This week, Dan Neumann and Justin Thatil are joined by Mike Guiler to discuss the journey of a Project Manager shifting to fill the Scrum Master accountability. This episode mainly focuses on those Scrum Masters who are newer to this accountability and have a Project Management background. In this episode, they explore what happens when a Project Manager is assigned Scrum Master’s accountabilities which can develop differently depending on the person’s expertise and ability to learn and embrace Agile principles.

Listen to this episode to learn about the main aspects of a successful transformation.

Key Takeaways

• It is common for the Project Manager (PM) to assume the role of the Scrum Master.

  • Scrum Masters who come from Product Management can incorporate their expertise in the process of shifting to Agility.

  • Product Managers often know a lot about the business domain.

  • PMs often have good relationships with the Team, which are crucial to initiating a transformation towards Agile.

  • You can’t easily hire for the business domain knowledge or the relationships.

  • It is often easier to have current staff learn a new way of delivering value.

• A plan must be set in order to manage expectations between the development Team and stakeholders.

  • Many non-Agile do not know who the stakeholders are

  • Effective Scrum Masters will connect the team to the Stakeholders

  • The Scrum Master must ensure that the entire Scrum Team is engaged with its stakeholders, showing the development of software and articulating the plan. 

  • The Scrum Master does not need to take ownership of the relationship with its stakeholders but should empower the Team

  • How do we create more and better channels of communication with stakeholders?

• Project Managers often see success as being on time and on budget.

  • As a Scrum Master, being on time and on budget is not enough; the most important thing is delivering the business outcome.

• Status reporting is another area where PMs must work in transitioning to Scrum Masters.

  • When an Agile Team operates well, progress should be transparent.

  • Even status reports could become less valuable if the entire Team works together and is aligned, working with Sprint Reviews and information radiators.

Mentioned in this Episode:

Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love (Silicon Valley Product Group), by Marty Cagan

Project Retrospectives: A Handbook for Team Reviews, by Norman L. Kerth

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This week, Dan Neumann and Justin Thatil are joined by their colleague, Mike Guiler. In this episode, they explore how a Product Manager shifts from just management to leadership and how this transformation influences the role. Dan, Justin, and Mike discuss tools and strategies, including OKRs, Story Mapping, and Hackathons, among others.

Key Takeaways

• Product management must study the market and users, becoming customer-centric and ensuring it is still viable for the business at the same time.

  • It takes more than one individual to effectively perform the discovery function. It's a Team effort (Product Designer, Product Owner, and a Technical member).

• Discovery and design sessions are opportunities for Teams to unlock the art of the possible.

  • The Team has to learn from rapid feedback while ensuring steps are taken to not hurt organizational reputation.

  • A Product Manager must first understand how to help the Team approach a particular problem. A great way is to identify OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) and focus on the target market the Team is going after. Once the Team is aligned, the job can be done.

  • A Product Manager sets an objective for the Team and allows them to work autonomously toward reaching it.

• Story Mapping: A Product Manager’s ally on the journey to product discovery.

  • Story Mapping is an easy way to frame what the Team is trying to achieve and the tool that might be the most efficient for that purpose.

  • Story Mapping can also help identify the target persona for which the Team is building a particular feature.

  • There is tremendous value in having the Team involved in Story Mapping and, as a result, immersed in and knowledgeable about the problem at hand.

• Hackathons are a great way to keep a Team motivated.

  • Allow the engineers to explore; you will keep them engaged and motivated.

Mentioned in this Episode:

Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution: A Handbook for Entrepreneurs, by Uri Levine

Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love (Silicon Valley Product Group), by Marty Cagan

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This week, Dan Neumann and Justin Thatil are joined by Mike Guiler to continue the conversation that started in the last episode, where it was discussed how organizations can support their Managers. This time, they explore how Managers can help their Teams to shift to a more Agile approach.

In today’s episode, Mike, Justin, and Dan dive deep into the reasons managers must be prepared to accompany their people in changing to Agile, sharing information, and asking the right questions to ensure the Team’s involvement.

Key Takeaways

• When an Organization is shifting it is crucial to know what was the Perceived Value Proposition made by the Manager.

  • A Manager as a Leader wants his Team to be informed and involved in the upcoming changes.

  • A Manager must trust and value his Team’s opinions.

  • A Manager must be willing to share information as well as show curiosity about his Team’s points of view about the Organization and its objectives.

