This week in SoundNotes our focus is Design Thinking. If you are a Product Owner and Design Thinking is not part of your toolbox you need to listen to this podcast. This is the first in what will be a series of interviews centered around Design Thinking, how it works and why it is a critical element of the work of anyone serving in a Product Owner or Product Management role.

Design Thinking w/ Angela Peat and Derek Poppink

Dave Prior and Lance Kind discuss a new item from the Scrum Guide: Product Goal. Listen in while Dave teaches Lance what the product goal is, ideates on how to implement, and debates as to the value product goal provides. As a bonus, Dave and Lance: discuss how “real options” relate to product backlogs, that there will be a struggle about where to put backlog items that don’t fit the product goal, and how computers have become like the Tardis.

Scrum Guide's Product Goal

This podcast is our third in a series of conversations focused on Fixed vs. Growth Mindset. Leveraging the work in Carol Dwek’s book, Mindset, Mary Kaufman and Dave Prior explore the differences between having a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. Each episode of this series focuses on how our mindset impacts the way we perceive and respond to different types of stimulus/events.

This episode is focused on effort and the differences between how a fixed mindset and a growth mindset perceive the value we receive from applying ourselves at work. Do we see the effort spent as a waste of time, or a step towards achieving some level of mastery that can be a reward all by itself?

Other Episodes in our Growth Mindset Series
Episode 1: Embracing Challenges
Episode 2 : Obstacles
Links
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success - by Carol Dweck https://amzn.to/3yYpyn3
Fixed vs Growth Mindset graphic referenced in the interview (created by Nigel Holmes) https://bit.ly/3vWO1Hh

Contacting Mary
LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/mary-kaufmann/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-kaufmann-305b844/
Email: Mary.Kaufmann@leadingagile.com

Contacting Dave Prior
LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo
Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

And if you're interested in taking one of our upcoming Certified ScrumMaster or Certified Scrum Product Owner classes, you can find all the details at https://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/

Growth Mindset: Effort

This week on SoundNotes our Founder and CEO, Mike Cottmeyer, joins Dave to discuss why simply showing up and having the answer for the customer is not enough. During this conversation, Mike explains the process he follows when engaging with clients to ensure he is truly hearing them and understanding the way they see the problem, and how that begins a series of steps that enables him to work with the client to find the best solution for them.

If you are involved with introducing change in an organization, especially from a consulting standpoint, this interview is a must.

Knowing the Answer is Not Enough w Mike Cottmeyer

What is PSTIR? PSTIR is an acronym for a change management model we use at LeadingAgile to explain our approach to creating lasting change. It stands for Prepare, Socialize, Tailor, Implement, Reinforce and it is a series of collaboration and implementation activities that enable our clients to be part of the change while leveraging the LeadingAgile reference architecture. 

In this episode of SoundNotes, Dave is joined by LeadingAgile Principal Consultant, Melissa Oberg and Dennis Stevens, our Chief Methodologist to discuss what PSTIR is, why it exists and why it is such a crucial part of how we introduce and manage change in an organization.

Understanding Change Management w Melissa Oberg and Dennis Stevens

There’s a layer to communication that is most important for understanding: intention. It’s the most often overlooked aspect because it’s hard to decipher if people are saying what they mean or if you actually understand what they’re saying.

By hunting for a shared understanding of intention, you can more deeply understand what people are saying and why. If you aren’t aligning on intent, you could be missing the mark, which can be detrimental, especially in a business environment.

In this episode of SoundNotes, Dave and Mike explore how improving communication can translate into an Agile work environment, personal relationships, and the benefits that better communication provides to individuals and groups of people.

Using Intention-Driven Communication

When organizations set out to adopt Agile, they always have a business reason. It’s never just because they really love Scrum, or SAFe, or LeSS. But when the teams start doing all the Agile things, and they’re met with resistance from the organization around them, it’s hard to point to success because not much changed. So, we start defining success as “do the roles and ceremonies exist and are we following all the Agile dogma.” That’s a poor definition of success, and we have to get better at changing the organization around the teams. But that’s a different problem altogether. To do that, we’ll have to deconstruct what people, especially leaders inside organizations, believe about Agile and get them to see it through an all-new lens.

