Agile For Agilists

Ever wondered how creativity and collaboration can ignite your professional journey? We had a blast chatting with our longtime friend, Kevin McClure, Senior Manager in the Digital Experience team at Ford Motor Credit. He revealed the fascinating story of how he transitioned from a finance degree and sales career to a product manager, rekindling his creative spark along the way.

In this riveting conversation, we delved into the importance of visualization skills and empathizing with customers for successful product development. Kevin shared his experiences with powerful tools for mapping out his mind and illustrating the flow of value in a way that is tangible and easily presentable to stakeholders. We also discussed the exciting journey from BA to Scrum Master, the evolution of our partnership, and how treating product development like a business can lead to impactful results.

This episode is jam-packed with valuable insights, from UX maturity to the entrepreneurial spirit and metrics-driven decision-making. Don't miss out on learning from Kevin's experiences and discovering ways to channel your creativity into success. And hey, if you love the episode, post a repost with the hashtag #AgileSticks and tag us for a chance to win a free Agile for Agilist sticker pack! Let's keep the creativity flowing!

Join hosts Drew and Brad on an exciting episode of The Agile for Agilists Podcast, as they welcome special guest Kevin McClure, a Senior Manager at Ford Credit with a wealth of experience as a Product Manager for multiple Fortune 500 companies. In this captivating conversation, Brad and Kevin reflect on their experiences at Meijer and explore the fascinating journey that led Kevin to excel in the field of product management. Gain valuable insights into the power of visualizing work and effectively presenting those visualizations, while also discovering Ford Credit's innovative strategies for deepening their understanding of customers. Tune in to this episode to gain useful perspectives on agile practices, effective product management techniques, and the pivotal role of customer-centric approaches.

Welcome to another exciting episode of "The Agile For Agilists Podcast" hosted by Brad Nelson and Drew Podwal. In this episode, we have the pleasure of welcoming our special guest, behavioral design and product coach, Dom Michalec. Join us as we explore the elements of behavioral design and how this method can unlock the potential within your teams and revolutionize the way agile coaches approach facilitating transformation journeys.

During this insightful conversation, Dom shares his wealth of experience in creating user-centric and behavior-driven design solutions in contrast to facilitating organizational change by combining the principles of human behavior and agile methodologies. As an avid student of Dr. BJ Fogg and Tiny Habits Certified Coach, Dom highlights how the Fogg Behavior Model enables coaches to identify and align motivations, abilities, and prompts within individuals, fostering a fertile ground for agile adoption.

Dom shares how this approach can be used both for good and evil, as well as how to apply it in your own life to finally build the habits you have been struggling with for years. While this method is definitely a life hack, Dom assures us that it is not the Jedi Mind Trick. It can be just as powerful though in the right hands!

Throughout the episode, Brad, Drew, and Dom engage in a dynamic conversation that delves into the practical applications of behavioral design principles and how they can be seamlessly integrated into both product design and the agile transformation process. Listeners will gain a high-level understanding of what Behavior Design is, along with actionable tips for integrating these strategies into agile events, such as sprint planning, daily stand-ups, and retrospectives, to optimize collaboration, enhance productivity, and foster a continuous improvement mindset.

Join us on "The Agile For Agilists Podcast" as we uncover the immense potential of leveraging behavioral design strategies in driving an enterprise's agile transformation. Get ready to transform your organization into an agile powerhouse that thrives on human-centric principles!

Episode Links:

The long-awaited Agile showdown is finally here, Story Points vs No Estimates!  Amanda Rae Arseneau is back to team up with co-host Brad Nelson to go head-to-head with Drew Podwal, in a debate that you won’t want to miss! The discussion gets heated as Drew argues in favor of story points, emphasizing the benefits of having a shared language enabling alignment between technical and non-technical members of the team. Meanwhile, Brad and Amanda staunchly defend the no estimates approach, emphasizing an approach that has a lower cognitive load and promotes flow. It’s a duel to the finish with no one holding back as they challenge each other's arguments and offer real-world examples and case studies to support their positions. They tackle tough questions such as: Is the need for metrics holding teams back from true agility? Are story points just a way to appease management, or do they provide real value to teams? Is a no-estimates approach realistic in a business environment that demands predictability? Join us for a thrilling and provocative episode of The Agile for Agilist Podcast’s long-awaited follow-up.  Will Drew be swept away by the flow metrics or stand victorious as the only one tracking points? Links from today's episode: 1. https://actionableagile.com/resources/publications/ 2. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-i-use-story-points-planning-brad-nelson/

3. https://itrevolution.com/product/accelerate/

4. https://cloud.google.com/devops

5. https://support.puppet.com/hc/en-us/articles/221368047-The-2023-State-of-DevOps-Report-is-here-

6. https://www.ebayinc.com/stories/news/expert-joshua-kerievsky-discusses-modern-agile-at-ebay/

Are you tired of office politics and personality clashes standing in the way of your team's or organization's growth of Agile capabilities? In this episode we discuss how to navigate workplace friction reveal how examining startup culture can provide valuable insights for accelerating the delivery of value in larger organizations.

