Podcasts about conteneo

Bio Luke Hohmann is Chief Innovation Officer of Applied Frameworks. Applied Frameworks helps companies create more profitable software-enabled solutions. A serial entrepreneur, Luke founded, bootstrapped, and sold the SaaS B2B collaboration software company Conteneo to Scaled Agile, Inc. Conteneo's Weave platform is now part of SAFe Studio. A SAFe® Fellow, prolific author, and trailblazing innovator, Luke's contributions to the global agile community include contributing to SAFe, five books, Profit Streams™, Innovation Games®, Participatory Budgeting at enterprise scale, and a pattern language for market-driven roadmapping. Luke is also co-founder of Every Voice Engaged Foundation, where he partnered with The Kettering Foundation to create Common Ground for Action, the world's first scalable platform for deliberative decision-making. Luke is a former National Junior Pairs Figure Skating Champion and has an M.S.E. in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan. Luke loves his wife and four kids, his wife's cooking, and long runs in the California sunshine and Santa Cruz mountains.    Interview Highlights 01:30 Organisational Behaviour & Cognitive Psychology 06:10 Serendipity 09:30 Entrepreneurship 16:15 Applied Frameworks 20:00 Sustainability 20:45 Software Profit Streams 23:00 Business Model Canvas 24:00 Value Proposition Canvas 24:45 Setting the Price 28:45 Customer Benefit Analysis 34:00 Participatory Budgeting 36:00 Value Stream Funding 37:30 The Color of Money 42:00 Private v Public Sector 49:00 ROI Analysis 51:00 Innovation Accounting    Connecting   LinkedIn: Luke Hohmann on LinkedIn Company Website: Applied Frameworks    Books & Resources   ·         Software Profit Streams(TM): A Guide to Designing a Sustainably Profitable Business: Jason Tanner, Luke Hohmann, Federico González ·         Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers (The Strategyzer series): Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur ·         Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want (The Strategyzer Series): Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Gregory Bernarda, Alan Smith, Trish Papadakos ·         Innovation Games: Creating Breakthrough Products Through Collaborative Play: Luke Hohmann ·         The ‘Color of Money' Problem: Additional Guidance on Participatory Budgeting - Scaled Agile Framework ·         The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses, Eric Ries ·         Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change 2, Kent Beck, Cynthia Andres ·         The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering: Brooks, Frederick Phillips ·         Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, Scott McCloud ·         Ponyboy: A Novel, Eliot Duncan ·         Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel, Bonnie Garmus, Miranda Raison, Bonnie Garmus, Pandora Sykes ·         What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing, Oprah Winfrey, Bruce D. Perry ·         Training | Applied Frameworks   Episode Transcript Intro: Hello and welcome to the Agile Innovation Leaders podcast. I'm Ula Ojiaku. On this podcast I speak with world-class leaders and doers about themselves and a variety of topics spanning Agile, Lean Innovation, Business, Leadership and much more – with actionable takeaways for you the listener.  Ula Ojiaku   So I have with me Luke Hohmann, who is a four time author, three time founder, serial entrepreneur if I say, a SAFe fellow, so that's a Skilled Agile Framework fellow, keynote speaker and an internationally recognised expert in Agile software development. He is also a proud husband and a father of four. So, Luke, I am very honoured to have you on the Agile Innovation Leaders podcast. Thank you for making the time. Luke Hohmann Thank you so much for having me, I'm very happy to be here, and hi everyone who's listening. Ula Ojiaku Yes, I'm sure they're waving back at you as well. I always start my conversations with my guests to find out about them as individuals, you know, so who is Luke? You have a BSc in Computer Science and an MSc in Computer Science and Engineering, but you also studied Cognitive Psychology and Organisational Behaviour in addition to Data Structures and Artificial Intelligence. AI is now making waves and is kind of at the forefront, which is interesting, you had the foresight to also look into these. So my question is, what took you down this path? Luke Hohmann Sure. I had a humble beginning in the world of technology. I worked for a large company, Electronic Data Systems, and it was founded in the mid 60s by a gentleman named Ross Perot, and it became a very, very large company. So my first job at Electronic Data Systems was working in a data centre, and we know what data centres are, but back then, data centres were different because they were predominantly mainframe-based data centres, and I would crawl underneath the floor, cabling the computers and cabling networking equipment. Now, when we think networking, we're really thinking one of two kinds of networking. We think of wireless networking or we think of some form of internet networking, but back in those days, there were varieties of network protocols, literally the standards that we use now weren't invented yet. So it was mainframe networking protocols and dial ups and other forms of networking protocols. From there, I worked my way from beneath the ground up. I had some great managers who saw someone who was worthy of opportunity and they gave me opportunity and it was great. And then eventually I started working in electronic data systems and there was, the first wave of AI came in the mid 80s and that's when we were doing things like building expert systems, and I managed to create with a colleague of mine, who's emerged as my best friend, a very successful implementation of an expert system, an AI-based expert system at EDS, and that motivated me to finish off my college degree, I didn't have my college degree at the time. So EDS supported me in going to the University of Michigan, where as you said, I picked up my Bachelor's and Master's degree, and my advisor at the time was Elliot Soloway, and he was doing research in how programmers program, what are the knowledge structures, what are the ways in which we think when we're programming, and I picked up that research and built programming environments, along with educational material, trying to understand how programmers program and trying to build educational material to teach programming more effectively. That's important because it ignited a lifelong passion for developing education materials, etc. Now the cognitive psychology part was handled through that vein of work, the organisational behaviour work came as I was a student at Michigan. As many of us are when we're in college, we don't make a lot of money, or at university we're not wealthy and I needed a job and so the School of Organisational Behaviour had published some job postings and they needed programmers to program software for their organisational behaviour research, and I answered those ads and I became friends and did the research for many ground-breaking aspects of organisational behaviour and I programmed, and in the process of programming for the professors who were in the School of Organisational Behaviour they would teach me about organisational behaviour and I learned many things that at the time were not entirely clear to me, but then when I graduated from university and I became a manager and I also became more involved in the Agile movement, I had a very deep foundation that has served me very well in terms of what do we mean when we say culture, or what do we mean when we talk about organisational structures, both in the small and in the large, how do we organise effectively, when should we scale, when should we not scale, etc. So that's a bit about my history that I think in terms of the early days helped inform who I am today. Ula Ojiaku Wow, who would have thought, it just reminds me of the word serendipity, you know, I guess a happy coincidence, quote unquote, and would there be examples of where the cognitive psychology part of it also helped you work-wise? Luke Hohmann Yeah, a way to think about cognitive psychology and the branch that, I mean there's, psychology is a huge branch of study, right? So cognitive psychology tends to relate to how do we solve problems, and it tends to focus on problem solving where n = 1 and what I mean by n is the number of participants, and where n is just me as an individual, how do I solve the problems that I'm facing? How do I engage in de-compositional activities or refinement or sense making? Organisational behaviour deals with n > 1. So it can deal with a team of, a para-bond, two people solving problems. It can deal with a small team, and we know through many, many, many decades of research that optimal team structures are eight people or less. I mean, we've known this for, when I say decades I mean millennia. When you look at military structure and military strategy, we know that people need to be organised into much smaller groups to be effective in problem solving and to move quickly. And then in any organisational structure, there's some notion of a team of teams or team engagement. So cognitive psychology, I think, helps leaders understand individuals and their place within the team. And now we talk about, you know, in the Agile community, we talk about things like, I want T-shaped people, I want people with common skills and their area of expertise and by organising enough of the T's, I can create a whole and complete team. I often say I don't want my database designer designing my user interface and I don't want my user interface designer optimising my back end database queries, they're different skills. They're very educated people, they're very sophisticated, but there's also the natural feeling that you and I have about how do I gain a sense of self, how do I gain a sense of accomplishment, a sense of mastery? Part of gaining a sense of mastery is understanding who you are as a person, what you're good at. In Japanese, they would call that Ikigai, right, what are the intersections of, you know, what do I love, what am I good at, what can I make a living at and what do people need, right? All of these intersections occur on an individual level, and then by understanding that we can create more effective teams. Ula Ojiaku Thank you. I've really learned something key here, the relationship between cognitive psychology and organisational behaviour, so thanks for breaking it down. Now, can we go quickly to your entrepreneurship? So there must be three times you started three times a company and you've been successful in that area. What exactly drives you when it comes to establishing businesses and then knowing when to move on? Luke Hohmann Sure. I think it's a combination of reflecting on my childhood and then looking at how that informs someone when they're older, and then opportunities, like you said, serendipity, I think that's a really powerful word that you introduced and it's a really powerful concept because sometimes the serendipity is associated with just allowing yourself to pursue something that presents itself. But when I was young, my father died and my mum had to raise six kids on her own, so my dad died when I was four, my mum raised six kids on her own. We were not a wealthy family, and she was a school teacher and one of the things that happened was, even though she was a very skilled school teacher, there were budget cuts and it was a unionised structure, and even though she was ranked very highly, she lost her job because she was low on the hiring totem pole in terms of how the union worked. It was very hard and of course, it's always hard to make budget cuts and firing but I remember when I was very young making one of those choices saying, I want to work in a field where we are more oriented towards someone's performance and not oriented on when they were hired, or the colour of their skin, or their gender or other things that to me didn't make sense that people were making decisions against. And while it's not a perfect field for sure, and we've got lots of improvement, engineering in general, and of course software engineering and software development spoke to me because I could meet people who were diverse or more diverse than in other fields and I thought that was really good. In terms of being an entrepreneur, that happened serendipitously. I was at the time, before I became an entrepreneur in my last job, was working for an Israeli security firm, and years and years ago, I used to do software anti-piracy and software security through physical dongles. This was made by a company called Aladdin Knowledge Systems in Israel, and I was the head of Engineering and Product Management for the dongle group and then I moved into a role of Business Development for the company. I had a couple of great bosses, but I also learned how to do international management because I had development teams in Israel, I had development teams in Munich, I had development teams in Portland, Oregon, and in the Bay Area, and this was in the 2000s. This is kind of pre-Agile, pre-Salt Lake City, pre-Agile Manifesto, but we were figuring things out and blending and working together. I thought things were going pretty well and I enjoyed working for the Israelis and what we were doing, but then we had the first Gulf War and my wife and I felt that maybe traveling as I was, we weren't sure what was going to happen in the war, I should choose something different. Unfortunately, by that time, we had been through the dot-bomb crisis in Silicon Valley. So it's about 2002 at the time that this was going on, and there really weren't jobs, it was a very weird time in Silicon Valley. So in late 2002, I sent an email to a bunch of friends and I said, hey, I'm going to be a consultant, who wants to hire me, that was my marketing plan, not very clever, and someone called me and said, hey, I've got a problem and this is the kind of thing that you can fix, come consult with us. And I said, great. So I did that, and that started the cleverly named Luke Hohmann Consulting, but then one thing led to another and consulting led to opportunities and growth and I've never looked back. So I think that there is a myth about people who start companies where sometimes you have a plan and you go execute your plan. Sometimes you find the problem and you're solving a problem. Sometimes the problem is your own problem, as in my case I had two small kids and a mortgage and I needed to provide for my family, and so the best way to do that at the time was to become a consultant. Since then I have engaged in building companies, sometimes some with more planning, some with more business tools and of course as you grow as an entrepreneur you learn skills that they didn't teach you in school, like marketing and pricing and business planning etc. And so that's kind of how I got started, and now I have kind of come full circle. The last company, the second last company I started was Conteneo and we ended up selling that to Scaled Agile, and that's how I joined the Scaled Agile team and that was lovely, moving from a position of being a CEO and being responsible for certain things, to being able to be part of a team again, joining the framework team, working with Dean Leffingwell and other members of the framework team to evolve the SAFe framework, that was really lovely. And then of course you get this entrepreneurial itch and you want to do something else, and so I think it comes and goes and you kind of allow yourself those opportunities. Ula Ojiaku Wow, yours is an inspiring story. And so what are you now, so you've talked about your first two Startups which you sold, what are you doing now? Luke Hohmann Yeah, so where I'm at right now is I am the Chief Innovation Officer for a company, Applied Frameworks. Applied Frameworks is a boutique consulting firm that's in a transition to a product company. So if this arm represents our product revenue and this arm represents our services revenue, we're expanding our product and eventually we'll become a product company. And so then the question is, well, what is the product that we're working on? Well, if you look at the Agile community, we've spent a lot of time creating and delivering value, and that's really great. We have had, if you look at the Agile community, we've had amazing support from our business counterparts. They've shovelled literally millions and millions of dollars into Agile training and Agile tooling and Agile transformations, and we've seen a lot of benefit from the Agile community. And when I say Agile, I don't mean SAFe or Scrum or some particular flavour of Agile, I just mean Agile in general. There's been hundreds of millions of dollars to billions of dollars shoved into Agile and we've created a lot of value for that investment. We've got fewer bugs in our software because we've got so many teams doing XP driven practices like Test Driven Development, we've got faster response times because we've learned that we can create smaller releases and we've created infrastructure that lets us do deployments automatically, even if you're doing embedded systems, we figured out how to do over the air updates, we've figured out how to create infrastructure where the cars we're driving are now getting software updates. So we've created for our business leaders lots of value, but there's a problem in that value. Our business leaders now need us to create a profit, and creating value and creating a profit are two different things. And so in the pursuit of value, we have allowed our Agile community to avoid and or atrophy on skills that are vital to product management, and I'm a classically trained Product Manager, so I've done market segmentation and market valuation and market sizing, I've done pricing, I've done licensing, I've done acquisitions, I've done compliance. But when you look at the traditional definition of a Product Owner, it's a very small subset of that, especially in certain Agile methods where Product Owners are team centric, they're internal centric. That's okay, I'm not criticising that structure, but what's happened is we've got people who no longer know how to price, how to package, how to license products, and we're seeing companies fail, investor money wasted, too much time trying to figure things out when if we had simply approached the problem with an analysis of not just what am I providing to you in terms of value, but what is that value worth, and how do I structure an exchange where I give you value and you give me money? And that's how businesses survive, and I think what's really interesting about this in terms of Agile is Agile is very intimately tied to sustainability. One of the drivers of the Agile Movement was way back in the 2000s, we were having very unsustainable practices. People would be working 60, 80, death march weeks of grinding out programmers and grinding out people, and part of the Agile Movement was saying, wait a minute, this isn't sustainable, and even the notion of what is a sustainable pace is really vital, but a company cannot sustain itself without a profit, and if we don't actually evolve the Agile community from value streams into profit streams, we can't help our businesses survive. I sometimes ask developers, I say, raise your hand if you're really embracing the idea that your job is to make more money for your company than they pay you, that's called a profit, and if that's not happening, your company's going to fail. Ula Ojiaku They'll be out of a job. Luke Hohmann You'll be out of a job. So if you want to be self-interested about your future, help your company be successful, help them make a profit, and so where I'm at right now is Applied Frameworks has, with my co-author, Jason Tanner, we have published a bold and breakthrough new book called Software