Mike and Dave sit down to begin deconstructing some of the current beliefs about Agile, and talk about what success actually looks like in this week’s episode of SoundNotes. 

Contacting Mike Cottmeyer
If you’d like to contact Mike, you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/mike-cottmeyer
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/cottmeyer/
Twitter: twitter.com/mcottmeyer
Email: mike@leadingagile.com

Contacting Dave Prior
If you’d like to contact Dave, you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
Twitter: twitter.com/mrsungo
Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

Interested in CSM or CSPO Training?
You can find all the details at www.leadingagile.com/scrum-training/

How to Truly Succeed with Agile Transformation

Our guest, Troy Magennis, has been described as a national resource in the Agile community. He’s a published author and frequent speaker on forecasting and modeling Agile projects.

Today, Troy joins us to discuss how many of the metrics the Agile industry uses actually prevent companies from achieving the change they so desperately desire. Together, we’ll explore some ways the industry gets metrics and forecasting right and where it tends to go wrong. And Troy offers a ton of insight on how you can begin thinking about the work differently to release more value more rapidly more often.

Contacting Troy Magennis 
If you'd like to contact Troy, you can reach him at: 

Focused Objective: https://www.focusedobjective.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/troymagennis/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/t_magennis

Contacting Dave Prior
If you’d like to contact Dave, you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
Twitter: twitter.com/mrsungo
Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

Interested in CSM or CSPO Training?
You can find all the details at www.leadingagile.com/scrum-training/

Agile Metrics: Enabling Change with Data Modeling & Forecasting

Thinking about becoming a ScrumMaster? Or maybe you recently got your CSM Certification, and you’re still trying to get your footing. Check out this quick podcast to learn what ScrumMasters do all day and gain some insights into the softer skills required of a ScrumMaster. 

Links From the Podcast

ScrumMaster Checklist
https://scrummasterchecklist.org/

42 Tasks for a ScrumMaster’s Job
https://agiletrail.com/2011/11/14/42-tasks-for-a-scrum-masters-job/

Contacting Vic Bonacci

If you’d like to contact Vic you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/victor-bonacci 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vbonacci/ 
Email: Victor.Bonacci@leadingagile.com

Contacting Dave Prior
If you’d like to contact Dave, you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
 LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo 
X: x.com/mrsungo
 Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

Interested in CSM or CSPO Training?
You can find all the details at www.leadingagile.com/scrum-training/

What Do ScrumMasters Do All Day?

In the face of change, many people inside large organizations are often left with more questions than answers. Do I have the ability to lead my team through this? Do I possess the necessary skills? Will my role become obsolete? Is my job safe? A good change management strategy accounts for these questions and tries to reduce the angst surrounding the change by deploying solid stakeholder management practices. 

Today, Mike and Dave sit down to discuss how we approach stakeholder management and reveal some of the tactics we deploy during a transformation to create safe, win-win situations for all those participating in the change effort.  

Contacting Mike Cottmeyer
If you’d like to contact Mike, you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/mike-cottmeyer 
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/cottmeyer/ 
X: x.com/mcottmeyer 
Email: mike@leadingagile.com 

Contacting Dave Prior
If you’d like to contact Dave, you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/ 
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo 
X: x.com/mrsungo 
Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com 

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com 

Interested in CSM or CSPO Training?
You can find all the details at www.leadingagile.com/scrum-training/

Empathy, Trust, and Alignment: Stakeholder Management Tactics for Agile Leaders

In this episode of SoundNotes, Dave sits down with Dennis Stevens to discuss cloud transformation and why you might want to step back, take a deep breath, and come up with a more strategic and planful approach to moving to the cloud. Over the course of the conversation, they dig into some of the anti-patterns Dennis sees in the market that cause cloud transformations to fail, and they explore the benefits of having a strong cloud readiness plan and how you can begin to ensure that your plan is integrated with your business strategy.

