Unleashing the Power of Project Management with Val Hinze

Mighty Citizen's Val Hinze joins the podcast to offer a preview of her upcoming 2024 Digital PM Summit Talk "Unleashing the Power of Project Management: A Path to Scalable Growth"

You can watch the video interview here

You can listen to an audio version here

The 2024 Digital PM Summit will take happen in Austin, TX on October 14-15, 2024. To learn more about the Summit and come attend Val's talk go here: https://bureauofdigital.com/event/digital-pm-summit-2024

Louder Than Ten Goes Full CoOp!

Louder Than Ten is a Vancouver-based Project Management Training and Consulting company. L>10 was founded by Rachel and Travis Gertz, and for the past 14 years, everything they have done has been centered around fostering healthy and humane ways of working together and managing projects. There aren’t many organizations in the digital agency space that have taken the time to develop their own project management manifesto. It is truly a unique place and now, as they do, Rachel and Travis have cranked up the volume just a scosche higher by converting their company into a Worker Owned Cooperative. This means that new employees who join Louder than Ten will have an option to purchase a stake in the company and become an equal partner. This is a far cry from the sweatshop grind-it-out approach that many agencies take and it is definitely unique in the context of what is happening in the field of project management today. 

In this episode, Rachel and Travis join me to explain why they took this step to completely transform their company and how they went about doing it. 

You can find the video version of the interview here.

You can find the audio version of the interview here.

Also, as you can see from the picture above, they have some totally badass merch. If there is a project manager in your life, remember, the holidays are right around the corner.

When Sprint Planning Is Like Hunger Games with Meghan McInerny

“What advice do you have on structuring sprint planning meetings in an agency setting with different product owners and project teams (when each PM is 'competing' for the same development resources)?" 

That is the question I got during the Q&A portion of a webinar I did recently for The Bureau of Digital on how to make Sprint Planning work better.

In this episode of the podcast I am joined by  Meghan McInerny. We talk though the issues, risks, and opportunities that come with a “Hunger Games” approach to Sprint Planning and offer some advice on how to cope with and/or resolve the problem defined in the question above. 

You can find the interview with Meghan here (on the ProjectManagement.com site).

Side Note: The webinar I did for the Bureau of Digital focused on the new version of my Sprint Capacity Calculator and how to get the most out of Sprint Planning. These webinars are normally available in a recorded format only to members of the Bureau, but they are very kind and have made this one public in case you’d like to check it out after listening to the podcast. You'll find it here.

Suze Haworth at 2018 Digital PM Summit

Suzanna Haworth gave a talk at the 2018 Digital PM Summit called "Adapting Agile: How to Make a Blended Agile Approach Work For You". Agile and Digital can be an odd fit. In her talk Suze focused on how digital agencies can begin introducing agile practices into their workflow in order to realize some of the benefits that agility can provide.

The talk was very popular. So popular in fact, that I wasn't able to get in.
Fortunately Suze was kind enough to let me interview her about her session once she got back home to London. In this interview she shares some of the key points from her session and explains her take on hybrid approaches to bringing agile and a traditional (waterfall) approach together.

If you work at a digital agency and you're trying to figure out how to make agile fit, there are some great tips in here for you.



(Also, apologies for some of the background noise - they were doing construction in the apartment above mine and it could not be helped.)

If you'd like to get in touch with Suze to ask her some follow up questions, here is her contact info:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzanna-haworth-55073616/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/suzehaworth
Web: https://suzannahaworth.com

Patrice Embry - Finessing Retrospective - 2018 Digital PM Summit

Patrice Embry gave a lightning talk called “Finessing a Retrospective to Get Results” at the 2018 Digital PM Summit. After her talk Patrice and I had a chance to sit down and talk through some of the ideas she shared that you can use to hep you get more value out of the moments where you and your team stop to inspect and adapt how things are working on your project. The tips Patrice shares in the interview (and in her talk) will work for you whether you are holding a more traditional review (like a Post-Mortem or a Project Review), or if you are working with Agile and holding a Retrospective Meeting. (Including how to hold these meetings if you are working remotely.)

