will last. You build a situation in real time. You react. You escalate. You try things. Sometimes it’s brilliant. Sometimes it’s chaotic. Often it’s both.What most people don’t realize is that the actors don’t decide when the scene ends.There’s someone in the lighting booth. They’re part of the troupe, but they’re not in the action. The booth is usually behind the audience, so they see the stage exactly the way the audience does. Same perspective. Same distance. And when they turn the lights off, the scene is over.How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠- [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠- [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

Happy Birthday to My Wife!A special birthday wish for my amazing wife! How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠- [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠- [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

If Your ScrumMaster Only Runs Meetings... You're Wasting Your Best LeaderAsk ten people what a ScrumMaster does, and you're likely to hear ten different answers."They run the Daily Stand-up.""They schedule Sprint Planning.""They update Jira.""They remove impediments.""They're the Agile coach.""They're the team's project manager."Some of those answers are partially correct.Most of them are incomplete.And that's becoming one of the biggest challenges facing Agile organizations today.Somewhere along the way, many companies unintentionally shrank one of the most influential leadership roles on an Agile team into something much smaller.A meeting facilitator.A calendar manager.A process referee.Someone who reminds everyone when the Sprint Review starts.That's not what the ScrumMaster role was designed to be.In fact, if that's all your ScrumMaster is doing...You're probably missing the greatest opportunity that role has to offer.Let's imagine two ScrumMasters.The first arrives every morning with a checklist.Start the Daily Scrum.Update the board.Send reminders.Schedule Retrospectives.Close completed stories.Generate reports.Stay organized.Nothing wrong with those activities.They're important.But now let's look at a second ScrumMaster.This person notices that two team members have stopped collaborating.They coach a Product Owner struggling to prioritize competing stakeholder requests.They help leadership understand why multitasking is slowing delivery.They facilitate a difficult conversation before it becomes a lasting conflict.They identify organizational policies that create unnecessary delays.They mentor new leaders.They build trust across departments.They help people solve problems they didn't even realize existed.Which ScrumMaster creates greater long-term value?The answer seems obvious.Yet many organizations still spend far more time measuring the first set of activities than the second.Why?Because administration is visible.Leadership often isn't.You can see a meeting on a calendar.You can't always see trust being built.You can count completed ceremonies.It's much harder to measure improved communication.You can track whether a Retrospective happened.It's much more difficult to quantify whether people actually feel safe speaking honestly during it.That's the challenge.The most valuable work ScrumMasters perform often happens between the ceremonies.Not during them.- [website] ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠- [instagram] ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠- [facebook] ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

AI Can Write User Stories... So What Does the Product Owner Do Now?If artificial intelligence can write user stories...What exactly is the Product Owner supposed to do?It's a fair question.Over the past year, we've watched AI tools generate acceptance criteria, organize backlogs, summarize stakeholder interviews, identify duplicate requirements, estimate effort, draft release notes, and even suggest Sprint Goals.Tasks that once required hours can now be completed in minutes.Some see that as a threat.I see it as an opportunity.Because for years, many organizations unintentionally reduced the Product Owner role to backlog management.Write stories.Prioritize tickets.Attend meetings.Answer developer questions.Repeat.Those activities are important.But they were never the reason the Product Owner role was created.The Product Owner exists for one purpose above all others.To maximize value.Not backlog size.Not story count.Not velocity.Value.That's where artificial intelligence changes everything.- [website] ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠- [instagram] ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠- [facebook] ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/