Video Mentions 

Dennis’ Blog: Navigating the Challenges of Cloud Migration
https://www.leadingagile.com/2024/01/navigating-the-challenges-of-cloud-transformation/

Contacting Dennis Stevens 
If you’d like to contact Dennis, you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/dennis-stevens
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dennisstevens/
Email: dennis@leadingagile.com

Contacting Dave Prior
If you’d like to contact Dave, you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
X: x.com/mrsungo
Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

Interested in CSM or CSPO Training?
You can find all the details at www.leadingagile.com/scrum-training/

Avoid These Common Cloud Transformation Mistakes

Dave Prior sits down with LeadingAgile consultants Mary Lloyd and Lance Kind to discuss value stream mapping. What is it?  Why use it at all? And when should you use this technique? Together, they answer these questions, dig into an example of value stream mapping, and explore some use cases for the technique. 

Contacting Mary Lloyd 
If you’d like to contact Mary, you can reach her at:

LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/mary-lloyd/
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mary-lawson-lloyd/
Email: mary.lloyd@leadingagile.com

Contacting Lance Kind
If you'd like to contact Lance, you can reach him at: 

LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/lance-kind/
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lancer-kind/
X: x.com/LancerKind
Email: lance.kind@leadingagile.com

Contacting Dave Prior
If you’d like to contact Dave, you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
X: x.com/mrsungo
Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

Interested in CSM or CSPO Training?

You can find all the details at www.leadingagile.com/scrum-training/

An Introduction to Value Stream Mapping

Dave Prior is back again with Lance Kind and Mary Lloyd to talk about value stream mapping. In the last installment of this miniseries, the team gave a high-level introduction into what a value stream map is and why they’re important. On today’s episode of SoundNotes, they discuss how use value stream mapping to demonstrate the economic benefit of reducing waste in the system. 

Contacting Mary Lloyd
If you’d like to contact Mary, you can reach her at:

LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/mary-lloyd/
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mary-lawson-lloyd/
Email: mary.lloyd@leadingagile.com

Contacting Lance Kind
If you'd like to contact Lance, you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/lance-kind/
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lancer-kind/
X: x.com/LancerKind
Email: lance.kind@leadingagile.com

Contacting Dave Prior

If you’d like to contact Dave, you can reach him at:
LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
X: x.com/mrsungo
Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

Interested in CSM or CSPO Training?
You can find all the details at www.leadingagile.com/scrum-training/

Quantifying Waste Reduction Using Value Stream Maps

In this third installment of our value stream mapping series, Mary shows Lance and Dave how to apply the technique of value stream mapping to your business architecture and capabilities so that you can make more informed, intentional, data-driven decisions to improve your business.

Contacting Mary Lloyd
If you’d like to contact Mary, you can reach her at:

LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/mary-lloyd/
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mary-lawson-lloyd/
Email: mary.lloyd@leadingagile.com

Contacting Lance Kind
If you'd like to contact Lance, you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/lance-kind/
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lancer-kind/
X: x.com/LancerKind
Email: lance.kind@leadingagile.com

Contacting Dave Prior
If you’d like to contact Dave, you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
X: x.com/mrsungo
Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

Interested in CSM or CSPO Training?
You can find all the details at www.leadingagile.com/scrum-training/

Using Value Stream Maps to Identify Improvement Opportunities

A big part of becoming a truly product-driven organization is getting better at understanding the needs of your customers, and improving your products to meet their needs. In this video, Mary, Dave, and Lance take on the topic of customer journey mapping and show you how this tool can help you align around the needs of your customer. They’ll explain how this technique can identify the customer experience and put specific actions in place to court correct and wee out any of the negative experiences customers are having with your product. 