Profit Streams, and it's a book that describes how to do pricing and packaging for software enabled solutions. When we say software enabled solution, we mean a solution that has software in it somehow, could be embedded software in your microwave oven, it could be a hosted solution, it could be an API for a payment processor, it could be the software in your car that I talked about earlier. So software enabled solutions are the foundation, the fabric of our modern lives. As Mark Andreessen says software is eating the world, software is going to be in everything, and we need to know how to take the value that we are creating as engineers, as developers, and convert that into pricing and licensing choices that create sustainable profits. Ula Ojiaku Wow. It's as if you read my mind because I was going to ask you about your book, Software Profit Streams, A Guide to Designing a Sustainably Profitable Business. I also noticed that, you know, there is the Profit Stream Canvas that you and your co-author created. So let's assume I am a Product Manager and I've used this, let's assume I went down the path of using the Business Model Canvas and there is the Customer Value Proposition. So how do they complement? Luke Hohmann How do they all work together? I'm glad you asked that, I think that's a very insightful question and the reason it's so helpful is because, well partly because I'm also friends with Alex Osterwalder, I think he's a dear, he's a wonderful human, he's a dear friend. So let's look at the different elements of the different canvases, if you will, and why we think that this is needed. The Business Model Canvas is kind of how am I structuring my business itself, like what are my partners, my suppliers, my relationships, my channel strategy, my brand strategy with respect to my customer segments, and it includes elements of cost, which we're pretty good at. We're pretty good at knowing our costs and elements of revenue, but the key assumption of revenue, of course, is the selling price and the number of units sold. So, but if you look at the book, Business Model Generation, where the Business Model Canvas comes from, it doesn't actually talk about how to set the price. Is the video game going to be $49? Is it going to be $59, or £49 or £59? Well, there's a lot of thought that goes into that. Then we have the Value Proposition Canvas, which highlights what are the pains the customer is facing? What are the gains that the customer is facing? What are the jobs to be done of the customer? How does my solution relate to the jobs? How does it help solve the pain the customer is feeling? How does it create gain for the customer? But if you read those books, and both of those books are on my shelf because they're fantastic books, it doesn't talk about pricing. So let's say I create a gain for you. Well, how much can I charge you for the gain that I've created? How do I structure that relationship? And how do I know, going back to my Business Model Canvas, that I've got the right market segment, I've got the right investment strategy, I might need to make an investment in the first one or two releases of my software or my product before I start to make a per unit profit because I'm evolving, it's called the J curve and the J curve is how much money am I investing before I well, I have to be able to forecast that, I have to be able to model that, but the key input to that is what is the price, what is the mechanism of packaging that you're using, is it, for example, is it per user in a SAS environment or is it per company in a SAS environment? Is it a meter? Is it like an API transaction using Stripe or a payment processor, Adyen or Stripe or Paypal or any of the others that are out there? Or is it an API call where I'm charging a fraction of a penny for any API call? All of those elements have to be put into an economic model and a forecast has to be created. Now, what's missing about this is that the Business Model Canvas and the Value Proposition Canvas don't give you the insight on how to set the price, they just say there is a price and we're going to use it in our equations. So what we've done is we've said, look, setting the price is itself a complex system, and what I mean by a complex system is that, let's say that I wanted to do an annual license for a new SAS offering, but I offer that in Europe and now my solution is influenced or governed by GDPR compliance, where I have data retention and data privacy laws. So my technical architecture that has to enforce the license, also has to comply with something in terms of the market in which I'm selling. This complex system needs to be organised, and so what canvases do is in all of these cases, they let us take a complex system and put some structure behind the choices that we're making in that complex system so that we can make better choices in terms of system design. I know how I want this to work, I know how I want this to be structured, and therefore I can make system choices so the system is working in a way that benefits the stakeholders. Not just me, right, I'm not the only stakeholder, my customers are in this system, my suppliers are in this system, society itself might be in the system, depending on the system I'm building or the solution I'm building. So the canvases enable us to make system level choices that are hopefully more effective in achieving our goals. And like I said, the Business Model Canvas, the Value Proposition Canvas are fantastic, highly recommended, but they don't cover pricing. So we needed something to cover the actual pricing and packaging and licensing. Ula Ojiaku Well, that's awesome. So it's really more about going, taking a deeper dive into thoughtfully and structurally, if I may use that word, assessing the pricing. Luke Hohmann Yeah, absolutely. Ula Ojiaku Would you say that in doing this there would be some elements of, you know, testing and getting feedback from actual customers to know what price point makes sense? Luke Hohmann Absolutely. There's a number of ways in which customer engagement or customer testing is involved. The very first step that we advocate is a Customer Benefit Analysis, which is what are the actual benefits you're creating and how are your customers experiencing those benefits. Those experiences are both tangible and intangible and that's another one of the challenges that we face in the Agile community. In general, the Agile community spends a little bit more time on tangible or functional value than intangible value. So we, in terms of if I were to look at it in terms of a computer, we used to say speeds and feeds. How fast is the processor? How fast is the network? How much storage is on my disk space? Those are all functional elements. Over time as our computers have become plenty fast or plenty storage wise for most of our personal computing needs, we see elements of design come into play, elements of usability, elements of brand, and we see this in other areas. Cars have improved in quality so much that many of us, the durability of the car is no longer a significant attribute because all cars are pretty durable, they're pretty good, they're pretty well made. So now we look at brand, we look at style, we look at aesthetics, we look at even paying more for a car that aligns with our values in terms of the environment. I want to get an EV, why, because I want to be more environmentally conscious. That's a value driven, that's an intangible factor. And so our first step starts with Customer Benefit Analysis looking at both functional or tangible value and intangible value, and you can't do that, as you can imagine, you can't do that without having customer interaction and awareness with your stakeholders and your customers, and that also feeds throughout the whole pricing process. Eventually, you're going to put your product in a market, and that's a form itself of market research. Did customers buy, and if they didn't buy, why did they not buy? Is it poorly packaged or is it poorly priced? These are all elements that involve customers throughout the process. Ula Ojiaku If I may, I know we've been on the topic of your latest book Software Profit Streams. I'm just wondering, because I can't help but try to connect the dots and I'm wondering if there might be a connection to one of your books, Innovation Games: Creating Breakthrough Products Through Collaborative Play, something like buy a feature in your book, that kind of came to mind, could there be a way of using that as part of the engagement with customers in setting a pricing strategy? I may be wrong, I'm just asking a question. Luke Hohmann I think you're making a great connection. There's two forms of relationship that Innovation Games and the Innovation Games book have with Software Profit Streams. One is, as you correctly noted, just the basics of market research, where do key people have pains or gains and what it might be worth. That work is also included in Alex Osterwalder's books, Value Proposition Design for example, when I've been doing Value Proposition Design and I'm trying to figure out the customer pains, you can use the Innovation Games Speed Boat. And when I want to figure out the gains, I can use the Innovation Game Product Box. Similarly, when I'm figuring out pricing and licensing, a way, and it's a very astute idea, a way to understand price points of individual features is to do certain kinds of market research. One form of market research you can do is Buy-a-Feature, which gives a gauge of what people are willing or might be willing to pay for a feature. It can be a little tricky because the normal construction of Buy-a-Feature is based on cost. However, your insight is correct, you can extend Buy-a-Feature such that you're testing value as opposed to cost, and seeing what, if you take a feature that costs X, but inflate that cost by Y and a Buy-a-Feature game, if people still buy it, it's a strong signal strength that first they want it, and second it may be a feature that you can, when delivered, would motivate you to raise the price of your offering and create a better profit for your company. Ula Ojiaku Okay, well, thank you. I wasn't sure if I was on the right lines. Luke Hohmann It's a great connection. Ula Ojiaku Thanks again. I mean, it's not original. I'm just piggybacking on your ideas. So with respect to, if we, if you don't mind, let's shift gears a bit because I know that, or I'm aware that whilst you were with Scaled Agile Incorporated, you know, you played a key part in developing some of their courses, like the Product POPM, and I think the Portfolio Management, and there was the concept about Participatory Budgeting. Can we talk about that, please? Luke Hohmann I'd love to talk about that, I mean it's a huge passion of mine, absolutely. So in February of 2018, I started working with the framework team and in December of 2018, we talked about the possibility of what an acquisition might look like and the benefits it would create, which would be many. That closed in May of 2019, and in that timeframe, we were working on SAFe 5.0 and so there were a couple of areas in which I was able to make some contributions. One was in Agile product delivery competency, the other was in lean portfolio management. I had a significant hand in restructuring or adding the POPM, APM, and LPM courses, adding things like solutions by horizons to SAFe, taking the existing content on guardrails, expanding it a little bit, and of course, adding Participatory Budgeting, which is just a huge passion of mine. I've done Participatory Budgeting now for 20 years, I've helped organisations make more than five billions of dollars of investment spending choices at all levels of companies, myself and my colleagues at Applied Frameworks, and it just is a better way to make a shared decision. If you think about one of the examples they use about Participatory Budgeting, is my preferred form of fitness is I'm a runner and so, and my wife is also a fit person. So if she goes and buys a new pair of shoes or trainers and I go and buy a new pair of trainers, we don't care, because it's a small purchase. It's frequently made and it's within the pattern of our normal behaviour. However, if I were to go out and buy a new car without involving her, that feels different, right, it's a significant purchase, it requires budgeting and care, and is this car going to meet our needs? Our kids are older than your kids, so we have different needs and different requirements, and so I would be losing trust in my pair bond with my wife if I made a substantial purchase without her involvement. Well, corporations work the same way, because we're still people. So if I'm funding a value stream, I'm funding the consistent and reliable flow of valuable items, that's what value stream funding is supposed to do. However, if there is a significant investment to be made, even if the value stream can afford it, it should be introduced to the portfolio for no other reason than the social structure of healthy organisations says that we do better when we're talking about these things, that we don't go off on our own and make significant decisions without the input of others. That lowers transparency, that lowers trust. So I am a huge advocate of Participatory Budgeting, I'm very happy that it's included in SAFe as a recommended practice, both for market research and Buy-a-Feature in APM, but also more significantly, if you will, at the portfolio level for making investment decisions. And I'm really excited to share that we've just published an article a few weeks ago about Participatory Budgeting and what's called The Color of Money, and The Color of Money is sometimes when you have constraints on how you can spend money, and an example of a constraint is let's say that a government raised taxes to improve transportation infrastructure. Well, the money that they took in is constrained in a certain way. You can't spend it, for example, on education, and so we have to show how Participatory Budgeting can be adapted to have relationships between items like this item requires this item as a precedent or The Color of Money, constraints of funding items, but I'm a big believer, we just published that article and you can get that at the Scaled Agile website, I'm a big believer in the social power of making these financial decisions and the benefits that accrue to people and organisations when they collaborate in this manner. Ula Ojiaku Thanks for going into that, Luke. So, would there be, in your experience, any type of organisation that's participatory? It's not a leading question, it's just genuine, there are typically outliers and I'm wondering in your experience, and in your opinion, if there would be organisations that it might not work for? Luke Hohmann Surprisingly, no, but I want to add a few qualifications to the effective design of a Participatory Budgeting session. When people hear Participatory Budgeting, there's different ways that you would apply Participatory Budgeting in the public and private sector. So I've done citywide Participatory Budgeting in cities and if you're a citizen of a city and you meet the qualifications for voting within that jurisdiction, in the United States, it's typically that you're 18 years old, in some places you have to be a little older, in some places you might have other qualifications, but if you're qualified to participate as a citizen in democratic processes, then you should be able to participate in Participatory Budgeting sessions that are associated with things like how do we spend taxes or how do we make certain investments. In corporations it's not quite the same way. Just because you work at a company doesn't mean you should be included in portfolio management decisions that affect the entire company. You may not have the background, you may not have the training, you may be what my friends sometimes call a fresher. So I do a lot of work overseas, so freshers, they just may not have the experience to participate. So one thing that we look at in Participatory Budgeting and SAFe is who should be involved in the sessions, and that doesn't mean that every single employee should always be included, because their background, I mean, they may be a technical topic and maybe they don't have the right technical background. So we work a little bit harder in corporations to make sure the right people are there. Now, of course, if we're going to make a mistake, we tend to make the mistake of including more people than excluding, partly because in SAFe Participatory Budgeting, it's a group of people who are making a decision, not a one person, one vote, and that's really profoundly important because in a corporation, just like in a para-bond, your opinion matters to me, I want to know what you're thinking. If I'm looking in, I'll use SAFe terminology, if I'm looking at three epics that could advance our portfolio, and I'm a little unsure about two of those epics, like one of those epics, I'm like, yeah, this is a really good thing, I know a little bit about it, this matters, I'm going to fund this, but the other two I'm not so sure about, well, there's no way I can learn through reading alone what the opinions of other people are, because, again, there's these intangible factors. There's these elements that may not be included in an ROI analysis, it's kind of hard to talk about brand and an ROI analysis - we can, but it's hard, so I want to listen to how other people are talking about things, and through that, I can go, yeah, I can see the value, I didn't see it before, I'm going to join you in funding this. So that's among the ways in which Participatory Budgeting is a little different within the private sector and the public sector and within a company. The only other element that I would add is that Participatory Budgeting gives people the permission to stop funding items that are no longer likely to meet the investment or objectives of the company, or to change minds, and so one of the, again, this is a bit of an overhang in the Agile community, Agile teams are optimised for doing things that are small, things that can fit within a two or three week Sprint. That's great, no criticism there, but our customers and our stakeholders want big things that move the market needle, and the big things that move the market needle don't get done in two or three weeks, in general, and they rarely, like they require multiple teams working multiple weeks to create a really profoundly new important thing. And so what happens though, is that we need to make in a sense funding commitments for these big things, but we also have to have a way to change our mind, and so traditional funding processes, they let us make this big commitment, but they're not good at letting us change our mind, meaning they're not Agile. Participatory Budgeting gives us the best of both worlds. I can sit at the table with you and with our colleagues, we can commit to funding something that's big, but six months later, which is the recommended cadence from SAFe, I can come back to that table and reassess and we can all look at each other, because you know those moments, right, you've had that experience in visiting, because you're like looking around the table and you're like, yeah, this isn't working. And then in traditional funding, we keep funding what's not working because there's no built-in mechanism to easily change it, but in SAFe Participatory Budgeting, you and I can sit at the table and we can look at each other with our colleagues and say, yeah, you know, that initiative just, it's not working, well, let's change our mind, okay, what is the new thing that we can fund? What is the new epic? And that permission is so powerful within a corporation. Ula Ojiaku Thanks for sharing that, and whilst you were speaking, because again, me trying to connect the dots and thinking, for an organisation that has adopted SAFe or it's trying to scale Agility, because like you mentioned, Agile teams are