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In this episode, Jason tackles a controversial but important topic: the role lawyers and legal teams play in construction delivery systems. While legal professionals are meant to protect companies and guide them safely through risk, Jason explains how certain systems, especially traditional CPM scheduling can unintentionally incentivize conflict, claims, and litigation instead of collaboration and project success. Jason dives into why many organizations resist lean systems like Takt, Last Planner, and Scrum, even when they consistently improve project outcomes. Often, this resistance comes from fear—fear of losing job security, significance, or familiarity with long-standing systems. What you'll learn in this episode: Why some organizations resist lean construction systems. How traditional CPM scheduling can encourage litigation and blame. The role fear and job security play in resisting change. Why great legal teams help organizations innovate safely. The importance of questioning outdated systems in construction. How lean systems like Takt and Last Planner are reshaping project delivery. Jason's message is clear: protecting the status quo isn't leadership helping teams evolve toward better systems. If you like the Elevate Construction podcast, please subscribe for free and you'll never miss an episode. And if you really like the Elevate Construction podcast, I'd appreciate you telling a friend (Maybe even two
Junaid Shaikh: Product Owner Anti-Patterns, From Team Owner to Product Owner, And The PO Who Got It Right Junaid opens with a line that cuts straight to the most common PO anti-pattern: "You are the product owner, not the team owner." When he sees a PO slipping into command-and-control mode, he asks them one question: "What is your role?" They say "Product Owner." He says: "Exactly. You own the product, not the team. If you were meant to own the team, we'd call you a project manager." The worst case he witnessed: a PO who was so possessive of "his" team that he required approval on everything — processes, tools, even holiday requests. In sprint planning, he would assign stories to individual team members ("Mr. X, you take this one"). He'd estimate the work himself, and when developers pushed back, he'd override them: "I was a developer, I know how long this takes." For approaching PO anti-patterns, Junaid has a deliberate style: he doesn't confront upfront. He observes, takes notes, and starts by solving a smaller impediment to demonstrate he's there to help. Once trust is built, he brings in coaching tools — first teaching the basics ("this is what the PO role is in Scrum"), then gradually coaching on specific anti-patterns observed in practice. He targets 10-15% improvement at a time. Six months later, you've already achieved 30-40% improvement. The best PO Junaid has worked with had four qualities: clear, concise communication; an open mindset willing to be coached; courage to say "no" when needed; and the discipline to define the "what" and leave the "how" to the team. This PO started with five sources of truth — Excel tabs, whiteboards, JIRA, and other tools. When Junaid pointed out that five sources of truth is the opposite of transparency (one of Scrum's three pillars), the PO asked for help. Junaid's response: "I can't do the push-ups for you." Together, they consolidated everything into one tool. The team was happier, and the PO managed the backlog much better. The key lesson: great product owners trust their team, communicate clearly, prioritize ruthlessly, and have the courage to say no. And they don't try to own the team. You can link with Junaid Shaikh on LinkedIn. [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]
Comedian and actor Mike Bubbins welcomes former referee Nigel Owens to his bar. Regarded as one of the great referees of the game, Nigel will be revealing his favourite five and six nations matches.Warning: contains themes around suicide Support is available here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/actionline/
In this episode, entrepreneur Chris Jones shares his journey from personal tragedy to building MatchRite Care, a healthcare data integration platform. He discusses product-market fit, scaling strategies, and the importance of community and continuous learning in entrepreneurship.⏱️ Episode Breakdown00:00 The Entrepreneurial Journey Begins02:54 The Birth of MatchRite Care06:07 Navigating Product Fit and Market Strategy09:04 The Importance of Data Sharing in Healthcare12:01 Scaling vs. Selling: The Business Model Dilemma15:08 Consulting and Mentorship in the Entrepreneurial Space17:45 The Value of Lifelong Learning and Community Support20:48 Reflections on the Entrepreneurial JourneyLinks & ResourcesConnect with Chris Jones on LinkedInWhat Smart CTOs Are Doing Differently With Offshore Teams in 2025Subscribe to the Global Talent SprintFull Scale – Build your dev team quickly and affordablyIf you're trying to get your team out of the basement and into real product ownership, this episode is your playbook. Stop being a ticket factory. Build teams that think, create, and lead.Follow the show, rate it, and send this to someone who's still trying to do “real Scrum.” They need it more than you do.
