Mik + One

In this special episode of Mik + One, Mik summarizes some of his favorite episodes from the last 18 months and provides insight into some of his key takeaways including: - Interesting insights on scaling Agile and helping digital transformation succeed - The importance of equity, diversity and inclusion on value streams - The pivotal role of leadership's responsibility on improving daily work - Flow Metrics and OKRs as a match made in heaven - How bouncing portfolios to managing risk and debt can be a key enabler of innovation Share your feedback: Complete the Mik+One short survey and enter to win a $1000 donation to a food bank of your choice. Complete here: https://forms.gle/z3J9aZaJd79mF8r56 Vote for Mik + One in the 2021 People's Choice Podcast Awards: Mik + One has been nominated under the Business Category within the 2021 People's Choice Podcast Awards. Enjoying the podcast? Show your support and vote here. Note: Voting closes July 31st 2021. Vote here: https://www.podcastawards.com/app/signup Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.tasktop.com For more information about Dr. Mik Kersten and to view the full list of episodes featured in this episode, visit: https://projecttoproduct.org/podcast/summer-special/

In this episode, Mik is joined by Christian Idiodi, Partner at Silicon Valley Product Group. In this episode, Mik and Christian talk about how to establish product management disciplines and other key topics including: - Fascinating insights into how Christian got into product management, how he landed with Silicon Valley Product Group and insights about his own career - Establishing product management disciplines at multiple levels of the organization and why it is an important catalyst to successful transformations - The importance of good leadership and management, and why it's crucial to establish stable teams that can learn, solve problems and deliver value to the customer - Aligning OKR's with culture and empowering teams to deliver greater value to customers - Advice to this generation of leaders on coaching and key cultural initiatives that Christian has seen resonate at large enterprises Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.tasktop.com For more information about Christian Idiodi and to view the full list of additional resources, visit: https://projecttoproduct.org/podcast/christian-idiodi/

Joining Mik in this episode of Mik + One is Courtney Kissler, Chief Technology Officer at online retailer, Zulily. In this episode, Mik and Courtney talk about Courtney's experience in driving technological transformations and cover many key topics such as: - Courtney's journey within DevOps and how her experience leading transformations at large enterprises including Nordstrom, Starbucks and Nike led her to Zulily - The importance of fixed capacity and creating a generative culture where team members feel they can be honest and supported - Value stream mapping and how this can help teams and organizations understand the dynamics of flow to increase the flow of value to customers - Helping technology and business leaders understand what the leading indicators of success are and how to track them - Tips to practise and adopt OKRs in order to promote learning and improvement Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.tasktop.com For more information about Courtney Kissler and to view the full list of additional resources, visit: https://projecttoproduct.org/podcast/courtney-kissler/

Joining Mik in this episode of Mik + One is Scott Prugh, Chief Technology Officer at CSG. In this episode, Mik and Scott talk about Scott's experience and learnings from within the DevOps community, as well as many other key topics including: This episode covers: - The three domains in DevOps portfolio management and how to think about them independently, as well as how they reinforce each other - Flow Load and Work in Progress (WIP) and how organizations end up with a mismatch between capacity and the work that's booked and committed - Combining service ownership with produce value streams - How to play the longer game by changing team structures and looking at managing services - The concept of an impact minute and how to calculate it - Successfully communicating technical language and processes to the wider team of stakeholders Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.tasktop.com For more information about Scott Prugh and to view the full list of additional resources, visit: https://projecttoproduct.org/podcast/scott-prugh/