• A Manager needs to support and empower Teams.

  • In the Agile Method, words matter. There is significance in the different frameworks and mindset that come with Agile.

  • A Manager needs to invest in creating amazing relationships with both the business and the technology sides of the organization.

  • A Manager fosters communication and connectivity among all levels of the organization.

• Clarifying the roles, responsibilities, and what it means to be successful is a crucial part of a Manager’s obligations.

  • “Leadership is communicating people their worth and potential so clearly that they are inspired to see it in themselves.” — Captain David Marquet

  • A leader helps their Team to upscale, so they are not stuck with the tools they already have to rapidly create value, which needs new tools, mindset, and engineering approaches.

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This week, Dan Neumann and Justin Thatil are joined by Mike Guiler to explore how organizations can better support their managers. In this episode, they discuss two adoption patterns, the grassroots and the top-down approach, and the distinction between being a Manager and a Leader.

Key Takeaways

• The grassroots adoption pattern and the top-down approach in an Agile Organization:

  • Grassroots starts at a Team level.

  • The top-down approach begins with the boss.

• If an Agile Team is self-managing: What does a Manager do?

  • A Manager must decide whether he wants to be just a Manager or a Leader because these are different roles. Leaders set clear objectives; they are not so focused on the daily chores but on the higher business-valued conversations. A Leader cares about how to build the environment.

  • A Manager needs to work his way to becoming a Leader and less about assigning tasks to Team members. A leader’s work should come from a mentorship place, sharing his knowledge and experience for the Team to explore (instead of being told what to do).

• An Organization can support a Manager embracing Leadership and becoming a servant leader.

  • A Leader evaluates options and consults them with the Team; a leader does not impose practices. Communication is more valuable than processes and tools.

  • The organization must have a plan in mind but check first how the Team responds.

  • A Leader’s job is to establish the vision, shifting away from the “how.”

  • While the Team is busy executing the hypothesis, the Leader is thinking about the next step.

• The Alignment of OKRs is vital for an Organization.

  • Ensuring that OKRs match the plans for the product and what the business wants to achieve is fundamental for companies. This way, everyone knows what’s most important.

  • How role descriptions are set up (performance reviews, salary adjustments) can influence the leader’s job.

Mentioned in this Episode:

Who Moved My Cheese?, by Spencer Johnson

What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, by Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter

Team of Teams, by General Stanley McChrystal

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This week, Dan Neumann is joined by an external guest: Seth Maust, President and Founder of Five Star Life, an organization that aims to change perceptions of education, sports, and culture. Seth began 20 years ago researching why so many children were dropping out of school because they did not value education and ultimately did not value themselves. Five Star Life focuses on dismantling this root issue by ingraining a different curriculum they created that guides students in developing successful mindsets.

Key Takeaways

• Five Star Life focuses on attacking the root cause of student dropout.

  • Children are not motivated to continue their studies because they don’t believe in the current education system.

  • A good education teaches students how to think (not what to think).

  • A successful life begins with the right mindset.

• Create new habits.

  • It is a 28-week investment.

  • The Five Star Life system teaches students to think critically.

  • The application of the learned knowledge is fundamental.

• Students learn to handle conflict the right way.

  • Choose your hard! Ignoring conflict is hard, and confronting conflict is too.

• Motivation is the result of vision.

  • What is the first step that you can take to achieve your goal?

  • Focus on taking small, incremental steps.

  • An excellent way to start is to make an image of what you want to achieve and pin it somewhere you can see it daily.

  • First, you must create a vision and then goals, but most of all, you must truly believe it will happen. When you attach emotion to an image, belief is born.

• Everything you are now is the result of subconscious programming.

  • Unless you consciously choose to keep developing, you will remain what you are and you will repeat the same cycles.

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This week, your host, Justin Thatil, is joined by three of his colleagues, Mike Guiler, Jim Beale, and Mariano Oliveti.

In this episode, they explore the topic of accountability in Agile Teams and organizations. These four Agilists share their insights and experience on the role of accountability while explaining the value of tools such as OKRs and KPIs and the influence of a true leader in encouraging Teams by involving them in the whole process, trusting them, and enabling them to be self-directed and reliant.

Key Takeaways

• Why is accountability so important? How do we keep accountability in an organization?

  • Accountability is needed to identify who will be in charge of each task.

  • Accountability should start at the top but needs to be emphasized at all levels of the organization.