Junaid Shaikh: How Scrum Masters Can Measure Their Own Impact, Practical Self-Assessment Metrics Junaid's favorite retrospective format? The vanilla: what went well, what could have gone better, what to do better next. He's tried many formats — the Three L's (liked, learned, lacked), the Three Little Pigs, the sailboat — but the core principle is always the same. His practical advice: stick with a consistent format so the team gets better at the process itself rather than constantly adjusting to new concepts. One addition he insists on for any format: an appreciation component. In the rush to analyze processes and outcomes, teams often skip acknowledging how another team member, PO, or Scrum Master helped during the sprint. That appreciation builds trust, respect, and openness that feeds into subsequent sprints. On defining success as a Scrum Master, Junaid starts with a Peter Drucker quote: "You cannot improve something you cannot measure." He proposes several practical self-assessment metrics: First, the Agile Team Maturity Index — a spider graph that shows where the team stands across multiple criteria, making gaps visible and actionable. Second, track retrospective action items. Create tiger teams for specific issues, run small iterative experiments, and measure in the next retrospective whether the trend is improving. Third, watch for shared sprint goals. Junaid once saw a team with nine sprint goals for a two-week sprint — those weren't goals, they were individual tasks. A real sprint goal should be something multiple team members work together to achieve. Fourth, self-organizing teams. If the team falls apart when the Scrum Master is absent for a sprint, there's a problem. Coach teams to self-organize, and their ability to function independently becomes a success metric. Fifth, communication patterns. Too many emails flying around can signal hidden conflicts or trust barriers. If communication happens through the right channels — dailies, direct interactions — you're likely in good shape. Sixth, Scrum event health. If events get canceled too frequently, the team may be reverting to traditional ways of working. [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]
Junaid Shaikh: Managing Uncertainty As A Scrum Master, How Scrum's Rhythm Creates Stability In Unstable Times For this week's coaching conversation, Junaid brings a challenge that resonates well beyond any single team: dealing with uncertainty. He references the World Uncertainty Index report from February 2026, which showed the highest levels of global uncertainty ever recorded — surpassing both the COVID pandemic and the 2008 financial crisis. This uncertainty doesn't stay at the geopolitical level. It seeps into teams. People show up stressed, unsure about what the next month or three months will bring. As Scrum Masters, we need to be cognizant of where our team members are coming from. Vasco adds an important layer: uncertainty operates at multiple levels within organizations. A colleague you depend on might be out sick for two weeks. A supplier might not deliver on time. Every dependency is a source of uncertainty. The question becomes: what in our processes is designed to accept and adapt to that uncertainty? Junaid's answer is powerful in its simplicity: Scrum's rhythm. The sprint, the planning, the daily, the retrospective — these events at a defined cadence create internal predictability. "When you have a rhythm, when you have a known sequence of events in front of you, that takes away a lot of uncertainty." Vasco builds on this: Scrum creates a boundary — the sprint — that accepts uncertainty outside while reducing it inside. Internal versus external predictability. Inside the sprint, the team can fail in small ways without exposing every failure to the outside. Compare that with traditional project planning, where every task on the critical path has external visibility and impact. For practical tools, Junaid shares how he used the Eisenhower matrix with a team to convert uncertainty into actionable priorities. They listed all activities from recent sprints, plotted them on the matrix, and found they could delegate or deprioritize 20-25% of their work. That freed them to focus with certainty on the remaining 75%. Combined with timeboxing as an uncertainty management mechanism, teams can create pockets of predictability even in turbulent times. [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]
Junaid Shaikh: Why Teams Go Through The Motions of Agile Without Being Agile, And What To Do About It Junaid's book recommendation is The Culture Map by Erin Meyer. As a Scrum Master working at companies like Ericsson and ABB — organizations that are a "United Nations" of cultures — understanding cultural tendencies has been essential. But Junaid goes further: you can customize the Culture Map framework even within a team of people from the same country, using the parameters to map different personalities. It's about how you use the tool, not just where people come from. He also recommends Scrum Mastery: From Good to Great Servant Leadership by Geoff Watts for practical advice on the servant leadership role, and regularly visits Scrum Alliance and Scrum.org for real-world insights from the community. On the topic of teams that self-destruct, Junaid paints a picture that many listeners will recognize. He picked up a team's retrospective history and cumulative flow diagrams and found problems at every level: managers who declared "from tomorrow we're going agile" without understanding what that meant, then started comparing velocity across teams. Product owners who took PO training but reverted to command-and-control project management. A previous Scrum Master doing what Junaid calls "zombie Scrum" — implementing the framework mechanically without understanding its purpose. The pattern underneath it all: people enveloping their traditional mindset under an agile umbrella. The ceremonies happen, the daily standups run, but nobody is questioning why they're doing any of it. As Vasco observes, this zombie pattern isn't limited to Scrum — it happens with code reviews, architecture reviews, any process that gets adopted without critical thinking about its purpose. Junaid's insight: if you don't understand the basics with the right mindset, every event feels like overhead. Teams complain about "too many meetings" because they're running agile ceremonies on top of their old informal processes. "If you don't get out of your previous shell, you cannot get into a new shell." [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]
