Interviews with Keynotes from Agile 2016

At Agile 2016, Adam Asch, Devin Hedge and I got to spend the week doing video podcasts with speakers and though leaders for LeadingAgile. The keynote presentations will eventually be posted to the Agile Alliance website and will be available to members, but while you are waiting... here are the interviews we did with them last week in Atlanta.

Jurgen Appelo, the CEO of HappyMelly, kicked the week off with his keynote on Managing Happiness. During the interview I got the chance to dig a little deeper on some of the specific tools (like personal maps) that he discussed during his session. If you don't want to wait for the Agile Alliance, you can also check out a previous version of Jurgen's talk here: TedX, or pick up his book here.

LeadingAgile Live - Jurgen Apello from LeadingAgile on Vimeo.

Devin Hedge got a chance to sit down with Industrial Logic CEO and Wednesday keynote Joshua Kerievsky to ask him questions about his keynote on Modern Agile and what changes he believes are necessary for the next step in Agile evolution. You can learn more about Modern Agile here.

Our last interview of the week was with closing keynote Carrie Kish. Unfortunately we missed her talk Leadership for Genius Tribes because we were still in the Hyatt basement doing interviews, but this conversation was one of the most fun and inspiring of the week for me. Carrie is the CEO of CultureSync and has a podcast called LeadershipUnleashed.

LeadingAgile Live - Carrie Kish from LeadingAgile on Vimeo.

Live Video Podcast Interviews from Agile 2016!

I'm doing live podcast interviews from Agile 2016 all week long for LeadingAgile.

The live interviews will be showing up on LeadingAgile's Facebook site here.

And you can watch HD versions on Vimeo here.

The Agilistocrats on Agile 2016

The Agilistocrats on Agile 2016! If you are attending for the first time or aren't sure what sessions to attend, we've got you covered. Maria Matarelli, Richard Cheng, Dhaval Panchal and Dave Prior share their pics for which sessions to check out and how to survive the week in Atlanta at Agile 2016.

Agile Governance at eVestment - a more Agile approach to PMO with Liana Dore

In this episode of SoundNotes, Liana Dore, the Agile Governance Lead for eVestment explains why eVestment chose to establish a group focused on Agile Governance instead of a traditional PMO. Liana explains how Agile Governance works at eVestment, what she does day to day and the positive impact it has had on the Agile teams.


Show Notes:

Intro and background on eVestment 1:48
What is an Agile Governance Lead 3:30
Making the choice to establish Agile Governance instead of a traditional PMO 3:56
What does an Agile Governance Lead do all day 5:02
How Agile Governance works differently than a traditional PMO 7:40
The benefits of training the team all at once 13:30
Understanding Team Health in an Agile organization 16:05
Creating a space for the teams to thrive 18:44
Establishing an entrepreneurial culture that can scale 20:43
Agile Governance is not about control. It has to be light touch 23:32
How to get in touch with Liana 24:35

If you’d like to get in touch with Liana, you can reach her via LinkedIn at
www.linkedin.com/in/lianadore

Getting Ready for Agile 2016 with Devin Hedge

In this iteration of SoundNotes, Devin Hedge and Dave Prior talk about how to get prepare for Agile 2016. If you’ll be heading to the conference for the first time, the Agile Conference is a big, awesome, exhausting week. You need to prepare, you need to pace yourself and you need to know what you want to get out of the conference.

In this podcast you’ll get some tips from seasoned conference veterans on how to make the best of your week in Atlanta.

The podcast is only 18 minutes long, so we’re not providing show notes this week. Instead, here is a list of the LeadingAgile events taking place at Agile 2016.

Mike Cottmeyer "The Executives Step-by-Step Guide to Leading Large-Scale Agile Transformation" Monday at 10:45

Jann Thomas "2020: The State of Agility" Tuesday at 10:45 AM

Jeff Howey "Practicing Agility in Human Resources" Wednesday at 11:30

Collective Soul June 27 at 7 PM.

To learn more, please visit: collectivesoul.leadingagile.com

If you'd like to contact Devin on Twitter -> twitter.com/agiledevin

If you'd like to contact Dave on Twitter -> twitter.com/mrsungo

Personal Accountability Partnerships Part 2: Olga Krayova

“If you compare yourself with your surroundings and you only see that you are the best you gotta leave this place because you want to develop and be better”

A few weeks ago I posted an interview with Katrina Coker on having an accountability partner and how transformative that can be. The post got a great response on the LeadingAgile site and so in this episode of SoundNotes Katrina’s actual accountability partner, Olga Kraynova shares her thoughts on accountability partnerships, how they work, and why they are valuable. In the interview Olga shares how she coped with the challenges she faced in moving to Moscow, becoming a PM and then moving to Dallas and how she makes sure she is always surrounded by people she is motivated by and able to learn from.