Joining Mik in this episode of Mik + One is Carmen DeArdo, Principal Flow Advisor and VSM Practice Lead at Tasktop, and co-author of the award winning book, Standing on Shoulders: A Leader's Guide to Digital Transformation. This episode covers: - Insight into Carmen's early experience at Nationwide and Bell Labs, and how he has applied his experience and learnings to help other organizations today - Carmen's expertise with local optimization of the value stream and how he works with organizations to take those first steps in making the switch from vertical thinking to horizontal thinking - The origins of The Flow Framework and how it has helped shift the way that organizations look at the entire value stream - The key lessons Carmen has learned from helping larger organizations fulfill large deployments of The Flow Framework, and some of the biggest surprises and learnings from the past couple of years Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.tasktop.com For more information about Carmen DeArdo and to view the full list of additional resources, visit: https://projecttoproduct.org/podcast/carmen-deardo/

In this episode of Mik + One, Mik sits down with Gene Kim, best-selling author of The Phoenix Project and The Unicorn Project, as well as co-author of The DevOps Handbook. In this episode, Gene chats to Mik about the next book that he's working on, and provides many insights into: - The journey of the Unicorn Project, the effect it had on technology leaders and how it changed their perspectives - A deeper look into the importance of Psychological safety and how this links to an organization's structure and dynamics - Successful communication paths within an organization in order to improve culture, maximize flow and see successful results, faster - The properties and prerequisites of high performing, dynamic learning organizations and advice to help teams become one - The effective patterns that leadership can adopt to enable an effective communication architecture and organizational structure in order to maximize flow faster and more efficiently Tasktop are proud sponsors of the virtual DevOps Enterprise Summit Europe, taking place on May 18th-20th, 2021. Visit us virtually at our virtual booth, and don't miss our speaking sessions, live demos, happy hours, giveaways and more. We have limited passes at 50% off the full ticket price for the first 100 people who use our special discount code. If you would like to claim one, please email events@tasktop.com. Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.tasktop.com For more information about Gene Kim and to view the full list of additional resources, visit: https://projecttoproduct.org/podcast/gene-kim-ep-31/

It's episode 30 and what a guest we've got! Mik welcomes Brian Solis, Global Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce and world-renowned keynote speaker and an award winning author of eight bestselling books. In this episode, Mik and Brian cover a lot of ground and discuss many key topics including: - How people should think about their digital transformations in order to change their thinking in 2021 and adapt to the novel economy - Avoiding the pitfalls and traps of digital transformations and guidance on how organizations can successfully adapt - The importance of defining a product value stream and measuring transformations to increase customer value, faster - Driving innovative digital experiences in order to gain customer attention and loyalty - Advice to the Digital Change Agents in order to get leadership buy-in and drive change middle-up instead of top-down Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.tasktop.com For more information about Brian Solis and to view the full list of additional resources, visit: https://projecttoproduct.org/podcast/brian-solis/

In this episode, Mik is joined by two IT leaders from American Airlines: Maya Leibman, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer, and Ross Clanton, Managing Director of Technology Transformation. Mik, Maya and Ross delve into American Airlines shift to digital innovation, including insights into: - Changing and influencing leaderships approach to IT, innovation and software - Working with finance to enable them to better understand software products and IT value streams - How American Airlines delivered touchless kiosk in six weeks in response to the COVID-19 pandemic - Some of the missteps and failures where things didn't go as planned - Ensuring IT delivery is connected to business outcomes to create a rapid feedback loop - Celebrating success, having fun and increasing the happiness and engagement of employees Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.tasktop.com For more information about Maya Leibman and Ross clanton and to view the full list of additional resources, visit: https://projecttoproduct.org/podcast/american-airlines/

Joining Mik in this episode of Mik + One is Pieter Jordaan, Group CTO at TUI, the world's leading integrated tourism group operating in more than a hundred destinations worldwide. In this episode, Mik and Pieter discuss Pieter's contribution to TUI's successful transformation to cloud and product value streams, as well as other key discussion points including: - Pieter's background and how he came to work for TUI, where the company was when he met Mik and the kind of business they were they doing at that time - How Pieter approached the transformation to consolidate the company's different organization structures, operating models and IT systems - The importance of visibility and choosing the the right technology platform to provide a modern operating model for the entire business - How the pandemic changed travel and made TUI look at massive cost savings and readopt a startup day mentality to continue their digital transformation journey - Convincing leadership to buy into this transformation and everyone at the company to shift - The critical process of allowing people to make mistakes and why managing risks shouldn't be the first starting position Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.tasktop.com For more information about Pieter Jordaan and to view the full list of additional resources, visit: https://projecttoproduct.org/podcast/pieter-jordaan