Junaid Shaikh: The Eager Scrum Master Trap, Why Proposing Solutions Too Early Can Backfire In this episode, Junaid shares a story from his early days as a Scrum Master when enthusiasm got ahead of experience. Fresh from a CSM certification and full of ideas, he walked into teams and started proposing solutions — "No, this is not how you should do it." It felt obvious. It wasn't. The wake-up call came when he proposed working agreements to a team that had been collaborating well for two years. The pushback was immediate: "Why do we need this?" He realized he was bringing a tool he'd seen elsewhere without first understanding whether the team actually had the problem that tool was meant to solve. This led to a key shift in his approach: stop assuming. Instead of going in with answers, Junaid started creating small tiger teams with the affected people, facilitating sessions where they owned the solution. The result? Much higher acceptance and genuine continuous improvement. These days, Junaid tests his ideas before bringing them to the full team. He connects with individual team members first — his "closer allies" — to validate whether his analysis matches reality. Only when a few people confirm "yes, this is a real problem" does he bring the proposal to the group. As Vasco puts it: not all tools are appropriate at all times for all people. The same working agreements that were wrong for one team at one moment might be exactly right for a different team, or the same team at a different moment. [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]
Scrum The Toyota WayScrum is everywhere.Most Product Owners understand the framework well. We manage backlogs, prioritize items, attend ceremonies, and track progress sprint after sprint.And still, many products struggle.Value takes too long to reach customers. Teams deliver features that are rarely used. Defects appear late. Dependencies and waiting time quietly erode delivery speed.This is not because Scrum is broken.It's because Scrum alone does not address flow and waste deeply enough. That's where Scrum the Toyota Way (STW) fundamentally changes how Product Ownership works.How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] https://www.agiledad.com/- [instagram] https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/- [facebook] https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/- [Linkedin] https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/
Spiral Dynamics: Die Landkarte menschlicher Entwicklung Einleitung In unserer aktuellen Podcast-Folge tauchen wir in das Modell von Spiral Dynamics ein. Es bietet eine faszinierende Perspektive darauf, wie sich menschliches Bewusstsein, Werte und Organisationsformen entwickeln. Dabei geht es nicht darum, Menschen in Schubladen zu stecken, sondern zu verstehen, welche „Brille“ wir aufhaben, wenn wir die Welt betrachten. Diese Folge wurde am 28.03.2025 aufgenommen. Links Die Folge mit Dr Sabrina Schmitz auf YouTube: https://youtu.be/C-SQtDFnAXk Die Ausbildung zum Living Organisation Master:in in Berlin: https://www.living-organisation.com Podcast grow:time Sabrina Schmitz auf LinkedIn: https://znip.academy/sabrinas Sabrinas Website: drsabrinaschmitz.de Zertifizierter Teamgestalter werden: https://znip.academy/twp Unser MeetUp: https://znip.academy/meetup Heldentreff: https://znip.academy/held Psychologische Sicherheit: https://znip.academy/ps hybride Arbeit: https://znip.academy/fa Die Reise durch die Spiral-Ebenen Das Modell beschreibt acht Ebenen (Meme), die jeweils auf die Herausforderungen ihrer Zeit antworten. Hier ist der Überblick von den Ursprüngen bis zur heutigen Vision: First Tier: Die Ebenen des Überlebens und des Ich-Fokus Die ersten Ebenen sind stark von Angst, Überleben oder dem Drang nach individueller/kollektiver Ordnung geprägt. Beige (Instinktiv): Hier steht das reine Überleben im Fokus – Essen, Trinken, Schutz. Es ist die Basis unseres Seins. Purpur (Magisch-Stammesorientiert): Sicherheit finden wir in der Gemeinschaft, in Ritualen und Mythen. Das „Wir“ des Stammes schützt uns vor der mysteriösen Außenwelt. Rot (Machtvoll-Impulsiv): Das Individuum bricht aus. Es geht um Macht, Durchsetzung und Respekt. Wer stark ist, bestimmt – ein wichtiges Mem, um Autonomie zu lernen. Blau (Ordnungsorientiert): Hier entstehen Regeln, Moral und langfristige Strukturen. Ordnung gibt dem Leben Sinn und Beständigkeit (z. B. Religionen oder klassische Behördenstrukturen). Orange (Leistungsorientiert): Der Fokus liegt auf Erfolg, Effizienz und Fortschritt. Wissenschaft und strategisches Denken treiben uns an, das Beste aus uns und der Welt herauszuholen. Grün (Gemeinschaftsorientiert): Wir kehren zum „Wir“ zurück, aber auf einer bewussteren Ebene. Harmonie, Gleichberechtigung und Gefühle stehen im Mittelpunkt. Jede Stimme soll gehört werden. Second Tier: Die Ebenen der Integration und Ganzheitlichkeit Mit dem Sprung in das „Second Tier“ verändert sich die Qualität des Denkens radikal: Angstbasierte Reaktionen treten in den Hintergrund. Gelb (Systemisch-Integral): Gelb erkennt, dass alle vorherigen Ebenen ihren Platz und Wert haben. Es geht um Flexibilität, Funktionalität und das Verständnis komplexer Systeme. Hier wird Agilität wirklich gelebt. Türkis (Ganzheitlich): Die höchste derzeit beschriebene Stufe. Türkis sieht die Welt als einen lebendigen, miteinander verbundenen Organismus. Es geht um globales Bewusstsein und das Wohl des gesamten Planeten. Warum ist das für Teams und Unternehmen wichtig? Konflikte entstehen oft dann, wenn unterschiedliche Ebenen aufeinanderprallen, ohne sich gegenseitig zu verstehen. Wenn eine „orange“ Führungskraft auf ein „grünes“ Team trifft, sind Reibungsverluste vorprogrammiert. In unserem Podcast besprechen wir, wie ihr Spiral Dynamics als Analyse-Tool nutzen könnt, um: Kommunikation zu verbessern: Sprecht die Sprache der Ebene, auf der sich euer Gegenüber befindet. Transformation gesund zu gestalten: Man kann keine Ebene überspringen. Jedes Mem muss integriert sein, damit das nächste stabil wachsen kann. Kulturwandel zu begleiten: Versteht, warum manche agilen Methoden in bestimmten Umgebungen (noch) nicht funktionieren. Höre jetzt die volle Folge und finde heraus, wo du und dein Team auf der Spirale stehen! Get shit done, Janina & Henry Gefällt dir die Podcastfolge? Dann empfiehl sie gerne anderen weiter, z.B. indem du die Folge in deiner Story teilst. Wenn du magst verlinke @znip_academy_agile und wir teilen deinen Like mit unseren Hörern. Du möchtest dich von uns in der Tiefe in eurem Veränderungsprozess begleiten lassen, eure größten Komplexitätsnester auflösen und die besten Teamtipps bekommen? Dann buch uns
Wigan Warriors assistant coach Paul Deacon is this week's guest on The Bench with Jenna and Jon (and Sam Tomkins too!)Paul speaks about switching from rugby league to union and back again and what the biggest learning curves were with each transition.Plus, he tells us about his future coaching aspirations - could he be a Super League head coach one day?-The Bench is a Sky Sports podcast. Listen to every episode here: skysports.com/the-bench-with-jenna-and-jonYou can listen to The Bench on your smart speaker by saying asking it to "play The Bench with Jenna and Jon".Watch every episode of The Bench on YouTube here: The Bench on YouTubeFor all the latest rugby league news, head to skysports.com/rugby-leagueFor advertising opportunities email: skysportspodcasts@sky.uk
The Sunday Triple M NRL Catch Up - Paul Kent, Gorden Tallis, Ryan Girdler, Anthony Maroon