Contacting Mary Lloyd
If you’d like to contact Mary, you can reach her at:

LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/mary-lloyd/
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mary-lawson-lloyd/
Email: mary.lloyd@leadingagile.com

Contacting Lance Kind
If you'd like to contact Lance, you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/lance-kind/
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lancer-kind/
X: x.com/LancerKind
Email: lance.kind@leadingagile.com

Contacting Dave Prior
If you’d like to contact Dave, you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
X: x.com/mrsungo
Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

Interested in CSM or CSPO Training?
You can find all the details at www.leadingagile.com/scrum-training/

How to Align Your Product-Driven Organization to the Customer Experience

We’re back with an all-new episode of SoundNotes where we discuss the nature of products. What are they? How are they different from services and experiences? And does it really even matter? Watch this week’s spirited conversation to see how we’re thinking about and defining products, and discover how your organization might be spinning its wheels by even having the debate.  

Contacting Mary Lloyd
If you’d like to contact Mary, you can reach her at:

LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/mary-lloyd/
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mary-lawson-lloyd/
Email: mary.lloyd@leadingagile.com

Contacting Andrew Young
If you'd like to contact Andrew, you can reach him at: 

LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/andrew-young/
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/atyoung/
Twitter: x.com/exclamation101
Email: andrew.young@leadingagile.com

Contacting Dave Prior
If you’d like to contact Dave, you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
X: x.com/mrsungo
Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

Interested in CSM or CSPO Training?
You can find all the details at www.leadingagile.com/scrum-training/

Product Development: Using Systems Thinking to Achieve Better Business Outcomes

What are some of the challenges of securing a legacy monolith in the midst of a technology modernization project? What's the impact of AI on infrastructure and security? And why are we partnering with Rampart AI to ensure our clients can become cloud-ready safely and securely?

We answer all this and more in our latest podcast.  

Contacting Mike Cottmeyer
If you’d like to contact Mike, you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/mike-cottmeyer
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/cottmeyer/
X: x.com/mcottmeyer
Email: mike@leadingagile.com

Contacting Lee Krause 
If you’d like to contact Lee, you can reach him at:

Rampart AI: https://www.rampart-ai.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lee-krause-512763/

How the Need for Security is Driving the Need for Transformation

For many organizations, cloud costs are spiraling out of control, causing them to rethink their cloud commitment. Some are exiting the cloud altogether and moving back on-prem. But what if there was a different way? An iterative and incremental way to start reaping the benefits of the cloud today without disrupting innovation or performance. In this panel discussion, we explore how LeadingAgile helps our clients reduce their cloud spend and economically justify transformation without disrupting things like innovation and performance. 

Contacting Mike Cottmeyer
If you’d like to contact Mike, you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/mike-cottmeyer
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/cottmeyer/
X: x.com/mcottmeyer
Email: mike@leadingagile.com

Contacting Len Greski
If you'd like to contact Len, you can reach him at:

Email: len.greski@leadingagile.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonardgreski/

Contacting Matt Van Vleet
If you'd like to contact Matt, you can reach him at:

Email: matt.vanvleet@leadingagile.com 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-van-vleet-8788342/

Contacting Rick McMichael 
If you'd like to contact Rick, you can reach him at:

Email: rick.mcmichael@leadingagile.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickmcmichael/

How to Economically Justify Transformation by Cutting Down on Cloud Costs

Many companies are moving to the cloud only to realize that they aren’t getting the cloud benefits. Not only are they not able to improve performance and scalability, but they’re also paying more than they were before. The reality is that the economic drivers pushing these companies into the cloud, inevitably lead to large lift and shifts where monolithic, legacy applications get moved to the cloud without the necessary modernization required to reap the rewards of cloud migration.

Today, those same companies that moved to the cloud are looking to move back on-prem or toward a hybrid environment to cut costs, but what if there’s another way? What if you could strategically refactor your applications after they’ve been moved to the cloud and rescue your cloud initiative? Learn how cloud rescue can get you the benefits of the cloud while reducing costs.

How Cloud Rescue Enables Enterprise Transformation

Jim Hayden explains the five critical factors he looks at in tracking Agile Team Stability: Staffing, Unplanned Work, Too Much WIP, Churn and Dead Weight. During the interview Jim also explains how to measure the work and roll it up into an Index of Team Stability that he often uses with Agile Transformation Clients.