Joining Mik in this episode of Mik + One is Robin Yeman, Senior Fellow and Agile DevSecOps Enterprise coach at Lockheed Martin. In this episode, Mik and Robin discuss how Robin approaches leadership with complex systems of systems and other key discussion points including: - Insight into Robin's journey and PhD thesis, examining how to deploy complex system of systems using Agile and DevSecOps - The need to develop a common language by connecting the different systems, vocabularies, the ways people work and collaborate, prototype and build systems - How Robin helps organizations develop this common language through a common understanding of the vision - The need to deliver value at the speed of relevance - Successful examples of how Robin gets people to change their thinking Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.tasktop.com For more information about Robin Yeman and to view the full list of additional resources, visit: https://projecttoproduct.org/podcast/robin-yeman/

In this episode of Mik + One, Mik is joined by Eric Willeke, Co-Founder and Principal of Elevate.to. In this episode, Mik and Eric touch on many key points around simplicity and flow to drive successful digital transformations, including: - Lean-agile techniques and helping organizations to understand agility, progress and reorganize around it - How inherent simplicity relates to flow and how to reverse Work in Progress (WIP) issues and bottlenecks - Agile sponsorships and the importance of tying agility to the company's purpose and market outcomes in a clear and obvious way - The risks of mechanical adoption and why it's a common pitfall - The danger of proxy metrics and advice to organizations to drive successful digital transformations and organizational process in 2021 Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.tasktop.com For more information about Eric Willeke and to view the full list of additional resources, visit: https://projecttoproduct.org/podcast/eric-willeke/

In this episode of Mik + One, Mik is joined by Rene Te-Strote, Senior IT Project Lead for the BMW Group. In this episode, Mik and Rene discuss Rene's contributions to innovate the BMW Group by mixing hardware and software development and other key discussion points including: - How Rene started his career in BMW, first working in a production plant and then moving to the IT department - Some of the foundational principles Rene applied to innovate and point the organization in the right direction, such as thinking of the entire manufacturing process as a product - How Rene accelerated the speed of innovation in an industrial context, and how simulation has become a key part of car manufacturing at BMW Group - Where Rene's high-performance computing clusters are at now - Rene's insights into the next 10 years within the automotive industry Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.tasktop.com For more information about Rene Te-Strote, visit: https://projecttoproduct.org/podcast/rene-te-strote/

Kicking off the first episode of 2021, Mik is joined by Adrian Cockcroft, VP of Cloud Architecture Strategy at Amazon Web Services. In this episode, Mik and Adrian discuss Adrian's predictions for application architecture in 2021, what's happening with microservices architecture and other key discussion points including: - Serverless services and why the time is now to use the fastest way to deliver these applications - Adrian's guidance for using AWS' new greenfield applications that can help quickly bring a product to market - How organizations can use Wardley maps as a powerful tool to map out their efforts and navigate rapidly changing technology landscapes - How Adrian approaches chaos engineering - Big data, its uses and what problems you can solve with it - Amazon's efforts with sustainability and renewable energy, and how moving a workload to the cloud could dramatically reduce a client's carbon footprint Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.tasktop.com For more information about Adrian Cockcroft, visit: https://projecttoproduct.org/podcast/adrian-cockcroft-ep-24/