Tony Squires is joined by Wade Graham, Nathan Hindmarsh and David who are back for Season 2026. The boys dissected the Panthers big win over the Broncos and the Roosters shock loss to the Warriors. Plus, we heard what the boys thought of Vegas this season and we spoke to Michael Chammas, the new General Manager of the PNG Chiefs about his plans for the team as they build up to entry to the NRL and he revealed the big news that when a coach should be announced. Plus, the Storm make it 24 wins in a row in Round 1, Tony's Quiz, Believe It Or Not along with plenty more! Check out Triple M NRL's Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Tony Squires is joined by Wade Graham, Nathan Hindmarsh and David who are back for Season 2026. The boys dissected the Panthers big win over the Broncos and the Roosters shock loss to the Warriors. Plus, we heard what the boys thought of Vegas this season and we spoke to Michael Chammas, the new General Manager of the PNG Chiefs about his plans for the team as they build up to entry to the NRL and he revealed the big news that when a coach should be announced. Plus, the Storm make it 24 wins in a row in Round 1, Tony's Quiz, Believe It Or Not along with plenty more! Check out Triple M NRL's Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Nigel Baker: Accountability Requires Ability—Why Powerless Product Owners Are Sacrificial Lambs Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. In this episode, we refer to the importance of product ownership and empowerment in Scrum teams. The Great Product Owner: The Empirical PO Who Navigated Like a Slalom Skier "He had an idea of the outcomes he had to achieve, and the solution itself—though he had strong beliefs about it—he was incredibly open-minded to feedback from the engineering teams. Most of the innovation came from his engineering teams." - Nigel Baker The best Product Owner Nigel ever worked with operated with a startup mentality, even within a larger organization. This PO had a clear vision—not for a specific end solution, but for an end state of the world. He ran experiments, learned continuously, and had a remarkable ability to pivot smoothly during development. Nigel compares him to a slalom skier: smoothly navigating from post to post, making it look natural rather than effortless. What made him extraordinary was his openness to feedback from engineering teams—most of the product's innovation actually came from the engineers suggesting possibilities, and this PO would absorb those ideas and weave them into the direction. The engineering teams felt secure because they trusted his judgment. He didn't tell people to trust him—he demonstrated trustworthiness through consistent behavior. It was genuine servant leadership: not making a fuss about being in charge, but leading by showing new, cool, interesting behaviors that allowed everyone to follow naturally. Self-reflection Question: Does your Product Owner have a vision for the end state of the world they're trying to create, or are they locked into a specific solution? The Bad Product Owner: The Powerless PO Who Can't Say Yes or No "Accountability requires ability. If they want you to take responsibility for this work, you have to have the ability to see that through. Without that, you're a sacrificial lamb." - Nigel Baker Nigel has seen many PO anti-patterns, but the most damaging one is the powerless Product Owner—someone with all the skills of a business analyst but none of the authority to say yes or no. Commitments get made outside the team, direction can't be changed within sprints, and the whole experience gets crushed. Early in his career, POs were powerful but IT-ignorant business people—dangerous, but at least they had authority. Today's anti-pattern is far worse: people playing the PO role without the O—the ownership. Nigel's approach is direct: he uses the phrase "accountability requires ability" to help the PO understand their position, then traces up the organizational line to find the person who actually holds real power. He reveals to that person that they are, in fact, the Product Owner—and 9 times out of 10, they immediately delegate the authority officially to someone, which is exactly what was needed. That official delegation transforms a sacrificial lamb into a genuine Product Owner with the power to steer. Self-reflection Question: Does your Product Owner have genuine authority to make decisions, or are they a sacrificial lamb accountable for outcomes they can't control? [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]
#163. Ready to rethink what it means to build amazing apps in the age of AI?In this episode, I challenge the growing narrative that agile practices and Scrum are obsolete just because Copilot, Claude, Codex or your favourite AI can write code in seconds. Sure, Power Platform lets you create apps from prompts, and AI can spin up test cases and integrations in a flash, but speed without structure is just faster chaos, not real progress.Join me as I dive into why agile principles like transparency, feedback loops, and stakeholder collaboration matter more than ever, especially when you're working with Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform. I'll share stories from my nearly two decades in business application delivery, building mission-critical systems for industries where there's simply no room for error. I break down the key areas where AI accelerates delivery but can't replace human judgment, stakeholder alignment, and disciplined prioritization.You'll hear about some common misconceptions (think skipping estimation and sprint planning entirely!) and the pitfalls that can happen when teams ditch agile for “just vibing it.” I'll also spotlight the unique, Microsoft Business Apps-focused training and resources available for free from my Customer Academy. Now you, your teams, and even your stakeholders can benefit from real-world agile education at no cost.If you want to master your craft, build apps that organizations trust, and future-proof your career (even while AI changes the game), then this episode is for you. Listen now, and let's experiment, adapt, and keep building amazing apps together.Keep experimenting
If you are a Scrum Master, Agile Coach or in a related role and have questions about how to use AI as a tool to better support your job, teams and organization, this episode is for you!AI has become a core capability in product delivery and is transforming every role. Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches have a key part to play in the use of AI and introducing AI to teams, products and organizations, acting as a catalyst for change. Through the proper use of AI tools, Scrum Masters, their teams and organization become more effective. But in what ways can you reap the benefits?In this Ask a PST session hosted by Patricia Kong, PSTs Miriam Blommers and Said Azarfane took listener questions on how to leverage AI to be more successful as a Scrum Master! Whether you are looking to find ways to improve facilitation, collaboration or solve more challenges, get great advice in this episode on how to make AI a helpful and important part of your toolbox!