  • OKR (Objectives and key results) is a goal-setting framework that assists in keeping the Team accountable and provides a way to measure the outcomes.

  • KPIs are key performance indicators that also contribute to keeping accountability. KPIs measure a team's performance to ensure they are on track to meet their project objectives.

• Leaders encourage accountability in Teams.

  • If a leader is willing to engage with a Team, he will share goals with them and the journey to achieve them.

  • Leaders need to value the involvement of every member and encourage self-driven work.

  • Keeping people informed of the “why” motivates them, while the “what” will only give them tasks.

  • A good leader holds his Team accountable and empowers them to make decisions. Overall, a leader trusts his Team.

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This week, Dan Neumann and Justin Thatil are joined by Mariano Oliveti and Erica Menendez to discuss DevOps, mainly how it contributes to creating safety and providing feedback during an Agile product journey.

In this episode, they share their knowledge about how DevOps eases the work and ensures value delivery. Listen to this conversation among Agilists for actionable suggestions and amazing real-life examples of Agile Teams benefiting from DevOps.

Key Takeaways

• The problems DevOps can help to solve:

  • DevOps can help solve inefficiencies such as the ones resulting from introducing a lot of bugs into the code or when there is a lack of Team Collaboration.

  • DevOps helps to break down the silos.

  • DevOps is a real time saver.

• Opportunities that DevOps gives:

  • DevOps provides the opportunity for automation, testing early, and keeping a repeatable and reliable process that will work.

  • DevOps ensures that, at the end of the day, the result is a product that was built in an efficient way.

  • Employees working with DevOps are generally happier and more satisfied with their work, especially when automation makes their tasks easier to achieve and grants them the time to invest in the things that really matter.

  • Applying DevOps infrastructure allows us to scale in a repeatable manner.

  • DevOps is also a way to find what is wrong even before the customer does.

• Starting with DevOps is free.

  • Begin with what you have and grow from there. Big changes are rough!

  • The more you work with DevOps, the better you will get at it.

Mentioned in this Episode:

ACF Coaching Certification

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This week, Dan Neumann and Justin Thatil are joined by Anitra Pavka, an Agile Coach with vast experience in product ownership and management. In this episode, Anitra discusses the value of prioritizing people in the software development journey and shares ways and strategies to communicate more efficiently among the Team and with users. She also outlines different approaches to engaging better with users to minimize risks and maximize time use.

Key Takeaways

• Anitra emphasizes the importance of being human-centric in software development.

  • Always approach people with empathy and compassion.

  • Telling stories is a great way to reach people and communicate your message.

  • Be curious and open.

  • Be aware of who you are building a system for.

• Capture users as a persona with a set of behaviors, goals, and motivations.

  • The Team needs to know who the user is.

  • The Team then can use its creativity and ideas to meet the needs of those users.

  • The whole Team contributes to the conversation.

• Ways to engage with end users:

  • What are the end users doing daily to deal with the problem you are looking at solving?

  • Interact with people to see what they actually do instead of what they say they do.

  • Seek customer feedback sooner than later to reduce risk in the long run.

  • Learn to ask the right questions.

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This week, Mariano Oliveti joined Dan Neumann to discuss the importance of continuous learning and growth as an Agile Coach

In this episode, Mariano shares his experience growing as a Coach. Listen to this conversation where Mariano and Dan dive deep into the steps of this incremental journey, which begins with awareness, followed by proficiency, to achieve mastery later. 

Key Takeaways

• The first step is identifying how you would like to grow as a coach 

  • At the beginning of your learning process, ask yourself: How do you intake and process information? What is your learning style?

• The second step is to find the topics that best resonate with you.

  • To be an Agile Coach, you must perform specific skills at different levels, such as teaching, mentoring, facilitating, or coaching.

• There are complementary skills that can help you along the journey to becoming an Agile Coach.

  • You need to have a good understanding of Agile practices and the Scrum framework.

  • Business knowledge is also necessary.

  • Be aware of your strengths and your opportunities.

• How can you be intentional about your learning?

  • Being intentional is critical to mastering what you do. 

  • Be honest with yourself about your goals and objectives and how you want to reach them.

  • Listening is the primary skill an Agile Coach needs to have.

  • Listening internally to how you react to the events around you and finding opportunities to grow.

• Leaning is a journey, be patient with yourself and respect your process.