In the final Mik + One episode of 2020, Mik is joined by Gail Murphy, Tasktop Co-Founder, and Professor of Computer Science and VP of Research and Innovation at the University of British Columbia. This episode with Mik and Gail includes discussion points around: - Insights into some of the cutting edge research projects Gail has led on productivity, tooling and development teams - Measuring individual, team and organizational productivity and unproductivity - Software development as a complex task and the need for teams to have autonomy to apply complex work - The fundamentals of decision making and the importance of flow for a fast feedback loop and continuous learning cycle Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.tasktop.com For more information about Gail Murphy, visit: https://projecttoproduct.org/podcast/gail-murphy

Joining Mik on this episode of Mik + One is “sage and poet of product thinking” John Cutler, Head of Product Research & Education at Amplitude. In this episode, Mik and John discuss: - Defining what a product is - Rethinking how to apply product thinking to force multipliers and change steps - The “sixth sense” required to understand the challenges of software design and technology - What traditional enterprises can learn from startups and tech 2.0 companies - Mapping organisational structure to strategy to drive innovation - Embracing the interplay of skills and knowledge across the organization Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.tasktop.com For more information about John Cutler, visit: projecttoproduct.org/podcast/john-cutler/

Joining Mik on this episode of Mik + One is David Anderson, Director of Technology, Liberty IT. In this episode, Mik and David discuss: - Liberty IT's journey into a serverless-first world - A customer over cost-centric approach to cloud - Removing “undifferentiated heavy lifting” from work environment - Creating “two-way door” architecture for flexibility and flow - Using “lego blocks” to help engineers build innovative solutions on the cloud - Shift away from traditional IT to partner-enabling technology Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.tasktop.com For more information about David Anderson, visit: https://projecttoproduct.org/podcast/david-anderson/

Joining Mik on this episode of Mik + One is Justin Watts, Director of Agile Change at Lloyd Banking Group one of the UK's Big Four banks. In this episode, Mik and Justin discuss: - Redesigning software systems around flow to the customer instead of process - Respecting the laws of physics when accelerating flow across value streams - Importance of doing the right things wrong, rather than wrong things right - Identifying leading indicators to track and improve lagging measures - How the economies of flows outweigh the economies of scale Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.tasktop.com For more information about Justin Watts, visit: https://projecttoproduct.org/podcast/justin-watts

Joining Mik on this episode of Mik + One is Peter D. Moore, a business and digital technology strategy advisor specializing in helping companies manage for exponential revenue, margin and net income growth. In this episode, Mik and Peter discuss: - In the influence of the Zone Management Model on Project to Product - The role of different cultures and leadership in specific zones - The need for specific metrics and targets for each zone - The big evolution in IT skill sets to fill the talent gap - How the Flow Framework® can be applied to all zones to balance innovation with performance Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.tasktop.com For more information about Peter D. Moore, visit: https://projecttoproduct.org/podcast/peter-moore/

On this episode of Mik + One, Mik is joined by Bryon Kroger, Founder and CEO of Rise8, and former co-founder and COO of the USAF's Kessel Run. In this episode, Mik and Bryon's conversation includes discussions around: - The remarkable story of Project Kessel Run at the U.S. Airforce - Driving change at large bureaucracies - Adopting a “think big, start small” strategy to software transformation - Paying attention to total cost of ownership of a value stream - Avoiding the Lean trap and alignment trap Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.tasktop.com For more information about Bryon Kroger, visit: https://projecttoproduct.org/podcast/bryon-kroger/

Joining Mik on this episode of Mik + One is John Willis, Senior Director of the Global Transformation Office at Red Hat. - Embracing failure for continual learning - Flow Metrics as the next evolution of software delivery measurement - Where most waste and wait times are found - How team happiness is a leading indicator of value stream health - The right structure and measures for adaptive, complex systems Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.tasktop.com For more information about John Willis, visit: https://projecttoproduct.org/podcast/john-willis/