In this episode of Startup Hustle, Matt Watson interviews Mark Roberge, a former HubSpot executive and current venture capitalist, about his journey from engineering to sales and the importance of scaling startups. Mark discusses the genesis of HubSpot, the significance of sales in startups, and the concept of product-market fit. He emphasizes the need for customer research, avoiding false positives in feedback, and identifying the ideal customer profile. Mark also shares insights on scaling strategies, key metrics for success, and the science behind scaling businesses effectively.⏱️ Episode Breakdown00:00 The Genesis of HubSpot02:56 Transitioning from Engineering to Sales06:06 The Science of Scaling08:53 The Importance of Selling Early12:12 Understanding Customer Needs14:58 Avoiding False Positives in Feedback15:39 Design Partner Dilemma18:21 Target Audience Insights19:56 Ideal Customer Profile Framework23:00 The Science of Scaling25:05 Understanding Growth Investment30:55 Navigating Growth Challenges35:25 Final Thoughts on Scaling SuccessTAKEAWAYSSales is crucial for startup success.Understanding product-market fit is essential before scaling.Customer research should start at the ideation stage.Avoid false positives by validating customer interest.Identify your ideal customer profile to focus efforts.Scaling should be approached methodically and strategically.Establish leading indicators of customer retention.Sales methodologies must evolve as the company grows.Demand generation must align with growth aspirations.The science of scaling involves data-driven decision making.Links & ResourcesConnect with Mark Roberge on LinkedInWhat Smart CTOs Are Doing Differently With Offshore Teams in 2025Subscribe to the Global Talent SprintFull Scale – Build your dev team quickly and affordablyIf you're trying to get your team out of the basement and into real product ownership, this episode is your playbook. Stop being a ticket factory. Build teams that think, create, and lead.Follow the show, rate it, and send this to someone who's still trying to do “real Scrum.” They need it more than you do.
Nigel Baker: Why Scrum Masters Should Be Measured on Outcomes, Impacts, and Team Happiness Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. "No customer's going to come to you and say, do you know why I bought your product? Your remarkable compliance with your internal development process. What they're interested in is outcomes and impacts." - Nigel Baker Nigel challenges the traditional ways of measuring Scrum Master success. He points to tools like the Nokia test—which, he jokes, was neither a test nor invented by Nokia—as examples of process fidelity assessments that miss the point entirely. Compliance with a process tells you nothing about whether customers are satisfied or whether the team is delivering value. Instead, Nigel argues for measuring Scrum Masters on outcomes and impacts: customer satisfaction, revenue generation, and efficiencies—the same things a Product Owner gets judged on. But he adds a crucial dimension that POs often overlook: team happiness. Not as an end goal, but as a leading indicator. Happy teams don't leave. Happy teams do better work. Team contentness is a KPI that signals whether the deeper success factors are in place. When your team is deeply unhappy, no amount of velocity or story completion will save you from attrition and decline. Self-reflection Question: How are you currently measuring your success as a Scrum Master—on process compliance, or on the outcomes, impacts, and wellbeing your team actually delivers? Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: Keep It Fresh—A Different Format Every Sprint Nigel's answer to the "favorite retrospective format" question is deliberately controversial: he doesn't have one. His approach is to use a different format every single sprint. Retrospective formats, he argues, "age like milk"—by Sprint 12, asking "what should we do differently?" with the same structure produces diminishing returns. Novelty creates energy. He sometimes gets teams to invent their own formats, which produces some of the most forensic and intense retrospectives he's seen—teams building "superweapons" and then realizing they have to turn those weapons on themselves. But Nigel's most practical tip is using retrospective techniques inside the Sprint Review. The Review is a product retrospective, and stakeholders shouldn't sit "like Roman emperors in the Colosseum, watching the developers as gladiators." Instead, use facilitation methods to extract "sweet, juicy, honey-flavoured feedback" from stakeholders about what they'd change in the product. [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]
Nigel Baker: The "Death of Agile" and Why It's Really the Death of Empowerment That Should Frighten Us Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. "It's not so much the death of Agile that's killing me, or death of Scrum. It's the death of things like empowerment, the death of things like empiricism. Those are the things that frighten me in work." - Nigel Baker Nigel brings a challenge that resonates across the entire Agile community: the so-called "death of Agile." But he quickly reframes the conversation in a way that cuts much deeper. The real issue isn't whether teams call what they do Scrum or Agile—it's that the industry is decaying back past waterfall to what Nigel calls feudalism, where a single "great man" dictates and everyone else follows. He distinguishes between two kinds of popularity: the number of people saying they're doing Agile versus the number of people actually liking what they're doing—a gap he compares to Jira's massive subscriber base versus its actual user satisfaction. Through this lens, Nigel introduces his famous "Nigel Scale"—a joke he made on a Scrum Alliance forum 20 years ago that people took entirely seriously. The scale separates Scrum into three levels: core practices that break things if you skip them (like a surgeon disinfecting hands), contextual good practices that may or may not apply (like story points), and persistent anti-patterns that never work no matter how many times people try (like normalizing team measurements across teams). Vasco and Nigel converge on an experiment: treat Scrum adoption itself as a backlog of changes, introducing practices incrementally based on feedback—but always with a compelling vision of why the change matters. Self-reflection Question: When you hear "Agile is dead," are you defending a framework, or are you advocating for the underlying principles of empowerment and empiricism that teams genuinely need? [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]
Episode 114 -Scrum and Classes of Service by Dan Vacanti & Prateek Singh
