Agility Island - for practitioners & coaches in Product Management, Lean, Agile & Scrum
By John Coleman PKT, PST, LSFT, Thinkers360 top 10
Listen to regular nuggets from an active globally recognized practitioner, trainer, and coach in tech and non-tech at the home of authentic agility.
I am a Thinkers360 top 10 agility thought leader, Scrum.org Professional Scrum Trainer and course steward, co-author of Kanban Guide, Prokanban.org Professional Kanban Trainer and LeSS Friendly Scrum Trainer.
Agility Island - for practitioners & coaches in Product Management, Lean, Agile & ScrumSep 19, 2023
What is a "Funnel" in Kanban?
You may have heard of funnels in Kanban - but what exactly are they? How do they work? How do they change the way we work?
Check out my definition of workflow video: https://youtu.be/rmaE7ipr2p0?si=bi6-tRGjJ0OVZTR5
Access the Kanban Guide in OVER 10 language here: https://kanbanguides.org/english/
About John Coleman: John Coleman's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolemanagilitychef/ John Coleman's website: https://orderlydisruption.com/ Looking to get your Scrum/Agility training? Check out my courses at: https://orderlydisruption.com/collections/courses Thank you for listening. #scrum #agile #workflow #kanban
The definition of workflow
Workflows? How are they defined? What policies should you try on your kanban board?
Access the Kanban Guide FREE here in over 10 languages: https://kanbanguides.org/
About John Coleman: John Coleman's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolemanagilitychef/ John Coleman's website: https://orderlydisruption.com/ Looking to get your Scrum/Agility training? Check out my courses at: https://orderlydisruption.com/collections/courses Thank you for listening. #scrum #agile #workflow #kanban
Sizing: the Do's and Don'ts
#agile #scrum #productowner What are some of the things you should TRY and some things you should AVOID when sizing? Try these tips to take your product backlog to the next level! Articles mentioned in this episode: Monte Carlo Probabilistic Forecasting: https://medium.com/agileinsider/is-release-planning-done-in-scrum-managing-stakeholder-expectations-forecasting-c0064371ee64 The product owner, product leader, product manager and the Scrum accountabilities: https://medium.com/agileinsider/the-product-owner-product-leader-product-manager-and-the-scrum-accountabilities-f9716f78c70d About John Coleman: John Coleman's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolemanagilitychef/ John Coleman's website: https://orderlydisruption.com/ Looking to get your Scrum/Agility training? Check out my courses at: https://orderlydisruption.com/collections/courses Thank you for listening. #scrum #agile #productmanagement
Tom Gilb on eliciting what stakeholders need & solving customer problems, opportunities and threats, the principles of success planning & impact estimation tables
Tom Gilb joins me on this week's episode of the Agility Island podcast to discuss what stakeholders need and how to solve solve customer problems, opportunities and threats? On the agenda: 1. How can we, as practitioners, be better at eliciting what stakeholders really need, who the right stakeholders are, and how can we solve customer problems, opportunities, and threats?
2. Tom’s Background
3. Review and quality control of requirements
4. Definition of ready
5. Definitions of success and failure and examples
6. Value objectives
7. The principles of success planning and definition: Define the success criteria and the constraints of the failure criteria
8. The importance of rigorous systematic thought
9. Definition of the state of success
10. Scientific inquiry
11. The secret of avoiding failure
12. No evil and outsmarting the evil
13. Limiting losses
14. Choose good
15. The importance of having estimates for much safety will be delivered in a timeframe
16. Who are your critical stakeholders? Who do we need t look after?
17. Tom’s experience at Boeing
18. Value requirements and examples
19. Constraint levels: intolerable, tolerable, success, stretches
20. Impact estimation tables
21. Long-term objectives: mature planners vs. immature planners
22. Technical debt
23. Laws of project success
24. Ethics of success
25. De-composing stakeholder needs
26. Delivering miracles while in planning mode? Tom’s Amazon Repository: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Books-Tom-Gi... Tom Gilb on Leanpub: https://leanpub.com/u/tomgilb Tom’s website (free ebooks): https://www.gilb.com/ About John Coleman: John Coleman's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolem... John Coleman's website: https://orderlydisruption.com/ Looking to get your Scrum/Agility training? Check out my courses at: https://orderlydisruption.com/collect... Thank you for watching. #scrum #agile #productmanagement
Product Management Series: Product Owner vs Product Manager vs Product Leader and the Scrum accountabilities
Witness the power of collaboration as these roles/accountabilities harmoniously converge to create a winning formula. Explore how Product Owners, Product Leaders, and Product Managers align their efforts, leveraging their unique perspectives and skill sets to drive product success. Learn about their interplay in agile environments and how they contribute to creating customer-centric, market-leading products. Get ready to elevate your product management skills and propel your career to new heights!