It3 - Measuring Team Stability - Jim Hayden

In this interview with LeadingAgile CEO and Founder, Mike Cottmeyer, we explore the background of LeadingAgile, our beliefs around transformation and how companies can begin their transformation journey. 

Our Compass: Exploring the LeadingAgile Transformation Approach - It6 - Mike Cottmeyer

An Accountability Partnership can be a powerful thing. At a very basic level, this is a relationship you establish with another person who agrees to keep watch and support you in defining and realizing your goals. The goals may be of a professional nature, though they may extend beyond this into other areas of your life. In this episode of SoundNotes, LeadingAgile Engagement Analyst, Katrina Coker and Dave Prior discuss the role that an Accountability Partnership can play in providing support in your professional, and personal life. Dave and Katrina talk about how to find an Accountability Partner that is right for you, how to establish working agreements and how to prepare yourself for having someone play that role in your life.

Katrina Coker - Personal Accountability Podcast Show Notes

Interview Start 1:48
Katrina’s role at LeadingAgile 2:12
Katrina and the Personal Agility Canvas 5:22
Dave’s story on having an Accountability Partner 5:58
Katrina’s background 7:02
How Katrina ended up with an Accountability Partner 8:00
How it works 9:26
Personal Accountability Retrospectives 11:15
How Personal Goals fit in 11:55
Why it helps to have someone to share your goals with 12:25
Prioritizing your goals and getting support from your Personal Accountability Partner 13:10
“Oh, let me know when you start achieving.” 14:51
How to approach someone about being your Accountability Partner 15:31
Finding the right person to be your Accountability Partner 17:47
Establishing working agreements with your Accountability Partner 19:36
Setting Boundaries and Goals 21:39 
The value of having a Professional Counselor 22:43
Including spiritual goals in the Personal Agility Canvas 24:26
How Katrina finds accountability and support in non-work areas of her life 25:10
How Katrina’s accountability partner helps her prioritize her goals 27:44
“If it’s not a HELL YES, it’s not gonna happen” 28:20
Katrina’s advice on three things you need to do in order to prepare to have an Accountability Partner 28:55
Getting in touch with Katrina 32:00

If you'd like to check out the Personal Agility Canvas mentioned in this podcast, here are some links:

Personal Agility Canvas 2.0 - http://bit.ly/1tdzSF6

PMP Rehab: Personal Agility Canvas slideshare from the 2016 Scrum Gathering - http://bit.ly/214vv9R 

The Power of Accountability Partnerships

In this podcast, Dr. Dan Greening is back to follow up in the earlier podcast interview about Agile Base Patterns. This time, Dan and Dave Prior discuss leading indicators you can study to assess Agile Portfolio Health. During the podcast, they dig in to metrics that can be used to assess Lead Time, Abandoned Work and Fitness Functions.

Leading Indicators You Can Use To Assess Agile Portfolio Health

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.

Sprint Planning - Interview with JJ Sutherland

LeadingAgile' Tim Wise spent some time talking with Dave Prior about how important stable teams are to making Agile work. Tim and Dave also discuss the impact of not having them and what you can do about it.

Show Notes
00:08 Interview Start and Tim introduction
00:53 - Topic Introduction - Why you need stable teams to make Agile work
02:03 - Tim explains what stable teams are and why they are important 
04:51 - Dave presents a common argument against stable teams
05:30 - An example of an organization being successful without stable teams
07:12 - How Digital Agencies struggle with Agile due to a lack of stable teams
07:35 - Why are we advocating for stable teams? What’s the reason behind it?
08:08 - Why you need stable teams to be predictable
08:30 - Research about teams and making them work
10:08 - Shouldn’t really skilled professionals just be able to work together? ( Studio Musicians vs. Professional Athletes)
12:33 - Packing your team with all “A” players does not make a great team
13:18 - Google’s Search for Perfect Teams
14:00 - Establishing Team Norms and a Shared Purpose
15:01 - Why great teams are able to be flexible and cope with change
15:28 - Trusting the skills and abilities of your fellow team members
15:52 - How trust enables greater focus 
16:48 - Diverse Collective Intelligence and Self Organization
18:09 - How a team exploits their own conditions and uses their own capabilities to get the most out of each other. 
19:49 - Teams spread across multiple projects have lower throughput that teams working with a single focus
21:29 - Team stability metrics and collecting data on team performance that can be used to identify hot spots in the organization that can be addressed
23:05 - What if you don’t/can’t have stable teams? What should you do in order to still get value out of Agile
23:47 - Advice for Digital Agencies that lack stable teams
25:53 - Understanding the cost of making the choice to not have stable teams
27:08 - Making the choice for stable teams and one backlog (regardless of the number of projects)
29:44 - Running a test to prove stable teams work
30:28 - How to reach Tim for more information