If you’d like to get in touch with Patrice with follow up questions, here is how you can reach her via her website: http://www.patrice-embry.com.

Making Agile Work at HUGE Inc. w/ Lance Hammond and Robert Sfeir

In preparing for my How to Hack Agile for Digital Agencies at the 2017 Digital PM Summit I did a lot of  research and conducted a lot of interview. This conversation, with Lance Hammond and Robert Sfeir from HUGE Atlanta was the last one I did before the Summit. During this discussion Lance and Robert share many of the lessons they’ve learned in bringing Agile to HUGE and they provide clarity on what it takes to make Agile work in a Digital Agency.

SHOW NOTES

• 00:08 Podcast Begins
• 01:42 Some background on Robert and Lance
• 03:17 How long HUGE has been working on introducing Agile
• 04:40 Resistance from Design when switching to an Agile approach
• 06:08 Why Kanban may be a better approach for Design
• 07:39 How the Designers at HUGE approach their work without having all the requirements up front
• 09:30 Establishing Vision up front with the client and prioritizing options with them
• 10:33 The client needs to own the delivery from the very beginning and become part of the process
• 11:50 Making the client your partner in the workflow and decision making process
• 14:17 Why teaching the client how to work in Agile has to be an accepted cost 
• 16:07 Why those with experience in Agile transformation can be so beneficial for Digital Agencies and what you need to watch out for
• 17:52 Changing how the work gets funded 
• 20:22 How to change your Statement of Work to support Agile practices
• 21:47 Tips for convincing your client to want to use Agile to manage the work
• 24:11 Caring and feeding of the client during an Agile project at a Digital Agency
• 27:53 Should you include the client in the retrospective?
• 28:46 Do you need to have cross-functional, stable teams that are each working on only one project?
• 32:04 How long did it take HUGE to get to stable teams
• 34:02 Use Lean metrics to find and remove waste
• 34:20 How critical is it to move to a retainer (fund the team) model
• 35:30 You have to know why you want Agile, which approach you’ll take, and what you want from it
• 37:05 Scrum may have you thrashing for a bit before you switch to Kanban… and there is value in that
• 37:49 Why you need to switch the entire Digital Agency over to an Agile approach (including sales)
• 39:22: What is the hardest part about implementing/working with Agile in a Digital Agency
• 42:32 Defining what you are willing (and not willing) to try changing, when you switch to an Agile approach
• 44:30 How HUGE approaches estimating work
• 48:40 Why it is so important to watch and learn (inspect) before you start trying to change things (adapt)
• 50:45 Why Robert and Lance do not believe Scrum can work in a Digital Agency that wants Agile,  but why you need to try it first to unlock the value of Kanban
• 53:00 Contacting Lance and Robert
• 54:06 Podcast Ends

LINKS FROM THE PODCAST

HUGE
http://www.hugeinc.com/
Agile in Digital Agencies - Dave and Lance from the Atlanta Scrum User Group Meeting
https://www.pscp.tv/leadingagile/1YqxomWqrwMGv
(there is some static that persists until the interview begins at about 1 minute in)

CONTACTING LANCE

• Twitter:  https://twitter.com/lance5684
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lance-hammond-7288914/

CONTACTING ROBERT

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/robertsfeir
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertsfeir/

Hacking Agile for Digital Agencies - DPM Summit 2017

My slides and the new canvas tool I used in my session today.

Thanks to everyone who attended.

http://bit.ly/2igwXLq

Edward Kay - Making Agile work in Digital

Edward Kay, the Founder of Tall Projects, has been managing software and digital projects for over 14 years. A few months ago Edward posted an article on The Digital Project Manager called “Agency Agile: 10 Agile Methods for Agencies”. In this interview, Edward and I discuss his article, some of the key things you need to do in order to get agile to work in digital, and why Scrum may be the one thing that just won’t work in an agency model.