About John Coleman:
John Coleman's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolemanagilitychef/
John Coleman's website: https://orderlydisruption.com/
Looking to get your Scrum/Agility training? Check out my courses at: https://orderlydisruption.com/collections/courses
Thank you for listening. #scrum #agile #productmanagement
Product Management Series: What is the difference between product management and scrum?
Scrum: 1. The accountabilities in Scrum 2. Product owner 3. The role of developers in Scrum
Product management: 1. Design Lead 2. Tech Lead 3. Product Manager
Is there any overlap? Some.
About John Coleman:
John Coleman's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolemanagilitychef/
John Coleman's website: https://orderlydisruption.com/
Looking to get your Scrum/Agility training? Check out my courses at: https://orderlydisruption.com/collections/courses
Thank you for listening. #scrum #agile #productmanagement
What is throughput in Kanban and how do you measure it?
Throughput is important. But what is it, how do you measure it and what role does value play?
Enjoyed this episode? Or perhaps you may have a question? Let's connect on
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolemanagilitychef/ or
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johncolemanagilitychef/?hl=en
If you are looking for scrum or kanban training, check out my upcoming courses at: https://orderlydisruption.com/collections/courses
As always, thank you for listening! #scrum #kanban #agile #managementconsulting
The 1 question to figure out where you are in the product life cycle
What if I told you there is one 1 question you can ask to figure out where you are in the product life cycle?
Moreover, what if I told you figuring out where you are can tell you the kind of complexities you can expect to deal with?
Ready? Let's go.
Enjoyed this episode? Or perhaps you may have a question? Let's connect on
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolemanagilitychef/ or
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johncolemanagilitychef/?hl=en
If you are looking for scrum or kanban training, check out my upcoming courses at: https://orderlydisruption.com/collections/courses
As always, thank you for listening!
Product Owner Coping Strategies
Are you a product owner?
Here are some tried and tested product owner coping strategies!
1. Become a developer - 1:33
2. 'Speak now or forever hold your silence' meeting - 2:19
Enjoyed this episode? Or perhaps you may have a question? Let's connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolemanagilitychef/ or Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johncolemanagilitychef/?hl=en
If you are looking for scrum or kanban training, check out my upcoming courses at: https://orderlydisruption.com/collections/courses
As always, thank you for listening/watching!
Product Management Series: Different Types of Product Owner
What are the different categories of product owner?
This episode goes outlines all the different types of product owners as well as the characteristics/pros and cons of each by considering them against the definition of a product and how you may deliver value.
Join me as I also bust a common myth: product management being taught at product ownership classes. #productowner #agility #managementconsulting
In this episode I drew on my information I gained from my interviews with:
Indi Young - https://anchor.fm/xagility/episodes/Indi-Young-on-why-you-shouldnt-look-at-a-problem-through-the-aperture-of-a-solution-e1fpr78/a-a7j8he8 John Carter, chief engineer of BOSE noise cancelling headphones - full interview available here: https://anchor.fm/xagility/episodes/John-Carter---chief-engineer-of-BOSE-noise-cancelling-headphones-on-the-BOSE-culture--marketing-a-new-invention-and-agility-e1k1g3t/subscribe
Enjoyed this episode? Or perhaps you may have a question? Let's connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolemanagilitychef/ or Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johncolemanagilitychef/?hl=en
If you are looking for scrum or kanban training, check out my upcoming courses at: https://orderlydisruption.com/collections/courses
As always, thank you for listening.
Agility Island: What is Large Scale Scrum (LeSS)?
In this episode, I take you through what Large Scale Scrum precisely consists of, including a breakdown of the sprint retrospectives, product backlog refinement, and the daily scrum. What are the advantages of scaling?
