LeadingAgile SoundNotes: an Agile Podcast

Whether you are separated by one floor in the same building or thousands of miles, working with distributed teams is never an easy. But for most of us, it’s the reality of how we work now. In this podcast, LeadingAgile’s Jann Thomas and Adam Asch share tips for how to get better results from your distributed teams and remote team members. 08:00 Introductions 01:21 Topic Intro 02:22 What are the common issue you see with Distributed Teams 02:37 Making people aware of your schedule the you are remote 05:51 Understanding your own best way of working and dealing with it when it is not in sync with your team 08:11 Working with people in different time zones 10:06 The time zone problem 11:14 - Sending team members to a physical location to build rapport and knowledge transfer 12:17 Helping remote team members see themselves as part of a team instead of adversaries 13:25 Cultural Training 14:05 When you’re in the same building but on different floors 15:08 Meeting up in the middle 16:22 The importance of meeting up for the Daily Standup 17:28 They’re home, but are they actually “working”? 18:20 Working for a virtual company 19:13 Making intentional choices to stay connected to your team 20:00 Suggestions for the team members who don’t want to participate 22:21 Better technology for better communication 23:22 The SM and PO working together to create a communicative, collaborative culture 25:10 Getting in touch with Jann and Adam for more tips If you’d like to reach out to Jann or Adam with follow up questions here is how to contact them: Jann Thomas Email: jann@leadingagile.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/agile_jann Adam Asch Email: adam@leadingagile.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/adamasch

This episode of Sound Notes is all about UX and Agile. Marcy Jacobs, Digital Service Expert for U.S. Digital Service and LeadingAgile's John Tanner join Dave Prior to explore the topic of UX and Agile. If you'd like to learn more about the specific questions address during the conversation, check out the show notes below. Show Notes John and Marcy Interview begins 00:08 Introductions to Marcy and John 00:42 The difference between UX, UI and Visual Design 02:27 An example of Visual Design, UI and UX 04:11 Focus Groups… BAD! 07:27 Where to get the info about your user/customer 08:46 What is User Centered Design 11:03 How do you help clients develop greater mindfulness about design 14:30 When the stakeholders “know” what the user needs19:25 Features and solution should be driven by understanding the problem 21:48 Changing the Portfolio Mindset 23:36 When they don’t know that they don’t understand the problem 25:40 Moving past the “just get it launched, we’ll fix it later” mindset 27:52 What do we mean by “MVP” and what do people actually need (not what do they want)? 29:43 What UX Metrics should we use to just success 31:28 Intranets… and pain 34:29 How much is good design is enough?Is there a point at which good design is not valuable? 36:44 Enticing management to support better design 38:52 If we are going to iterate, can’t just we fix the design later? 41:00 Dave’s hypothetical situation and a design-centric response 42:50 UX and Dev to working together on understanding user needs 45:59 Getting a more comprehensive view of what his happening for the user when they interact with hat you are building 48:51 What one thing do Marcy and John wish people understood about design 50:43 Getting the world to shift it’s thinking about design 51:51 Reaching Marcy and John for more information 54:27 Agile DC - Dave Nicolette Teaser 54:52 If you'd like to get in touch with Marcy Jacobs, you can find her on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcy-katz-jacobs-a26a5b John Tanner can be reached on the LeadingAgile site at http://www.leadingagile.com/guides/john-tanner/ or via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/tannerjs If you'd like to check out Agile DC to learn more about the even John mentioned, check out their website here: http://agiledc.org

