Stay ConnectedWe bring amazing agile minded individuals from product, coaching, entrepreneurship, and engineering space and bring you an immersive learning experience through stories and practices.
If you are an aspiring or new Scrum Master, Business Analyst, Product Owner, or Product Manager; you will take away a lot from these conversations!
Copyright: © Vivek Khattri
Landing your dream job straight out of school sounds great, but there's a big hurdle to cross first: the interview. It's not just a quiz about what you know; it's more about how you're ready to grow and handle challenges. Confidence plays a big role here, but let's face it, interviews can be nerve-wracking. The key is to build up your interview confidence like you would a muscle, with the right approach and mindset.
In this episode, we get into the nitty-gritty of job interviews with Neha, who's been through the wringer and come out on top. She's now a product manager and has some great insights on how to handle interviews, from the first handshake to the final questions. Neha's journey is pretty inspiring—starting off in business analytics, moving into the health tech industry, and now making waves at a company called Tree, where she's shaking up the influencer marketing world.
In this episode of The Agile Coach, host Vivek is joined back again with Adam Miner, an experienced Agile Coach with a background as a Scrum Master, to share his journey of breaking into his first Scrum Master role and transitioning into an Agile Coach role. He emphasizes the importance of personal growth and development outside of the nine-to-five job to set oneself apart in interviews. Adam also highlights the significance of understanding the company culture and team dynamics during the interview process. He advises candidates to focus on showcasing their unique experiences and perspectives to stand out from other candidates.
HIGHLIGHT QUOTES
Get to know Adam and what she’s up to:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-miner-77793129/
Connect with Vivek and Pabitra to find out more about what they're up to:
Vivek’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vivekkhattri/
Pabitra’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pabitrakhanal/
The Agile Coach LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-agile-coach-llc/
Agile Coach Website: https://theagilecoach.com/
If you enjoy The Agile Coach and are interested in learning more, you can check us out at our website https://theagilecoach.com/
In this episode of The Agile Coach, host Vivek is joined back again by Adam Miner, an experienced Agile Coach with a background as a Scrum Master. He has worked in various roles in the Agile space, including coaching and mentoring teams in Agile practices. Adam has a deep understanding of the Agile mindset and values and is skilled in facilitating change and driving organizational agility.
Adam shares his experience transitioning from a Scrum Master role to an Agile Coach role. He emphasizes the importance of developing the skill of influencing people through organic trust and respect. Adam believes that the ability to influence is crucial for both Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches. He also highlights the value of understanding the Agile mindset and principles, rather than focusing solely on specific frameworks or certifications. Adam discusses the challenges of working with leadership and management teams, particularly in overcoming resistance to change. He emphasizes the need for Agile Coaches to balance their knowledge of Agile practices with strong interpersonal and leadership skills. Adam encourages new Agilists to be opportunistic and step out of their comfort zones to gain experience. He also advises seeking guidance from experienced professionals in the desired role.
HIGHLIGHT QUOTES
Get to know Adam and what he’s up to:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-miner-77793129/
Connect with Vivek and Pabitra to find out more about what they're up to:
Vivek’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vivekkhattri/
Pabitra’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pabitrakhanal/
The Agile Coach LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-agile-coach-llc/
Agile Coach Website: https://theagilecoach.com/
If you enjoy The Agile Coach and are interested in learning more, you can check us out at our website https://theagilecoach.com/
In this episode of The Agile Coach, Vivek is joined by Abbie DeMartino, a development manager at Meijer, to share her journey from a sports coaching background to becoming a scrum master and eventually a development manager. She discusses the transferable skills she gained from her previous roles and how she applied them in the tech world. Abbie emphasizes the importance of being competitive, continuously learning, and building relationships with team members. She also provides insights into the challenges and rewards of her current role, including the need to keep up with ever-changing technology and the satisfaction of driving change and coaching others.
HIGHLIGHT QUOTES
What is it like being a scrum master and product owner - Abbie: “I think the scrum master and the product owner roles are tough. Like they're, it's a unique personality that you need. You need someone who's driven. You need someone who can handle conflict. You need someone who's able to have difficult conversations”
Scrum Master vs. Leadership Role - Abbie: “As a scrum master, I always felt like I could see pain points at the team level and I didn't have any power to do anything about it per se. Now being in a leadership role, I think I can drive change here. What's impacted my team? And I don't know what other word to say besides authority, but I don't mean authority but the ability to implement some of that change has been really exciting and just seeing wins in my team, right? So they're getting out a big body of work to production that they've spent, you know, multiple sprints on and to see it through and celebrate that with them.”
Get to know Abbie and what she’s up to:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abbie-gortsema123/
Connect with Vivek and Pabitra to find out more about what they're up to:
Vivek’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vivekkhattri/
Pabitra’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pabitrakhanal/
The Agile Coach LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-agile-coach-llc/
Agile Coach Website: https://theagilecoach.com/
If you enjoy The Agile Coach and are interested in learning more, you can check us out at our website https://theagilecoach.com/
In this episode of The Agile Coach, Vivek is joined by Laurin Lukas Stahl, Head of Product at Trality, to discuss the world of product management, exploring its definition, differences from project management, and its essential role in the product development process. Laurin, a guest on the show, shares valuable insights into the skills, mindset, and structured thinking needed to become an effective product manager. The conversation also touches on the potential of AI tools like Chat GPT in assisting product managers with tasks such as generating frameworks, facilitating communication, and accelerating product development. Vivek and Laurin emphasize the importance of continuous learning and provide resources for further exploration.
HIGHLIGHT QUOTES
Product Management: Delivering Products and Building Solutions - Laurin Lukas Stahl: “Product management is the idea that there is a central person within a product squad embedded in the overall idea of what the product needs, whose responsibility is finally to deliver the product, to shepherd it throughout each and every stage.”
Product vs. Project Management: Understanding the Difference - Laurin Lukas Stahl: “The main difference is that projects have defined scopes or timelines, whereas products aim to continuously deliver value to users and strive for improvement.”
Structured Thinking: Unlocking Effective Product Management - Laurin Lukas Stahl: “Structured thinking involves approaching problems with a clear process, using frameworks specific to the problem at hand, and communicating ideas effectively.”
Get to know Laurin and what he’s up to:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurin-stahl/
Connect with Vivek and Pabitra to find out more about what they're up to:
VIvek’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vivekkhattri/
Pabitra’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pabitrakhanal/
The Agile Coach LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-agile-coach-llc/
Agile Coach Website: https://theagilecoach.com/
If you enjoy The Agile Coach and are interested in learning more, you can check us out at our website
In this episode of The Agile Coach, Vivek is joined by Jonaed Iqbal, the CEO and Founder of NoDegree.com. Jonaed talks about social media, branding, and helping people pursue roles even without a college degree.
He walks us through the No Degree platform and how he creates content and interacts with people without degrees and helping them take the roles that best fit them. He shares key insights on constant learning especially when you don't have the "advantage" of having a degree.
HIGHLIGHT QUOTES
You can learn so much by being proactive - Jonaed: "You've got a degree? Ten years later and new technology comes out, what are you going to do? Lean in on your degree? No, you have to get involved. Things are always changing so immerse yourself."
Understand the role of recruiters - Jonaed: "The recruiter's job is not to help you out, their job is to help their clients fill roles. If you are their target market and they have a job for you, they'll be helpful. If not they will not be. This is a misconception people have because, the fact is, they're busy and they have their quota so you have to make it easy for them."
Get to know Jonaed and what he’s up to:
Connect with Vivek and Pabitra to find out more about what they're up to:
If you enjoy The Agile Coach and are interested in learning more, you can check us out at the link below:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-agile-coach-llc
In this episode of The Agile Coach, Vivek is joined by Priyanka Gyawali, the Chief Technology Officer at Belong Technology. Priyanka digs into her journey in tech from software engineer to CTO and the immense value of upskilling to get there.
She shares her thoughts on what makes a good product owner/manager and the changes ChatGPT is ushering in the way we process work for the better. For agile, Priyanka also champions giving people space to be creative to bring their ideas to reality.
HIGHLIGHT QUOTES
Changing and overlapping roles after going agile - Priyanka: "Things have changed like the number of roles in a project have changed. Previously it was the developer doing the designing as well, doing the QA, doing the BA, and then there was like a product owner. But like over time when things are more agile now, we have several roles, like people wear different hats, especially in my experience in the startup world."
Leaders should take the lead on implementing innovation - Priyanka: "Someone being a leader, they might not think about the things that are in the market, but then a developer who has hands-on experience and who might have already done that in another project, we can utilize their skill on that. So I guess it's about giving space to people in the team."
Get to know Priyanka and what she’s up to:
Connect with Vivek and Pabitra to find out more about what they're up to:
If you enjoy The Agile Coach and are interested in learning more, you can check us out at the link below:
In this episode of The Agile Coach, Vivek is joined by Joe Ziadeh, Chief Story Teller and Innovation Artist at Balanced Agility. They play around with ChatGPT to test if it can think and act like a scrum master in realistic situations.
Vivek and Joe run a few prompts and are definitely impressed by some of the answers. Although some are a bit drawn out, the AI has produced impressive results throughout the session.
HIGHLIGHT QUOTES
How does ChatGPT produce specific answers? - Joe: "After this is done, I want to try and give it something more generic. Because I feel like it could've picked this up off the web. But if it's coming up with these things, I am in shock."
Get to know Joe and what he’s up to:
Connect with Vivek and Pabitra to find out more about what they're up to:
If you enjoy The Agile Coach and are interested in learning more, you can check us out at the link below:
Welcome to another episode and today, Vivek welcomes Rye Hawley, a Scrum Master at Net Health. They discuss Rye's current role, his transition to tech, and his advice for his past and current self. Rye emphasizes the importance of continuous learning, identifying and resolving impediments, and striving for excellence in personal and professional growth. Learn more about Rye and his work in this latest episode of The Agile Coach.
HIGHLIGHT QUOTES
Acing an interview with less experience - Rye: “I'd recommend when people are in this interviewing stage, is really focusing on what you're bringing to a company, but also like how you're adding value to them, and also you have to think like the company's in a position where they need someone to fill this gap that they have, and so what can you bring to the table, focusing on the specifics there, I think that's what really helped and leveraged by success in interviews.”
Defining what is an impediment - Rye: “Impediments can come in the form of many things, especially in this day and age, I think we'll just talk about my teams and what impediments look like it could be anything from a failed server, or a database or some technical blockage that our developers experiencing. So that could simply mean connecting that individual with a subject matter expert that can help troubleshoot it. That could be an example of an impediment.”
Get to know Rye and Net Health:
Connect with Vivek and Pabitra to find out more about what they're up to:
If you enjoy The Agile Coach and are interested in learning more, you can check us out at the link below:
In this episode of The Agile Coach, Vivek sits down with Haley Prestwood, Scrum Master at Kroger Technology & Digital. Haley talks about her early experience in Agile and her transition from planning to go to law school to becoming a scrum master today.
She shares her insights on how to reaffirm yourself and excel in your role even if you don't initially have any background in IT or software development. She highlights the importance of learning and continuing to grow and how essential this can be in the Agile environment.
HIGHLIGHT QUOTES
Don't be afraid to ask questions - Haley: "Don't be afraid to ask questions and get off mute in meetings. When I first started in my first role, I was so scared to come off mute and ask questions but that's really how you're going to improve and grow."
Lean on the Agile coach community - Haley: "That has been so supportive for me is just staying connected. I've been in IT for 3 years now but I still stay in touch with so many people in the program and that's been very beneficial and helps me continuously grow my knowledge and improve."
Get to know Haley and check out the book she recommended:
Connect with Vivek and Pabitra to find out more about what they're up to:
If you enjoy The Agile Coach and are interested in learning more, you can check us out at the link below:
In this episode of The Agile Coach, Vivek sits down with Joe Justice, CEO of WIKISPEED and Chairman of the Agile Business Institute. Joe talks about all that he has learned about innovation and how it relates to Agile after working with Elon Musk.
He gives us an inside look at a few processes at the Musk companies and the processes they implement for cost reduction and innovation. Joe shares his insights on scrum and how effectively it helps in calling different roleplayers to collaborate and work seamlessly all throughout.
HIGHLIGHT QUOTES
What is Agility? - Joe: "Agility is making change cheaper in time, money, and emotional willpower like making it less draining and even more fun. That is the game. How Elon says, it is "Pace of innovation is the only thing that matters in the long run." And that's working really well for Elon from a business perspective. Agility is that."
Agile is to reduce the cost to make a change - Joe: "Change is expensive in a traditional mindset and then disruption increases the cost of your existing plan. If you're able to respond quickly to change, then change is a cost-advantage to you."
Get to know Joe and what he’s up to:
Connect with Vivek and Pabitra to find out more about what they're up to:
If you enjoy The Agile Coach and are interested in learning more, you can check us out at the link below:
This episode of The Agile Coach is the second part of our conversation with Mikaylah McCarty, Scrum Master at Universal Parks & Resorts. She shares the best practices when building the resume, improving LinkedIn, and other aspects to focus on when interviewing or applying for an Agile role.