I mentioned the article I wrote, comparing the differences between the 2017 and 2020 Scrum Guide: https://orderlydisruption.com/blogs/grow-agility-for-your-why/whats-different-in-the-2020-scrum-guide
For a comprehensive study of all available scaling frameworks check out: https://orderlydisruption.com/blogs/scaling/can-scrum-and-agility-be-scaled-and-what-s-the-best-way-to-do-it
Enjoyed this episode? Or perhaps you may have a question? Let's connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolemanagilitychef/ or Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johncolemanagilitychef/?hl=en
If you are looking for scrum or kanban training, check out my upcoming courses at: https://orderlydisruption.com/collections/courses
As always, thank you for listening.
Agility Island: Advice I would give my younger self (from an active practitioner and scrum master with 18 years of experience)
The last 18 years working in a range of different industries (ranging from tech to oil, tobacco, etc) have taught me a lot. Today I share some of the advice I would give the version of myself who was just starting out. Whether you are an experienced scrum master or just starting your career, there's something for everyone in this episode.
From the Kübler-Ross Change Curve to the Tuckman Model, the devastating impact closing down a project can have on a team, what drives our behavior, Executive Agility, the importance of understanding the business and technical domain when working outside software, imposing your views on other people's beliefs and lip service.
Do let me know if you have found this episode useful by messaging me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolemanagilitychef/
If you are looking to get your Scrum training in, check out: https://www.scrum.org/classes?uid=217428
My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johncolemanagilitychef/
My twitter: https://twitter.com/JohnColemanIRL
#scrum #agility #scrummaster
Agility Island: leader vs scrum master (scrum master vs agile coach?)
What is the difference between a scrum master and an agile leader? If you start with the scrum master, what should a scrum master be doing? What would a leader do? the difference in the positions of scrum masters and agile leaders may not be as big as you think it is.
Thank you for listening.
#scrum #agility #agileleader #managementconsulting #scrummaster
My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolemanagilitychef
My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johncolemanagilitychef/
Looking for a scrum.org course from an active agility practitioner with over 15+ experience? Check out: https://orderlydisruption.com/collections/courses
I also have a page dedicated to simplifying agility, if you're just starting out or perhaps looking to get a more simple understanding of a complex topic, check out: https://www.instagram.com/basicallyagile/
Agility Island - Sustainability
Sustainability should be central to value. Instead of inauthentic greenwashing lets aim to be authentic with our sustainability and truly reduce our impact on the environment. If you truly want to improve your sustainability, consider it in terms of how you prioritize value.
Setting Expectations In Scrum
When will it be done? How do we manage expectations in scrum? How do we use Monte Carlo probabilistic forecasting and the importance of throughput.
My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolemanagilitychef
My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johncolemanagilitychef/
My twitter: https://twitter.com/JohnColemanIRL
Agility Island - What is a product goal?
The 2020 version of the Scrum guide introduced the notion of ''product goal' but big visions can sometimes be hard for scrum teams to wrap their heads around which can in turn affect empiricism. What is a product goal and how can we go about having one without affecting empiricism?
My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolem...
Agility Island Podcast: https://anchor.fm/agilityisland
Retrospectives and Techniques
On today's episode I take you through some of the techniques from Esther Derby and Diana Larsen's book on Retrospectives such as setting the stage as well as I explain why I think improvements should happen on the spot and the importance of doing so on team performance.
My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolem...
My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johncoleman...
My Website: https://orderlydisruption.com/
Constraints, work capability, throughput & flow
Do you know what your team or team of teams capability to take on work is? How can throughput help? Using real-world examples, this episode aims to outline work capability and throughput.
My social media:
https://www.instagram.com/johncolemanagilitychef/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolemanagilitychef
http://orderlydisruption.co.uk/
How do you measure value in scrum?
What is value and how is it measured in scrum?
In this episode, I walk you through some types of value such as organizational value, market value, societal value and learning value.
I then focus on models such as the WK Kellogg Foundation Logic Model as well as Martin Fowler's Strangler Pattern to further outline the importance of learning.
https://www.instagram.com/basicallyagile/
https://www.instagram.com/johncolemanagilitychef/
https://anchor.fm/xagility
Trust and its impact on the definition of done in scrum
How does trust impact the definition of done? Does low trust affect the definition of done? How can we work on building trust to help our definition of done?
