Improving Your Facilitation Skills w/ Tricia Broderick

How do you make the leap from being someone who can deliver a presentation to being someone who can meet a crowd, entertain them and take them someplace where they happen to learn something valuable along the way? I know lots of people who can stand up in front of a room (or share a screen) and get through a topic without saying anything wrong. I know far fewer people who can take a room, offer valuable information wrapped in stories, and stagecraft in a way that appears effortless. 

Tricia Broderick is an accomplished, well-known thought leader in the Agile community and a fellow Certified Scrum Trainer. She is currently offering a class in Impactful Training and Speaking and I reached out to her in hopes that she might be able to share some thoughts and tips on how a presenter/teacher can amp up their ability at delivering a compelling, valuable fun experience for the people attending their session or class.

You can find the interview here.

Discussion on Changes to the 2020 Scrum Guide with Eric Tucker

The 2020 Scrum Guide is here. It's got changes which are subtle, but impactful. In this episode of the podcast, I am joined by Certified Scrum Trainer, Eric Tucker. During the interview we explore some of the changes to the guide and try to offer insight into how these may help teams adopt Scrum and also some things to watch out for. 

You can find the podcast here.

Remote Forever with Molood Ceccarelli

While most of us have spent the past several months struggling to adjust to the new normal of being 100% remote, Molood Ceccarelli has not. In 2016, Molood realized that even though Agile coaches and thought leaders frequently talk about how important it is for all of us to be co-located, most of her work was remote and she’d been able to figure out how to work with agile teams. This realization inspired her to start Remote Forever and refocus her efforts 100% on helping people get better at working remotely.

In this episode of the podcast, Molood and I discuss some of the key things she has learned in developing her ability to work remotely, how she runs experiments to continue improving at working this way and how she stays inspired with the work she does. We also discuss the upcoming 2020 Remote Forever Summit. The Summit will take place from November 11-17, 2020. The summit is 100% online. Last year they had 10,000 attendees and you can attend this year for free!

Click here to check out my interview with Molood.

You can learn more about the 2020 Remote Forever Summit and register to attend here: https://remoteforeversummit.com/

Johanna Rothman vs. The Pandemic

 Johanna Rothman is one of the most inspiring people I know. Usually she writes a book a year, but with the pandemic and all the chaos that has thrown into the mix, this year she wrote five.

In this interview on ProjectManagement.com, Johanna and I discuss her new books and catch up on a wide range of topics including staying productive and inspired, leading and empowering people, how being distributed has changed under Covid-19, not losing your *** during the pandemic, and what it might mean for the working world if decide we don't actually need all those office buildings anymore.

You can find the interview and links to all her new books here.

Business Planning for Agile AND Traditional Time Horizons with Ross Beurmann

 In this interview with Ross Beurmann we dig into the topic of how to handle business planning when you've got both traditional (waterfall) and Agile work happening concurrently within the organization. 

Here is the interview -> Business Planning for Agile AND Traditional Time Horizons with Ross Beurmann

You can also hear an update on how Ross's son Tom is doing with his effort to enact lasting social change within his local government. If you missed that interview, you can find that one here.

Making Your Non-Agile Experience Count w/ Merchi Reyes

Q: How do I get a job as a Project Manager, Product Owner, or ScrumMaster if I have no experience?

or more specifically....

Q: How do you go from Event Promoter to DJay to Tree Services worker to working at a consulting agency as a ScrumMaster/Product Owner?

Answer... listen to this fascinating interview with Merchi Reyes to find out.

When they ask you to be ScrumMaster AND Product Owner...

In every class I teach, there are people who tasked with being ScrumMaster AND Product Owner at the same time for one team working on one product. 

I have very strong feelings about this, and realizing that my responses to this situation are maybe not so flexible and not practical for everyone, I reached out on the Agile Uprising Discord channel if there were people who had succeeded in being SM and PO at the same time, AND if they would be willing to join me for a podcast and share some of their experiences around making the SM/PO gig work. 

This episode of the podcast features Andrew Leff, Chris Murman, and Mike Caddell. Over the course of the interview, we discuss the reasons why trying to be SM and PO at the same time is not advised, ways they found to survive it, and it some cases, actually make it work well.

You can find the podcast here.

Managing Up with Dhaval Panchal

Two similar common situations raised by students in class...

How can you be Product Owner when your boss keeps trying to do your job for you? How can you be ScrumMaster when the owner of the company keeps storming in demanding mid-sprint changes, additions, etc. And how do you manage the people who are higher up in the food chain than you are?

EvolveAgility Founder, Dhaval Panchal, joined me for a podcast to discuss these situations, how tricky they can be to navigate, and how you can "coach" your managers to behave in a way that helps, not hinders, your team's ability to deliver.

The podcast is here.

What To Do When They Want To Know Cost Per Point w Troy Lightfoot

I had a student recently who was being asked to provide information cost per User Story Point. In this interview with Troy Lightfoot we discuss different strategies you might employ when responding to this request and why management asking for this is such a troubling sign. 

You can find the interview here. 

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.