optimised to iteratively develop or deliver, you know, small chunks over time, usually two to three weeks, but, like you said, there is a longer time horizon spanning months, even years into the future, sometimes for those worthwhile, meaty things to be delivered that moves the strategic needle if I may use that buzzword. So, let's say we at that lean portfolio level, we're looking at epics, right, and Participatory Budgeting, we are looking at initiatives on an epic to epic basis per se, where would the Lean Startup Cycle come in here? So is it that Participatory Budgeting could be a mechanism that is used for assessing, okay, this is the MVP features that have been developed and all that, the leading indicators we've gotten, that's presented to the group, and on that basis, we make that pivot or persevere or stop decision, would that fit in? Luke Hohmann Yeah, so let's, I mean, you're close, but let me make a few turns and then it'll click better. First, let's acknowledge that the SAFe approach to the Lean Startup Cycle is not the Eric Ries approach, there are some differences, but let's separate how I fund something from how I evaluate something. So if I'm going to engage in the SAFe Lean Startup Cycle, part of that engagement is to fund an MVP, which is going to prove or disprove a given hypothesis. So that's an expenditure of money. Now there's, if you think about the expenditure of money, there's minimally two steps in this process - there's spending enough money to conduct the experiments, and if those experiments are true, making another commitment to spend money again, that I want to spend it. The reason this is important is, let's say I had three experiments running in parallel and I'm going to use easy round numbers for a large corporation. Let's say I want to run three experiments in parallel, and each experiment costs me a million pounds. Okay. So now let's say that the commercialisation of each of those is an additional amount of money. So the portfolio team sits around the table and says, we have the money, we're going to fund all three. Okay, great. Well, it's an unlikely circumstance, but let's say all three are successful. Well, this is like a venture capitalist, and I have a talk that I give that relates the funding cycle of a venture capitalist to the funding cycle of an LPM team. While it's unlikely, you could have all three become successful, and this is what I call an oversubscribed portfolio. I've got three great initiatives, but I can still only fund one or two of them, I still have to make the choice. Now, of course, I'm going to look at my economics and let's say out of the three initiatives that were successfully proven through their hypothesis, let's say one of them is just clearly not as economically attractive, for whatever reason. Okay, we get rid of that one, now, I've got two, and if I can only fund one of them, and the ROI, the hard ROI is roughly the same, that's when Participatory Budgeting really shines, because we can have those leaders come back into the room, and they can say, which choice do we want to make now? So the evaluative aspect of the MVP is the leading indicators and the results of the proving or disproving of the hypotheses. We separate that from the funding choices, which is where Participatory Budgeting and LPM kick in. Ula Ojiaku Okay. So you've separated the proving or disproving the hypothesis of the feature, some of the features that will probably make up an epic. And you're saying the funding, the decision to fund the epic in the first place is a different conversation. And you've likened it to Venture Capital funding rounds. Where do they connect? Because if they're separate, what's the connecting thread between the two? Luke Hohmann The connected thread is the portfolio process, right? The actual process is the mechanism where we're connecting these things. Ula Ojiaku OK, no, thanks for the portfolio process. But there is something you mentioned, ROI - Return On Investment. And sometimes when you're developing new products, you don't know, you have assumptions. And any ROI, sorry to put it this way, but you're really plucking figures from the air, you know, you're modelling, but there is no certainty because you could hit the mark or you could go way off the mark. So where does that innovation accounting coming into place, especially if it's a product that's yet to make contact with, you know, real life users, the customers. Luke Hohmann Well, let's go back to something you said earlier, and what you talked earlier about was the relationship that you have in market researching customer interaction. In making a forecast, let's go ahead and look at the notion of building a new product within a company, and this is again where the Agile community sometimes doesn't want to look at numbers or quote, unquote get dirty, but we have to, because if I'm going to look at building a new idea, or taking a new idea into a product, I have to have a forecast of its viability. Is it economically viable? Is it a good choice? So innovation accounting is a way to look at certain data, but before, I'm going to steal a page, a quote, from one of my friends, Jeff Patton. The most expensive way to figure this out is to actually build the product. So what can I do that's less expensive than building the product itself? I can still do market research, but maybe I wouldn't do an innovation game, maybe I'd do a formal survey and I use a price point testing mechanism like Van Westendorp Price Point Analysis, which is a series of questions that you ask to triangulate on acceptable price ranges. I can do competitive benchmarking for similar products and services. What are people offering right now in the market? Now that again, if the product is completely novel, doing competitive benchmarking can be really hard. Right now, there's so many people doing streaming that we look at the competitive market, but when Netflix first offered streaming and it was the first one, their best approach was what we call reference pricing, which is, I have a reference price for how much I pay for my DVDs that I'm getting in the mail, I'm going to base my streaming service kind of on the reference pricing of entertainment, although that's not entirely clear that that was the best way to go, because you could also base the reference price on what you're paying for a movie ticket and how many, but then you look at consumption, right, because movie tickets are expensive, so I only go to a movie maybe once every other month, whereas streaming is cheap and so I can change my demand curve by lowering my price. But this is why it's such a hard science is because we have this notion of these swirling factors. Getting specifically back to your question about the price point, I do have to do some market research before I go into the market to get some forecasting and some confidence, and research gives me more confidence, and of course, once I'm in the market, I'll know how effective my research matched the market reality. Maybe my research was misleading, and of course, there's some skill in designing research, as you know, to get answers that have high quality signal strength. Ula Ojiaku Thanks for clarifying. That makes perfect sense to me. Luke Hohmann It's kind of like a forecast saying, like there's a group of Agile people who will say, like, you shouldn't make forecasts. Well, I don't understand that because that's like saying, and people will say, well, I can't predict the future. Well, okay, I can't predict when I'm going to retire, but I'm planning to retire. I don't know the date of my exact retirement, but my wife and I are planning our retirement, and we're saving, we're making certain investment choices for our future, because we expect to have a future together. Now our kids are older than yours. My kids are now in university, and so we're closer to retirement. So what I dislike about the Agile community is people will sometimes say, well, I don't know the certainty of the event, therefore, I can't plan for it. But that's really daft, because there are many places in like, you may not for the listeners, her daughter is a little younger than my kids, but they will be going to university one day, and depending on where they go, that's a financial choice. So you could say, well, I don't know when she's going to university, and I can't predict what university she's going to go to, therefore I'm not going to save any money. Really? That doesn't make no sense. So I really get very upset when you have people in the agile community will say things like road mapping or forecasting is not Agile. It's entirely Agile. How you treat it is Agile or not Agile. Like when my child comes up to me and says, hey, you know about that going to university thing, I was thinking of taking a gap year. Okay, wait a minute, that's a change. That doesn't mean no, it means you're laughing, right? But that's a change. And so we respond to change, but we still have a plan. Ula Ojiaku It makes sense. So the reason, and I completely resonate with everything you said, the reason I raised that ROI and it not being known is that in some situations, people might be tempted to use it to game the budget allocation decision making process. That's why I said you would pluck the ROI. Luke Hohmann Okay, let's talk about that. We actually address this in our recent paper, but I'll give you my personal experience. You are vastly more likely to get bad behaviour on ROI analysis when you do not do Participatory Budgeting, because there's no social construct to prevent bad behaviour. If I'm sitting down at a table and that's virtual or physical, it doesn't matter, but let's take a perfect optimum size for a Participatory Budgeting group. Six people, let's say I'm a Director or a Senior Director in a company, and I'm sitting at a table and there's another Senior Director who's a peer, maybe there's a VP, maybe there's a person from engineering, maybe there's a person from sales and we've got this mix of people and I'm sitting at that table. I am not incented to come in with an inflated ROI because those people are really intelligent and given enough time, they're not going to support my initiative because I'm fibbing, I'm lying. And I have a phrase for this, it's when ROI becomes RO-lie that it's dangerous. And so when I'm sitting at that table, what we find consistently, and one of the clients that we did a fair amount of Participatory Budgeting for years ago with Cisco, what we found was the leaders at Cisco were creating tighter, more believable, and more defensible economic projections, precisely because they knew that they were going to be sitting with their peers, and it didn't matter. It can go both ways. Sometimes people will overestimate the ROI or they underestimate the cost. Same outcome, right? I'm going to overestimate the benefit, and people would be like, yeah, I don't think you can build that product with three teams. You're going to need five or six teams and people go, oh, I can get it done with, you know, 20 people. Yeah, I don't think so, because two years ago, we built this product. It's very similar, and, you know, we thought we could get it done with 20 people and we couldn't. We really needed, you know, a bigger group. So you see the social construct creating a more believable set of results because people come to the Participatory Budgeting session knowing that their peers are in the room. And of course, we think we're smart, so our peers are as smart as we are, we're all smart people, and therefore, the social construct of Participatory Budgeting quite literally creates a better input, which creates a better output. Ula Ojiaku That makes sense, definitely. Thanks for sharing that. I've found that very, very insightful and something I can easily apply. The reasoning behind it, the social pressure, quote unquote, knowing that you're not just going to put the paper forward but you'd have to defend it in a credible, believable way make sense. So just to wrap up now, what books have you found yourself recommending to people the most, and why? Luke Hohmann It's so funny, I get yelled at by my wife for how many books I buy. She'll go like “It's Amazon again. Another book. You know, there's this thing called the library.” Ula Ojiaku You should do Participatory Budgeting for your books then sounds like, sorry. Luke Hohmann No, no, I don't, I'd lose. Gosh, I love so many books. So there's a few books that I consider to be my go-to references and my go-to classics, but I also recommend that people re-read books and sometimes I recommend re-reading books is because you're a different person, and as you age and as you grow and you see things differently and in fact, I'm right now re-reading and of course it goes faster, but I'm re-reading the original Extreme Programming Explained by Kent Beck, a fantastic book. I just finished reading a few new books, but let me let me give you a couple of classics that I think everyone in our field should read and why they should read them. I think everyone should read The Mythical Man-Month by Fred Brooks because he really covers some very profound truths that haven't changed, things like Brooks Law, which is adding programmers to a late project, makes it later. He talks about the structure of teams and how to scale before scaling was big and important and cool. He talks about communication and conceptual integrity and the role of the architect. The other book that I'm going to give, which I hope is different than any book that anyone has ever given you, because it's one of my absolute favourite books and I give them away, is a book called Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. Comics or graphic novels are an important medium for communication, and when we talk about storytelling and we talk about how to frame information and how to present information, understanding comics is profoundly insightful in terms of how to present, share, show information. A lot of times I think we make things harder than they should be. So when I'm working with executives and some of the clients that I work with personally, when we talk about our epics, we actually will tell stories about the hero's journey and we actually hire comic book artists to help the executives tell their story in a comic form or in a graphic novel form. So I absolutely love understanding comics. I think that that's really a profound book. Of course you mentioned Alex Osterwalder's books, Business Model Generation, Business Model Canvas. Those are fantastic books for Product Managers. I also, just looking at my own bookshelves, of course, Innovation Games for PMs, of course Software Profit Streams because we have to figure out how to create sustainability, but in reality there's so many books that we love and that we share and that we grow together when we're sharing books and I'll add one thing. Please don't only limit your books to technical books. We're humans too. I recently, this week and what I mean recent I mean literally this weekend I was visiting one of my kids in Vermont all the way across the country, and so on the plane ride I finished two books, one was a very profound and deeply written book called Ponyboy. And then another one was a very famous book on a woman protagonist who's successful in the 60s, Lessons in Chemistry, which is a new book that's out, and it was a super fun light read, some interesting lessons of course, because there's always lessons in books, and now if it's okay if I'm not overstepping my boundaries, what would be a book that you'd like me to read? I love to add books to my list. Ula Ojiaku Oh my gosh, I didn't know. You are the first guest ever who's twisted this on me, but I tend to read multiple books at a time. Luke Hohmann Only two. Ula Ojiaku Yeah, so, and I kind of switch, maybe put some on my bedside and you know there's some on my Kindle and in the car, just depending. So I'm reading multiple books at a time, but based on what you've said the one that comes to mind is the new book by Oprah Winfrey and it's titled What Happened to You? Understanding Trauma, because like you said, it's not just about reading technical books and we're human beings and we find out that people behave probably sometimes in ways that are different to us, and it's not about saying what's wrong with you, because there is a story that we might not have been privy to, you know, in terms of their childhood, how they grew up, which affected their worldview and how they are acting, so things don't just suddenly happen. And the question that we have been asked and we sometimes ask of people, and for me, I'm reading it from a parent's perspective because I understand that even more so that my actions, my choices, they play a huge, you know, part in shaping my children. So it's not saying what's wrong with you? You say, you know, what happened to you? And it traces back to, based on research, because she wrote it with a renowned psychologist, I don't know his field but a renowned psychologist, so neuroscience-based psychological research on human beings, attachment theory and all that, just showing how early childhood experiences, even as early as maybe a few months old, tend to affect people well into adulthood. So that would be my recommendation. Luke Hohmann Thank you so much. That's a gift. Ula Ojiaku Thank you. You're the first person to ask me. So, my pleasure. So, before we go to the final words, where can the audience find you, because you have a wealth of knowledge, a wealth of experience, and I am sure that people would want to get in touch with you, so how can they do this please? Luke Hohmann Yeah, well, they can get me on LinkedIn and they can find me at Applied Frameworks. I tell you, I teach classes that are known to be very profound because we always reserve, myself and the instructors at Applied Frameworks, we have very strong commitments to reserving class time for what we call the parking lot or the ask me anything question, which are many times after I've covered the core material in the class, having the opportunity to really frame how to apply something is really important. So I would definitely encourage people to take one of my classes because you'll not get the material, you'll get the reasons behind the material, which means you can apply it, but you'll also be able to ask us questions and our commitment as a company is you can ask us anything and if we don't know the answer, we'll help you find it. We'll help you find the expert or the person that you need talk to, to help you out and be successful. And then, and I think in terms of final words, I will simply ask people to remember that we get to work in the most amazing field building things for other people and it's joyful work, and we, one of my phrases is you're not doing Agile, if you're not having fun at work, there's something really wrong, there's something missing, yeah we need to retrospect and we need to improve and we need to reflect and all those important things, absolutely, but we should allow ourselves to experience the joy of serving others and being of service and building things that matter. Ula Ojiaku I love the concept of joyful Agile and getting joy in building things that matter, serving people and may I add also working together with amazing people, and for me it's been a joyful conversation with you, Luke, I really appreciate you making the time, I am definitely richer and more enlightened as a result of this conversation, so thank you so much once more. Luke Hohmann Thank you so much for having me here, thank you everyone for listening with us. Ula Ojiaku  My pleasure. That's all we have for now. Thanks for listening. If you liked this show, do subscribe at www.agileinnovationleaders.com or your favourite podcast provider. Also share with friends and do leave a review on iTunes. This would help others find this show. I'd also love to hear from you, so please drop me an email at ula@agileinnovationleaders.com Take care and God bless!   