Welcome to Botched: A D&D Podcast! The group of adventurers, with children in hard, try to make their way out of Tiamat's castle. Armed with nothing but their idiotic looks, the group find a ladder that heads for the sewers.Will they get out in time, will the children be brought back home safely, will Scrum ever figure out that his two friends are hiding a fortune from him? Also, where the hell is Orlok? Tune in and find out!We now have a PO Box! Wanna send us something? PO BOX 3178 Gettysburg, PA 17325All of our previous seasons can be found on our new channel!Botched Archives!Dennis currently has a Kickstarter running right now for his latest graphic novel in the Lycan: Solomon's Odyssey series! You can check it out on Kickstarter here!A special shout out and thank you to all of our supporters over on Patreon. You help us continue to churn out “quality” episodes. With your continued support we can take our show on the road! Check out our store over at Botched Podcast where you can find tshirts, stickers, pint glasses and more!Give us a 5 star review on Itunes. Doing so will help the show grow, but we will also read out whatever you write at the end of one of our episodes!Feel free to email us any questions, comments or suggestions at BotchedPodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter, Instagram, subscribe on Youtube, like us on Facebook.You can watch the show live on Twitch!Check out each of the hosts' Twitch streams! Dennis, Phil, TristanHosts: Dennis, Phil, Tristan, SteveEditor: Philip D Keating And Dennis RobinsonProducer: Philip and DennisExecutive Producers: James Thatcher, Chronic Ejac, Jim Beverly,Disgruntled Furniture, Chris Wisdom, ShinigamiSPQR, Jayson Haiss, Toaster Bath and Scabby GoosePublisher: Phil and DennisArt by Emily SwanMusic by Gozer
Nigel Baker: When Teams Slowly Decay by Anointing a Hidden Dictator Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. "The world won't end with a bang, but with a whimper. My great fear is not teams exploding like a bomb—that shows they care. The big thing for me is teams that decay slowly." - Nigel Baker Nigel shares a pattern he has witnessed repeatedly: teams that self-destruct not through dramatic conflict, but through a slow, quiet decay. Referencing The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni, he points to something even more insidious than inattention to results—teams that avoid taking responsibility for decision-making. When teams struggle with self-organization, they often try to "self-organize themselves out of self-organization" by anointing a hidden dictator: the big brain, the big mouth, the tech lead, or the project manager who everyone secretly defers to. Nigel offers two practical tools to counter this pattern. First, the "yes and" technique from improv comedy—instead of taking ownership away from team members, you accept their idea and add to it, keeping the ownership where it belongs. Second, Socratic questioning, where instead of passing knowledge from you to them, you help them pass knowledge from themselves to themselves. But Nigel adds an important caution: the Agile community has swung too far into pure coaching mode. Sometimes people genuinely need help, not therapy—they need to know which server the files are on, not a deep coaching question about their feelings. In this segment, we talk about Paul Goddard's work on improv comedy in Agile, and the power of the "yes and" technique for keeping ownership with teams. Self-reflection Question: Is your team quietly deferring all decisions to one person, and if so, what practical steps can you take to redistribute that ownership? Featured Book of the Week: Leading Self-Directed Work Teams by Kimball Fisher Nigel's book recommendations reflect his belief that the most inspiring ideas come from adjacent fields rather than Agile literature itself. Leading Self-Directed Work Teams by Kimball Fisher stands out because it explores similar principles to the Scrum Master role but without any Agile jargon—showing how a completely different industry arrived at the same insights about empowered teams. Nigel also recommends the Strategyzer books by Alex Osterwalder, including Business Model Generation and Testing Business Ideas, for the business thinking that coaches need but rarely pick up at work. Scrum Mastery by Geoff Watts remains his go-to foundational text for new Scrum Masters. And the book he waited 4.5 years for—until Amazon cancelled the pre-order—is the latest edition of The Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision Making by Sam Kaner, a deeply practical reference guide that gives real people real tools for real situations. [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]
Nigel Baker: The Scrum Master Mistake of Copy-Pasting Success Instead of Recreating the Journey Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. "I was trying to recreate the results of our team, not recreate the journey. And that is what killed me to begin with." - Nigel Baker Nigel fell into Scrum Mastery almost by accident. Working at British Telecom in 2002—before most people had even heard of Scrum—his team adopted it not to speed up, but to add rigor to an already fast-moving tactical unit full of "pirates" who could get stuff done but needed guardrails. His first Scrum Master, Geoff Watts, got promoted and moved on, leaving a vacancy. Nigel was the third person asked—and the first to say yes. He loved the role, but his earliest mistake became his most enduring lesson. On his very first daily Scrum, Nigel brought a big leather book and wrote down what every team member was doing, acting like a proto-project manager collecting status reports. The team already had all this information in their system—he was unconsciously positioning himself as the authority figure, having people report to him rather than to each other. As Nigel evolved into an Agile Coach, the bigger failure emerged: trying to copy-paste the process that worked with his first team onto other teams, recreating the results rather than the journey that got them there. Each team needs to evolve its own process—there are no shortcuts to that growth. In this episode, we refer to the importance of self-awareness and servant leadership in the Scrum Master role. Self-reflection Question: Are you trying to replicate a successful process from a previous team, or are you investing in helping your current team discover their own path to effectiveness? [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]
Sprint Goals DON'T Work - Or Do They? Sprint Goals sound beautifully simple.Set a goal for the team, organize the work around it, track progress daily, and finish with success.Sounds easy enough. And that's exactly why it's so hard.Behind this deceptively simple concept hides one of the most difficult ideas in Agile. As the Scrum Guide says:“Scrum is lightweight, simple to understand, difficult to master.”Sprint Goals are the perfect example of that. Even when you think you're doing them right, you're probably not.On the surface, Sprint Goals add a lot of value. And therefore, make a lot of sense. But do you really need them?What if I told you, there is a better way?How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] https://www.agiledad.com/- [instagram] https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/- [facebook] https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/- [Linkedin] https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/
Comedian and actor Mike Bubbins welcomes a cult hero of Welsh rugby to his bar, Glenn Webbe. Glenn was the first British player to score a hat trick in a World Cup and now heads to Mike's bar to discuss his top 5 wingers.Warning: contains themes of racism. Help is available here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/actionline/