Mentioned in this Episode:

The  8 Stances of a Scrum Master

ACF Coaching Certification

DevOps Handbook

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This week, Dan Neumann and Justin Thatil are joined by two external guests for Kanban University: Joey Spooner, Vice President for Community Development and Product Management, and Todd Little, Chairman of Kanban University.

In this episode, experts from Kanban University join the podcast to share their expertise with the audience. Listen to this conversation and learn about the trajectory of Kanban University and its fantastic community. Also, they dive into a profound exploration of what Kanban Methodology really is and how it can improve what you are already doing.

Key Takeaways

• What is Kanban?

  • Kanban University has been educating a vast community on its method since 2013.

  • The Kanban method is often misunderstood. Some significant aspects characterize the Kanban Methodology. It is a way to visualize the workflow, called operational practice. There are also Management Practices, which consist of taking and managing policies effectively in an organization. The practices of collaboration and experimentation are also of crucial importance.

  • Kanban can also be used as a complementary practice to Scrum.

  • A fundamental principle of the Kanban Methodology is to Start with what you do now. If you have started with Scrum, you can improve it with Kanban. Kanban is fundamentally an approach to improving your process framework; it isn’t a framework itself.

• The Kanban Method vs. the Lean Manufacturing:

  • Lean Manufacturing aims to remove uncertainty, which is conceived as a waste.

  • Sometimes, uncertainty does not need to be eliminated; it is inherited, and often, it is this uncertainty that brings value.

  • Kanban tries to understand knowledge work and its behaviors while still representing the workflow.

• How does Kanban manage the predictability challenge while doing complex work?

  • There are three common challenges while working with complex work: Delay, Dependencies, and Dormancies. Every Team needs to explore possible solutions for these challenges.

  • Check Team reliability.

  • An approach to predictability: Do more and better estimates.

• Advice for Scrum Practitioners starting to use Kanban:

  • You can use Kaban on top of what you are doing with Scrum for more efficiency.

  • Kanban tools allow Teams to stay focused and deliver consistently.

  • Find first what your struggle is at the moment and see how Kanban can help with it.

• Learn to manage resistance to change and get accustomed to constant evolutionary change.

  • Learn from the water's capacity for adapting to its environment.

  • Agile needs to adapt to culture as much as a culture needs to adapt to Agility.

  • Take small steps.

  • You have to get your system under control, map it out, and ensure it is not overloaded. If a system is overloaded, it is not predictable.

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This week, Dan Neumann and Justin Thatil are joined by an external guest, James D Murphy, a United States Air Force Veteran, F15 Fighter, and instructed pilot. James founded a company called Afterburner Inc. and is now the CEO of Afterburner Capital; he wrote seven books and is an expert on the Agile Delivery Framework.

In this episode, they discuss the concept of flawless execution, meaning an execution that is as impeccable as possible (nothing is perfect!). James shares how he combined his military training with his work as an entrepreneur and expert in the Agile framework.

Key Takeaways

• Flawless execution can’t be perfect; mistakes will take place.

  • Start with simple frameworks that are easy and scalable.

  • Find purposeful tasks and actions. Developing and effectively communicating the purpose of the Team’s job is crucially important.

  • Knowing more about the context and details is essential to prioritize the purpose. Intention and vision need to stay connected.

  • The Team needs to be involved in every step of the process.

• The key to flawless execution is to have a common language to get work done.

  • The truth is more critical than artificial harmony.

  • Teams must foster psychological safety, which means that anyone can feel safe admitting an error without fearing reprimand.

  • Building a safe culture takes time.

• Flawless execution needs a systematic approach.

  • The system followed must enable good execution as well as flexibility; in this matter, simplicity overpowers complexity. Complexity will decrease performance while augmenting the chance of errors.

  • First is the planning phase (who is going to do what and when). Once it’s over, no more brainstorming takes place.

  • After planning, the plan is briefed (repetition of what was planned and the accountabilities that come along with it).

  • Execute! Don’t get off track.

  • Debrief as soon as the mission is over. Debriefing is almost as important as the mission itself, leaving a lesson to the entire enterprise, not just a small Team. Is there a gap between the obtained results and what was imagined and expected from the plan? The Team should ask itself, how did the success occur? And why?

  • This entire process must be leader-led. It is the leader who first has to admit his/her mistakes. This transparency and honesty create the much-needed psychological safety at the Tream.

Learn More:

• Afterburner website
• Afterburner on YouTube
• James D. Murphy on LinkedIn

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