In this episode, Mik is joined by two guests: Dr. Nicole Forsgren, VP of Research & Strategy at GitHub, and Dr. Denae Ford Robinson, Senior Researcher in the SAINTes group at Microsoft Research. Mik, Nicole and Denae had an energetic and insightful conversation about many topics, including: - Measuring productivity, and how leaders can utilize these insights to build diverse systems and measures to strengthen inclusion and diversity at scale. - The importance of making the workflow, conversations and collaborations visible. - Creating a company culture that embraces diversity and inclusion, and encourages employees to bring their authentic selves and ideas to the workplace. - Breaking the stereotypes of developer personas and creating a safe working environment that encourages the intersection of personal and professional identities. - The social fabric of an organization and how evolving technological architecture can increase flow and visibility, and create better outcomes. Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.tasktop.com For more information about Dr. Nicole Forsgren & Dr. Denae Ford Robinson, as well as many additional reading resources, visit: https://projecttoproduct.org/podcast/dr-nicole-forsgren-dr-denae-ford-robinson/

Joining Mik in this episode of Mik + One is Adrian Cockcroft, VP of Cloud Architecture Strategy at Amazon Web Services. In this episode, Mik and Adrian provide concrete advice on moving ahead in the digital world, and cover many key discussion points including: - Insight into Adrian's experiences establishing technical practices in organizations like eBay, Netflix and AWS. - The importance of product-centred innovation in order to pave the path for faster success. - Business agility, and why all organizations must have this in order to innovate and stay ahead of the competition. - The importance of feedback loops when delivering software, with a key focus on the four stages of the OODA loop. - The notion of ‘Flow Time' or ‘Time to Value' and why it is a crucial and powerful metric that all CEO's must prioritize. - The use of VSM in order to achieve better decision making and build a scalable organization. Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.tasktop.com For more information about Adrian Cockcroft, visit: https://projecttoproduct.org/podcast/adrian-cockcroft/

In this episode of Mik + One, Mik's guest is Heather Munoz, Head of Retail Brokerage Practice, E*TRADE. In this episode, Mik and Heather discuss many topics including: - The importance of an effective tool network and how it supports an organization's value streams - Using visualization and data to get people to understand systems thinking approach in order to deliver more value to the customer - Thinking in flow metrics and using them to help shift to product thinking - Characteristics of a good leader and how showing empathy can lead to greater results Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.tasktop.com For more information about Heather Munoz, visit: https://projecttoproduct.org/podcast/heather-munoz/

In this episode of Mik + One, Mik continues the conversation with Don Reinertsen, President of Reinertsen & Associates, a product development consulting firm located in Redondo Beach, CA, and Author of three best-selling books on product development: Developing Products in Half the Time; Managing the Design Factory: A Product Developer's Toolkit; and The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development. The second part of this two-part special includes discussions around: - Assessing the reserve buoyancy of a project. - Using loss of safety margin as a leading indicator of project deterioration - Becoming more rigorous about how we think about technical debt Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.tasktop.com For more information about Don Reinertsen, visit: https://projecttoproduct.org/podcast/don-reinertsen-part-2/

In the twelfth Mik + One, Mik sits down with Don Reinertsen, President of Reinertsen & Associates, a product development consulting firm located in Redondo Beach, CA, and Author of three best-selling books on product development: Developing Products in Half the Time; Managing the Design Factory: A Product Developer's Toolkit; and The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development. A wide variety of topics were discussed in the first half of this special two-part episode, including: - Viewing product development decisions as economic tradeoffs - Shifting from deterministic planning models to a stochastic perspective - Managing the Fuzzy Front End: the time from opportunity identification to commitment Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.tasktop.com For more information about Don Reinertsen, visit: https://projecttoproduct.org/podcast/don-reinertsen-part-1