In this episode, I sit down with Claudia — an architect from Germany — to talk about how to run an Agile sprint using nothing but a simple notebook.No productivity apps.No dashboards.No digital overwhelm.We revisit the idea of running sprints inside a bullet journal and explore the difference between analog tools and “digital infinity.”Things mentioned in the episode:The Monthly Method course Claudia took where I teach how to apply Agile and Scrum to non-tech projects and goals (it's free): https://monthlymethod.com/school/?utm_source=podcastThe Focus Room (my private membership where we run personal sprints together): https://monthlymethod.com/focus-room/?utm_source=podcastWhere to find Claudia: https://lebe-weise.de/ (it's in German but you can always use built-in browser translator)https://open.substack.com/pub/lebeweisehttps://www.instagram.com/indivisuell_ ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
The Sunday Triple M NRL Catch Up - Paul Kent, Gorden Tallis, Ryan Girdler, Anthony Maroon
Ben Dobbin, Wade Graham, Brent Read & Nathan Hindmarsh join us live from Las Vegas. We go inside the Knights & Dragons camps with coaches Justin Holbrook & Shane Flanagan. Plus, Brent Read challenges Denan Kemp to a goosey competition & we preview all the action tomorrow!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Ben Dobbin, Wade Graham, Brent Read & Nathan Hindmarsh join us live from Las Vegas. We go inside the Knights & Dragons camps with coaches Justin Holbrook & Shane Flanagan. Plus, Brent Read challenges Denan Kemp to a goosey competition & we preview all the action tomorrow!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Lai-Ling Su: The Explicit and Implicit Layers of Unclear Decision Rights Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. The Great Product Owner: Building Impactful Relationships That Get Things Done "What made her great was the fact that she focused not just on her technical prowess, but on the people, politics, and the performance side of product. And she used that to turn ambition into reality, and she used that to move strategy to execution." - Lai-Ling Su Lai-Ling describes a phenomenal product owner she worked with about 12 months ago. This woman wasn't just technically strong—she was a leader whose team of 10 loved her because she mentored them to be as strong or stronger than herself. The business loved her because she was exceptionally commercial, thinking about customer value, revenues, expenses, profit models, and marketing long before anything was built. She held everyone true to doing the right thing even when pressure mounted. The executive team loved her because her greatest strength was building solid, impactful relationships that transcended boundaries. She removed the us-versus-them mentality, broke down departmental silos, handled politically charged scenarios, negotiated with difficult personalities across technology, legal, compliance, sales, and operations. She removed impediments responsively and got stuff done when others couldn't. Her secret was focusing on people, politics, and performance—not just technical prowess. In this episode, we refer to Esco Kilpi's work on interactive value creation, which describes how value in knowledge organizations is created through ongoing conversations—not just meetings, but emails, wiki pages, and corridor conversations that steward decisions over time. Self-reflection Question: How deliberately are you investing in building relationships that transcend your immediate team and department? The Bad Product Owner: Unclear Decision Rights "Does your head of product know that he has the rights and the authority to make the types of decisions that you want him to?" - Lai-Ling Su The anti-pattern Lai-Ling encounters most persistently is unclear decision rights. She illustrates this with a story about a GM in a multinational who effectively worked as a chief product officer. His biggest complaint was that his head of product kept coming to him for decisions that should have been made independently—even though he'd been given $10 million a year to run his teams. When Lai-Ling asked one simple question—"Does your head of product know he has the authority to make these decisions?"—the GM sat in shocked silence for a full minute. But the pattern runs deeper: there's the assumption that people know their decision rights, there's knowing your rights but not knowing how to make those decisions, and there's knowing your rights but getting trumped every time you try, leading to learned helplessness. Some product owners have never learned to make decisions because they always defer to someone who seems better at it. There are both explicit and implicit unclear decision rights—you might tell someone they have authority while implicitly sabotaging their decisions. Self-reflection Question: Have you explicitly confirmed with your stakeholders what decisions you have the authority to make—and are those decisions being respected in practice? [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]
In this episode of Startup Hustle, Matt Watson interviews Krishna Oza, founder and COO of Git Hired, discussing the challenges of hiring software engineers, particularly for startups. Krishna shares his personal experiences that led to the creation of GitHired, an AI-driven platform designed to help startups find the right technical talent based on proof of work. The conversation delves into the unique needs of early-stage developers, the importance of product thinking, and how GitHired identifies and surfaces 10x engineers. Krishna also discusses the business model of GitHired and the struggles faced by startup founders in finding suitable engineering talent.TAKEAWAYSKrishna's personal experience with hiring challenges inspired GitHired.Startups need engineers who can match their fast-paced environment.Early-stage developers are builders who understand product development.Product thinking is crucial in today's AI-driven landscape.10x engineers possess product vision and minimal organizational friction.Get Hired surfaces hidden engineering talent through GitHub analysis.The platform creates one-page portfolios for applicants based on their work.Complexity of projects is a key factor in evaluating candidates.The business model includes a flat fee for successful hires.Startup founders often struggle to find engineers who can build for users.⏱️ Episode Breakdown00:00 The Genesis of GitHired03:01 The Ideal Early Stage Developer07:01 The Importance of Product Thinking10:10 Identifying 10x Engineers12:52 The Role of Proof of Work20:09 Business Model and Market Fit23:40 Startup Founder StrugglesLinks & ResourcesConnect with Krishna Oza on LinkedInWhat Smart CTOs Are Doing Differently With Offshore Teams in 2025Subscribe to the Global Talent SprintFull Scale – Build your dev team quickly and affordablyIf you're trying to get your team out of the basement and into real product ownership, this episode is your playbook. Stop being a ticket factory. Build teams that think, create, and lead.Follow the show, rate it, and send this to someone who's still trying to do “real Scrum.” They need it more than you do.