You can't see me, but I am adding something in the air. What is it? Trust.
Trust yourself. Trust your team. Do the work. Impact the Definition of Done.
For more check out:
My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolemanagilitychef
My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/basicallyagile/
orderlydisruption.com
What the developers do in the last week of the sprint?
Do you think work should be handed off once it meets the definition of done? On this episode, I talk about how developers should collaborate with the 'testers' and the important role that plays overall. Tune in, you might find some useful tips.
Can scrum and agility be scaled and what’s the best way to do it?
In this episode, I talk you through some of the different ways and frameworks you can use to scale scrum and agile. The first rule is of course not scale but if you must, here are some ways to do so:
3:27 LeSS - what is it and how does it work?
6:29 Disciplined agile - what is it and how does it work?
7:21 Scrum at scale - what is it and how does it work?
8:21 SAFe - what is it and how does it work?
9:55 Nexus - what is it and how does it work?
11:43 Spotify ING - what is it and how does it work?
12:29 Flight Levels - what is it and how does it work?
I also wrote a blog post on this, you can find it here: https://orderlydisruption.com/blogs/grow-agility-for-your-why/mirror-mirror-on-the-wall-preamble-to-1-of-4
Value and Kanban: isn't Kanban just about outputs? Isn't Kanban missing a trick with value and organizational capability?
How do we deliver value in Kanban?
In this episode, John starts off by talking about by briefly introducing evidence-based management (EBM) and explains its 4 key values: time to market, ability to innovate, current value and unrealized value.
John then moves on to look at how these values operate in the context of Kanban (2:35) and things that may actually harm your ability to deliver value.
John then goes on to talk about classes of service in Kanban and why in his opinion, intangible is the preferred class of service.
Balancing UX with shipping fast in scrum? A deeper look into each box of the Lean UX canvas - are you doing User Experience the right way?
Is there such thing as balancing UX with shipping fast in scrum?
Is there even such thing as shipping fast in scrum?
How can we know what is value when we don't know the end-user?
What happens in each box of the Lean UX canvas?
Daily Flow - dealing with complexity in a Kanban footprint
How can we better deal with complexity in a Kanban footprint? Join me in this short episode to explore how.
Daily Flow - a story about story points and an alternative, throughput
In this episode, I go through some field stories regarding story points - why you shouldn't use them and offer alternatives.
Daily Flow: Sizing & Forecasting
Popular patterns for sizing including "exact" time/cost, relative, right-sizing, and #noestimates. Popular patterns for forecasting include Gantt charts(ugh!), burnup/down charts(hmmm), and probabilistic forecasting(oooo). An emerging trend is with right-sizing and probabilistic forecasting. It's not all sunshine and honey, context matters, and it's dangerous to over-simplify. Let's laser focus on the upsides and downsides of each of these options.
Time Stamps:
0:00 Approaches & Their Upsides
9:00 Downsides of Approaches
19:02 Approaches for Forecasting
Daily Flow - where does Scrum Master end and agile leader begin
Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
0:22 scrum master vs agile coach
1:46 The conversations you might have as a leader/scrum master/agility coach
3:48 What I expect a scrum master or agility coach to do
10:00 What about a leader?
13:17 Some things to consider stopping
Watch the video version of this episode here: https://youtu.be/9n90oOChNQY
Daily Flow: Scrum definition of done for non-software, Kanban board & column exit criteria
Let's focus on non-software - let's consider a people recruitment process as an example.
What does "done" mean? Valuable, useful, and usable in Scrum, whatever the organization/team decides it is.
"When someone's need was met" in Agendashift. Maybe a near to exit stage on a Kanban board...
How is "done" different from acceptance criteria for a Scrum product backlog item or subtasks on a Kanban work item?
0:00 Introduction
3:42 The definition of "done"
5:27 Definition of done in Kanban & subtasks
7:05 Acceptance criteria may become obsolete
7:53 Different categories of quality standards
10:44 Recruitment example
18:07 Definition of Done in Kanban for non-software
20:17 One of the things I love about kanban
24:28 Answering questions and comments
Watch the video version of this episode here: https://youtu.be/CZTarEzFvBc
Daily Flow: Product backlog refinement and why is it encouraged?
Product Backlog Refinement is an activity in (single team) Scrum, with supporting events for multi-team Scrum in Nexus and LeSS. Why is it encouraged? Is there something equivalent in Kanban?
