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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
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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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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