In this episode of Mik + One, the official Project to Product podcast, Mik is joined by Dominica DeGrandis, Principal Flow Advisor at Tasktop and Author of “Making Work Visible: Exposing Time Theft to Optimize Work & Flow.” In this episode, Mik and Dominica cover a variety of topics, including: - Reflections on the COVID-19 pandemic, its impact on organizations, and advice for leaders, teams and individuals to get through this time and find their own flow - Exploration into how Dominica's work in ‘Making Work Visible' applies at the individual, team and organization levels - Leadership's role in acknowledging employee burnout and working to improve it in order to increase employee confidence, innovation and engagement during the Turning Point - Getting Work in Progress (WIP) under control in order to improve flow - The concept of Flow Safety, and why it is critical in making structural changes and seeing successful results - The importance of experimentation when removing bottlenecks, and how it can help to increase team happiness and productivity - Why exposing dependencies is critical in order to make fast decisions that produce results, reduce wait times, and reduce WIP Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.tasktop.com For more information about Dominica DeGrandis, visit: https://projecttoproduct.org/podcast/dominica-degrandis/

Recorded at the 2019 annual SEACON conference in London, Mik has two special guests, Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais, authors of Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow. This episode of Mik + One discusses: - Insights into the patterns and anti-patterns of how teams are structured and evolve, and why it's important to focus on the cognitive load of teams - Team specialization, the need for platform teams and how to manage the crucial dependencies between teams - The need for a product value stream that's supported by multiple teams, and the importance of flow in an organization's software systems architecture - Learnings on how to successfully organize teams of teams and if there is a perfect number of team members for an organization - Advice for organizations on how to successfully structure teams based on cognitive load Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.tasktop.com For more information about Manuel Pais and Matthew Skelton, visit: https://projecttoproduct.org/podcast/team-topologies/

Recorded at the annual 2019 SEACON Conference in London, today Mik's plus one is Jon Smart, Partner, Business Agility at Deloitte. In this episode of Mik + One, Mik and Jon discuss: - The value and importance of focusing on “Better Value, Sooner, Safer, Happier” and why Agile is no longer the answer - The importance of senior leaders implementing a mindset shift and focusing on outcomes instead of output - Why leaders should be looking at the end-to-end flow, how it impacts business results and the need to identify what they are optimizing for and what they want to optimize for - Employee incentivisation and implementing recognition and rewards for motivating teams – not individuals – to reduce silos across the value stream - The introduction of Flow Metrics on the product value stream Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.tasktop.com For more information about Jon Smart, visit: https://projecttoproduct.org/podcast/jon-smart/

In the eighth episode of Mik + One, the official Project to Product podcast, Mik's guest is Dean Leffingwell, Co-founder and Chief Methodologist at Scaled Agile. In this episode, Mik and Dean cover: - SAFe 5.0 and the importance of having business agility in addition to technical agility - The different types of customers and understanding why internal customers are just as valuable and important as external ones - Abandoning organizational hierarchies to become more agile and survive digital disruption, as well as other paths for organizations to take to achieve business agility - Why teams must have autonomy but not be autonomous to successfully work within an organization that is scaling. - Why establishing a common taxonomy is critical to get people to think in terms of outcomes and delivering business value. - Advice to help organizations ensure a successful SAFe transformation by focusing on outcome-based metrics and an end-to-end feedback loop. Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.tasktop.com For more information about Dean Leffingwell, visit: https://projecttoproduct.org/podcast/dean-leffingwell/

In the seventh episode of Mik + One, Mik's guest is Dave West, CEO and Product Owner of Scrum.org. In this episode, Mik and Dave discuss: - The digital age and how traditional enterprises can transform to become - software-driven businesses - The risk of falling into an industrial mindset trap, and what organizations can do differently to avoid failures - How digital-natives have achieved the innovation cycle and why leadership at traditional enterprises have not internalized what it means - The importance of placing small bets and MVPs, and applying continuous learning and feedback into the innovation cycle - The four key things that large organizations can act on now to deliver value: Create alignment; Become people-centric; Fund correctly; Measure appropriately Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.tasktop.com For more information about Dave West, visit: https://projecttoproduct.org/podcast/dave-west/