This podcast features Derek Huether and Dave Prior having a discussion around the idea of getting back to the basics of Agile, understanding why we do things, seeing the value they bring and creating safe spaces for learning while your organization is coping with the challenges of Agile Transformation. Show Notes Interview Start 00:08 Topic Introduction: Back to Basics and the importance of asking Why 00:09 An Example: Reporting and figuring out what is needed in terms of reporting 01:41 Give them the information, not the reporting they got used to under waterfall 2:45 If time is currency, how much does the Daily Standup cost? 04:08 Risk mitigation and making a time investment 05:20 When the Daily Scrum isn’t working, is it wasteful? 05:50 Figuring out why things aren’t working 07:19 It’s not what did you do yesterday, it’s what did you finish yesterday 7:55 Going through the motions until you see the impact and understand why 8:44 Taking your hands off the wheel and learning to trust the team 10:30 Learning to trust is hard 11:05 Learning to trust and letting them learn from mistakes - with safety 12:24 Is it failure or learning? 13:22 Creating a safe space for middle management 14:01 Advice for mid level managers who want to do Agile, but aren’t working in a safe space 17:58 How the Agile Manifesto was created with Generous Listening 20:50 Supporting Agile transformation and existing deadlines with supplemental teams 22:02 Showing them how to do it instead of telling them how to do it 23:40 Learning Fast, Not Failing Fast 25:48 The Not Touchy/Feely Agile Guy 26:17 It’s all about Money, Time and Coffee 26:40 Reaching Derek on every form of social media known to man 26:50 If you'd like to reach Derek you can find him on the LeadingAgile site at http://www.leadingagile.com/guides/derek-huether/ or on Twitter at https://twitter.com/derekhuether

Recently, I was contacted by a friend/former co-worker who I met when we were both starting out during the .com boom. A few months ago he brought his team to take my CSM class. After he and his team took my class they went back to their organization and began practicing Scrum. At some point shortly after that, a different section of the organization attended a CSM class taught by JJ Sutherland. What my friend reached out about was the fact that there was an area where what I taught and what JJ taught seemed to be at odds and this was causing them some extra stress in trying to get Agile to take root in the organization. The issue revolved around how much work a team should plan to do, and accomplish in a Sprint. While I had a feeling JJ and I were probably closer than not on the topic, I thought it would be a great thing to discuss/debate in a podcast. So in this episode of SoundNotes JJ and I break down the topic to see where we agree, where we don't and why. If you are not familiar with JJ Sutherland, he's the Chief Product Owner at Scrum, Inc. If his last name sounds familiar, it's because Jeff Sutherland is his Dad. But, given some of the work experiences JJ has had, that fact is far from the most interesting thing about him. During the interview we also discuss JJ's experience working for NPR in war zones, the many places he has successfully used Scrum that have nothing at all to do with IT, and the podcast he produces on video games. Show notes for this podcast can be found here: http://www.leadingagile.com/2016/08/how-much-should-…th-jj-sutherland For more on JJ's podcast "Shall We Play a Game?" You can find it on iTunes or the podcast app of your choice http://shallweshow.com You can also follow the show on Twitter at https://twitter.com/shallweshow/ or reach them via email at shallweshow@gmail.com And if you'd like to reach out to JJ directly you can do so via email at jj.sutherland@scruminc.com or Twitter at http://twitter.com/jjsutherland. The book Scrum, The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time(http://amzn.to/2bphgdG) was co-authored by JJ and Jeff Sutherland.

Agile 2016 Personal Accountability Retrospective At Agile 2016, Adam Asch, Katrina Coker, Jim Hayden, Derek Huether, and Dave Prior planned to meet for a Daily Standup each day where they would share their personal plans and goals for each day of the conference. This is something that worked very well for Derek and Dave at Agile 2015 and the hope was to continue that practice and to have the team members serve as personal accountability partners for one another during the week in Atlanta. And it worked… for a day… sorta. In this podcast they hold a 2 part retrospective reviewing their goals, how they were met (or not) and why. It’s all about outcomes… Part 1 - Dave, Derek and Jim Part 1 Intro 0:09 Dave’s failure to meet his self care goals, observations and outcomes 1:57 Derek’s Networking Goals and how he met them 4:50 Derek’s Conferencing Persona 8:18 Recharging during the conference (or not) 11:22 The importance of conference buddies 12:35 Jim’s goals for building stronger relationships with co-workers and checking ideas 13:50 It’s not just a social thing 15:20 Jim and Derek’s Thoughts on the sessions 19:27 Dave’s takeaways on emerging topics - 24:40 Predator vs. Prey 25:58 Personal safety and the code of conduct 26:11 Personal Lessons Learned from attending Agile 2016 30:15 Part 2 - Adam, Dave and Katrina Part 2 Intro 35:08 Katrina’s goals at the conference and how she met them 35:19 Adam’s goals for the conference and how he met them 39:20 Personal Lessons Learned from Agile 2016 42:42 Katrin’a thoughts on intellectual and personal safety 43:50 If you'd like to get in touch with the team you can find them all on the LeadingAgile website http://www.leadingagile.com/our-guides/ And here's how to track them down on Twitter: Adam Asch @adamasch Katrina Coker @klcoker25 Jim Hayden @jim_hayden85 Derek Huether @derekhuether Dave Prior @mrsungo