If you’d like to get in touch with Olga to learn more about her story and her approach to being an accountability partner, you can reach her via LinkedIn at:
www.linkedin.com/in/kraynova/en

And if you’d like to check out the initial interview with Katrina Coker, you can find that here: Leadingagile – The-power-of-accountability-partnerships
 

Show Notes:

Interview Start 1:47
Olga’s Background in Startups and Project Management 2:25
Why Olga liked working at Startups and how it prepared her for PM work 4:15
How Olga got started with Personal Accountability 5:53
How Olga defines Personal Accountability Partner 7:09
How Olga and Katrina communicate on a daily basis 7:33
How Olga approaches Goal Setting 8:16
Staying motivated 10:03
Experimenting until you get the result you are looking for 11:17
How Olga and Katrina work the Accountability Partnership 11:43
The very essential thing 13:47
Tracking the plans you make for yourself and making daily updates 14:36
Olga’s journey to Moscow, becoming a PM and then moving to Dallas 17:27
Managing stress and coping challenges and not giving up 20:51
Prioritizing your needs and finding the opportunities to get them addressed 22:51
When you can’t see the whole path, taking on one challenge at a time and saying “Yes” 23:04
Having the courage to take just one step and letting the next thing arise 24:37
The benefit of not having the luxury of just shutting down and giving up 26:06
Being driven for the things you have to fix and finding people to help keep you motivated 27:57
“If you compare yourself with your surroundings and you only see that you are the best you gotta leave this place because you want to develop and be better” 28:42
Olga’s explains why you should find an accountability partner 29:17
If you don’t trust you will not be able to be open 31:56
How you can reach Olga if you have any follow up questions 32:02

Agile Transformation and Craftsmanship of the Self

In this SoundNotes interview, LeadingAgile’s Tom Churchwell explains what it’s like to stick with an Agile transformation all the way through, the Agile and Beyond conference, and the fundamental questions that lead to craftsmanship of the self.



Tom Churchwell Notes 

Interview Begins 1:48
Background on Tom 2:14
Tom’s path to Agile 3:23
The long haul of transformation 4:20
I lost my cube, but I got this shirt 5:05
The long haul 6:05
I trust you implicitly from right out of the gate 7:16
Creating a safe space to make it work 8:00
Change is slow 8:30
Agile Beyond 9:55
Reorienting around excellence 10:45
Ae we still pushing the boundaries? 13:35
Creating the Safe Space 14:15
Increased focus on the human side of Agile 16:00
What do you do when excellence fails? 17:45
I don’t believe that there are dark places 18:38
If your team is in the doldrums, it is the fault of leadership 19:24
Enroll and Inspire, nor command and control 19:40
Craftsmanship and art are a part of what high technology people do 21:00
Bob Hoover - an amazing scary story about trust 23:00
We need a safe space where people can make mistakes 24:25
On volunteering and how it can inspire you 26:30
The fundamental questions of the self 32:30
Tom’s mission and craftsmanship of the self 33:18
Volunteering for Agile and Beyond 35:30
Getting in touch with Tom 37:15

Tom can be reached at tchurchwell@twitter.com

Roman Pichler : Strategy and Product Ownership

Roman Pichler, one of the leading voices in Agile Product Ownership has released a new book, Strategize: Product Strategy and Product Roadmap Practices for the Digital Age. Roman's new book presents a number of tools and techniques Product Owners and Product Managers can use to gain a deeper understanding the product(s) they are developing in order to stock and maintain a better product backlog.

This was a special treat for me. I've been saving up questions for this interview for long time and Roman was kind enough to tolerate all of them.



Show Notes

• Why the wrote Strategize 00:26
• Adding Product Strategy to Agile Planning 2:46
• Vision to Strategy to Roadmap 5:37
• How to use the Go Product Roadmap to feed Release Planning 6:00
• Who you need to create the Roadmap? 8:40
• How Strategize should help Product Owners and Product Managers 10:30
• Is the focus on Product Ownership increasing and maturing? 11:50
• Explaining the difference between and Product Owner and a Product Manager? 15:20
• The key elements of Product Strategy  19:20
• Aligning products across the portfolio 21:24
• Product Owner at the Portfolio level 23:00
• How often should you update your Vision Board and Roadmap? 24:05
• How important is it that Team Members know the Product Vision? 25:50
• If there was one misunderstanding about Product Ownership that you could fix, what would it be? 27:54
• How to get in touch with Roman 30:00

If you'd like to get in touch with Roman, you can reach him at http://www.romanpichler.com
If you'd like to pick up a copy of Strategize, you can find it here.

IHG Product Ownership Outside of Software

In this LeadingAgile SoundNotes podcast IHG's Rebecca Williamson and LeadingAgile's Russ Pena talk about the role of Product Owner and how it has evolved through IHG's adoption of Agile on a project that has nothing to do with software... they are using it to redesign hotel rooms.

Howard Sublett : Creating and Supporting Community

Click here to go straight to ProjectsatWork interview

One of the most challenging issues faced by any organization is how to support and care for the individuals who work there. This challenge takes on a whole new level of complexity in the context of a consulting organization with staff who spend most of their time on the road away from their families and from one another. There is no specific formula for how to protect your most valuable resource (the people) from turning into burned out, disconnected road warriors who check out and eventually bail in search of something better.

In this interview, Howard Sublett, the Director of Community Development at Solutions IQ and Dave Prior discuss how Howard advocates in support of the people who are in the field and the importance of maintaining empathy for members of the community. Dave and Howard also talk about how Howard’s approach to life and work all focus around the idea of being of service to others and the importance of planning your life (and work) so that you are able to take advantage of the magic that interruptions provide.

Click here to go straight to ProjectsatWork interview

Show Notes:

• How Howard describes what he does 0:38
• You can’t create community in a vacuum 2:50
• Where Howard’s empathy comes from 4:45
• On the road 6:40
• What you do is a very subtle thing 7:45
• Planning for the disruption 9:20
• Being open to disruption in all areas of your life 10:50
• Taking the chance to build a deeper connection 12:06
• The lens you see the world through 13:12
• Learning to be more open? 14:10
• Maintaining the Introvert/Extrovert balance in your organization 15:22
• How to maintain the level of openness even when ti doesn’t always work 17:00
• Journaling 18:45 Diving as a meditative practice 19:45
• Getting in touch with Howard 21:26

Click here to go straight to the interview