Mikaylah talks about the importance of starting the role right and adopting the right mindset once you start doing what's needed from you. She also highlights the need to continue learning and that you are never confined to just one role as a scrum master.
HIGHLIGHT QUOTES
Understand your story so you don't have to lie - Mikaylah: "You can embellish, you can make something sound bigger, but never lie on your resume because that's cheap. A true scrum master when you're interviewing can see straight through that. I'd know you don't know what you're talking about."
Show up with your best self every day - Mikaylah: "There are thousands of people who want to take my job at Universal and I remind myself that every single day. I am replaceable and I think that is the biggest mentality to note and that stems to everything."
Get to know Mikaylah and what she’s up to:
Connect with Vivek and Pabitra to find out more about what they're up to:
If you enjoy The Agile Coach and are interested in learning more, you can check us out at the link below:
The Agile Coach with Vivek and Pabitra sits down with Mikaylah McCarty, Scrum Master at Universal Parks & Resorts. Scrum Masters lead cross-functional and agile teams. They provide the how to the what and deliver realistic outcomes quickly to customers.
She shares her journey to becoming a Scrum Master and how to capitalize on networking opportunities. Mikaylah advises aspiring Scrum Masters to seek out a mentor to guide them and to double down on the skill of communication as creating a safe space but also commanding the room is the role of a Scrum Master.
HIGHLIGHT QUOTES
Scrum Masters provide the HOW to the WHAT - Mikaylah: "A Scrum Master's role is to then take whatever they're prioritizing and say, how are we going to get it done? Product owner is the what in the team. The Scrum Masters are the how, that's the value that we provide to the team is okay, they're saying we got to get this done. We have the team members ready to do the work. The scrum master will then say, this is how it's going to work."
Lead from the front and add skills to your tool belt - Mikaylah: "Get down there with your team. If you don't know it, learn it. If all you can do is sit there, sit next to them and rub their back and give them a donut, like do that. Supporting your team. Never saying, it's not my job. Never say you can't do it, and gaining as many skills in your tool belt as you can."
Get to know Mikaylah and what she’s up to:
Connect with Vivek and Pabitra to find out more about what they're up to:
If you enjoy The Agile Coach and are interested in learning more, you can check us out at the link below:
In this episode of The Agile Coach Podcast, Vivek talks with Angela Johnson, Chief Change Officer & Certified Scrum Trainer at Collaborative Leadership Team and author of The Scrum Master Files. She talks about working with leadership as an Agile coach and working through resistance Agile transformation in organizations.
HIGHLIGHT QUOTES
You have to have a handle on what you're trying to measure - Angela: "People will say things like, 'we have to go faster' or 'we can't keep up with the competition.' But all of those reasons I firmly believe that they're sincere, they're just not measurable."
It's okay to assume some leaders don't have clarity - Angela: "Even leaders who think they have a clear vision of where they're going, they may be assuming that people are doing what they think is the top goal but that's not necessarily the case until they follow up or verify."
Get to know Angela and check out her book:
Connect with Vivek and Pabitra to find out more about what they're up to:
If you enjoy The Agile Coach and are interested in learning more, you can check us out at the link below:
In this episode of The Agile Coach Podcast, Vivek talks with Angela Johnson, Chief Change Officer & Certified Scrum Trainer at Collaborative Leadership Team and author of The Scrum Master Files. She talks about the necessary people skills that scrum masters need and how to handle conflict effectively as a scrum master.
HIGHLIGHT QUOTES
Don't shy away from conflict as a scrum master - Angela: "Sometimes when people are just misunderstanding each other or communication is breaking down, a scrum master has got to get in there sometimes with their black and white stripes and their whistle almost like a referee but oftentimes it's just to help."
How to provide better feedback - Angela: "Instead of making it about you and telling them what they're doing wrong, why don't you invite their participation? Why don't you get them to come up with the answer?"
Get to know Angela and check out her book:
Connect with Vivek and Pabitra to find out more about what they're up to:
If you enjoy The Agile Coach and are interested in learning more, you can check us out at the link below:
In this episode of The Agile Coach Podcast, Vivek talks with Pabitra about how she got into Agile, the transition from her first job to where she's now today, and if she would have changed her Agile Career today. They share about the different changes in the space and the overall process of starting a career in Agile.
HIGHLIGHT QUOTES
Leading a team to become a self-empowering unit - Pabitra: "Really think about how I help them in their personal or professional growth so that they feel like they're valued at work not just what they're producing but also their feeling valued at work because somebody actually cares about their growth."
There are always transferrable skills - Pabitra: "No matter what job that you have, there are a lot of the non-technical side or more of the people side of things and business side of things because, at the end of the day, you work for a business. No matter what your role is, you're helping businesses do better."
Connect with Vivek and Pabitra to find out more about what they're up to:
If you enjoy The Agile Coach and are interested in learning more, you can check us out at the link below:
The Agile Coach with Vivek and Pabitra chats with Andrej Dzidic, Director of Project Management - Technical at Mastercard. He breaks down the role of people skills in the success of a product management role, as well as shares how he built trust to navigate people's expectations. Different stakeholders have different priorities, so being able to build a relationship with each of them creates less friction when actually performing your role as a product manager.
HIGHLIGHT QUOTES
Sales skills are a good foundation for product management - Andrej: "I think sales is a great way to break into product management because you do have that people communication skills. You think about success, you think about revenue, and then you're also getting customer feedback so you are working with the product every now and then by providing input on what the customer wants. And second, with product management and product ownership, you care a lot about go-to-market strategy."
Product managers need to earn trust - Andrej: "From the outside looking in, product management looks like such a cakewalk. It's not. There's a whole political landscape you have to navigate. And so, with product coming in, I knew some of the business stuff from the MBA and from previous roles I had in previous experience and I was pretty good with people so when it came to talking to people, okay, I got this in the bag. Now what I didn't realize is you have an engineering team who's like oh yeah, that's a ton of work. It's not. And so you have to decide for it and figure out what's actually true and what isn't. So you have to earn trust."
Get to know Andrej and what he’s up to:
Connect with Vivek and Pabitra to find out more about what they're up to:
If you enjoy The Agile Coach and are interested in learning more, you can check us out at the link below:
The Agile Coach with Vivek and Pabitra chats with Andrej Dzidic, Director of Project Management - Technical at Mastercard. He defines what product management is and how his team sets up strategies with buy-in from engineering leadership.
Andrej also shares how he builds teams by performing a gap analysis and prioritizing a potential product manager's communication skills. He talks about mentoring others using prioritization strategies and clarifies that a degree is not needed to enter a product; so be aware that competition is tough but not impossible to break through.
HIGHLIGHT QUOTES
Product management is about creating synchronicity - Andrej: "When I think about product management, you really don't have a successful product if you don't meet product market fit, right? So when you're thinking about it initially, you might think, okay, how quickly are we actually pushing things to the market and are we meeting that equilibrium point? But for me, what I really started to care about was predictability. So how in sync are our product managers with our business stakeholders?"
Become great at the product by creating your own product - Andrej: "If you've never been a product owner or product manager, go out and build a product. Go and find someone on Fiverr who can do some light work for you that's relatively cheap. Make some wireframes, put together a backlog, and let's see you build a product. I mean, I do it in my free time, so even though I'm working in product, I'm trying to figure out how can I build something so that I can just go work because I love product management."
Get to know Andrej and what he’s up to:
Connect with Vivek and Pabitra to find out more about what they're up to:
If you enjoy The Agile Coach and are interested in learning more, you can check us out at the link below:
The Agile Coach takes a deep dive with Joe Ziadeh, Chief Story Teller and Innovation Artist at Balanced Agility, into his journey to becoming a certified ICE-AC agile coach. He shares the differences between mentoring and coaching, how to practice facilitation, and his own growth as a coach himself as his biggest learning experiences in this journey.
HIGHLIGHT QUOTES
Mentors solve the problem with you, coaches help the person behind it - Joe: "As a coach, your coachee or client, however you want to call it, shows up and they say, hey, I've got a problem that I need to solve. And the coach comes in and says okay, cool. How can I help you? Not the problem. Let's talk to you and figure out what's going on in your life. How are you working on this problem? What can we do to support you so that you can solve the problem on your own."
Teach the way the brain wants to learn which is through activity - Joe: "There are a lot of ways that we can learn that are more exciting, more interesting, and more effective. So then we start teaching based on the way our brains work. So gains, activity, getting people moving around, laughter, jokes, music, bright colors, interactivity. All of these things combined together create a much more effective and enjoyable learning experience."
Get to know Joe and what he’s up to:
Connect with Vivek and find out more about what he’s up to:
If you enjoy The Agile Coach and are interested in learning more, you can check us out at the link below:
The Agile Coach sits down with Joe Ziadeh, Chief Story Teller and Innovation Artist at Balanced Agility, as he shares how to approach and engage teams as an agile coach. Joe breaks down his insights when working with new teams, from entering the team with mutual respect to the very mindset that makes an agile coach effective.
Joe gives tips on how to create psychological safety to encourage transparent conversation and shares some activities he does with new teams. He also discusses how he aligns with stakeholders and leadership and how key metrics are based on goals that leaders must first define. Lastly, Joe provides expert tips on hiring agile facilitators and some qualities to look for in product owners.
HIGHLIGHT QUOTES
Create psychological safety by bonding with the team - Joe: "The first thing that you need to do is, as a coach, you need to connect with every person on that team. And there are going to be people who don't necessarily want to connect with you. And you have to set up one-on-ones. You have to bond with these people. You have to connect with them as human beings."
Deal with leadership through expectation management - Joe: "The higher up in the organization you get, it's a question of, hey stakeholder, what is it that you want to see from this? What does this team need to do to make you happy, to be successful? In your mind, what are the things that you can see that would keep them from being successful, and how can we prevent them? And then what can we do so that in the future when the team needs help, you are in a position to help them?"
Providing air cover for supporting difficult decisions - Joe: "You'll run into situations, where as a leader, your job isn't to make sure that the organization runs clockwork the way it's supposed to. The vast majority of your time is spent on when stuff goes wrong, how do I pick up the pieces and get us back to what we should be doing?"
Get to know Joe and what he’s up to:
Connect with Vivek and find out more about what he’s up to:
If you enjoy The Agile Coach and are interested in learning more, you can check us out at the link below:
Today, we feature the best moments of our conversation with Richard Seroter, Director of Developer Relations and Outbound Product Management at Google Cloud. He discusses what it means to be a product owner and how to work with engineers, end users, and everyone in between.
Richard shares how to exercise leadership as a product owner and work with stakeholders not as a boss but as a member of the team. He also talks about using data points to prioritize feature decisions, instilling self-governance and accountability, and promoting continuous improvement in the team.
HIGHLIGHT QUOTES
A product owner leads through influence - Richard: "A good product owner leads through influence. They don't have direct authority. They don't have a management staff of people. The engineers don't report to them. But you are leading often by showing that you have their back. And, for me again, that was a very underrated aspect that if you're a good product owner, the engineers think you are covering for them in a good way."
Don't procrastinate and always ship at the end of each release - Richard: "I don't think you're going to have a good time if you don't force your team to ship after the end of each release, each sprint, because if you don't ship, what's really easy to do? Let's just roll it into the next one. If you have that failsafe, you're going to use it versus like nope, we ship at the end of each release."
Get to know Richard and what he’s up to:
Connect with Vivek and find out more about what he’s up to:
If you enjoy The Agile Coach and are interested in learning more, you can check us out at the link below:
Today, The Agile Coach looks back on our conversation with Banu Raghuraman who is now a Course Instructor with The Agile Coach and Digital Project Manager at EY. In order to lead, you need empathy, and being an emphatic leader has positive implications for how well you resonate with team members and stakeholders alike.
Banu provides tips on relationship building and digs into the actual ways to communicate with stakeholders. She gives tips on influential leadership which informs how to negotiate with other people, how to open to new ways of thinking to resolve unprecedented problems, and how to be upfront about risk.
HIGHLIGHT QUOTES
Create trust by following through with promises - Banu: "Trust comes from how much of what I say lines up with what I do. It's a massive input of integrity that you have to show because obviously when you're coming in and talking to a person for the first time, we can all be nice. There are plenty of internet articles out there that tell you how to make a good first impression. But after that, how much you follow through is what's important, and that sense of integrity is what people need to understand."
Document when decisions are made so everyone understands the why - Banu: "If you don't understand the why behind a specific decision, then it really becomes a political game. And there are different ways of dealing with the political side of things, but if there was a rational decision that was being made and generally in product management, I've been fortunate enough not to get into the political side of things but really understand why a certain decision was made. Document that and make sure everyone understands the why."
Get to know Banu and what she’s up to:
Connect with Vivek and find out more about what he’s up to:
If you enjoy The Agile Coach and are interested in learning more, you can check us out at the link below:
Today, we speak again with Joe Ziadeh, the Chief Story Teller and Innovation Artist at Balanced Agility. He knows how estimation is done best by pinning it relative against the size of another thing and determining if it is bigger or smaller than that. Joe also talks about story points and how to relatively size them and use the Fibonacci sequence because it is simply what worked for many people a long time ago.