SHOW NOTES 

04:04 - Interview Begins
04:48 - Background on Edward and Tall Projects
05:55 - How Edward got started doing agile
06:31 - How Edward’s clients develop a desire to try Agile
09:11 - Are the clients who want to “Go Agile” aware of what that will require and willing to take the steps needed to implement the change?
11:25 - Where in the organization is agile getting started?
12:17 - Why the clients bring Edward in
13:34 - There is no one true way
14:50 - Critical challenges facing Digital Agencies trying to adopt Agile
16:32 - Understanding how to look at work across the portfolio
17:32 - Different ways of measuring work in agencies that are using Agile
20:07 - “Why don’t we just smoke crack at work?”
23:52  - Tracking Happiness
25:10 -  Quantifying value and limiting WIP
28:26 - What is the client actually paying you for?
30:50  - Determining value at the project deliverable level
32:40 - Having a conversation about limiting WIP
35:38 - Getting the client to trust the practices agile team’s employ
36:16  - Multitasking is bad and doesn’t work… but it is still expected
37:45 - What Agile practices just do not work in an Agency model
38:49 - “The on system that is not well suited for Digital Agencies in Scrum”
41:15 - Kanban as an alternative for Digital Agencies
42:10 - What Agile tool/technique is the key to making it work in an Agency model?
43:17 - What is the piece that is missing when trying to make Agile fit in an Agency model?
44:18 - How to get in touch with Edward

CONTACTING EDWARD

Website - https://www.tallprojects.co.uk/
Email: edward@tallprojects.co.uk
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwardkay/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/edwardkay or https://twitter.com/tallprojects
Edward’s article on The Digital Project Manager: Agency Agile: 10 Agile Methods For Agencies 

CSM Training and the 2017 Digital PM Summit

For information on the Certified Scrum Master class being held right before the 2017 Digital PM Summit, click here. Special Discounts are available for conference attendees. Contact training@leadingagile.com for more information.

For information on the 2017 Digital PM Summit, click here.

Justin Handler - Implementing Agile in Digital At O3 World

Justin Handler is the Head of Accounts at O3 World, a Philadelphia based Digital Agency. O3 World has been integrating Agile practices into their workflow for the past few years and Justin has been leading that charge every step of the way. In this interview, Justin shares stories about what has worked for O3, some things that didn’t, and he offers advice for Digital Agencies that are moving down the path towards Agile.

Justin is also one of the folks heading up the Digital PM group in Philadelphia. If you’d like to learn more about the group, check out http://twitter.com/dpmphilly or https://www.meetup.com/DPM-Philly/

SHOW NOTES

• 03:24 Interview begins 
• 03:44 Background on Justin and his role at O3
• 06:48 How O3 got started with implementing Agile
• 08:00 O3’s first experiments with Agile estimation practices
• 09:40 What O3 tried that didn’t work and what they learned from it
• 11:57 Debating the value of a Daily Standup and O3’s alternative solution
• 14:15 Does the client get access to the Trello Board and Slack?
• 14:34 The key to making Agile practices work in an Agency
• 16:05 Fitting UX into Agile at O3
• 19:25 Involving Developers with UX work
• 20:03 Capturing and prioritizing requirements at O3
• 22:30 Development and UX working in parallel
• 23:27 Helping the client with adopting Agile (or not)
• 25:39 Changing the nature of the relationship with the client
• 27:14 Advice for agencies getting started with Agile
• 29:23 How to reach Justin

JUSTIN’S ARTICLE

During the interview Justin references an article he wrote called “Agile In The Agency. Is It Possible?” You can find it here: http://www.thedigitalprojectmanager.com/managing-agile-projects-in-agency/

CONTACTING JUSTIN

Web: http://www.o3world.com

Email: handler@o3world.com

Twitter: @justinhandler