Backlog refinement is essential for Agile teams, but it's easy to fall into the trap of overloading the backlog with too much detail—or not enough. In this episode, we tackle one of the most common and painful mistakes teams make: detailing work too early or too late. Discover how to keep refinement manageable and effective by structuring your backlog with just the right level of detail, using the PO Board model for clarity and flow. Plus, actionable tips to eliminate churn and restore calm to your backlog refinement process.

Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/avoiding-the-detail-trap/

Share a challenge or episode idea: [email protected]

Connect with Humanizing Work: https://www.linkedin.com/company/humanizingwork

Too many year-end retrospectives suffer from recency and peak-end biases, causing them to devolve into superficial reviews or Q4 gripe sessions. In this episode, we share a structured approach to help teams and organizations overcome those biases and conduct meaningful reflection sessions that drive real improvement.

Learn how to:
✨ Start with purpose to ground your retrospective
Use the ORID framework (Observation, Reflection, Interpretation, Decision) to guide meaningful discussion
Create timelines that capture the full year’s experience
Scale the approach for different team sizes and contexts

Whether you’re planning an individual reflection, team retrospective, or organization-wide review, this episode provides practical tools to make your year-end reflection more valuable.

Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/how-to-run-an-effective-year-end-retrospective/
Share a challenge or episode idea: [email protected]
Connect with Humanizing Work: https://www.linkedin.com/company/humanizingwork

"A beautifully detailed plan feels great—until reality intervenes." In this episode, Richard and Peter share hard-earned lessons about annual planning from their work with hundreds of organizations. They reveal why most companies should spend less time on detailed strategies and more time clarifying vision.

Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/annual-planning-that-works/

Share a challenge or episode idea: [email protected]

Connect with Humanizing Work: https://www.linkedin.com/company/humanizingwork

What’s the real difference between Product Owners and Product Managers? This episode explores the evolving definitions of these roles and highlights how modern Product Management thought leadership aligns with the fundamentals of Great Product Ownership.

Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/are-product-owners-product-managers-the-same-thing/

Share a challenge or episode idea: [email protected]

Connect with Humanizing Work: https://www.linkedin.com/company/humanizingwork

"We've cut scope as much as we can, but the team still isn't fast enough." Sound familiar? In this episode, Richard and Peter reveal what actually makes teams faster—and it's probably not what you think. Learn the three key levers that influence team speed, common pitfalls to avoid, and practical steps you can take to sustainably increase your team's capacity. Perfect for engineering leaders, product managers, and anyone responsible for team performance.

Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/make-a-team-faster/

Share a challenge or episode idea: [email protected]

Connect with Humanizing Work:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/humanizingwork

https://www.facebook.com/HumanizingWork

https://twitter.com/HumanizingWork

https://twitter.com/rslawrence/

https://twitter.com/tptman/

Are deadlines the enemy of Agile? Many teams think so. But while unreasonable deadlines can destroy morale and quality, legitimate business timing needs shouldn’t be ignored. In this episode, we explore how to work productively with deadlines while maintaining Agile principles:

Whether you’re a leader trying to make commitments to stakeholders or a team member struggling with deadline pressure, this episode offers concrete strategies for making peace with deadlines in an Agile context.

Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/deadlines-in-agile/

Share a challenge or episode idea: [email protected]

Connect with Humanizing Work:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/humanizingwork

https://www.facebook.com/HumanizingWork

https://twitter.com/HumanizingWork

https://twitter.com/rslawrence/

https://twitter.com/tptman/

How do you lead a high-performing, empowered team? Kevin Goldsmith, a former Adobe and Spotify leader, joins the Humanizing Work Show to share his journey from engineering to executive leadership. We explore his take on the Spotify Model, how he approaches mentoring new managers, and why positional authority matters more than most leaders realize. Perfect for anyone in tech, leadership, or agile, this episode offers a fresh perspective on building sustainable, people-centered organizations.

Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/kevin-goldsmith/

Share a challenge or episode idea: [email protected]

Connect with Humanizing Work:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/humanizingwork

https://www.facebook.com/HumanizingWork

https://twitter.com/HumanizingWork

https://twitter.com/rslawrence/

https://twitter.com/tptman/

Get an inside look at how professional facilitators design and run high-stakes remote meetings. Follow along as we dissect a real 50-person marketing team retrospective, from initial planning through execution and lessons learned. Perfect for anyone looking to level up their meeting facilitation skills or manage large-scale remote collaboration.

Useful Links:

https://www.humanizingwork.com/fix-your-meetings-with-david/

https://www.humanizingwork.com/the-art-of-focused-conversation/

https://www.humanizingwork.com/why-scrum-works-when-it-works/

https://www.humanizingwork.com/getting-feedback-on-wip/

Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/retro-behind-the-scenes/

Share a challenge or episode idea: [email protected]

Connect with Humanizing Work:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/humanizingwork

https://www.facebook.com/HumanizingWork

https://twitter.com/HumanizingWork

https://twitter.com/rslawrence/

https://twitter.com/tptman/

Does it take meeting after meeting to get to a decision in your organization? Do decisions you thought were done come back to life if someone later feels like they weren’t included enough?

In this episode, Richard and Peter discuss how to identify a consensus culture and share some practical tools and advice for making faster, more effective decisions while still maintaining the values that create a consensus culture. You don’t get better decisions in a consensus culture by just becoming individualistic and authoritarian—you get better decisions with better tools and skills.

Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/decision-making-consensus-cultures/

Share a challenge or episode idea: [email protected]

Connect with Humanizing Work:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/humanizingwork

https://www.facebook.com/HumanizingWork

https://twitter.com/HumanizingWork

https://twitter.com/rslawrence/

https://twitter.com/tptman/

In this edited rebroadcast from Season 2, Episode 2, we explore the surprising lessons a professional jazz quintet can teach us about business cultures and teams.

The original, unedited version with all of the music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhvOJoZmTMs

Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/business-and-jazz/

Share a challenge or episode idea: [email protected]

Connect with Humanizing Work:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/humanizingwork

https://www.facebook.com/HumanizingWork

https://twitter.com/HumanizingWork

https://twitter.com/rslawrence/

https://twitter.com/tptman/