Joining Mik for the sixth episode of Mik + One is Sam Guckenheimer, Product Owner for Azure DevOps at Microsoft, and a regular keynote speaker at industry-wide events, and the author of four fantastic books. In this episode, Mik and Sam discuss: - How the current situation parallels to previous installation and deployment periods, and the patterns organizations can implement to leverage and survive the Turning Point - The importance of looking at investments in terms of core versus context, to better understand where the business needs to focus - The importance of flexibility and business agility, in order to reduce technical debt and optimize the end-to-end idea - Flow Metrics, and how they can help organizations to better understand end-to-end flow and optimize business outcomes - Viewing regulations as constraints of doing business, as opposed to objectives, and acting customer-focused in a compliant way to deliver quality products and services Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.tasktop.com For more information about Sam Guckenheimer, visit: https://projecttoproduct.org/podcast/sam-guckenheimer

In this episode of Mik + One, Mik's guest is Shelley Perry, Managing Partner & Founder of ScaleLogix, who has immense experience setting tech companies up for success. The goal of ‘Project to Product' is to help organizations prepare for the Turning Point in the Age of Software. As the world experiences an economic fallout triggered by COVID-19, it is key that organizations move quickly to adapt. Read more here: https://www.tasktop.com/blog/covid-19-triggered-the-turning-point/ In this episode, Mik and Shelley cover: - Advice to organizations on how they can survive and thrive at a business level during the COVID-19 pandemic - The importance of traditional enterprises leveraging technology to provide business value and navigate the pace of change amongst the economic environment - The power of bridging communication between technologists and business leaders to make better, more informed decisions that achieve objectives and bring value to customers - Examples of successful tech giants who understand their customers and are leveraging data to react faster to changes - How business leaders should think and act about the uncertainty ahead, and how it differs from past economic downfalls and recessions Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.tasktop.com For more information about Shelley Perry, visit: https://projecttoproduct.org/podcast/shelley-perry/

In honor of International Women's Day 2020, Mik is joined by three incredible women within the industry: Gail Murphy, Tasktop Co-Founder, and Professor of Computer Science and VP of Research and Innovation at the University of British Columbia, Nicole Bryan, Vice President of Product Development at Tasktop; and Naomi Lurie, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Tasktop. Gail, Nicole and Naomi had an open, inspirational and thought-provoking conversation with Mik about: - Why technology companies should not only focus on code and algorithms, but should welcome a diversity of viewpoints to create products that people want to use - Creating a work environment where women feel they can openly communicate their passion and show their emotion without feeling weak or judged - Leadership's responsibility to facilitate meetings appropriately, and ensure women feel that their voices are being heard - Creating role model ladders and how women can support, educate and inform each other to foster gender equality in the workplace - How we can inspire more women at an individual, organization and industry level New episode every two weeks. Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.tasktop.com New episode every two weeks. Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.projecttoproduct.org www.tasktop.com For more information about Dr. Gail Murphy, Nicole Bryan and Naomi Lurie, visit: www.projecttoproduct.org/podcast/international-womens-day

In another fantastic episode, Mik's plus one is Dr. Carlota Perez, author of Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages. In this episode, Mik and Carlota discuss: - Where we are in the Turning Point of the Technological Revolution, and the challenges of achieving the Golden Age - What leaders in organizations and governments can do to think and act differently to survive the Technical Revolution and Turning Point - The lifestyle and characteristics of mass production and mass consumption, and the need to move from tangible products to non-tangible services - Successful examples of traditional enterprises that are shifting into the direction of turning their products into services - What Carlota is currently working on, including researching the historical context of the different revolutions, and the future of the Golden Age and how to stay optimistic New episode every two weeks. Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.projecttoproduct.org www.tasktop.com About Carlota Perez: Prof. Carlota Perez is a British-Venezuelan scholar who studies the socio-economic impact of major technical change. Author of the influential Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital, she is Honorary Professor at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP), University College London, and at SPRU, University of Sussex, UK. She is also Visiting Professor at the Nurkse Institute, TalTech, Estonia. She works globally as consultant and speaker. Carlota's current research project analyses the historical role of government in shaping the context for innovation. www.carlotaperez.org/ @carlotaprzperez