Luke Hohmann I am a four time author, three time founder, a keynote speaker and internationally recognized expert in Agile Software Development. Coming from Silicon Valley, I know how often founders focus on building companies to flip. My passion is building companies that make the world better. At FirstRoot, Inc. our mission is to create the next generation of impact investors. We want to get $1K into 1M schools globally and watch what happens when youth control $1B in capital. The Every Voice Engaged Foundation is a 501c3 nonprofit that helps citizens, governments and nonprofit organizations collaboratively solve problems that are unsolvable without civic engagement. EVEF has been a leader in the Participatory Budgeting movement, helping citizens prioritize hundreds of millions of dollars through Budget Games. Conteneo, Inc. was acquired by Scaled Agile, Inc. With our extraordinary development team, we created the Weave, Strategy Engine and Knowsy® decision agility platforms. In partnership with The Kettering Foundation (www.kettering.org), Conteneo created Common Ground for Action, the first scalable platform for deliberative decision-making. At Applied Frameworks, we make the world better by helping our customers create sustainably profitable businesses. My most recent book, Software Profit Solutions, is co-authored with Jason Tanner and shares key insights from our experience to help transform businesses through profitable, sustainable software solutions. Join our newsletter linked in my profile above for periodic Profit Streams updates and to be notified when the book is available! https://profit-streams.com/book We talk about:   What is system thinking and how is it used? What are some of the tools one would use to navigate the “Fog of uncertainty”? When should one think about raising prices? When does software eat Hardware? What is Solution Life-cycle management?   Connect with Luke https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukehohmann/ Website https://appliedframeworks.com/