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Today, we speak again with Joe Ziadeh, the Chief Story Teller and Innovation Artist at Balanced Agility. He discusses the differences between ideas and insights and how to perform a root cause analysis like the 5 Why's. This strategy reveals the insights hidden in the data and opens up possible experiments the team can perform to address the root cause of the issue.
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Today, we feature the most impactful, thought-provoking, and actionable tips from our conversation with Joe Ziadeh, the Chief Story Teller and Innovation Artist at Balanced Agility. He shares how to facilitate team retrospectives by creating trust within the team first and using games and improv to actually brainstorm. These games can be used to overcome power plays in a team and create a space where it is safe to address problems and find solutions for them.
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What roles does the product manager actually take in the company? Neha believes that, more than the job description, product managers play a huge role in enabling teams in overall processes even if we don't see it directly. In this episode of The Agile Coach, Vivek and Neha dive deep into the skills that are unnecessary and those that are important in order to become an effective product manager.
AGILE HIGHLIGHTS
AGILE MOMENTS
On what made Neha choose the path of product management:
“Ultimately, it all came down to the impact that product managers have on decision-making within the company. You hear a lot of the time “product and CEO of the company” and I don't believe that as true. It's really that product people are enablers for their team.”
Neha's on critical thinking as a core skill:
“I think one skill that's also very important for a product manager is having critical thinking skills. So, really look at what the problem is at hand and work collaboratively with your teams to come up with the solution that balances need of the customer, the business, and why it's technically feasible.”
Neha on how data can best back you up:
“Everything that we mentioned, stakeholder management, all of that I think is basically the cherry on top if you have this to back you up which is data-driven. I think it's really important to use whatever data you have at hand to make the right decisions”
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I
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Welcome to another episode of The Agile Coach! We have a special episode for you today as we bring back some of the best moments of our amazing guest, Parth Detroja, Product Manager at Facebook and author of Swipe to Unlock.
Tune in for some of the best insights and highlights in our previous interview with Parth!
HIGHLIGHTS
“Showing that you've helped tangibly shape real products is the biggest thing that will open doors for you. Take any elite university, there are thousands of students at that same university so it's kind of hard to stand out in that regard.”-Parth on where the college degree adds value
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In this episode of The Agile Coach, Pabitra talks about assessing Agile teams in the sense of a Japanese martial arts concept which is the Su Ha Ri. She dives deep into each of the three stages, how scrum masters can work most effectively in each stage, and how you can also assess yourself and identify which stage you're in.
AGILE HIGHLIGHTS
AGILE MOMENTS
Pabitra - When the team reaches the Ri stage:
“This is a beautiful stage to be in and for a coach to see the team get to this stage is amazing to witness. If these are true and your team is at a Ri stage, you really need to let them go in a way.”
Pabitra - Seeing the team become a high-performing team:
“There are always different approaches to get the same results. So at this stage, the team can come up with their own solutions, they just need a coach to help them find different ways to achieve what they need.”
Pabitra - Moving between the three stages as a scrum master:
“Am I showing up as a teacher? A coach? An advisor? And that is what a true coach does is consistently evaluating and uncovering better ways of helping the team at the end of the day.
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Welcome to another episode of The Agile Coach! We have a special episode for you today as we bring some of the best moments of our amazing guest, Diana Larsen, President and Leadership Agility Advisor at Eos House Consulting and author of Agile Retrospectives.
Tune in for some of the most notable highlights and learning points in our previous interview with Diana!
HIGHLIGHTS
“It's not about individual performance. It's about how we work together to create a system where we can make sure that people's best is good enough for what we need. ”
-Diana on being able to push your team to their best
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In this episode of The Agile Coach, Pabitra continues the talk about identifying the anti-patterns for the different roles in a scrum team. This time, she discusses specifically about common anti-patterns of a scrum master. Tune in to find out and avoid these anti-patterns early on in your journey as a scrum master or improve if you've already been one for a long time.
AGILE HIGHLIGHTS
AGILE MOMENTS
Pabitra - Believe in Agile in order to bring the necessary change:
“If somebody is a scrum master or Agile practitioner, I believe that the person has to be passionate about Agile because it's so much about you uncovering yourself. ”
Pabitra - On why prioritizing connection is important:
“As a scrum master or change agent, when you come into an organization you have to understand that change is hard. There is a lot of fear when a lot of changes are happening in an organization.”
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Welcome to another episode of The Agile Coach! We have a special episode for you today as we bring some of the best moments of our amazing guest, Adam Miner, Founder of Miner Legacy Group and Agile Coach at Huntington National Bank.
Tune in for some valuable nuggets of insight and information in our past two interviews with Adam!
HIGHLIGHTS
“Number one is that I have to be the ultimate example of being transparent. Part of this is about not necessarily playing the bureaucratic, political game in organizations. My personality and style with my teams is not to be the stubborn optimist. If something is going wrong and it's on fire, I'll empathize with that and I'll say this is not a good situation to be in.”
-Adam on fostering transparency in teams
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In this episode of The Agile Coach, Pabitra talks about identifying the anti-patterns for the different roles in a scrum team. She dives deep into the usual anti-patterns observed for anyone in a product owner role so you can identify these and get rid of them as early as you can. Tune in to find out the common signs of these anti-patterns and the most effective solutions you can apply.
AGILE HIGHLIGHTS
AGILE MOMENTS
Pabitra - When product owners step into the role of a scrum master:
“If they take the role too seriously and don't necessarily understand that a scrum master is not necessarily a project manager or manager for the developers, this can backfire and they mind end up being more controlling and interfering more than helping the team.”
Pabitra - A solution for backlogs not being ready:
“As a product owner, you always want to be thinking ahead. If the development team is working on starting user stories for whatever time box your company may have, you want to be thinking about the next sprint or iteration.”
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A TEAM THAT GROWS TOGETHER, STAYS TOGETHER
In this special episode of The Agile Coach, Pabitra goes solo to discuss the 5 stages of team development. As a scrum master, it is very important to be intact with your team and Pabitra is here to help you. Tune in to find out which stage is most crucial, and how you can get more ideas and feedback from your team.
AGILE HIGHLIGHTS
AGILE MOMENTS
Pabitra - The most crucial stage of a team
“Second is storming stage two of the five and it's considered the most critical and also the most difficult stage to go through. It can be riddled with conflicts such as individual personalities and working styles really clashing within the team.”
Pabitra - Empower your team and let them be heard
“Instead of thinking you have to have all the answers and give it to them, empower them to come up with your own answers, and do it as a team to facilitate those conversations. That way the team feels like they're being heard. And they feel like they can come and share their ideas and feedback.”
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Welcome to another episode of The Agile Coach, and today will be special, as we will be bringing you some of the best moments of our guest, Matthew Philip, Senior Director, Agile Coaching and Kaizen Lead at Pfizer.
Tune in and find out what’s the best moment in our interview with Matt, and watch out for more highlights in the coming episodes.
HIGHLIGHTS
“The idea of focusing on outcomes to me is really putting the most important thing out there and saying, it's also a way of acknowledging that we don't know we work in a complex environment, and it's essentially putting us in a mindset of experimentation and hypothesis making.” -Matthew on focusing on outcomes and not outputs
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Welcome to another episode of The Agile Coach, and today we are back with Laurin Lukas Stahl, as he and Vivek continue to discuss more details about product management, what it’s like to onboard as a new PM, understanding product market fit, and the importance of making mistakes and making it a learning opportunity.
HIGHLIGHTS
QUOTES
Laurin - On-boarding as a new product manager:
“The first 90 days are crucial to how you're going to basically get on-boarded to the new company, to a new product that you're working on. So when I was a new product manager starting out in that company, before I even had any leadership and strategic responsibilities, I really wanted to get an understanding.
Laurin - Defining Product Market Fit:
“It basically means you need to define the metric for your price, about what you based on what the nature of the product is, what product market fit would mean for you.”
Laurin - Mistakes are part of the game:
“You shouldn't be afraid to make mistakes, because otherwise, you will only try to make safe changes that don't change the game, then you'll just start optimizing and trying to improve metrics by a little bit because you're afraid to make big changes that could have a big impact.”
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ARE YOU LOOKING FOR A CAREER IN PRODUCT MANAGEMENT? Then this is the episode for you!
Learn what is a product manager and his/her role in the business as a whole, the ins and outs of this job in terms of day-to-day tasks, and its dynamics with the product management team.
Today we have Laurin Lukas Stahl on board. Laurin is the Head of Product at Trality and is a great source of insight into product management. Meet Laurin and learn more from him in this latest episode of The Agile Coach.
HIGHLIGHTS
QUOTES
Laurin - Defining a product manager:
“The product manager that is working on a specific product or feature in a specific scope, that's the person who's supposed to have all the information available to make the right decisions on how the product is supposed to be taken for.”
Laurin - Role of a product manager:
“Make all the decisions and have all the information available, while always trying to get as much value out as possible with as little resources as possible. So basically, how can I drive the product forward as efficiently as possible.”
Laurin - Important attribute of a product manager:
“One thing is curiosity. So I really like to understand how things work and to take things apart.”
Laurin - Strategizing for a product:
“The number one thing is actually having a product strategy and making sure that everyone that works with the product is following and agrees with the same strategy.”
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In this episode of The Agile Coach, Vivek and Pabitra will go in-depth with explaining the difference between a Sprint Review and a Sprint Retrospective. Pabitra will be spilling all the juicy details from the definition, to how each of these two activities is executed.
HIGHLIGHTS
QUOTES
Pabitra - Defining a Sprint Review:
“Sprint Review really is a more of an informal event that happens into the sprint and is really to showcase what the team has done over the sprint, really the product increment, what did they create.”
Pabitra - The need for databases:
“Even though the stakeholders might not understand the technicality of it, just talking about it and saying, we needed to create this database, or we needed to do this thing on the back end, and now because we have this, here is how it's gonna help.”
Pabitra - Defining a Sprint Retrospective:
“Sprint retrospective is a big deal for the team and also for the scrum master because that's one meeting that you solely are responsible for.
Pabitra - Keep it fresh and fun:
“You want to keep it spicy, you want to keep it fun and engaging, and so definitely restarts, research some things so that you can keep it fresh and keep alternating throughout.”
Pabitra - Don’t make it a blame game:
“We want to talk on how we improve on these different things, but we're not here to blame anybody, and so really putting that up there, it's definitely important.”
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IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PLAN.
Vivek and Pabitra will be sitting down today to discuss the ins and outs of sprint planning.
Tune in and learn how sprint planning is done, what challenges you may face and the best methods to use straight from our hosts, only here in the latest episode of The Agile Coach.
HIGHLIGHTS
QUOTES
Pabitra - The importance of goal-writing:
“Coming up with goal-writing the goal based on what the team is committing to a lot of times it's not just like the user story, but the outcome is if we complete this set of a user story or this functionality.”
Pabitra - Why autonomy is needed in a team:
“We're trying to create self-organizing autonomous teams, and so if I don't give that autonomy to the team, we don't know what our capacity is yet.”
Pabitra - The purpose of backlog refinement:
“The way I see the purpose of backlog refinement is to look at the product backlog and create that shared understanding more than anything.”
Pabitra - Best way of doing a stand-up:
“The best method to conduct a stand-up, I found is to kind of walking the board. So instead of like calling on each person and making it seem like that person is giving a status.”
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Lynnea is back for another round in The Agile Coach. In this episode, Lynnea will be talking about Radical Self Awareness, where she and Vivek will be touching on The Drama Triangle, its roles, and how it is observed. Tune in and learn more about how this awareness can be used in your daily role.
Haven’t checked Part 1 with Lynnea Brumbaugh yet? Don’t miss Episode 58: CONSCIOUS LEADERSHIP: What It Is, What It Does, How It’s Done, With Lynnea Brumbaugh (Part 1)
HIGHLIGHTS
QUOTES
How Lynnea defines radical self-awareness:
“When life feels constricted, we start playing roles, we start putting on our masks, we show up not as our sort of glorious, amazing people that we actually truly are.”
Lynnea talks about the roles in the drama triangle:
“If there's a melodrama on stage, you've got a hero, you got a victim, and you got a villain. And those are the three main drama roles that the Drama Triangle place.”
Lynnea presents the 3 steps of observing the drama triangle:
“Step one would be we notice it and other people step, notice it in ourselves, and step three is stepping back and becoming curious becoming the observer of the drama. So it's always easier to detect ego behavior, like drama mask behavior in other people.”
How Lynnea defines a healthy state of being:
“A healthy expanded state of being means that our behaviors, and our thoughts and our emotions are literally responding to whatever is happening at this moment.”
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Last week we talked about minding emotions as a leader, this week, we will be talking about conscious leadership. And there’s no better way to do this than having Lynnea Brumbaugh in this latest episode of The Agile Coach. Lynnea is the CEO of Quantum Empowerment Academy, dedicated to its advocacy of transformational leadership. Tune in to Lynnea and Vivek as they unpack what conscious leadership is and how it helps leaders improve.
HIGHLIGHTS
QUOTES
How Lynnea defines conscious leadership:
“Conscious leadership is living from the present moments, like living in this moment. And then having the ability to lead other people from a deep place of this is now this is today, this is not what happened last week.