In this episode of Mik + One, Mik continues the conversation with Gene Kim, best-selling author of The Phoenix Project and The Unicorn Project, as well as co-author of The DevOps Handbook for the second part of their discussion. This episode centers around: - Insight into the the Third Ideal: Improvement of Daily Work -- why focusing on the improvement of daily work is even more crucial than the daily work itself, and the implications this has on technical debt - The increasing significance of the Fourth Ideal: Psychological Safety -- and its impact on organizational culture and performance - The ideation of the Fifth Ideal: Customer Focus -- and why leaders must prioritize top-level business goals and what customers value over everything else in order to achieve success in a modern transformation New episode every two weeks. Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.projecttoproduct.org www.tasktop.com About Gene Kim: Gene Kim is a Wall Street Journal bestselling author, researcher, and multiple award-winning CTO. He has been studying high-performing technology organizations since 1999 and was the founder and CTO of Tripwire for 13 years. He is the author of six books, The Unicorn Project (2019), and co-author of the Shingo Publication Award winning Accelerate (2018), The DevOps Handbook (2016), and The Phoenix Project (2013). Since 2014, he has been the founder and organizer of DevOps Enterprise Summit, studying the technology transformations of large, complex organizations. In 2007, ComputerWorld added Gene to the “40 Innovative IT People to Watch Under the Age of 40” list, and he was named a Computer Science Outstanding Alumnus by Purdue University for achievement and leadership in the profession. He lives in Portland, OR, with his wife and family. @RealGeneKim

Introducing the first episode of Mik + One, Mik sits down with Gene Kim, best-selling author of The Phoenix Project and The Unicorn Project, as well as co-author of The DevOps Handbook. In the first half of this special two-part episode, Mik and Gene talk about: - Gene's journey, and how it led to The Unicorn Project - The motivation and origins behind the Five Ideals and how to put them into practice - The profound wisdom of the First Ideal: Locality and Simplicity -- and why leaders should use it as a test to identify whether they are progressing in the right direction - The Second Ideal: Focus, Flow and Joy -- why it resonates so much with Mik, and it's impact and importance to generating outcomes Tune in next time for part two of this lively discussion, as Mik and Gene continue the conversation around the Five Ideals. Next episode in two weeks. Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode and don't forget to leave your review. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.projecttoproduct.org www.tasktop.com *About Gene Kim:* Gene Kim is a Wall Street Journal bestselling author, researcher, and multiple award-winning CTO. He has been studying high-performing technology organizations since 1999 and was the founder and CTO of Tripwire for 13 years. He is the author of six books, The Unicorn Project (2019), and co-author of the Shingo Publication Award winning Accelerate (2018), The DevOps Handbook (2016), and The Phoenix Project (2013). Since 2014, he has been the founder and organizer of DevOps Enterprise Summit, studying the technology transformations of large, complex organizations. In 2007, ComputerWorld added Gene to the “40 Innovative IT People to Watch Under the Age of 40” list, and he was named a Computer Science Outstanding Alumnus by Purdue University for achievement and leadership in the profession. He lives in Portland, OR, with his wife and family. @RealGeneKim

Since publishing best-selling book, Project to Product, technology business leader, Dr. Mik Kersten, has introduced transformative frameworks and ideas for delivering software at scale. He has given numerous standing room only keynotes and presentations worldwide and is an internationally recognized thought-leader. In this brand new podcast, Mik + One, nothing is off the record as Mik sits down with industry leading guests and delves into how they deliver value and drive digital transformations in their organizations. New episode every two weeks! Subscribe to the Mik + One podcast today so you never miss an episode. Follow Mik on Twitter: @mik_kersten #MikPlusOne www.projecttoproduct.org