I interview Luke Hohmann, CEO & Founder of First Root. Participatory Budgeting (PB) is a democratic process in which a group of students determines how to invest a shared budget to improve a school. PB authentically motivates students to learn and practice the “Four Cs” of the 21st Century curriculum: creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration — all while teaching design thinking, civics, and jump-starting their journey to increasing financial literacy. Students experience actual agency and stewardship over their futures, learning through their own experiences how money works. Participatory Budgeting creates several benefits for students, schools, and their communities: Gives students a chance to experience democracy in action by providing students with concrete evidence of the benefits of getting involved   Helps students engage in all aspects of design thinking as they create, refine, vote, and fund proposals   Strengthens the school community by creating alignment and positive interactions among all stakeholders: students, teachers, parents, and administrators   Creates self-confidence and civic pride as student-generated proposals are implemented   Develops financial literacy skills, including budgeting and financial planning   Luke is one of the world's leading experts on applying Participatory Budgeting at scale in communities and business settings. Before founding FirstRoot, Luke started Conteneo, an enterprise software platform based on game theory for collaborative decision-making. The author of four books, Luke has been cited as an inventor in more than a dozen patents and is an internationally recognized expert in Agile Software Development.     Feedback Leave an anonymous voicemail on SpeakPipe.com/FTapon Or go to Wanderlearn.com, click on this episode, and write a comment. More info You can post comments, ask questions, and sign up for my newsletter at http://wanderlearn.com. If you like this podcast, subscribe and share!  On social media, my username is always FTapon. Connect with me on: Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram LinkedIn Tiktok Pinterest Tumblr My Patrons sponsored this show! Claim your monthly reward by becoming a patron at http://Patreon.com/FTapon Rewards start at just $2/month! Affiliate links Start your podcast with my company, Podbean, and get one month free! In the USA, I recommend trading crypto with Kraken or FTX.us Outside the USA, trade crypto with Binance and get 5% off your trading fees! For backpacking gear, buy from Gossamer Gear

Luke Hohmann was an engineering and product management leader at Silicon Valley startups before he became an acclaimed author and speaker in the enterprise software development world. He used funding from his consulting business—plus revenue from his first big customers—to build a new software product called Conteneo. Conteneo was enterprise collaboration software that enabled the biggest companies to engage their leaders in new ways to make much better decisions about product portfolio investments. Started in 2010, this idea came out of several of the gamified collaboration exercises Luke used in his consulting business. Conteneo software customers include Adobe Systems, Cisco, Emerson, HP, Rackspace, and Reed Elsevier. As the Conteneo software business grew, their consulting business shrank. Eventually, Conteneo was acquired by a strategic partner who was also a leader in enterprise software development and innovation, Scaled Agile. Conteneo was rebranded as SAFe Collaborate. "One of the important lessons for any practical founder is this: Instead of thinking of investors as your first source of funding, look to your first customers," Luke says. In this episode, Luke explains: How his biggest consulting client asked him to build their proven collaboration process into a SaaS software product. How he funded the initial development and subsequent features with creative customer contract commitments. Why his little, bootstrapped company was successful in selling to the largest software companies in the world in the heart of Silicon Valley. The bet he won with a funded founder friend about who would end up with the biggest prize when they sold their companies. The crazy story of how a well-known business author offered to invest in his company over a handshake at a conference. Why he thinks founders should have a structured advisory board and pay them instead of just having informal advisors. Check out all our episodes and articles at https://practicalfounders.com.