Lynnea on handling employee blind spots:
“Step one for blind spot awareness is taking a breath or two taking learning to take some conscious breaths.”
How Sagar sees organizations strive to innovate:
“Because when we work with our blind spots, we are by definition, tapping into our survival systems, that helped us to survive when we were little in the world.”
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There’s a misconception that the tech world is not a place for emotions, but Sagar Satyal completely disagrees. For Sagar, emotional intelligence is a key factor in communication and is very very vital. Join Vivek as he welcomes Sagar, and they will be talking about the ins and outs of emotional intelligence factoring in the NVC framework, only here in the latest episode of The Agile Coach.
HIGHLIGHTS
QUOTES
How Sagar sees organizations strive to innovate:
“The way I see it, having worked with individuals and teams in organizations, obviously, they want to innovate. They want to stay relevant. I think that's the fundamental thing because it's an ever-changing world.”
Sagar’s opinion on teamwork:
“I think teamwork and collaboration are very important, I don't think it's just a matter of individuals performing in silos and then moving up, and then that turning out to be a great creative process, I don't think it works that way.”
What Sagar thinks about empathy:
“I think it requires vulnerability to be empathetic because I have a lot of things to say to you, but I also keep that in mind that just like me, you also have your own needs, objectives, and challenges when you show up at work.”
Sagar on emotional intelligence in leadership:
“Ultimately, it trickles down to emotional intelligence. It's about being able to recognize emotions, understand emotions in yourself, understand emotions in the other person, and acknowledging these emotions that are at play.”
Sagar on actions and consequences:
“A lot of times we lack emotional intelligence because we don't see the consequences of our actions. We don't see the long-term ramifications of our actions right.”
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You gotta learn a little bit of everything. These are the best words from Sangya Gyawali, Head of Product at Flextock. Sangya has a mix of business analytics and entrepreneurial background and will be sharing with Vivek and the audience her background, what it takes to be in her role, and how she deals with challenges in her daily routine.
HIGHLIGHTS
QUOTES
Aligning teams the Sangya way: “A lot of it is around aligning your team that you're a part of, in making sure that we're still progressing, and we're still trying to achieve the same thing.”
Sangya’s responsibility as a BA: "As your role suggests, you're there to offer the technical pattern recognition, analytical skill sets that your team doesn't have.”
How Sangya deals with the challenges of her role: "My technique has always been to be good at a little bit good at everything, and I tried to go deep when I can, and that's usually in more my analytical skill set.”
Sangya says adaptability is key: "Your competitive edge is how much you can adapt and be flexible as techniques change and methods change."
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Dilip, author and now the Founder, CEO, and Chief Product Therapist of Nimi is back in the pod with Vivek. This time around Dilip will go deep with Vivek as he shares his personal journey, his dream to work in America, and the challenges he had to go through to get where he is now. The two will also be exchanging their personal experiences in moving to America and their humble beginnings.
HIGHLIGHTS
QUOTES
Dilip on his background: “Getting your products to market or scaling it, growing products that have been so that's my background, my career.”
Dilip on being held back by aspirations: “I have a good career, and I have a good life now. So I think what it tells us is that sometimes we have these aspirations, and they can hold us back.”
Dilip on the different paths of life: “There are many paths in life, and you can make the best out of any path that you're taking. The goal is, are you growing? Are you questioning yourself? Right? Do you have a growth mindset?”
Vivek on the journey to the USA: “It was like this journey that I went to, there's the whole world, new people, opportunities, and there was a lot to learn.”
Dilip on making mistakes: “People should make mistakes. That's how they learn from mistakes. We should minimize the costly ones. Of course, we should have. It's more on processes.”
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It’s ANU day, ANU episode, and in this latest edition of The Agile Coach, Vivek Khattri welcomes Anu Jayasinghe. Anu is the Design Lead at Publicis Sapient. Formerly a UX Designer at IBM, Anu would be a great resource of UX design insights and he will be sharing big chunks of it here, in The Agile Coach.
HIGHLIGHTS
QUOTES
Anu: “My internships and all that I realized I loved what I did. But when I saw the reality of what that's like, professionally, it wasn't exactly what I wanted to do. But I realized that UX and the whole digital space were a lot more interesting to me.”
Anu: “We started doing agile in two weeks, sprints, all of that. And we would, at the end of every two weeks, delivered the design, to engineering.”
Anu: “The biggest thing that sets apart a designer from an engineer or business analyst or product owner, whoever is that, for a designer, the, what they care about the most is that end-user, like the human being, who is using whatever the product or services, and that's what they care about, that's the person they care about.”
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Joe Ziadeh is back in another value-packed episode of The Agile Coach with Vivek Khattri. Vivek and Joe will be diving into the art of estimation and will be exploring a lot of interesting bits and pieces today such as what is estimation, why do it, the right approach to estimate, amazing story points, and when teams should estimate. Tune in and learn more about estimation now.
HIGHLIGHTS
QUOTES
Joe: “In the end, somebody's like, hey, I need to have this done by a certain time. And we estimate so that we can make sure that we get that stuff done.”
Joe: “What it's basically saying to an Agile team is, we're going to roughly size this work so that we can determine how long it will take.”
Joe: “When we're talking about agile estimation, what we're saying is, we're not going to take that gut feel we're going to instead focus on empirical estimation.”
Joe: “We're going to use the Fibonacci sequence to estimate our stories instead of just 1,2,3,4,5 level blah, and he was like, Okay, why? And they said ‘ ‘because the Fibonacci sequence is cool.”
Joe: “Never be afraid to change the stuff that your teams are doing. I mean, try it and see if it works. If it works, yeah, keep doing it.”
Joe: “That's what happens when you have two teams. So even if they're comparing the exact same task, no two teams have the exact same amount of experience with that task.”
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Dilip Ramachandran took the uphill journey to become a product manager, learned as much as he can, and now has reached the level he has wanted to achieve. Dilip is an author and now the Founder, CEO, and Chief Product Therapist of Nimi. Vivek and Dilip will be talking about his journey and the valuable lessons he learned along the way, only here in The Agile Coach.
HIGHLIGHTS
QUOTES
Dilip: “as you progress in your career later on, okay, my mindset was, well, I've been kind of taking, I've been kind of, you know, you know, benefiting from the system, how am I going to give back, what's the next phase of my life.”
Dilip: “I really thrive in a small environment where I'm building products, and creating products or ideating products.”
Dilip: “When you become a leader, your job is not in creating perfect estimates, your job is not be the person who knows all the answers, your job is to be the guide, your job is to be the person taking the team to the tunnel.”
Dilip: “Empathy is really not sympathy. Empathy is really trying to feel what somebody is going through. And you really can't feel what somebody's going through until you really are in their position.”
Dilip: “Figure out what you're really passionate about, and try your best to figure out your path, your purpose, it doesn't have to be perfect.”
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-agile-coach-llc
It’s Round 2 in this latest episode of the Agile Coach, as Vivek Khattri once again welcomes Michelle Pauk, the Director for Agile Coaching and Kaizen Facilitation at Pfizer. Michelle will be sharing her views on resistance to change and how it affects Agile Transformation, her views on maintaining psychological safety, and the SCARF Model.
HIGHLIGHTS
QUOTES
Michelle: “The studies that come out about Agile transformation and resistance to change are cited as one of the main reasons why Agile transformation isn't successful.”
Michelle: “I see my role as a change agent is to help people navigate through that process in a way that is humane and gentle and respectful of their choice throughout the entire process.”
Michelle: “There are many people who are just told you are going to be part of a scrum team, or you're, we're going Agile, buckle up, buttercup, and they, you know, and they're just, they're along for the ride, but they may not be really into it.”
Michelle: “SCARF is an acronym that stands for Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, and Fairness.”
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-agile-coach-llc
Many people hesitate in getting into the Agile, Scrum, or Product Ownership career simply because they don’t have a background in tech or they come from a different industry. In this episode of The Agile Coach, Kevin King, a Sr. Product Owner for Data Analytics/Integration at Charter Communications will be sharing his story and prove that is not the case. Kevin hailed from a Sales career before getting into Agile and Product Ownership, which led him today to his very fulfilling career. Learn more about Kevin now, so tune in!
HIGHLIGHTS
QUOTES
Kevin: “I worked with I met some of my best friends that I still have today in sales. And it really made me a better person, to be honest, persevering through all the rejection and the hustle you have to have it really set me up for success in my current role.”
Vivek: “If you have the work ethic to work 50-60 hours and grind it out. If you can't do tech, you're gonna be really appreciated because, in my opinion, tech is there's a lot of work-life balance.”
Kevin: “One of the most common misconceptions about getting into the Agile space is that you need to have this glorious background of coding and what infrastructures look like.”
Vivek: “The challenge is not having the tech background, the challenge is you're not being adaptable, you're not being able to learn new stuff, you are not able to like listen to another Product Owner/Product Manager.”
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In this latest episode of the Agile Coach, Vivek Khattri welcomes Michelle Pauk, the Director for Agile Coaching and Kaizen Facilitation at Pfizer. Michelle will be sharing her unlikely entry to the world of tech and her personal experience from her humble beginnings in Agile and Scrum, to the mindset shift of anticipating risks, to the struggles of being a new Scrum Master.
HIGHLIGHTS
QUOTES
Michelle: “We are drawn to the things that we need to learn, or we teach the things we need to learn. I think that is absolutely true.”
Michelle: “I guess the mindset shift for me was realizing like, as a project venue manager, I genuinely felt bad that I didn't anticipate that these things would happen.”
Michelle: “One of the things that I try to make space for people I'm mentoring or coaching to think about that reflects on that conversation, but also encouraging them to do some of that reflection work themselves.”
Michelle: “I would just say, you know, the learning process is very messy. Learning happens in the mess. And if you can be comfortable with that, like, you can know everything there is to know about agile, so is it really about you? This is about the team.”
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Jolene Jangles is back!
Vivek Khattri and Pabitra Khanal welcome Jolene back in this latest episode of The Agile Coach! Jolene is a Transformation Coach and the CEO of Balanced Agility, a company dedicated to developing organizations' capabilities to use agile as a strategic business asset.
HIGHLIGHTS
QUOTES
Jolene: “So balance, agility, the concept, the name, really even try to convey our approach to everything that we do. So we mainly play in the space of training and coaching.”
Jolene: “It goes to an approach that we take in everything we do, really a balanced approach, as we took a look at what differentiates us from a lot of folks.”
Jolene: “It really starts with the very first conversation that you have with them. So way before the actual engagement. And this is going to vary for the role.”
Jolene: “When it comes to the balanced approach is going there is an understanding what is the job that they're looking for you to do? That's one of the things to know. And knowing if you're going in, where are they in?”
Jolene: “Being a great leader means being able to ask great questions. So when I interview folks, when I'm hiring for these roles, the questions that they ask are almost as important as the answers.”
Jolene: “My biggest tip for Scrum Masters is it's not about the Agile tools. They're just tools and techniques to get you there.”
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It’s round 2 of our two-part series of The Agile Coach, where Vivek Khattri welcomes a former colleague, Nikhil Nambiar. Nikhil was a former Lead Technical Instructor in the Agile Coach and is now a Senior Consultant for Slalom Consulting. Nikhil will be spending the time of this 2nd episode discussing the basic understanding a scrum master should have, and what is really important with the role of a scrum master.
HIGHLIGHTS
QUOTES
Nikhil: “No, you don't have to be technical to be a scrum master. But you need to have a certain level of understanding and certain level of curiosity around what technology is, and what are the things that developers go through in order to be a great scrum master.”
Nikhil: “It's not about knowing how to solve the problem. It's about identifying the problem. And getting the right people in the room to solve that problem.”
Nikhil: “Scrum Masters, first of all, don't even look at that as a problem. Because they'll go like, Oh, this is compliance. This is how the company operates.”
Nikhil: “Agile is not about perfection. So whatever you're trying to do here, is like, you need to view it from the lens of this team. Yeah, not from one Agile principle that has been followed in the industry.”
Nikhil: “DevOps, in general, is a team that is responsible for maintaining the infrastructure where code is deployed.”
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Today is the first of a two-part series of The Agile Coach, where Vivek Khattri welcomes a former colleague, Nikhil Nambiar. Nikhil was a former Lead Technical Instructor in the Agile Coach and is now a Senior Consultant for Slalom Consulting. He will be sharing a bit of his background today and will talk about what Agile means to him, and the importance of quality in product development.
HIGHLIGHTS
QUOTES
Nikhil: “I think there's a large perception of how developers view agile people is most likely because we have had poor Scrum Masters and poor product owners, or a lack of quality of resources, or people in those roles, brings about certain impressions.”
Nikhil: “So when I'm when we are developing things, a lot of times it is easy to get caught up in the details and to go into different rabbit holes, because the technology being a knowledge-based profession, especially for engineering, yeah, you can quickly start spiraling out into trying to make things perfect.”
Nikhil: “My opinion is that if you truly want to move quickly, you are going to have issues with your application. And that is something that you need to accept as normal.”