Brad Nelson and Drew Podwal sit down with Organizational Fixer, Entrepreneur Coach, and Culture Consultant Elizabeth O'Neill to unpack the secrets of startup agility, innovation, and behavioral strategies that enable such rapid delivery of value to its customers. We highlight the practices and modalities that enterprise companies can adopt from startups in order to support a more engaged, empowered and customer focused workforce. (Spoiler we talk about culture!)

We wrap up our discussion by examining how self-awareness and active listening help agile coaches manage biases, build trust, and tailor their approach to individual clients. Elizabeth provides insight that allows coaches to connect to their clients and leadership on a deeper level, and identify underlying issues that may be impeding progress.

So, if you're ready to bring some startup culture to your enterprise organization, then you're in the right spot because it's time to think like a startup and take your enterprise to the next level!

In this episode of Agile for Agilists, we explore the often-overlooked fact that corporations are made up of human beings, and therefore, when we are coaching an organizational transformation we are actually coaching people with emotions and feelings. Hosts Brad Nelson and Drew Podwal team up with former school teacher turned Agile Consultant Patty Aluskewicz to share practical strategies for supporting individuals through the emotional challenges of transformational change.

Knowledge of the Agile values, principles, practices, and tools is what makes a coach an "Agile Coach," but effectively coaching the adoption of Agile is more about creating a safe space for individuals to express their concerns, fears, and uncertainties. Coaches can build trust and mitigate resistance by acknowledging the individual and harnessing a collaborative approach to continuous improvement. With lessons from the classroom and years of experience facilitating the growth of agile environments, this conversation offers a thoughtful and nuanced approach to coaching organizational transformations.

Tune in to discover how recognizing the importance of human emotions can lead to a more successful transformational initiative, how to tailor coaching approaches to support individuals through the transformational process, and the benefits of creating a culture of collaboration and co-creation.

Having a wildly successful product takes more than solving the right problem for the right users. It also requires paying customers. We are joined in this episode by Director of Product and Growth Strategy Expert, Diego von Sohsten, who shares his experience in his own failed startup and how that has made him a better Product Manager today. Tune in to learn tips and tricks, as well as hear about Diego's journey from Brazil to Canada and from developer to product manager, and his successful quest to capture that mythical unicorn.

Diego von Sohsten - https://www.linkedin.com/in/diego-vs/

Clayton Christensen's Jobs to Be Done - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXYm-CVzPQ0

We did it! We recorded and published our first season of the Agile For Agilists Podcast. In this bonus episode, Drew and Brad reflect on the efforts that have gone into launching a podcast from scratch, the challenges along the way, and the lessons they have learned. If you are interested in hearing more about the behind-the-scenes of the Agile For Agilist Podcast, then tune into this transparent and vulnerable bonus episode where the guys try to live what they preach.

Does having a continuous improvement mindset make you a negative person? Do people view you as overly critical? Does it make it harder for you to stop and smell the roses? In this episode, Drew and Brad explore these questions and open up about challenges and habits they have in their own lives, teams, and organizations. They touch on agile culture, positive psychology, and energy leadership. Drew ensures we all know how cool he is and self-identifies as a "fun coach," while Brad is against mandatory fun and is a calming force with his stoic presence. More than just a feel-good episode, the Agile Manifesto and its core values emphasize the human aspect over process and tools. Delivering innovative, high-quality software at a steady pace requires motivated, involved, and happy teams. And you know what they say, happy developers equal happy users. Tune in to relate and/or learn some tips and tricks. #GoodVibesOnly

Links from this episode:
1. The Happiness Advantage (https://www.shawnachor.com/happiness-advantage-key-takeaways/)
2. Tiny Habits (https://tinyhabits.com/)
3. Atomic Habits (https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habits)
4. Husband reviews scotch while wife leaves him (https://youtu.be/ouGLEtapOX8)
5. iPEC Coaching (https://www.ipeccoaching.com/blog/energy-leadership-explanation)

Each day software developers are responsible for maintaining code bases that support billions of dollars in revenue streams.  When decisions need to be made it can often feel like that MacGuyver moment of choosing between the red wire, and the blue one.  In this episode, Drew is joined by former USAF Explosive Ordnance Disposal Master Sergeant turned Leadership & Performance consultant Ken Lewis to discuss the contrast and similarities to leading software teams and EOD teams who literally cut red wires.

Military culture is often associated with toughness, discipline, and always being ready to fight, but the reality is that while the military is entrenched in authority, its leadership approach is highly empathetic. Ken’s experience as a US Air Force EOD tech gives him unique insight into how we can apply high-stakes military leadership principles, with empathy and compassion into our daily lives at work and in our personal relationships.  

You'll also learn about the "knife hand," and why you probably shouldn't use it.

This episode is packed full of actionable insights you can take back to your own organization today!