What Google Learned From Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/what-google-learned-from-its-quest-to-build-the-perfect-team.html

The Atlanta Scrum User Group https://www.meetup.com/agile-38/

Here is where you can reach Tim:
LeadingAgile http://www.leadingagile.com/guides/tim-wise/
WiseAgile http://www.wiseagile.com
Tim on Twitter https://twitter.com/timswise
Tim on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/timwise

Tim Wise - Stable Teams

In this episode of LeadingAgile's SoundNotes, Tim Wise joins Dave Prior to answer some questions from CSM and CSPO students about how Business Analysts, Systems Analysts and Product Managers can work with Scrum Teams.

If you are interested in learning more about LeadingAgile's Certified ScrumMaster and Certified Scrum Product Owner classes, please visit http://www.leadingagile.com/training/

If you would like to reach Tim, you can find him here:
LeadingAgile http://www.leadingagile.com/guides/tim-wise/
WiseAgile http://www.wiseagile.com
Tim on Twitter https://twitter.com/timswise
Tim on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/timwise

Student Q&A - The Role of BA, SA and Product Manager on Scrum Teams with Tim Wise

“Culture is just the boogeyman people use when they don't know how to articulate an organizational change management strategy that executives will buy into.”
~ Mike Cottmeyer

In this episode of SoundNotes, LeadingAgile CEO, Mike Cottmeyer shares his thoughts on why we need to stop blaming culture when organizations are unable to adopt Agile. During the interview, Mike and Dave dig into the reasons why many of the organizations that struggle with Agile are dealing with deeply rooted mechanisms that extend far beyond culture. Unfortunately, one of the most common refrains in the Agile community is that the culture is the primary thing that must be addressed, and once that is solved, the rest will take care of itself. For many organizations that buy into the promise of Agile without having clarity on the organizational impediments they must overcome for Agile to be able to exist, maybe culture isn't the best place to start.

If you'd like to read Mike's blog post on the topic, you can find it here: https://bit.ly/2pO8YU4

Contacting Mike

If you’d like to contact Mike you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/mike-cottmeyer/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cottmeyer/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mcottmeyer
Email: mike@leadingagile.com
Contacting Dave

If you’d like to contact Dave you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo
Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com
If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

And if you're interested in taking one of our upcoming Certified ScrumMaster or Certified Scrum Product Owner classes, you can find all the details at https://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/

Is Culture Really the Problem? w/ Mike Cottmeyer

For any organization moving to Agile, the question of how to handle tracking and reporting is going to present challenges. If you are moving from a traditional environment, there may be an expectation (dependency) on traditional forms of reporting. If you are starting out with an electronic tool, there may be a wide range of reporting options.

Just because you an create a report, does not mean you should. If your audience doesn't know how to digest the information, you may create cognitive dissonance and (cue inner Yoda voice) dissonance leads to confusion leads to fear, fear leads to "help". #thatwassarcasm

Derek Huether recently put up two blog entries that dig into come of the challenges that come with determining what to track and how to report on it.   In this episode of SoundNotes, Derek and Dave pick up the conversation but come at it from a different angle.  If your PMO is stuck the middle of some quasi-agile/waterfall environment and trying to figure out how to provide meaningful information to the folks upstairs, this podcast may be able to help.