Nikhil: “even though, yeah, the fact is that there are going to be issues, that does not mean that as developers, we shouldn't be improving the quality of our application, our overarching goal still needs to be that we need to deliver high-quality solutions in a timely manner.”
Vivek: “I've been a product person, and we don't need a perfect architecture, we don't need perfectly clean code, we just need something to put it out there.”
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It’s round 3 with Senior Director of Agile Coaching and Kaizen Lead for Pfizer, Matt Philip in this exciting new episode of The Agile Coach. In this episode, Matt will be sharing his views on the Iron Triangle, Fitness for purpose, the significance of experimentation, and many more.
HIGHLIGHTS
QUOTES
Matt: “I think that the whole Iron Triangle of project management back in the day was it served some, some benefits. There was there's some rigor around managing processes, managing projects, there's a lot of good stuff there.”
Matt: “The most important thing is whether someone will actually use this product and how quickly they'll use it. “
Matt: “ Only the customer, only the consumer can define if it's fit for their purpose.”
Matt: “We see this a lot, whether it's software or otherwise, people are afraid to change stuff because they don't know what they're going to break.”
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It’s round 2 with Senior Director of Agile Coaching and Kaizen Lead for Pfizer, Matt Philip in this exciting new episode of The Agile Coach. In this episode, Matt will be sharing with Vivek a little overview of the “8 Stances of a Scrum Master”, and gets down to the details about the “Coaching Stance”. Our duo will also be discussing why it is important to quantify goals when coaching a team.
HIGHLIGHTS
QUOTES
Matt: “I think there's some great stuff that we can learn from our friends who do experience design as a professional.”
Matt: “I've also found a lot of coaches including myself, it's hard for us to really feel like the sense of accomplishment because it's like this a soft thing. I'm helping other people succeed. But how do I know if I succeeded?”
Matt: “It's actually quite meaningful for a coach, I think, to be able to say, ‘ ‘Alright, here's the quantified value of what I've helped me this to do. And it creating small experiments to get us toward that bit.”
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The Agile Coach goes big in its latest episode as Vivek Khattri welcomes Matt Philip, to talk about leading the Agile Transformation in a large organization. Matt has over 15 years of experience in the Software Development industry, and is now the Senior Director for Agile Coaching and Kaizen Lead in Pfizer, leading the company’s Agile Transformation.
Matt and Vivek will be discussing what it takes to lead the Agile Transformation for large organizations with multiple levels and teams, what challenges you may encounter, and what matters in building an Agile Team.
HIGHLIGHTS
QUOTES
Matt: “One pattern I've seen across multiple companies, the organization doesn't have the capability to do this stuff.”
Matt: “Helping the organization own it, rather than just kind of have something installed on itself, that's the real hard work that coaches, Scrum Masters, and product people do.”
Matt: “I try to work at the highest levels, I can't, at some point, you're gonna get frustrated, you're gonna get the resistance. So part of it is understanding how you deal with change.”
Matt: “I think a lot of organizations suffer from a lack of psychological safety, organizationally, in teams.”
Matt: “For leaders, managers, always be working on yourself first. You know, I realized how much I fail, and how much I want to improve. And so always be reading, always improving.”
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Facilitating a retrospective is one tough cookie to crumble. But you don’t have to panic so much, because our hosts today, Vivek Khattri and Joe Ziadeh, will be giving you the information you need to successfully facilitate a retrospective. In this episode of The Agile Coach, Vivek and Joe will be exploring Esther Derby and Diana Larson's five stages of a retrospective and will be explaining them to you with their own flair.
HIGHLIGHTS
QUOTES
Joe: “Very first stage. And number one thing they call out, set the stage, if you show up panicked, if you're freaking out, they're going to be freaked out.”
Joe: “Next step, gathering the data, now look, if they have a bunch of data, great, have them bring in the data and then look at the data.”
Joe: “Now, we're going to go from just having data to gathering insights. So there's a difference between data and wisdom. Data is just information, wisdom, or the insights that you gather from that data.”
Joe: “Your job isn't to have the answer. Your job as a facilitator is to help them process through the framework. It's to help work them through the process so that they can solve these problems on their own.”
Joe: “The next stage is deciding what to do. So you take a list of all these experiments and you vote on them again.”
Joe: “Make sure that you celebrate. Let these people know that they accomplished something. And then document the experiments. Don't just do all of this work and say that was really great. And then walk out of this room and let all the experiments fall on the floor.”
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HIGHLIGHTS
QUOTES
Peter: “I've really seen agile find its place in a lot of major companies, from an IT perspective, from a business intelligence perspective, from an enterprise and data analytics perspective, as really the modern way to help push those companies forward.”
Peter: “Companies prefer to get value to the customer early on, they almost want to bring value to the customer on a weekly basis, and that's where they actually need talent who can think in that way.”
Peter: “If you don't have a strong software background, the way that I've always thought about agile as I've gotten started, is it's really the way that we go about living our lives as we take on a project.”
Vivek: “Everything is teachable and coachable.”
Peter: “You are going to wear many different hats and that's really what Agile promotes is it allows that you know, you on a team can wear many different hats in any given time.”
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HIGHLIGHTS
QUOTES
Peter: “It really comes down to having an inquisitive nature, and then also being comfortable asking questions and guiding those conversations with stakeholders and product owners and product managers, so that you can really start to understand and derive value in the organization that way.”
Vivek: “As a BA you need to be a few Sprint's ahead, and you want to refine those stories in your product backlog in partnership with the product owner or a product manager”
Peter: “For me, conveying that in the interview that I want to shadow somebody that I want a good relationship with another business analyst is crucial. Because if they say, “Oh, that's not something that we do”, that's actually a red flag for me in the interview saying, well, “How am I going to learn?”
Peter: “In the interview, and then actually executing in your role, you want to make sure that you communicate how you are good at aligning on what the most important thing is to focus on. Because as a business analyst, there's always 1000 different things you could do.”
Peter: “Companies are born out of chaos, right? There's something chaotic in the world. And as a function of that you create a solution. And so your goal isn't to fight the chaos, it's to embrace it.”
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HIGHLIGHTS
QUOTES
Jess: “But I think today, you know, if we really look at the word networking, and how I see it is really just making connections with people, connecting other human beings, learning about them, sharing your own experiences, you could be networking all the time.”
Jess: “I think networking is powerful, because you never know who's going to open what door”
Jess: “I really love the magic and the idea of like, wow, you never know what's gonna happen. You never know what piece of information this person could give you that could shift your whole path or your whole world”
Vivek: “The world is so vast, there's so many interesting people, there's so many interesting things.”
Jess: “Show up in curiosity, say, Hey, I'm really interested in the work that you're doing. I'm really curious to know about what your day to day has been like, you know, what thoughts are on working for this company? Being curious works, because people want to share about their experience”
Jess: “What's happening in your mind is going to affect how you show up, right? And how you up is going to affect the results that you get. So if you're reaching out to people with this super needy, desperate energy, you're going to get a different result than if you are standing in your power and saying, I know I offer value, right. And I'm curious and open to learning, that's going to get a different response. So I would say be aware of what's happening in your mind, get curious about the dialogue that you have with yourself, that's a good place to start, looking at literally what are your thoughts saying to you, is kind of where you could start diagnosing where you're at shift from there.”
Vivek: “Most of the recruiters or hiring managers, like they hire people, because they want to solve a problem, they have a vacancy, they don't really hire because they're nice people, and they want to give me an opportunity.”
Jess: “I will have limiting beliefs my whole life, right? They're gonna, they're gonna change and they're gonna be there. And that's okay. We can still be successful. Even with them there, I guess, is a message that I would want people to know, too, right. Like, think of all the things that you have achieved, even when you were feeling like not 100% Confident? Yeah. Once they were like, Jess, you feel like crap. And look what you've created in that feeling. Imagine what you could create, if you elevate out of this, right?”
Jess: “The first thing (habits) that comes to mind is self care. We can totally burn ourselves out, especially when it comes to job searching.”
Jess: “Networking is really powerful. These people have the power to like when you get in connection with people, they can give you feedback on your resume. They can tell you what to expect in the interview process. They can refer you to their companies, which is really powerful if you're making a transition.”
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HIGHLIGHTS
QUOTES
Richard: "Because look, if it wasn't for agile, I don't think you need the idea of a product owner, if we were shipping every three years. Those were the old days, I was in those projects, those big waterfall projects where you did requirements for nine months, it coded for a few months, and you did a bunch of integration testing for twice as long.”
Vivek: “It's a very demanding job. It's a really rewarding job in a minute, you know, you have to be technical. There's a lot of elements of leadership, prioritization, which is so important.”
Richard: "A product owner needs to still be sitting there, readily talking to customers, readily talking to your internal teams, they care about your product, and regularly talking to engineers.”
Richard: "There's gonna be different paradigms. I think the important thing is who's going to make sure that you don't add a lot of friction between; what are we trying to accomplish? And how does that get broken into work that engineers can work on? As long as you don't add friction to that and mess up that process I don't care what you call people.”
Richard: "And so as a product owner, product manager, I have to be really good at identifying good data sources, adding telemetry to code, and knowing how to find some signal in the noise, because I can just get drowned in data points.”
Richard: “A good product owner leads through influence. They don't have direct authority. They don't have a management staff of people, the engineers don't report to them. No, but you are leading, often by showing that you have their back.”
Richard: “I learned quickly, especially with a few folks who were a little more grouchy, that I have to prove I've done the work first.”
Richard: “If you want a good relationship with engineers, show you care about their thing, and genuinely.”
Richard: “Yeah, I mean, arguably, some of the best parts of DevOps of Agile have these ideas that you should first of all be hiring people who are never satisfied and not in the sort of like, they're psycho. So we're just always mad about stuff. But like you people who don't just settle in go and like, good enough and good enough.”
Richard: “Sometimes your priority is stabilizing it, sometimes your priority is growing something else. Sometimes your priority is maybe just finding a new market. So I think that's the awesome, fun part of this job is that there's no single sort of Product Strategy for each person. But you have to stop, observe your landscape, talk to stakeholders, understand your corporate priorities, and then reflect that in your backlog.”
Richard: “But you know, hey, look, a good product owner says no, a lot. A good product owner does not say yes, all the time. That is a bad product owner, right? Because you should be saying no, you should be retiring features, retiring products when necessary. So first half, you have to think of the end sometimes.”
Richard: “ Are you a learner? Are you someone who's going to come in here and invest in the relationship, you're not gonna, you're gonna have some courage, and you're gonna have an opinion. And I want to hear your point of view. And you're not just a yes person who comes in and says yes to everybody, or, you know, you're going to come in with an opinion, you're going to be observant, you're going to listen.”
Learn more about Laxmi in the link below:
HIGHLIGHTS
QUOTES
Laxmi: "I don't find myself needing to jump in to fix things for my team. In the past, when I work with teams, I used to find myself in a situation that I'm sure a lot of scrum masters out there have felt this way at some point in their careers, where in the process of being helpful, you kinda create this need for your team to become excessively reliant on you."
Laxmi: "Allow the team to learn by doing something poorly. Let them have a bad daily scrum. We humans, I think, learn when we make mistakes. That's how I learn."
Laxmi: "First, it's really helping the team understand what we're tying to get out of by visualizing our work. What is the reason behind transparency."
Pabitra: "So it's not, you're not shoving and pushing, you're not a dictator. You're not saying, hey, like do this or do that. But you're really helping them come up with your own like ways in a way and saying, Hey, you know, I see like what you're doing here and that provides value, but here is like also by not having this in place, there's this here's what's causing us or here's the problem that's causing."
Laxmi: You really want to build out a one-to-one relationship and coach them a little to find out what is getting in the way of them being a better team member, right. What is that internal dialogue? And the biggest thing is you have to be open to the experiences of that person, without any judgment."
Laxmi: "I firmly believe our style and personality obviously plays an important role in our ability to effectively facilitate. However, as a scrum master, you shouldn't just subscribe to one way of facilitating team events. Yeah. So just like, you know, you're advocating to the team that, Hey, there is more than one way to achieve the same outcome. You also have to believe that there is more than one way to hold, for example, a daily scrum. If your team is still asking the same three questions, what did I work on yesterday, What am I working on today? What is progressing in my work? Then I believe you're just going through the motions and most likely, so is your team."
Laxmi: "As a facilitator, you have to create an environment for the team to perform at their best. And if you're not experimenting with your technique and, you know, doing what's necessary to provide, the setting that's needed, where the team can reflect, they can discuss and have fun, I don't think you're growing as a scrum master or caring enough to bring them, bring the group together."
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HIGHLIGHTS
QUOTES
Matt: "It's been really nice to see how different people are doing things and learning from other people and different places and pick up bits and pieces. For me, an agile mindset is one of learning and so picking up bits and pieces where people are doing some interesting things, trying interesting things, and that's what I've just done. Very little of what I've done is my own novel idea. It's really just incorporating other people's ideas and making it work."
Matt: "Kanban helps us to see how our work works. It's really making visible the work systems that we work in."
Matt: In knowledge work, where we are in, intangible goods, it's harder to see the work. It's stuff that lives in our computers and in the cloud, and so it's not quite as transparent and visible as in a physical goods environment.