Adam Asch and Dave Prior discuss how to build and refine a well formed product backlog. Adam also shares some techniques for determining which elements of the Product Backlog need to be prioritized to the top of the list and how much of those top priority items need to be worked on up front. Show Notes Podcast Intro 00:08 Topic Intro 01:00 Advice on getting started with building your backlog 1:36 Focusing on Epics and Themes 02:18 Where do User Stories fit in with Epics, Themes and Feature Sets? 03:54 What about things we need that don’t fit into the User Story Format? (non-functional stories) 05:19 I’ve got the list of stuff I want… what now? 7:58 Story mapping 9:10 Focusing on Strategy10:16 Define your desired outcome first, not what you want to build 11:48 Mapping and Prioritizing Features and Functionality for Impact 13:05 Capability Mapping 15:20 Understanding customer wants and mapping it back to strategy16:00 Product Owner means Customer Representative 17:50 Getting a deeper understanding the actual problem 19:00 Sacrificing innovation in order to get ALL THE THINGS 21:00 Can an organization do this alone, or do they need a coach? 21:55 How often you need to revisit the work you’ve done on the backlog 22:48 Developing the internal capability to do this without an external coach 24:42 How to get in touch with Adam 26:19 Contacting Adam Twitter: @adamasch Email: adam@Leadingagile.com Agile 2016 Video Podcast Interviews If you’d like to check out the Video Podcast interviews we shot at Agile 2016, you can find them at https://vimeo.com/leadingagile

For the last several months 30%-40% the folks attending LeadingAgile’s CSM and CSPO courses have come from Digital Agencies. Nearly all the attendees have questions about how to implement Agile practices in a Digital Agency Model. In this episode of Sound Notes, Brett Harned, who runs the Digital PM Summit, and Rachel Gertz from LouderThanTen, took some time to share what they’ve seen work, and not work, with Agencies who are trying to apply Agile. Show Notes: Interview Start and introductions 1:48 What makes Digital Project Management a complicated fit with Agile 3:44 What is a Digital Agency 6:17 How the historical relationship between Client’s and Agencies complicates integrating Agile in Digital 7:56 The importance of building strong relationships with your client 11:22 What practices from Agile have you seen implemented that work? 13:12 Do typical contracts between Agencies and Clients allow for backlog grooming throughout the project… is that possible ? 14:24 Adapting Digital contracts for Agile18:12 What work does Digital agency do for free when bringing Agile to a client that a consulting company would be getting paid to do 21:32 Using Agile practices effectively in different areas of the project 23:40 When your Product Owner doesn’t have final say 25:39 Should we have “approval debt” (like technical debt) for POs’ who aren’t empowered to give approval 27:55 Is it really about developing an Agile way of interacting with the client 30:22 What Agile practices just don’t work in Digital 31:14 Can you actually have stable teams in Digital? Have you seen an Agency do that? 33:14 Do we need a new type of Agile that is better suited to Digital work 38:46 A MOTORCYCLE! 40:52 Advice for those trying to use Agile in Digital 42:16 Getting in touch with Rachel and Brett 46:55 You can reach Rachel Gertz here Twitter - https://twitter.com/louderthanten Website - https://louderthanten.com COAX (the magazine) https://louderthanten.com/coax You can reach Brett Harned here Twitter - https://twitter.com/brettharned Website - http://brettharned.com For information on the Digital PM Summit Twitter - https://twitter.com/digitalPMsummit Website - http://bureauofdigital.com/summits/digital-pm/