140 Grit and your Startup with Luke Hohmann Founder and CEO of FirstRoot, Inc. Our mission is to create the next generation of impact investors. Our unique go-to-market strategy supports all stakeholders as youth use participatory budgeting to invest real money in their schools. Youth learn the 5 C's of modern education: creativity, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and civics as they experience true agency and stewardship over their futures, learning through their own experiences how money really works. We want to get $1K into 1M schools globally and watch what happens when youth control $1B in capital. Previously a SAFe® Framework Contributor and Principal Consultant, Luke was Founder and CEO of Conteneo, Inc. (acquired by Scaled Agile, Inc.) where he worked with an extraordinary dev team to create the Weave, Strategy Engine and Knowsy® decision agility platforms. The author of four books, numerous articles and cited as an inventor on more than a dozen patents, Luke is an internationally recognized expert in Agile Software Development. Luke co-organized the first Agile conference in 2003, has served on the Board of the Agile Alliance and in partnership with the Scrum Alliance produced the "Collaboration at Scale", the world's largest monthly webinar devoted to helping organizations with 10 or more Scrum teams in 2 or more locations scale agility. Luke is a highly sought after speaker has as keynoted such conferences as the Agile Alliance conference, Agile Australia, Lean-Agile Scotland, Agile New Zealand, the Austrian Innovation Forum, the CXPA and the SAFe Summit. Luke's is the co-founder of Every Voice Engaged Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit that helps citizens, governments and nonprofit organizations collaboratively solve problems that are unsolvable without civic engagement. EVEF has been a leader in the Participatory Budgeting movement, helping citizens prioritize hundreds of millions of dollars through Budget Games. In partnership with The Kettering Foundation (www.kettering.org), Conteneo created Common Ground for Action, the first scalable platform for deliberative decision-making. A former United States National Junior Pairs Figure Skating Champion, Luke likes playing with his four kids, his wife's cooking and long runs in the Santa Cruz mountains. Luke's an old school Silicon Valley entrepreneur. Instead of building companies to flip, he builds companies that make the world better! We talk about For the different stages of a company's growth, how can they collaborate using games to get results? How can a company go about finding the right Investment Banker? How important is teaching financial literacy?   What is project based, learning-by-doing? And much more     Connect with Luke Hohmann (5) Luke Hohmann | LinkedIn lukehohmann@yahoo.com firstroot.co 

Luke Hohmann is the Founder and CEO of Conteneo, Inc. (formerly, The Innovation Games® Company). He is also the co-founder of Every Voice Engaged Foundation, a 501 3(c) nonprofit that that helps citizens, governments and nonprofit organizations collaboratively solve problems that are unsolvable without civic engagement. Key Insights 00:00 Introduction 01:25 Good to Great 04:97 Making choices 15:20 Financial intelligence for kids 21:30 Walk the talk 31:10 Money tips for kids Check out Luke's books: https://amz.run/5g9S Check out Julia Barbaro's books: https://amz.run/5g9S In real estate, your network is your net worth, attend our Live Events and network with the fellow investors and professionals: https://jakeandgino.com/live-events/ About Jake & Gino Jake & Gino are multifamily investors, operators, and mentors who have created a vertically integrated real estate company that controls over $175,000,000 in assets under management. They have created the Jake & Gino community to teach others their three-step framework: Buy Right, Finance Right and Manage Right®, and to become multifamily entrepreneurs. Subscribe to this channel: https://ytube.io/3McA Sign up for free training: https://jakeandgino.mykajabi.com/freetraining The resources you need to succeed at every level of apartment investing: https://jakeandgino.com/resources/ Apply for Mentorship: https://jakeandgino.com/apply/ #realestate #multifamilyrealestate #multifamilyinvesting #investing #apartmentinvesting Jake & Gino Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jakeandgino/ Jake & Gino Twitter: https://twitter.com/JakeandGino Jake & Gino Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/jake-and-gino-llc/ Jake & Gino Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jakeandgino/ More ways to engage with the Jake & Gino Investor Community: MM5: https://jakeandgino.com/mm5/ Rand Cares: https://jakeandgino.com/randcares/ Henson Flooring: https://www.greatertennessee.com/ The 100 Year Real Estate Investor: https://www.dualassetstrategy.com

In this episode we are joined by my friend Luke Hohmann, who is the founder of an incredible company called FirstRoot, who's technology allows young people to invest real money, in real proposals ... and it has created incredible outcomes. Luke's FirstRoot model sets kids up for learning financial literacy through participatory budgeting, core life skills, civics and design thinking. When we think of safety for our children, how often do we consider how prepared they are for financial well-being and security? Well, FirstRoot is an amazing step in that direction; learn how you can get involved. In this episode you will learn about: Participatory budgeting in schools and at home, for kids.Steps to building strong financial literacy for your kids.The role of civics in financial literacy , and what it means for kids.How Luke is going to put $1B in the hands of kids to manage.How you and your schools can get involved with FirstRoot. CONNECT WITH LUKE HOHMANN FirstRoot Website: FirstRoot Instagram @firstrootinch Facebook @firstrootinc Twitter @firstrootinc LUKE'S BIO Luke is one of the world's leading experts on applying Participatory Budgeting at scale, both in communities and in business settings. Prior to founding FirstRoot, Luke started Conteneo, an enterprise software platform for collaborative decision making based on game theory. The author of four books, Luke has been cited as an inventor in more than a dozen patents and is an internationally recognized expert in Agile Software Development. START TRAINING YOUR KIDS NOW Here's a complimentary lesson I made for channel listeners on the 3 Discussions you must have with your kids about safety and survival. It's only ten minutes long, but could be a life saving 10 minutes of your time spent. CloseQuarterDad.com/3Discussions CONNECT AND LEARN MORE WEBSITE: https://closequarterdad.com INSTAGRAM: https://instagram.com/closequarterdad FACEBOOK: https://Facebook.com/closequarterdad What can you do to support this channel? Subscribe, every new listener counts to usEngage, we are a community who supports each otherLeave a review, let us know what you thinkShare, know others who may get some value - then share our channel

Luke Hohmann is the Founder and CEO of FirstRoot, Inc., a Benefit Corporation devoted to creating great economic equality. Our unique go-to-market strategy supports all stakeholders as youth use participatory budgeting to invest real money in their schools. Youth learn the 5 C's of modern education: creativity, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and civics as they experience true agency and stewardship over their futures, learning through their own experiences how money really works. We want to get $1K into 1M schools globally and watch what happens when youth control $1B in capital. Previously a SAFe® Framework Contributor and Principal Consultant, Luke was Founder and CEO of Conteneo, Inc. (acquired by Scaled Agile, Inc.) where he worked with an extraordinary dev team to create the Weave, Strategy Engine and Knowsy® decision agility platforms. The author of four books, numerous articles and cited as an inventor on more than a dozen patents, Luke is an internationally recognized expert in Agile Software Development. Luke co-organized the first Agile conference in 2003, has served on the Board of the Agile Alliance and in partnership with the Scrum Alliance produced the "Collaboration at Scale", the world's largest monthly webinar devoted to helping organizations with 10 or more Scrum teams in 2 or more locations scale agility. Luke is a highly sought after speaker has as keynoted such conferences as the Agile Alliance conference, Agile Australia, Lean-Agile Scotland, Agile New Zealand, the Austrian Innovation Forum, the CXPA and the SAFe Summit. Luke is the co-founder of Every Voice Engaged Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit that helps citizens, governments and nonprofit organizations collaboratively solve problems that are unsolvable without civic engagement. EVEF has been a leader in the Participatory Budgeting movement, helping citizens prioritize hundreds of millions of dollars through Budget Games. In partnership with The Kettering Foundation (www.kettering.org), Conteneo created Common Ground for Action, the first scalable platform for deliberative decision-making. A former United States National Junior Pairs Figure Skating Champion, Luke likes playing with his four kids, his wife's cooking and long runs in the Santa Cruz mountains. Luke's an old school Silicon Valley entrepreneur. Instead of building companies to flip, he builds companies that make the world better! www.firstroot.co https://twitter.com/lukeohhmann (https://twitter.com/lukeohhmann) https://www.facebook.com/luke.h.hohmann/ (https://www.facebook.com/luke.h.hohmann/) https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukehohmann/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukehohmann/) This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: AdBarker - https://adbarker.com/privacy Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy

Luke Hohmann is the Founder and CEO of FirstRoot, Inc., a Benefit Corporation devoted to creating great economic equality. Our unique go-to-market strategy supports all stakeholders as youth use participatory budgeting to invest real money in their schools. Youth learn the 5 C's of modern education: creativity, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and civics as they experience true agency and stewardship over their futures, learning through their own experiences how money really works. We want to get $1K into 1M schools globally and watch what happens when youth control $1B in capital. Previously a SAFe® Framework Contributor and Principal Consultant, Luke was Founder and CEO of Conteneo, Inc. (acquired by Scaled Agile, Inc.) where he worked with an extraordinary dev team to create the Weave, Strategy Engine and Knowsy® decision agility platforms. The author of four books, numerous articles and cited as an inventor on more than a dozen patents, Luke is an internationally recognized expert in Agile Software Development. Luke co-organized the first Agile conference in 2003, has served on the Board of the Agile Alliance and in partnership with the Scrum Alliance produced the "Collaboration at Scale", the world's largest monthly webinar devoted to helping organizations with 10 or more Scrum teams in 2 or more locations scale agility. Luke is a highly sought after speaker has as keynoted such conferences as the Agile Alliance conference, Agile Australia, Lean-Agile Scotland, Agile New Zealand, the Austrian Innovation Forum, the CXPA and the SAFe Summit. Luke is the co-founder of Every Voice Engaged Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit that helps citizens, governments and nonprofit organizations collaboratively solve problems that are unsolvable without civic engagement. EVEF has been a leader in the Participatory Budgeting movement, helping citizens prioritize hundreds of millions of dollars through Budget Games. In partnership with The Kettering Foundation (www.kettering.org), Conteneo created Common Ground for Action, the first scalable platform for deliberative decision-making. A former United States National Junior Pairs Figure Skating Champion, Luke likes playing with his four kids, his wife's cooking and long runs in the Santa Cruz mountains. Luke's an old school Silicon Valley entrepreneur. Instead of building companies to flip, he builds companies that make the world better! www.firstroot.co https://twitter.com/lukeohhmann (https://twitter.com/lukeohhmann) https://www.facebook.com/luke.h.hohmann/ (https://www.facebook.com/luke.h.hohmann/) https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukehohmann/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukehohmann/) This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: AdBarker - https://adbarker.com/privacy Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy

On today's episode of American gypC Podcast we are discussing the application of Participatory Budgeting (PB) in Schools with Luke Hohmann. Luke is the CEO of FirstRoot, a startup devoted to teaching financial literacy and civics through Participatory Budgeting in schools. Luke is one of the world's leading experts on applying PB at scale, both in communities and in business settings. Participatory Budgeting is a global movement, endorsed by the UN, in which communities decide how to invest real money. Prior to founding FirstRoot, Luke started Conteneo, an enterprise software platform for collaborative decision making based on game theory He is also the author of four books and has been cited as an inventor in more than a dozen patents and is an internationally recognized expert in Agile Software Development. Guest Link: https://firstroot.co https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukehohmann American gypC Podcast Website: http://americangypc.com Donate: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/klaccikcarpenta IG: https://www.instagram.com/americangypcpodcast Music: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0m40c7gVhMJQVqrRmtRi3E --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/american-gypc/support

Luke Hohmann is a serial entrepreneur who's done and been through several phases of business in his career! Luke is the Founder and CEO of FirstRoot, a benefit corporation devoted to creating economic equality. His last company, Conteneo, was an enterprise collaboration software company that helped large enterprises administer more than $3B using Participatory Budgeting techniques. If you're looking for an internationally recognized entrepreneur in Agile Software Development, whose mission is to create financially literate children capable of transforming their communities as they become financially independent adults through creativity, communication, critical thinking, collaboration, and civics. Luke is definitely your man! Deal Techniques Entrepreneurs use different approaches in deal-making. These approaches pass through different processes, and they all have different outcomes. In this episode, we'll be talking about one of the techniques used by entrepreneurs, called Participatory Budgeting. This is an episode you don't want to miss! What Is Participatory Budgeting And How Does It Affect Deals?! Participatory budgeting is the process through which corporations and investors use collaborative techniques to establish budgets. In this process, the members of the group involved are the decision-makers. It helps create better motivation, boost morale, and create better work environments that end in job satisfaction. Processes Involved In Participatory Budgeting Participatory budgeting involves money and how it's spent. Like many other deal techniques, it has specific guidelines and processes that needs to be followed to enjoy sufficient success. Investors are mandated to provide and guide the members through the processes. They are also expected to provide a curriculum on personal finance and civics. It doesn't matter if you're starting or already have a multimillion business; everyone has a budget. The budget is never enough because human imagination is unbounded and human resources are limited. Learning how to navigate those choices is the most central activity. The following are the five Ds involved! Discovery Phase This is the first phase. The members involved go out and talk to other people to identify the problem. Results must be compiled and recorded. Dreaming Phase This particular phase is for the members involved. It's a phase for them to DREAM! Investors ask them questions like, “what would you do if you had this money?” Design Phase Members are taught how to develop their ideas into actual proposals. It involves teaching them design techniques and answering questions of feasibility, viability, cost, approval, etc. Decision Phase This is the phase where the members decide - they vote on what to do with the available resources, and when the vote is concluded, they DO! The members actually see their ideas put into action using The Five Ds! Are You An Entrepreneur Or An Aspiring Entrepreneur? Understand These Facts Before Jumping On That Deal! If you're trying to sell, hiring an external firm or investment banker doesn't guarantee sale. You should negotiate deals in comfortable settings and conditions. Understand the transaction can be structured so that the total amount to be paid is available to enable both parties to succeed, but that doesn't necessarily mean the money is changing hands in the deal process. Be clear on where you are and what you're bringing to the table. Don't skimp on your legal team- make sure your contracts are well intact. Get a good lawyer - someone you trust and has experience in corporate law. Don't be difficult to work with. To learn more about Luke, head here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/firstroot Luke would love to give away the Digital Copy of my book Success Left A Clue. Head here to download https://www.robertriopel.com To connect with Corey for more: Website: https://www.coreykupfer.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coreykupfer Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CoreyKupfer Twitter: https://twitter.com/coreykupfer

Luke Hohmann is one of the good people in tech. Instead of building companies to flip, he builds companies that make the world better. A serial entrepreneur, Luke has left the boardroom for the schoolyard, and it's all because of a concept called Participatory Budgeting. Participatory Budgeting is a global movement, endorsed by the UN, in which communities decide how to invest real money. His last business, Conteneo helped global organisations like BMW, Salesforce, eBay, Transamerica, and many others manage $3 billion. Now, Luke wants to take $1B and give it to children through his latest business startup, FirstRoot. Tune in and learn more about how to make better business decisions, faster, while also uncovering Luke's secret plan for the future of business. Connect with Luke Hohmann Website: https://firstroot.co/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukehohmann/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/lukehohmann YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYjaSvgnhEaahIE2WLubezA Connect with Simon Bedard LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/business-sales-sydney/ Website: https://buygrowsell.com/ Website: https://exitadvisory.com.au/

Meet Luke Hohhman. Luke is the Founder and CEO of FirstRoot, a Benefit Corporation devoted to creating great economic equality. A serial entrepreneur, Luke's last company, Conteneo, was an enterprise software company that helped global companies manage investment portfolios using Participatory Budgeting. Luke is now leveraging the experience he gained working with some of the world's largest companies to help prepare our children for their future by bringing Participatory Budgeting into schools to teach financial literacy, civics, and design thinking. Missed any previous episodes, access all here https://growthbysabir.com/liveshow Your business stuck in a rut? Contact Sabir at Growth by Sabir here https://growthbysabir.com #entrepreneur #financialliteracy #education Topics covered: financial literacy,kids finance,personal finance,financial education,entrepreneurship,entrepreneur,entrepreneurs,business owner,business ownership,financial markets,luke hohmann,entrepreneur motivation,entrepreneur advice,financial education 3,financial education 2,startup entrepreneurs,what is financial literacy,investing,finance,financial literacy for kids,financial education for kids,business,entrepreneur mindset,entrepreneurship motivation,money --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/sabir-semerkant/support

Money doesn't change men, it merely unmasks them. If a man is naturally selfish or arrogant or greedy, the money brings that out, that's all.  – Henry FordIf we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free. If our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed. -Edmund BurkeLuke Hohmann is the Founder and CEO of FirstRoot, a Benefit Corporation devoted to teaching financial literacy and civics through Participatory Budgeting in schools. Our BHAG is to get $1K into 1M schools globally and watch what happens when kids control $1B.  Luke is a serial entrepreneur and internationally recognized expert in Participatory Budgeting and Agile Software development industry. Luke's previous company was Conteneo, a software company that helped large companies administer more than $3B using Participatory Budgeting techniques. Scaled Agile, Inc. acquired it in 2019.The author of four books, numerous articles, and cited as an inventor of a dozen patents, Luke co-organized the first Agile conference in 2003. He has served on the Board of the Agile Alliance. In partnership with the Scrum Alliance, he produced the "Collaboration at Scale" webinar series, which focuses on helping organizations scale agility with ten or more Scrum teams in 2 or more locations.Luke is a highly sought-after speaker, keynoting such conferences as the Agile Alliance conference, Agile Australia, Lean-Agile Scotland, Agile New Zealand, the Austrian Innovation Forum, the CXPA, and the SAFe Summit.Luke is the co-founder of Every Voice Engaged Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit that helps citizens, governments, and nonprofit organizations collaboratively solve unsolvable problems without civic engagement. EVEF has been a leader in the Participatory Budgeting movement, helping citizens prioritize hundreds of millions of dollars through Budget Games.In partnership with The Kettering Foundation (www.kettering.org), Conteneo created Common Ground for Action, the first scalable platform for deliberative decision-making.Luke's an old-school Silicon Valley entrepreneur. Instead of building companies to flip, he builds companies that make the world better! A former United States National Junior Pairs Figure Skating Champion, Luke enjoys his family, his wife's cooking, and long runs in the Santa Cruz mountains.Today we discuss how to teach kids about finances.So if you're ready, take out your pencils, and let's begin. Follow Luke.Follow Chris.Support the show (https://paypal.me/pencilleadership)

Luke Hohmann is a serial tech entrepreneur who bootstrapped and sold his last company, Conteneo, an enterprise SaaS company. Today he shares his work to encourage civics education and FirstRoot, which empowers young people to take control of their financial lives. FirstRoot is a SaaS company selling schools a software platform and integrated curriculum that teaches financial literacy and civics. The secret of their success is that they give students real money to invest in their schools, and FirstRoot supports them as they work together to decide how to invest it. Be sure to listen! Learn more about Luke and Firstroot here: Firstroot.co. Learn about investing in Firstroot here: https://netcapital.com/companies/firstroot-inc?utm_source=FirstRoot&utm_medium=invest-popup Please support the show with a small donation, here: https://anchor.fm/j-alexander-greenwood/support Subscribe to Mysterious Goings On wherever you get your podcasts or go to MGOPod.com and sign up for our email newsletter. Get Alex's new book, THE PODCAST OPTION: https://amzn.to/3hH0rNC Get the audiobook here: https://adbl.co/38SxMRw Buy Alex Greenwood's books on Amazon.com. Original theme music "Mysterious Goings On" by Jamie Green. Want your own cool score for your podcast or website? Contact Jamie at Greenhouse Consulting. Check out Jamie's interview on the show here. This episode of the Mysterious Goings On Podcast was recorded and mixed at Green Shebeen Studios in beautiful Kansas City, Missouri. Copyright 2021, all rights reserved. No reproduction, excerpting, or other use without written permission. We are an Amazon Associates seller, some of our links may earn us a commission. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/j-alexander-greenwood/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/j-alexander-greenwood/support