Matt: "It's a way of, I talk about humanizing work. For me, seeing how actual people were doing work can be overburdened and stressed out by having too much work to work on, or not having a visibility into how things are working. And so it's about the work's sake, but also the worker's sake that I really find Kanban to be a helpful way of thinking really about our work."
Matt: "The Kanban Iceberg metaphor that I've used in the past is, that which is seen at the top of the iceberg, which is the sign cards or the cork boards. But there's so much of the Kanban method that's below the surface. Not quite as easily seen. I think about the other practices, the principles, and the values."
Matt: "In my experience, I've experienced lots of different places that say Agile and do Agile. My very first experience was doing XP extreme programming orientation. My main experience is initially doing Agile stuff from an XP standpoint. For me that's really valuable because I understood the importance of engineering excellence and technical excellence as opposed to just the organizing principles of some methods that are useful but don't necessarily speak to what code looks like and what deliverable work should look like."
Matt: "Make it okay to fail. We talk a lot about psychological safety. Making it clear that it’s okay that you're not gonna get it right the first time. And being resilient in that experience and to learn from those things."
Matt: "If doing something fast is important, there's tradeoffs obviously, maybe the quality suffers but sometimes the customer's okay with that. It takes a very important conversation to make them aware of the implications of taking some shortcuts with code. But one of the things that I find useful, for example, is predictability. Being able to be predictable in delivery, to the extent that we have control over some of these sources of variation and impact."
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In today's episode, we take a look back at some of our favorite tips we've received from our guests about how to conduct a great retrospective. Topics to be discussed include the five steps of a retro, meeting facilitation and making retrospectives fun.
Featuring clips from the following episodes (in order of appearance):
Ep. 16 | Agile Team Retrospectives (ft. Meghann Rudolph) Ep. 18 | Inspiration Behind Writing Agile Retrospectives (ft. Diana Larson) Ep. 18 | Step 1: Setting the Stage (ft. Diana Larson) Ep. 18 | Step 2: Gathering Data (ft. Diana Larson) Ep. 18 | Step 3: Gathering Insight (ft. Diana Larson) Ep. 18 | Step 4: Deciding What to Do (ft. Diana Larson) Ep. 18 | Step 5: Closing the Retrospective (ft. Diana Larson) Ep. 1 | What is Meeting Facilitation? (ft. Joe Ziadeh) Ep. 14 | Making a Retrospective Fun, Engaging & Effective (ft. Adam Miner)
In today's episode, we take a look back at some of our favorite tips we've received from our guests about what it means to be a business analyst. Topics to be discussed include the role of a business analyst, what a business analyst is expected to know starting out, and how to mitigate risk.
Featuring clips from the following episodes (in order of appearance):
Ep. 2 | Role of a Business Analyst in Scrum (ft. Jeff Bubolz) Ep. 31 | What are You Expected to Know? (ft. Zach Klipsch) Ep. 31 | What is a BA Supposed to Do? (ft. Zach Klipsch) Ep. 24 | Communicating And Mitigating Risk (ft. Banu Raghuraman) Ep. 24 | How to Give Bad News or Say "No" (ft. Banu Raghuraman) Ep. 31 | Understanding Business Partners and Stakeholders (ft. Zach Klipsch)
A common misconception is that agile is a process, but it's not; it's a way of thinking. You're not just repeating steps, you're continuously inspecting and adapting and looking for ways to create a better team and a better product. In today's podcast, we sit down with director of product management, Alex Courtney, and discuss topics such as how to teach kanban, what makes a good agile candidate and solving the problems of a team.
Our Speaker: Alex Courtney
Alex received his bachelor's in business administration and management from University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and his MBA from the University of Central Missouri. Since graduation, Alex has worked in many agile roles including those of a product manager, scrum master, and agile coach. He is currently working as the Director of Digital Product for BJC HealthCare. We are proud to introduce Alex Courtney.
In February of 2001, seventeen individuals came together to create a people-first approach to software development. These ideas are now known as The Agile Manifesto and have been summarized by twelve principles. In today's podcast, we sit down with Jeremy Aschenbrenner and dissect these principles, looking into how each one compliments the other and the core concept of empathetic product development.
Our Speaker: Jeremy Aschenbrenner
With a rich background in management and IT, Jeremy now acts as the chief instructor at The BA Guide where he helps other achieve their goal of becoming a business analyst. We are proud to introduce Jeremy Aschenbrenner.
To become a business analyst, there's a lot you have to learn, even after you've obtained the title and role. Aside from writing user stories and representing the end user for the development team, the role of a business analyst is really what you make of it. You're constantly learning and growing, better understanding the business practices and the people who make up the foundation of the organization. In today's podcast, we sit down with business analyst, Zach Klipsch, and discuss topics such as the BA interview process, the role of a BA and what it's like working with integrated teams.
Our Speaker: Zach Klipsch After a high school injury cost him the ability to play soccer in college, Zach worked with a physical therapist who helped show him the value of determination and helping others. This inspired Zach to attend and graduate from Maryville University in Saint Louis, Missouri. Through their dual degree program with Washington University, he was able to major in biomedical engineering. After spending 6 to 8 hours per week working for the university as an analyst and technical expert, Zach discovered that he had many of the skills and tools needed to become an entrepreneur. This led him to pursue full time employment at Bayer, Centene Corp, and presently Quanterix. We are proud to introduce Zach Klipsch.
In today's episode, we take a look back at some of our favorite moments from interviews we've had with scrum masters here on The Agile Coach Podcast! Topics to be discussed include scaling scrum, adding value to a new team, psychological safety and unlocking intrinsic value.
Featuring clips from the following episodes (in order of appearance):
Ep. 13 | Facilitation from a Modern Agile Perspective (ft. Barbara Kryvko) Ep. 14 | Growing as a Scrum Master & Coach (ft. Adam Miner) Ep. 19 | Harnessing the Power of the Team (ft. Lakshmi Ramaseshan) Ep. 16 | Vulnerability & Courage (ft. Meaghann Rudolph) Ep. 9 | Mastering the Art of Scrum & Building High-Performing Teams (ft. Adam Miner) Ep. 2 | Scrum, UX Integrations & Leading Teams (ft. Jeff Bubolz) Ep. 6 | Deconstructing ScrumBan & Going from Control to Trust (ft. Andrew Stellman) Ep. 5 | Scaled Agile (SAFe) Deep-Dive for Scrum Masters (ft. Venkat Bagayat) Ep. 17 | Transparency, Collaboration & SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) (ft. Hari Khanal)
In a product-producing organization, although the vision comes from the top down, the value goes from the bottom up. This is is why empathy for all and a willingness to change are key concepts to display within a business reaching for success. In today’s podcast, we sit down with scrum master Athulya Mohanan and discuss topics such as defining Agile, challenges in Agile transitioning and what it’s like being a modern scrum master.
Our Speaker: Athulya Mohanan
Athulya began her career at Reiotech, a small startup in India, where she worked as a design engineer. It was here that she was introduced to Agile principles by some external consultants, but it wouldn’t be until after finishing her masters in the US and starting her PhD in electrical engineering that she’d realize her passions lied not in a research lab, but in helping individuals achieve success through Agile. Athulya has since worked as an Agile Coach and scrum master for about 6 years, transforming teams and training others in Agile boot camps. She is currently employed as a Technical Delivery Manager at OpenTable. We are proud to introduce Athulya Mohanan.
Scrum is a behavioral framework that stands upon three core pillars: transparency, inspection and adaptation. As a scrum master, it’s important to not only ensure that these pillars apply within your team, but also yourself as a leader as you strive to focus on people first. In today’s podcast, we sit down with scrum master Hari Khanal and discuss topics such as the Agile manifesto, dealing with internal and external challenges and how to empower your team.
Our Speaker: Hari Khanal
Hari has a passion for serving others and bringing people together, and it was this passion that drove him to leave his job in sales to pursue a career in Agile. He currently works as a scrum master, coach and facilitator for multiple organizations as well as runs his own companies outside of his career. We are proud to have Hari Khanal back on the podcast.
Having a good understanding of the technical design tools is essential for any good UX (user experience) designer, but their greatest asset is their design mindset which solely focuses on what is best for the customer. While an engineer might think about code efficiency and a product owner might think about what can make the most money for the organization, a designer must balance all this, and at the same time, turn off their own mind and place themselves in the shoes of the customer. In today's episode, we sit down with UX designer, Anu Jayasignhe, and discuss topics such as the differences between UX, UI and research; how UX designers should communicate with developers and product owners; and how to cultivate a design mindset.
Our Speaker: Anu Jayasignhe
After studying industrial design at Carnegie Mellon and participating in a number of internships, Anu discovered that his love of product ideating could pair much better with his desire for faster results in the world of UX (user experience) design. Through a combination of hack-a-thons and teaching himself the technical tools, Anu quickly landed his first job as a UX designer at IBM where he worked until eventually becoming the current design lead at Publicis Sapient. We are proud to introduce Anu Jayasignhe.
After its humble launch from a college dorm room in 2004, Facebook has grown into not just a household name, but a billion dollar company that has dramatically shaped the way we interact. With its dedication to continue innovating better ways of communication and connectivity, it's easy to compare this tech giant to the role of a product manager. Like Facebook, a product manager is dedicated to connectivity, bridging the gap between customers and creators and helping predict and innovate towards the next big thing. In today's episode, we sit down with Facebook product manager, Parth Detroja, and discuss topics such as preparing for a product role, Facebook's acquisitions of WhatsApp and Oculus and Parth's viral LinkedIn prediction.
Our Speaker: Parth Detroja
Parth had been interested in marketing from and early age, but it wasn't until after he he was nearing graduation from Cornell with a degree in applied economics that he realized it was something he wanted to pursue. Despite his lack of a background in tech, Parth took the world by storm, landing jobs at Microsoft, Amazon and, in 2017, Facebook, where he currently works as a product manager. Along with his impressive work experience, Parth also co-authored the #1 bestselling technology and business strategy book, "Swipe to Unlock". We are proud to introduce Parth Detroja.
Like watching any great magician, the work of a professional coach can leave one feeling awestruck. Coaches may seem to effortlessly create solutions out of thin air, but as many of us have come to learn, magic is oftentimes an illusion. When it comes to professional coaching, the solutions don't just magically pop into existence, nor do they come from up the coach's sleeve; the solutions come from you: the client. One of the fundamental beliefs of professional coaching is that you are naturally creative, resourceful and whole and that the key to unlocking your problems can be found within the packages of knowledge that already exist inside of your brain. That's why coaching isn't giving advice or telling people what they should/shouldn't do; coaching is a dance between two partners who are ready to discover the solution together. It's about listening, intuition and unearthing the truth, and when done correctly, can leave both parties feeling truly fulfilled... and that's no illusion. In today's episode, we sit down with profession coach, Marla Dufek, and discuss topics such as being present in the moment, the importance of setting values and discovering the emotions that drive you.
Our Speaker: Marla Dufek
Marla entered into her career as a professional coach with a desire to help people see themselves as naturally creative resourceful and whole. She is certified under the International Coaching Federation and is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach. We are proud to introduce Marla Dufek.
Most people don't view empathy as an intrinsic part of leadership; leadership is generally seen as logical where empathy is emotional. However, whether you're working with a small group, a large team or an entire company, each of these configurations consists of the same thing: people, and people are emotionally-driven. Someone might forget what you say to them, but they won't forget how you made them feel. In order to solve people's problems, it's important to understand the emotions that motivate them. In order to lead, you need empathy. In today's podcast, we sit down with product manager and agile leader, Banu Raghuraman and discuss topics such as becoming an influential leader, communicating and mitigating risk and understanding the product vision.
Our Speaker: Banu Raghuraman Banu Raghuraman has been an active leader in the agile community and tech space for around a decade, with experience in product management, business analysis, and emotional intelligence. Although she is currently working as a digital product manager at EY, Banu also enjoys mentoring others, conducting public speeches and live webinars that encourage others to become leaders themselves. We are proud to introduce Banu Raghuraman.
The software world is amazing. You're essentially just taking what used to be a rock and tricking it into thinking using electricity in a process that, to many, is comparable to magic. But human nature being what it is, it's very easy for this almost mystic power to get to one's head. You begin to obsess over the details, things that you can do and all of the possibilities that exist in the tech space... and you lose sight of what really matters: the customer. As a developer or a company leader the goal is not just to make cool things, but to make cool things that serve a purpose: enhancing the day-to-day life of the customer. When it comes to QA testing and automation, the goal isn't just to ensure that features function properly; the goal is to ensure customer satisfaction because, at the end of the day, that's what it's all about. In today's podcast, we sit down with Michael "Fritz" Fritzius and discuss topics such as different kinds of testing, bugs and defect management and how to maintain continuous deployment.
Our Speaker: Michael Fritz Being a father, podcaster and automation guru, Michael does it all! With over 12 years in the quality assurance testing and automation field, Michael has helped numerous businesses create automation solutions through his company Arch DevOps. We are proud to introduce Michael "Fritz" Fritzius.