0:00 Introduction
0:27 Product backlog refinement in Scrum
8:03 How do we obtain a common understanding
9:06 A nerve centre for discovery
15:00 Optional practices
15:11 Misunderstandings of product backlog refinement
Watch this in the video format here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gti64RAlVL4
Daily Flow: How do projects and Scrum go together?
Projects are artificial constructs to get money to get some work done. Key metric include time, scope, and cost. Products don't have scope. Scrum is for product development and works even better with Lean UX and Kanban as a powerful combination. Should we set up Scrum Teams dedicated to projects?
0:34 What is a project?
1:01 Deciding whether to use Scrum or not
3:17 Problems with using Scrum for projects
9:01 Managing expectations
10:12 Scrum teams for each project - good idea?
Watch the video format here: https://youtu.be/VnahFNJgS-g
Daily Flow - what is LeSS and why is it needed?
Daily Flow - what is LeSS and why is it needed?
Daily Flow - all the meetings and no time to get work done
Are you in an agile team? Does it feel like meeting mania? It doesn't have to be.
Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
0:24 Meetings with agile
2:12 Three questions in the Scrum guide
4:04 The situation to strive for
7:13 Sprint planning
10:15 Product backlog refinement
13:50 Having a chat with key stakeholders
Link to YouTube video: https://youtu.be/t99iRz-h2Xs
Daily Flow - a chat with Steve Tendon about constraints in knowledge work
Daily Flow hosts the amazing Steven Tendon to discuss constraints in knowledge work. This episode is packed with fun anecdotes as well as the story of Herbie.
Join us in discussing Steve's amazing work in his own Tame Flow.
1:48 - Basics of constraints in knowledge work / understanding what is a constraint
2:51 - Story of Herbie
8:53 - Finding the constraint
15:31 - Moving people around
22:33 - Rating behaviour/mental models as a constraint
Daily Flow - what to not talk about at the Daily Scrum, what to not do at the Daily Scrum
Remember those three annoying questions? Thank goodness they no longer exist in the Scrum guide.
0:00 Introduction
2:05 Five domains to think about when working on problems...
3:49 What to talk about in the daily scrum
5:15 From a flow perspective...
7:58 Getting to know each other
10:57 Answering questions and comments
Daily Flow - what is Nexus, and why is it needed?
Nexus is Scrum.org's scaling/de-scaling pattern. It's simple and it's practical.
0:00 Introduction
1:03 The cake metaphor
4:55 A basic Nexus
7:58 Why I like Nexus
10:50 Minimising dependencies
12:49 The Nexus daily scrum
15:47 The 2021 update
18:25 A key distinction between LeSS and Nexus
21:10 Answering questions and comments
Daily Flow - Scrum - How long should our Sprint be?
Two weeks is the most popular sprint length for Scrum teams, so we should use that right? What if we have multiple teams for the product?
Daily Flow - spot the difference - enterepreneurial product ownership & product leadership
On the Xagility ™ podcast at https://anchor.fm/xagility, Marty Cagan explained his view on product ownership & product management, calling it "CSPO pathology".
Listen to John Coleman's personal opinion on the following: What does it mean for teams? What does it mean for entrepreneurial Product Owners? What does it mean for Product Leaders? What does it mean for training? What does it mean for organizations?
Daily Flow - a chat with Prateek Singh about Work Item Age
Daily Flow - a chat about intent with David Nixon
Daily Flow - "take the time it takes so it takes less time" vs "it takes as long as it takes"
Daily Flow - time to think
Daily Flow - Why I love Scrum with UX
Daily Flow - let's talk about policies
Daily Flow - Kanban charts basics
Daily Flow - What is Kanban?
Daily Flow - Turn off the tap!
Daily Flow - is the application of Scrum as per the Scrum Guide too prescriptive?
Is the application of Scrum as per the Scrum Guide too prescriptive? Is the Scrum Guide used as a set of laws you need to adhere here to? Should the Scrum Guide rather be treated as a guide that gives the team a starting point but encourages the team to inspect and adapt the framework to better their outcomes? To request a topic, leave a message at https://anchor.fm/dailyflow/message or WhatsApp +447908539437, thank you.
Daily Flow - sterility, agility