Links from the Podcast

How to Define Metrics to Reach Better Business Outcomes
An Introduction to OKR: Objectives and Key Results
Contacting Derek

If you’d like to contact Derek you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/derek-huether/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/derekhuether/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/derekhuether
Email: derek@leadingagile.com
Contacting Dave

If you’d like to contact Dave you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo
Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com
If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

And if you're interested in taking one of our upcoming Certified ScrumMaster or Certified Scrum Product Owner classes, you can find all the details at https://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/

Tracking and Reporting: What Should the PMO be Measuring? w/ Derek Huether

LeadingAgile has grown significantly over the past few years. Along the way, we’ve found that one of the most critical elements of growing successfully is how we introduce new folks to the company and how we approach helping organizations Transform. 

In this episode of SoundNotes, Dave is joined by Betsy Layman and Matt Smith—two of the latest additions to the LeadingAgile family. Both Betsy and Matt started their on-boarding process a few weeks ago as Expedition Lead and Transformation Lead, respectively. Together, they discuss the difference between these roles, what it's like to go through LeadingAgile’s on-boarding process, and how it helps to position our new team members for success.

To learn more about joining LeadingAgile:
www.leadingagile.com/careers/

Contacting Betsy Layman
Web: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/betsy-layman/
LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/betsylayman/
Email: Betsy.Layman@leadingagile.com

Contacting Matt Smith
Web: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/matt-smith/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-f-smith/
Email: Matt.Smith@leadingagile.com

Contacting Dave Prior
LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo
Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

And if you're interested in taking one of our upcoming Certified ScrumMaster or Certified Scrum Product Owner classes, you can find all the details at https://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/

On-Boarding at LeadingAgile w/ Betsy Layman and Matt Smith

One of the challenges faced by many organizations hoping to improve their ability to deliver value through Business Agility is that they get so caught up in selecting a solution that they lose sight of the actual problem they are trying to solve.

In this episode of SoundNotes, LeadingAgile Senior Consultants Luke Pirrello and Tom Furland join Dave Prior in exploring better ways to go about understanding the problem that needs to be addressed and then designing a solution that fits the problem without getting lost in a dogmatic approach to implementing Agile.

During the podcast, Luke and Tom discuss Disneyland’s approach to designing and implementing innovative solutions to problems like how to create a Millennium Falcon ride that will provide a valuable experience to an unprecedented number of Star Wars fans. The new attraction is expected to have a demand beyond the scale of anything seen before and it required coming up with an entirely new way of delighting the customers who have a deep personal connection not only to Disney but to the Star Wars brand as well.

This episode of SoundNotes is a little different than what we normally post. If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. 

Email us at: soundnotes@leadingagile.com

For more information on Disney's new Millennium Falcon ride: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/attractions/hollywood-studios/millennium-falcon-smugglers-run/

Contacting Luke Pirrello
If you’d like to contact Luke you can reach him at:

Web: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/luke-pirrello/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukepirrello/
Email: luke.pirrello@leadingagile.com

Contacting Tom Furland
If you’d like to contact Tom you can reach him at:

Web: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/tom-furland/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tfurland/
Email: tom.furland@leadingagile.com

Contacting Dave Prior
If you’d like to contact Dave you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo
Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

And if you're interested in taking one of our upcoming Certified ScrumMaster or Certified Scrum Product Owner classes, you can find all the details at: 

https://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/

Problems, Solutions, and the Millennium Falcon

Julianne Jones is a Principal Consultant with LeadingAgile. Her work includes interfacing with the leaders of high profile organizations and pairing with them in order to help Transform their organization to achieve true Business Agility. 

She's also someone who believes in giving back to the Agile community. 

Recently, Julianne spent a week serving as the ScrumMaster for the volunteers that helped put on the 2019 North American Global Scrum Gathering.