"Breaking Into Software Test Automation" Udemy Course: https://www.udemy.com/share/104BMk/
You did it. You finally graduated school and are ready to go out into the world and put your expertise to good use. Nevertheless, there is one thing standing in between you and the job of your dreams: the interview. On its face, an interview might seem to be simply a measure of how much you know about a given subject, but in practice, an interview is really more of a measure of how willing you are to learn and how you manage yourself. Allowing yourself to be measured at any capacity requires confidence and courage, but if just thinking about the interview process fills you with anxiety, you're not alone. However, approaching an interview with nervousness is oftentimes what sabotages candidates the most. Luckily, courage is like a muscle, and if it's strengthened properly using the right techniques, you'll end up being not only a stronger interview candidate, but a stronger candidate for whatever you pursue. In today's podcast, we sit down with the confident new product manager, Neha Satya, and discuss topics such as preparing for an introduction, showing up with confidence and nailing round 1, 2 & 3 interviews.
Our Speaker: Neha Satya Neha is a product manager at Capco and a project manager mentor at Product Gym. Although she is relatively new to the working world, Neha is no stranger to hard work. Her drive, determination, confidence and communication skills have made her an incredibly sought after candidate in the agile and product space. We are proud to introduce Neha Satya.
One of the first steps people take on their journey towards their dream job is talking to a recruiter. However... most people have no idea how to do this! In order to properly work with a recruiter, it's important that you first understand how a recruiter thinks. What motivates them? Why do they do what they do? What can you do during your interaction with them that will help land you that job? In today's podcast, we sit down with former-recruiter and co-founder of Product Gym, Richard Chen, and explore what the life of a recruiter is really like. Topics to be discussed include entering the product space without a formal title, how to properly work with a recruiter and how to stand up for yourself as a job candidate.
Our Speaker: Richard Chen
Richard is the co-founder of Product Gym, a recruiter-founded company whose goal is to be a community for aspiring product managers and a place where they can network, be coached and collaborate to achieve their dream career. He advocates strongly for the letting go of negative energy, staying humble and bringing enthusiasm into everything you do. We are proud to introduce Richard Chen.
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Launching a Product with a PM Mindset (feat. Nikunj Sharma) | Ep. 20
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In a world of individual performers, it is easy to forget about the power of the team. One can become so focused on accomplishing the task they were assigned that they overlook how their decisions affect anyone else. However, each of us have unique skills and perspectives that can have a positive impact on what we are trying to get done. A team is more than just a group of people, it's a human system with a collective purpose and way of working. It's built on trust and individual relationships, and it stems from servant leaders that create a safe space to communicate and collaborate. Harnessing the power of the team is not an easy thing to do, but when done right, a team can accomplish unimaginable things. In today's podcast, we sit down with agile leader, Lakshmi Ramaseshan, and dive into topics such as showing up as a scrum master, psychological safety, and how to create a team culture within an organization.
Our Speaker: Lakshmi Ramaseshan
Lakshmi started out as a developer, but after being asked to serve as a liaison, bridging the gap between her team and the customer, Lakshmi's desire to best serve her organization began to take shape. With her drive and passion for serving others, Lakshmi quickly moved into more formal roles such as product manager, scrum master and agile coach, earning her over 15 years of experience as an Agile leader. Despite her knowledge, Lakshmi remains humble, staying engaged with agile communities and continually uncovering better ways to grow her team and her life. We are proud to introduce Lakshmi Ramaseshan.
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The 12th principle of the Agile Manifesto reads as follows: “At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.” This principle has traditionally been observed through what are called retrospectives. In many cases, the true intentions of the retrospective are lost as we approach them as nothing more than meetings we hold because we‘ve been told they’re necessary. We show up, make a list of what we did and what we can do better and go on with the same ole routine spring after sprint. However, a meeting is just a meeting and a list is just a list without intentionality and further action. The purpose of a retrospective is to bring your team together, be transparent with one another so that you can align your goals, and make concrete decisions regarding how your next sprint can be even better than the last. Today we sit down with author, speaker, and professional Agile leader, Diana Larson and deep dive into Agile retrospectives, discussing topics such as the purpose of a retrospective, the 5-step retrospective framework and how to make good retrospectives great.
Our Speaker: Diana Larson
When it comes to Agile retrospectives, Diana Larson literally helped write the book. Her publication, “Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great” is world-renowned and has helped countless Agile leaders fully embrace the power that the 12th Agile principle has to offer. Presently, Diana dedicates her time to the company she co-founded: The Agile Fluency Project. Here, her goal is to help new and experienced Agilists make the most of Agile practices within the needs of their businesses and teams. In her free time, Diana enjoys staying connected with the Agile community, speaking at meet-ups and going on podcasts like the one you’re hearing today! We are proud to welcome Diana Larson.
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One of Agile's key principles is customer collaboration, and a great way organizations can exhibit this principle is by implementing the Scaled Agile Framework (or SAFe). In SAFe, you're not just working with one team, but many teams, which creates dependencies and a more transparent and collaborative work environment. In today's podcast, we sit down with Agile team facilitator, Hari Khanal, and dive into the world of Scaled Agile, addressing topics such as the role of a scrum master in SAFe, PI Planning in a remote world, unlocking intrinsic motivation and more.
Our Speaker: Hari Khanal
Hari has a passion for serving others and bringing people together, and it was this passion that drove him to leave his job in sales to pursue a career in Agile. He currently works as a scrum master, coach and facilitator for multiple organizations as well as runs his own companies outside of his career. We are proud to introduce Hari Khanal.
To connect with Hari, check him out on LinkedIn:
https://linkedin.com/in/hari-khanal
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Although it may at first seem counterintuitive, concepts like vulnerability and courage are more related than you might think. With every act of courage comes risk (be it risk to one's own physical safety, wealth, social standing, etc), and with every risky decision comes vulnerability. Although we are all born vulnerable, no one is born courageous. Courage is a skill that is learned through intentionality, humility and practice. As you will hear in today's podcast, "Agility is all about being willing to grow, being willing to figure it out, being willing to take challenges by the horns and to overcome them." This is important to learn not only as a member of an Agile team but as an Agile team leader as well. We all have the potential to be courageous if we're willing to work hard and put our pride aside. In today's episode, we sit down with Agile leader, Meghann Rudolph, and discuss topics such as setting the team culture, ways to show support, building relationships with your team members and more!
Our Speaker: Meghann Rudolph
Meghann Rudolph is an adventurer at heart, constantly looking for life's next opportunity as she races towards her next entrepreneurial goal. Presently working as a Scrum master and Agile facilitator at Comcast and as a LinkedIn content creator, Meghann credits much of her success to the love and support shown to her by her family and mentors. We are proud to introduce, Meghann Rudolph.
To connect with Meghann, check out her LinkedIn:
https://linkedin.com/in/meghann-rudolph
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If you were to ask six people to describe what makes a product manager, you'd likely get seven different answers. This is because the role of a product manager is like white space; a blank canvas waiting to be filled and defined by your company, the people you work with, and most importantly, you. In today's podcast, we sit down with product manager, Rajsi Rana, and explore how to begin defining your own role as a product manager. Topics to be discussed include good PM habits, networking and building relationships, how to become a better writer, how to manage your time more efficiently, and much more.
Our Speaker:
Rajsi Rana After studying computer science and finance at the University of Cambridge, Rajsi Rana learned about the idea of becoming a product manager through a friend, and the rest is history. Having a type-A personality, Rajsi went from being a college student to a technical program manager at Amazon fairly quickly. After working in this position for a few years, in 2019, she became the senior product manager at Oracle Cloud where she works on special projects that focus on the company's top customers. We are proud to introduce Rajsi Rana.
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As an Agile facilitator, your job isn't just to keep track of time and take meeting notes; it's to encourage conversation and collaboration and guide teams into what's best for them. Ultimately, your goal is not to change people, but rather make them awesome by enabling them to reach their full potential. In today's podcast, we sit down with Senior Agile Coach, Barbara Kryvko, and discuss topics such as sprint and iteration planning, tips for new scrum masters, the importance of a retrospective and more all through the lens of Modern Agile.
Our Speaker: Barbara Kryvko
After earning her degree from Webster University in Computer Science and Mathematics, Barbara Kryvko began her Agile journey in the software space, gaining decades of experience in Network engineering, software development, IT Consultation, and systems administration. Eventually, she would end up at Monsanto where she'd become a Scrum Master and Agile Coach for the first time, managing multiple teams as well as coaching their product managers, business partners and management. Currently, Barbara works as a Senior Agile Coach at Bayer Crop Science where she works to "foster a culture of excellence, collaboration and continuous improvement." We are proud to introduce Barbara Kryvko.
To connect with Barbara, find her at the link below:
LinkedIn: https://LinkedIn.com/in/barbarakryvko
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We've all been there. You're invited to some sort of gathering where there are people you haven't seen in awhile. Maybe you've been busy with work or other obligations, but you know that if you go to this event, someone's going to make you feel guilty for not showing up more often. What do you do when that happens? Do you get angry, sad, or maybe defensive? This is where emotional intelligence comes into play. Emotional intelligence is exactly what it sounds like: being smart with your feelings and the feelings of others. Whether we like to admit it or not, we all feel things, and sometimes those feelings can conflict with the feelings of others. Emotional intelligence teaches concepts such as self-awareness, self-management, social-awareness and relationship management which allow conflicting parties to truly express and address their underlying needs rather than fuel a loop of anger and resentment. It's about understanding ourselves and being empathetic towards others. If something is bothering us, we tend to ask, "Why won't the other person change?", but a better question to ask is, "Why do I want the other person to change?" If the answer is just "because it would benefit me," then that's not a good enough reason. In this episode, we sit down with Sagar Satyal and discuss concepts such as empathy, emotional intelligence, conflict resolution and the awareness needed to truly live a meaningful life.
Our Speaker: Sagar Satyal
Sagar Satyal is the co-founder of My Emotions Matter, an organization based in Kathmandu Nepal whose mission is to help others live harmoniously by providing educational resources, screenings and consultation services regarding emotional management and emotional intelligence. Along with being a huge football fan and enjoying walks in the park, Sagar enjoys exploring himself and the role emotions play in our everyday lives. Taking each day as it comes, Sagar's goal is to live a meaningful life and to help create an environment for others to do the same. We’re proud to introduce Sagar Satyal.
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Although the title of "master" may evoke ideas of one who flawlessly executes their craft with independence and authority, when it comes to the art of scrum, principles such as collaboration, communication, and humility are the key to becoming a true master. A great scrum master leads by example, not only facilitating positive behavior within their team but showcasing that behavior daily in themselves and with every interaction from the first good morning to the last good night. To be Agile is to take pride in being human, and as a scrum master, empowering your agile team and giving them a chance to add value is one of the best things you can do. With empathy and openness, show your team how much you care, and once you're in a position where you feel less like authority and more like a friend, you have then become a true master. In today's podcast, we sit down once again with scrum master, Adam Miner, and discuss topics such as evolving as a scrum master, becoming a better coach and mentor, and how to empower your teams. Timestamps: xxx Our Speaker: Adam Miner Baseball has always been his passion, and when it comes to being a scrum master, Adam Miner hits a home run. With a background in athletics, majoring in biology and starting his career in finance, Adam’s route to becoming a scrum master in IT product management is less than conventional. However, Adam’s unique experiences have allowed him to draw many parallels between high-performing sports and corporate teams and has molded how he treats others as a leader today. We are proud to have Adam Miner back on the podcast.
Our Speaker:
Adam Miner Baseball has always been his passion, and when it comes to being a scrum master, Adam Miner hits a home run. With a background in athletics, majoring in biology and starting his career in finance, Adam’s route to becoming a scrum master in IT product management is less than conventional. However, Adam’s unique experiences have allowed him to draw many parallels between high-performing sports and corporate teams and has molded how he treats others as a leader today. We are proud to have Adam Miner back on the podcast.
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When looking into the eyes of a newborn baby, it's almost impossible to not think about the potential contained within this new life. A baby can become anything, do anything and achieve anything that he/she puts their mind to, right? Why then do we tend to lose this mentality when it comes to examining our own lives? When we start out as children, the world is too big for our minds to process, so as we get older, we start forming patterns to predict how we think the world will be. These predictions can sometimes come in the form of limiting beliefs: views that restrict what you think you're capable of. Limiting beliefs can come in the form of social pressures, emotional protections, and a lack of self-love, but all of them stem from the fact that we don't see the world as it is, but rather as we are. Emotional Agility is the practice of shutting down limiting beliefs through feeling your feelings, showing up authentically, embracing sadness, and navigating fear so that you can become the master of your emotions and fall madly in love with your life. In today's podcast, we sit down with psychotherapist, Josh Magro, and discuss topics such as overcoming limiting beliefs, the philosophy of seeking approval, embracing sadness, loving yourself, and much more!
Our Speaker: In a chaotic world where acting impulsively seems to be the norm, Josh Magro encourages us to master the art of emotional agility. Josh is a licensed psychotherapist, motivational speaker, self-mastery coach and co-founder of Personal Power and Prosperity, Inc; an organization that helps others navigate their emotions, heal from their past, and fall madly in love with their life. In the short term, Josh does live workshops as well as one-on-one therapy sessions where members learn to challenge their own limiting beliefs and express their vulnerability. However, in the long term, his goal is to make concepts such as “feeling your feelings” and “showing up authentically” so common that the work he currently does is no longer needed. We’re proud to introduce Josh Magro.