Press Play for: · The Importance of Giving your Kids The Opportunity to Think Broadly· Being a Hover Parent When it Comes to Budgeting· What it Means to be Civically Engaged· Giving Children Responsibility to Grow· Why Distrust is Born into Parents and Kids· The App That Helps Build Trust with your Kids with Money· Knowing who you are as an Entrepreneur· Entrepreneurial Mindset as a Starters, Operators, or Exits· Importance of Bringing Security Postures into Schools· How to Build the Foundation to Exit Your Business We Meet: Luke Hohmann, FirstRoot, Inc. Episode References: Madison, Wisconsin - https://www.cityofmadison.com/Participatory Budgeting Cycles - https://www.participatorybudgeting.orgConteneo - https://www.scaledagile.com/conteneo-weave/San Jose, California - https://www.sanjose.org/FirstRoot - http://www.firstroot.co/Aladdin Knowledge Systems - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aladdin_Knowledge_SystemsMulti-Factor Authentication - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-factor_authenticationCisco Casper Security Standards - https://www.cisco.com/“One in Four millennials say democracy is a bad way to run a country.” - https://www.newamerica.org/nyc/events/people-vs-democracy/ https://tischcollege.tufts.edu/research/republic-still-risk-and-civics-part-solutionThoma Bravo - https://www.thomabravo.comEdtech - https://edtech.worlded.org/EDS - https://www.electricdatasystems.com/Living Like a Weasel - https://public.wsu.edu/~hughesc/dillard_weasel.htm Connect:Connect with Rick: https://linktr.ee/mrrickjordanConnect with Luke: http://www.firstroot.co/Subscribe and Review to ALL IN with Rick Jordan on iTunesSubscribe and Comment on CastBoxSubscribe on Google Podcasts or Google PlayFollow on SpotifySubscribe and Review on Stitcher About Guest: Luke is a serial entrepreneur with two successful exits and I think your listeners would be really interested in learning how my new company empowers youth - with money! Have you heard of Participatory Budgeting? It is a global movement, endorsed by the UN, in which communities decide how to invest real money. I've been producing PB events around the world, in both the public and private sector, for more than a decade. At my last company, Conteneo, I invented Weave, the software platform businesses use for PB. My clients made over $3 billion in investment decisions using Weave before I sold the company two years ago. I've now founded FirstRoot, a startup devoted to teaching financial literacy and civics through Participatory Budgeting in schools. Our BHAG is to get $1K into 1M schools globally and watch what happens when kids are in control of $1B. We are offering a family version of our app for free so that parents can work directly with kids doing such things as planning a vacation, choosing charitable donations, or planning a home remodeling project. #RickJordan #Podcast #Trust

In this episode, Hall welcomes Luke Hohmann, CEO & Founder of FirstRoot. Headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, FirstRoot teaches financial literacy and budgeting - through a process known as Participatory Budgeting - and civics, as kids decide how to invest real money in their school.  Participatory Budgeting (PB) is a democratic process in which a group of students determines how to invest a shared budget to improve a school. PB authentically motivates students to learn and practice the “Four Cs” of the 21st Century curriculum: creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration — all while teaching design thinking, civics and jump-starting their journey to increasing financial literacy. Students experience true agency and stewardship over their futures, learning through their own experiences how money really works. A serial entrepreneur, Luke's last company, Conteneo, was an enterprise software company that helped global companies manage investment portfolios using Participatory Budgeting. Luke is now leveraging the experience he gained working with some of the world's largest companies to help prepare our children for their future by bringing Participatory Budgeting into schools to teach financial literacy, civics, and design thinking. The author of four books, Luke has been cited as an inventor in more than a dozen patents and is an internationally recognized expert in Agile Software Development. Luke discusses what led him to start working in the personal finance and personal literacy space, some of the challenges he has faced, and the evolution of the industry. You can visit FirstRoot at , via LinkedIn at , and via Twitter at .  Luke can be contacted via email at , via LinkedIn at , and via Twitter at .   Music courtesy of .

On this show we take a unique dive in to something called Participatory Budgeting with guest Luke Hohmann. Don't know what that is? Well stay toon and learn more about what it is and if maybe you should have something to do with it. It is a different approach that even triggered a lot of thought on our part.Luke Hohmann bio:Luke Hohmann is Founder and CEO of FirstRoot, a Benefit Corporation devoted to creating great economic equality. A serial entrepreneur, Luke's last company, Conteneo, was an enterprise software company that helped global companies manage investment portfolios using Participatory Budgeting. Luke is now leveraging the experience he gained working with some of the world's largest companies to help prepare our children for their future by bringing Participatory Budgeting into schools to teach financial literacy, civics, and design thinking.Make sure to check our FirstRoot at https://firstroot.co/Make sure to keep the conversation going on our social medias as well as on here.YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/c/TheDecidingFactor Facebook ► https://www.facebook.com/TheDecidingFactorPodcastInstagram ► https://www.instagram.com/thedecidingfactorpodcastTwitter  ► https://twitter.com/tdf_podcastMake sure to share your thoughts on here and our social media. Also find out more about us at www.thedecidingfactorpodcast.comSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/thedecidingfactor)

#029 Although Silicon Valley in California has a lot of tech companies, a study by Chamberlain University ranks California an "F" in teaching kids about financial literacy. Luke encourages his children to read books about financial literacy and also applies his business knowledge at home.  He also created a company, "Conteneo" that helped enterprises manage their investment portfolios which ultimately helped in participatory budgeting to create better budgeting decisions. This was used in schools involving a process where kids were given money on the condition that they had to manage it themselves. They were guided through a 5-step process including a "theme"; how to spend the money, "ideation"; creation of rough proposals for how to spend the money, "refinement"; creation of details behind the proposals, "Voting"; an opportunity to ensure most students are involved, and lastly "implementation" of the ideas from students. This process gives the opportunity to teach important concepts in financial literacy. The app is free for families. For complete show notes please go to Raising Financial FreedomIn This Episode:·         [03:05] Introduce today's guest, "Luke Hohmann". ·         [03:21] How would you say financial Literacy is in Sunnydale California?·         [05:16] With you being so close to financial literacy, how do you involve your children? ·         [011:37] Which age group is adopting financial literacy at a better rate?·         [14:22] What do your kids gravitate to, when it comes to financial literacy?·         [17:50] When did you realize that you had a passion for financial literacy?·         [19:43] How did FirstRoot get started?·         [21:05] What is the biggest challenge you've had to overcome after starting FirstRoot?·         [23:10] At its core, what does FirstRoot do?·         [28:01] What states are you now in as FirstRoot?·         [28:20] The best thing that has happened since doing the pilots. ·         [29:30] How can parents get their kids involved in this FirstRoot program?·         [31:46] If you had to give parents good advice, what would it be?·         [33:00] What does FirstRoot have for the future?·         [36:03] How to contact Luke. Website, LinkedIn, Twitter Links Mentioned: https://www.thenewportbuzz.com/governor-mckee-signs-law-requiring-financial-literacy-education-in-high-schools/30536https://wjla.com/news/local/sisternomics-empowerment-summit-to-educate-black-women-girls-financial-literacyWebsite: www.firstroot.co   Check out our website: https://raisingfinancialfreedom.com/ Like us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RF_Freedom

Luke Hohmann is a serial tech entrepreneur who bootstrapped and sold his last company, Conteneo, an enterprise SaaS company. Today he shares examples of creative and affordable PR and marketing strategies he employed in his tech startups. We also talk about the value of civics and Firstroot, which empowers young people to take control of their financial lives. Luke builds companies that make the world better--something that seems to be quite rare in Silicon Valley these days, so be sure to listen! Learn more about Luke and Firstroot here: Firstroot.co *** Get Alex's new book THE PODCAST OPTION. Click here. RATE THIS PODCAST here. WHAT DO YOU THINK? Alex wants to know! Click here to weigh in: https://anchor.fm/alex-greenwood1/message Follow us on Twitter: @HoursPR or @A_Greenwood. Follow Alex on Clubhouse, also, as @A_Greenwood. Listen to our entire library of episodes and more on the show website: PRAfterHours.com. Drop a buck in the tip jar here. PR After Hours Theme: https://filmmusic.io "Bossa Antigua" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC. Sound effects. As an Amazon Associate, we earn a small commission on some of our Amazon links. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alex-greenwood1/message

723- Luke is one of the world’s leading experts on applying Participatory Budgeting at scale, both in communities and in business settings. Prior to founding FirstRoot, Luke started Conteneo, an enterprise software platform for collaborative decision making based on game theory. The author of four books, Luke has been cited as an inventor in more than a dozen patents and is an internationally recognized expert in Agile Software Development. ________ Need help with your business? Marketing, Podcast Mentorship or Content Creation? Stop by and check us out. Go to www.BusinessBros.biz to be a guest on the show or to find out more on how we can help you! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/businessbrospod/support

Craig joins guest co-host Shane Hastie to talk with Luke Hohmann, author of “Innovation Games”, founder and CEO of Conteneo, Inc. and co-founder of Every Voice Engaged at the Agile 2015 conference after his inspirational opening keynote and they chat about: Luke’s opening keynote “Awesome Superproblems“ Innovation Games – the book, the training, the games also author … Continue reading →

Luke Hohmann was recommended by the VP of Global Innovation of the RELX Group, Jeff Honious, who was my guest in episode 28. Consequently, I knew I had to interview Luke to learn about his tools for innovators. Luke is the founder and CEO of The Innovation Games, which is now known as Conteneo. His […]