In this episode of SoundNotes, Julianne shares some details about her experience volunteering for the Scrum Alliance. She talks about the work she did in Austin acting as a servant leader for the many people who gave their time in order to make the North American Global Scrum Gathering one of the most valuable Agile events to take place each year. During the interview, Dave and Julianne discuss why volunteering for professional organizations is so important, the benefits you receive as a reward for your time, and what it’s like to spend a few days coming together with dedicated people who want to commit their time to ensure that the people who come to the Scrum Gathering have the best possible experience.

Note from Dave: 
Volunteering for professional organizations like the Scrum Alliance and the Agile Alliance is one of the most powerful things you can do to develop your career. By offering your time, you get the opportunity to engage with people who are truly dedicated to Transforming the world of work. It's also one of the best ways you can develop a large network of like-minded individuals who you can turn to for support when you face challenging situations in Agile or when you are looking for a new gig.

Volunteering
For information on Volunteering for the Scrum Alliance:
https://www.scrumalliance.org/get-involvedFor information on 

Volunteering for the Agile Alliance:
https://www.agilealliance.org/the-alliance/volunteer-signup/
(AgileAlliance membership is required)

To contact Julianne Jones

Web: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/julianne-jones/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julianne-jones-4042264/
Email: Julianne.Jones@leadingagile.com

Contacting Dave Prior
If you’d like to contact Dave you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo
Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

And if you're interested in taking one of our upcoming Certified ScrumMaster or Certified Scrum Product Owner classes, you can find all the details at: 
https://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/

The Benefits of Volunteering w/ Julianne Jones

If you're confused about the difference between Epics, Features, and Stories—you're not alone. Most of us use these terms to describe different types of items we’d put into a Product Backlog. The challenge is that each organization defines them differently and uses them to mean different things.

In this episode of SoundNotes, LeadingAgile SVP and Senior Consultant Scott Sehlhorst joins Dave Prior to talk about the difference between Epics, Features, and Stories, how the three of them are related, and the value that each brings to the table.

If you have questions about the purpose each serves, how they complement each other, and why people often get them confused, you’ll find answers in this podcast.

Contacting Scott Sehlhorst

LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/scott-sehlhorst/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sehlhorst
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sehlhorst/
Blog: http://tynerblain.com/blog/

Contacting Dave Prior
If you’d like to contact Dave you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo
Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

And if you're interested in taking one of our upcoming Certified ScrumMaster or Certified Scrum Product Owner classes, you can find all the details at:

https://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/

Epics, Features, and Stories, Oh My! w/ Scott Sehlhorst

In this episode of SoundNotes, LeadingAgile Managing Consultant, Greg DePasquale explains what Outcome-Based Planning is, how it works, why it's so critical for enabling successful delivery, and how it works at different levels of the organization.

In outcome-based planning, we focus on “a results-driven plan rather than plan-driven results." There is a focus on the Why as opposed to the How. We center around the business outcome we are looking to achieve, rather than making sure we are doing “all the things." 

If you work in a project-based organization and status is tracked by things done (or percent of a thing done), you are probably more output focused. If you are planning for the results you want to achieve, and you and employ a strategy where we can continue inspecting and adapting towards that desired result, regardless of how many things you can check the done box on along the way, then you are outcome-focused.

Contacting Greg DePasquale:

Web: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/greg-depasquale/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregdepasquale/
Email: greg.depasquale@leadingagile.com

Contacting Dave Prior

If you’d like to contact Dave you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo
Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

And if you're interested in taking one of our upcoming Certified ScrumMaster or Certified Scrum Product Owner classes, you can find all the details at https://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/

Outcome Based Planning w/ Greg DePasquale

You have to deeply understand how what you’re doing at all levels of the organization is going to drive quality. In this week’s podcast, LeadingAgile CEO Mike Cottmeyer joins us to dig into why increased quality should matter to you, and some actionable steps to take to enable more of it across your organization.
If you’d like to contact Dave you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo

Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

And if you’re interested in taking one of our upcoming Certified ScrumMaster or Certified Scrum Product Owner classes, you can find all the details at https://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/

The Physics of Agile: Quality w/ Mike Cottmeyer

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