To connect with Josh, check him out at the links below:
Josh on LinkedIn: https://LinkedIn.com/JoshMagro
P3 Workshops: https://P3Workshops.com
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We've all heard of "the corporate ladder"; a term used to describe the positional hierarchy that exists within a company. You're either at the top, the bottom or somewhere in between, but wherever you are, you still hold a place on the ladder. Although a ladder is a handy tool for getting from one place to another, there are certain situations where using a ladder as a metaphor to describe the way a company functions aren't quite as appealing. When a company's positional hierarchy starts to heavily impact the social atmosphere of the workplace, issues may arise. People at the bottom might feel unheard or disrespected and people at the top might feel stressed and uninformed. One of the core values of the Agile mindset is "individuals and interactions over processes and tools". In other words, success should not be at the expense of people. The SAFe framework is a widely-adopted, freely-available knowledge base that allows teams to apply Agile practices and scale up to enterprise-level. With values such as transparency and alignment, the SAFe framework places a functional hierarchy over the positional hierarchy so that the company is thought of more so as a team and less so as a ladder. In today's podcast, we sit down with Agilist, Venkat Bagayat, and deep-dive into the SAFe framework, its values, and how they work with PI Planning to bring about an efficient, prosperous and happy workplace.
After graduating with a degree in mechanical engineering, Venkat Bagayat began work on the floor in a production manufacturing industry. However, it wasn't long until he realized that this was not the career he was meant for. On the floor, people were seen as resources rather than people, and Venkat wanted to work in a position where he'd be respected. He switched over to IT in search of that respect, but unfortunately, he did not find it there either. It seemed as if the only people being respected were the ones who held higher positions of authority, so Venkat decided to become the change he wanted to see by leading as a product manager. This way, he could share his ideas, shift the culture of command and control and give a voice to the unheard. This desire to bring respect and a voice to all the members of a team is what fueled Venkat's 22-year experience in software and technology; 12-year experience in Agile mentoring, consulting and training; and his John Maxwell coach verification. He's worked with a spread of clients ranging from start-ups to larger financial companies like JP Morgan, Chase, American Express, Discover and BNY Mellon. We are proud to introduce Venkat Bagayat.
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When it comes to working on a team of any size, the concept of being a leader is important to understand. In Agile, whether you’re a scrum master, facilitator, teacher or coach, being a leader means more than just managing a team and “doing the work”. Agile leadership is about growth and efficient productivity through personal channels such as self-awareness, humility, active listening, self-organization, flexibility and trust. A leader’s job is to not just solve the problem but to create a fun and open team of confident individuals who are happy to solve those problems alongside you. In today’s podcast, we’re meeting with Agile leader, Joe Ziadeh, and hearing his thoughts on Agile facilitation and true Agile leadership.
With over 25 years of successful Agile experience, Joe Ziadeh definitely lives up to his last name, which roughly translates to "awesome" from its Arabic roots. Starting as a software developer who happened to stumble into Agile during his college years, Joe would go on to work as a coach, teacher and consultant, helping transition startups, healthcare companies and banking companies into the Agile mindset. We're proud to introduce Joe Ziadeh.
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The world we live in is face-paced. When we want something, we tend to want it as soon as possible, with as few delays as possible and with as little resistance as possible. However, when it comes to software development, when more focus is placed on how quickly a process is completed rather than on the people completing those processes, things will inevitably get worse. In a fast-paced world, you have to be willing to invest. When you invest your time and resources into the people you work with and their understanding of the processes that they're being asked to complete, not only will there be an increase in production efficiency, but also in the satisfaction of those who are on your team. In today's podcast, we sit down with Agilist, Mark Shead and explore things such as behavior-driven development, dev-ops, quality assurance testing and how each of these practices can help bring you a great return if you are willing to invest in them.
Mark Shead is the acting president of Xeric Corporation, an operation that "helps organizations increase their return on investment in software development." With over 20 years of software development experience and 10 years working as an Agile coach, Mark has helped a wide gamut of businesses (from start-ups to highly regulated spaces) achieve their shared goal of successfully going Agile. We are proud to introduce Mark Shead.
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Scrum is a framework that values courage, focus, commitment, respect and openness, and its goal is to create teams that can solve complex problems in a creative way. Despite being a framework that is easy enough to understand, Scrum is difficult to master. There are many avenues within scrum such as how/when to scale, which models to choose, UX integration, leading/organizing teams and working remotely that are all things necessary to explore when beginning your scrum journey. In today's podcast, we sit down with Agilist, Jeff Bubolz and talk all about mastering the art of scrum.
In his own words, Jeff's goal is "to end human suffering in organizations." Although he began life as a software developer with a lot of skepticism when it came to Agile, over the years, Jeff has discovered the sense of autonomy that Agile can bring to individuals within a team. Starting as an Agile consultant, Jeff eventually went on to begin his own company where he acts as a Scrum.org trainer and coach, instructing courses that discuss scrum, product ownership, Kanban, UX/UI and scaling. His deep care for people is a big part of why Jeff does what he does and his mission is to "unleash people within organizations," helping them become the best versions of themselves. We are proud to introduce Jeff Bubolz.
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COVID-19 has taken a toll on how almost everyone now lives their daily life. In just this past year, the world has seen a tremendous boom in virtual connectivity as it relates to the professional sphere. Thousands of people now work from home, and remote work is no longer the future... It's the now. Companies have been made to adapt, and more importantly, so have people. It may seem like an adjustment that's too difficult to make, but with hard work and the right knowledge, transitioning into remote work can be positively life-changing. In today's podcast, we sit down with The Remote Job Coach himself, Jordan Carroll, to discuss the benefits of remote work; the process of online networking, interviews and applications; and his optimism towards those who are confidently shifting into the world of remote work.
With roughly six years of both local and international experience in creating a livelihood online, Jordan Carroll is an expert when it comes to remote work. Along with being a guest-lecturer at Cal State, a proud member of the Forbes Coaches Council and running a weekly podcast, Jordan is also the founder of The Remote Job Coach, an online service that provides companies and individuals with strategy sessions uniquely tailored to help them meet their needs regarding success online. Jordan's main focus is on liberating people and giving them happier, healthier lives through the power of remote work. We are proud to introduce Jordan Carroll.
To connect with Jordan, visit his website TheRemoteJobCoach.com or find him on LinkedIn @JordanCarroll.
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Finding your future career was never an easy task, and in the midst of a pandemic, it has become even more of a challenge. However, despite these new setbacks, it’s important to keep pushing through. There are a plethora of tools and resources that exist online to aid in your job search. LinkedIn is currently one of the most valuable devices when it comes to connecting you with your next employer. With over 722+ million users, LinkedIn acts as your virtual resume, job board and professional network, connecting you with helpful recruiters and countless opportunities from around the world. Although the LinkedIn landscape may at first be intimidating, with the right know-how and some hard work, finding your career might be easier than you think… and maybe even a little fun! In today’s podcast, we sit down with IT recruiter, Cari Pisoni, and deep dive into LinkedIn optimization, best resume practices, and what recruiters are looking for in potential job candidates.
Our Speaker: Cari Pisoni
When it comes to being a job recruiter, Cari Pisoni takes her job extremely seriously… but that doesn’t stop her from trying to make her job fun! With over ten years in the IT recruiting space, Cari’s goal is to make job-searching as painless of an experience as possible, connecting people as individuals with the jobs that are right for them. We are proud to introduce, Cari Pisoni.
To connect with Cari, check out her LinkedIn @CariPisoni.
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No matter what job you’re working, communication is key when it comes to creating a high-preforming team. As a scrum master, along with guiding your team through difficult technical situations, it’s your job to properly guide them through social and emotional situations as well, fostering an environment of humility, transparency, confidence and trust. Growth doesn’t happen inside the comfort zone, so sometimes you have to be willing to push yourself and your team into challenging circumstances such as conflict-resolution, admitting mistakes and weaknesses, and bridging gaps with empathy. Being a scrum master is sort of a pseudo-role, as you’re asked to act as a leader, psychologist, facilitator, coach and whatever else is necessary to progress your team. In the end, however, the ultimate goal of a scrum master should be to “not be needed”. Creating a team that is so high-preforming that they no longer require your guidance is what separates the good scrum masters from the greats. In today’s podcast, we sit down with scrum master, Adam Miner and break down the art of scrum through topics such as navigating conflict, building teams as relationships, leading in a remote world, and trying new things.
Our Speaker: Adam Miner
Baseball has always been his passion, and when it comes to being a scrum master, Adam Miner hits a home run. With a background in athletics, majoring in biology and starting his career in finance, Adam’s route to becoming a scrum master in IT product management is less than conventional. However, Adam’s unique experiences have allowed him to draw many parallels between high-performing sports and corporate teams and has molded how he treats others as a leader today. We are proud to introduce Adam Miner.
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The secret to any good relationship is trust. Trust is not just what holds a relationship together, but it's also what propels it forward and allows it to grow in a way that is satisfying to all parties. It's easy to convince ourselves that a company is just a building; that it's simply mechanical. However, a company should be thought of more so as one big relationship because it's made up of people. It's not just a building, it's a business owner, a manager, a team leader, an employee. All of these people come together and form relationships as they work towards a common goal. When you stop thinking about a company as a machine in need of oil and rather as people with relationships in need of trust, that's when things will begin to take off. Scrumban is a combination of Scrum and Kanban, two distinct methods of mixing trust with efficient product-delivery. In today's podcast, we sit down with Agilist, Andrew Stellman and take a closer look at the proper implementation of Scrumban and how it relates to transitioning a company from a culture of control to one of trust.
Andrew Stellman earned a degree in Computer Science from Carnegie-Mellon, but although he started out as a humble software developer, he has since come to develop a generation of Agilists through his work as a product manager, consultant and O'Reilly published author. Some of his literary works include, "Beautiful Teams," "Learning Agile," "Applied Software Project Management," "Head First Agile," "Head First PMP," and "Head First C#". He's worked with both small and large, 80+ person teams and served as the Vice President of Goldman Sachs for five years. We are proud to introduce Andrew Stellman.
To connect with Andrew, visit his website Stellman-Greene.com or find him on LinkedIn and Twitter @AndrewStellman.
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Many of us have grown up to place a high value on expertise. We're paid for our expertise, and we're admired for our expertise and, at times, we might even value ourselves based on our level of expertise. The idea of being an independent lone-wolf type of character is idolized and wished for, when, in reality, there is no real reason for it. If the goal is to accomplish a task or achieve a dream, shouldn't finding the best way to do that hold a higher precedent than being able to do it alone? Although it may seem counter-intuitive, one of the first steps in reaching a goal is truly understanding that in order to do something larger than yourself, you need to have trust in people. There is no way to completely hold knowledge and control over everything, and the sooner you learn to humble yourself and grow with others, the sooner your goals will be reached. In today's podcast, we sit down with Agilist, Jolene Jangles, and deconstruct what it looks like to be a trusting leader. Topics to be discussed include Agile meeting facilitation, levels of listening and a deep-dive into proper coaching techniques.
Attributing most of her success to her belief in people, Jolene Jangles has spent over 20 years working in technology and product development as a business analyst, mentor, coach, facilitator and Agile team leader. While working as a BA back in 2005, many now-traditional Agile practices had not yet evolved, so Jolene was required to figure out how to demonstrate Agility in her own unique way. This stroke of serendipity would later go on to heavily influence her philosophy on what it means to be a good leader, promoting the idea that successful teams tend to come from an environment where unique personal growth and decision-making take priority over traditional technique implementation. Aside from working in the Target system for nine years, transforming groups of sizes between 150 to 300 people, Jolene is also a Brené Brown instructor and the founder of Balanced Agility. We are proud to introduce Jolene Jangles.
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Typically, people think of a product manager as a mini-CEO or that they’re in the middle of customers, technology and business, but the role of a product manager depends on many factors, such as the size of the company and what the product is that they’re helping to produce. Their job isn’t to boss people around, but rather influence them via data-driven communication and empathy. Product managers are storytellers. It is their job to set the team vision, strategy, create backlogs and roadmaps and communicate with many different people within and outside of the company. Product managers must be willing to deal with ambiguity, work cross-functionally, live with influence, communicate, be data-driven and place the customer as their number one priority. Product managers are the connection between all the different parties that come together to solve the customer’s problem. It takes confidence, empathy, and most of all, practice. In this episode, we sit down with product manager, Diego Granados and discuss product management through topics such as core skillsets, influence-based communication, prioritization, challenges and advice.
Our Speaker: Diego Granados
Although he enjoys testing out new Xbox features as a part of his job at Microsoft, Diego Granados doesn’t play games when it comes to product management. Originally from Mexico City, Diego graduated with an MBA from Duke University. He has several years of experience working as a product manager at Cisco and now Microsoft where he primarily works with machine-learning models. We’re proud to introduce Diego Granados.
To connect with Diego, search for him on YouTube under "PM Diego Granados".
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