In this episode of SoundNotes, Liana Dore, the Agile Governance Lead for eVestment explains why eVestment chose to establish a group focused on Agile Governance instead of a traditional PMO. Liana explains how Agile Governance works at eVestment, what she does day to day and the positive impact it has had on the Agile teams. Show Notes: Intro and background on eVestment 1:48 What is an Agile Governance Lead 3:30 Making the choice to establish Agile Governance instead of a traditional PMO 3:56 What does an Agile Governance Lead do all day 5:02 How Agile Governance works differently than a traditional PMO 7:40 The benefits of training the team all at once 13:30 Understanding Team Health in an Agile organization 16:05 Creating a space for the teams to thrive 18:44 Establishing an entrepreneurial culture that can scale 20:43 Agile Governance is not about control. It has to be light touch 23:32 How to get in touch with Liana 24:35 If you’d like to get in touch with Liana, you can reach her via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/lianadore

In this iteration of SoundNotes, Devin Hedge and Dave Prior talk about how to get prepare for Agile 2016. If you’ll be heading to the conference for the first time, the Agile Conference is a big, awesome, exhausting week. You need to prepare, you need to pace yourself and you need to know what you want to get out of the conference. In this podcast you’ll get some tips from seasoned conference veterans on how to make the best of your week in Atlanta. The podcast is only 18 minutes long, so we’re not providing show notes this week. Instead, here is a list of the LeadingAgile events taking place at Agile 2016. Mike Cottmeyer "The Executives Step-by-Step Guide to Leading Large-Scale Agile Transformation" Monday at 10:45 Jann Thomas "2020: The State of Agility" Tuesday at 10:45 AM Jeff Howey "Practicing Agility in Human Resources" Wednesday at 11:30 Collective Soul June 27 at 7 PM. To learn more, please visit: http://collectivesoul.leadingagile.com If you'd like to contact Devin on Twitter -> https://twitter.com/agiledevin If you'd like to contact Dave on Twitter -> https://twitter.com/mrsungo

“If you compare yourself with your surroundings and you only see that you are the best you gotta leave this place because you want to develop and be better” A few weeks ago we posted an interview with Katrina Coker on having an accountability partner and how transformative that can be. The post got a great response and so in this episode of SoundNotes Katrina’s actual accountability partner, Olga Kraynova shares her thoughts on accountability partnerships, how they work, and why they are valuable. In the interview Olga shares how she coped with the challenges she faced in moving to Moscow, becoming a PM and then moving to Dallas and how she makes sure she is always surrounded by people she is motivated by and able to learn from. If you’d like to get in touch with Olga to learn more about her story and her approach to being an accountability partner, you can reach her via LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kraynova/en And if you’d like to check out the initial interview with Katrina Coker, you can find that here: https://soundcloud.com/leadingagile/the-power-of-accountability-partnerships Show Notes: Interview Start 1:47 Olga’s Background in Startups and Project Management 2:25 Why Olga liked working at Startups and how it prepared her for PM work 4:15 How Olga got started with Personal Accountability 5:53 How Olga defines Personal Accountability Partner 7:09 How Olga and Katrina communicate on a daily basis 7:33 How Olga approaches Goal Setting 8:16 Staying motivated 10:03 Experimenting until you get the result you are looking for 11:17 How Olga and Katrina work the Accountability Partnership 11:43 The very essential thing 13:47 Tracking the plans you make for yourself and making daily updates 14:36 Olga’s journey to Moscow, becoming a PM and then moving to Dallas 17:27 Managing stress and coping challenges and not giving up 20:51 Prioritizing your needs and finding the opportunities to get them addressed 22:51 When you can’t see the whole path, taking on one challenge at a time and saying “Yes” 23:04 Having the courage to take just one step and letting the next thing arise 24:37 The benefit of not having the luxury of just shutting down and giving up 26:06 Being driven for the things you have to fix and finding people to help keep you motivated 27:57 “If you compare yourself with your surroundings and you only see that you are the best you gotta leave this place because you want to develop and be better” 28:42 Olga’s explains why you should find an accountability partner 29:17 If you don’t trust you will not be able to be open 31:56 How you can reach Olga if you have any follow up questions 32:02