Lai-Ling Su: What Scrum Masters Must Do More of in 2026—Think Like a Business Owner Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. "Success is so contextual. And I think the definitions and measurements of success also change over time. So, only you can definitively say what success is at any given time and how to appropriately measure it for your situation." - Lai-Ling Su Lai-Ling frames success for Scrum Masters around what she'd love to see more of in 2026: smart, strategic, and commercial decision-making. She observes a distinct gap in the business landscape—too few people are making decisions that balance customer value, revenues, expenses, and long-term sustainability. This could mean reducing SKUs to enhance operational flow and reduce burnout, investing in change management from day one of a transformation, or cutting unused software licenses to save a colleague's job or fund product innovation. To help Scrum Masters develop this capability, Lai-Ling puts them in the shoes of a business owner—whether through simulations, shadowing business leaders, or pairing with product owners to understand the business side of products beyond just the build side. She emphasizes the difference between learning strategy through theory (like an MBA) versus learning it through actually operating a business, where consequences are real and immediate. Self-reflection Question: When did you last consider how a decision in your domain impacts the broader commercial viability of your organization? Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: LEGO Serious Play Lai-Ling loves using LEGO for deeply reflective retrospectives, and she's a certified LEGO Serious Play facilitator. The approach works beautifully for tender and courageous conversations because building with LEGO does several things simultaneously: it's fun, the physical act of building helps process and articulate thoughts you didn't have words for, and it depersonalizes what's said because participants talk about a physical object rather than directly about people. You don't need expensive certified kits—just grab basic bricks from a local shop, pose a reflective question, and let people build. Lai-Ling notes that her best retrospectives have often been the most deeply uncomfortable ones for participants, because of how much personal and emotional truth emerges when you create that safe space for constructive dialogue. The kinetic and visual elements help crystallize ideas that would otherwise not come out so easily. [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]
Back in San Jose, Sharks Forward Pavol Regenda spoke with the media on Wednesday afternoon as the team prepares for the final seven weeks of the regular season.
Lai-Ling Su: When Leadership Changes—Supporting Teams Through the Uncertainty Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. "We have a once in a generational or once in a lifetime type of opportunity to fundamentally work with these leaders to shift the workplace environments and the workplace dynamics in the way that we've been trying to craft in the world of product and agile for the last few decades." - Lai-Ling Su Lai-Ling brings a systems-level challenge that has profound implications for Scrum Masters everywhere. Australia is on the brink of its largest intergenerational wealth transfer in history—$3.5 trillion over the next couple of decades—with 70% of private and family businesses planning to sell or succeed as part of this generational change. This creates leadership vacuums as business leaders transition out and new ones step in. Some are family members stepping into roles without the full capability to lead; others are external CEOs facing resistance when they do things differently. These transitions stall decisions, lose customer confidence, and fracture once tight-knit teams. Lai-Ling sees this as an unprecedented opportunity for Scrum Masters to support both outgoing and incoming leaders through succession planning, capability uplift, and protecting teams during the transition. Teams need to be respected for what they've achieved, and Scrum Masters can serve as bridges—creating awareness about the team's strengths and facilitating dialogue between old and new leadership to ensure continuity. Self-reflection Question: How might you proactively prepare your team to navigate an upcoming leadership transition, whether it's anticipated or unexpected? [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]
AI can make teams faster. But it can also quietly make them worse. In this episode, Brian Milner and Hunter Hillegas dig into the risks no one wants to talk about—from eroding developer judgment to weakening team communication—and what healthy teams should do about it. Overview AI tools are powerful. They can generate code, draft tests, and accelerate delivery in ways that felt impossible just a few years ago. But speed is not the same as effectiveness. In this episode, Brian sits down with Mountain Goat Software CTO Hunter Hillegas to explore where AI may actually be hurting Agile teams. They discuss the risk of losing junior developer growth paths, the illusion of productivity through inflated metrics, the danger of outsourcing judgment, and how AI can quietly create communication silos inside Scrum teams. This is not an anti-AI conversation. It is a practical one. You will hear what guardrails healthy teams should consider, why accountability still belongs to humans, and how to use AI as a tool without letting it reshape your culture in ways you did not intend. If your team is leaning into AI, this episode will help you do it with your eyes open. References and resources mentioned in the show: Hunter Hillegas Blog: AI Doesn't Eliminate Agile Teams — It Increases the Need for Great Ones by Mike Cohn #169: Building Practical AI for Agile Teams with Hunter Hillegas #82: The Intersection of AI and Agile with Emilia Breton #151: What AI Is Really Delivering (and What It's Not) with Evan Leybourn & Christopher Morales Mountain Goat Software Subscribe to the Agile Mentors Podcast Want to get involved? This show is designed for you, and we'd love your input. Enjoyed what you heard today? Please leave a rating and a review. It really helps, and we read every single one. Got an Agile subject you'd like us to discuss or a question that needs an answer? Share your thoughts with us at podcast@mountaingoatsoftware.com This episode's presenters are: Brian Milner is a Certified Scrum Trainer®, Certified Scrum Professional®, Certified ScrumMaster®, and Certified Scrum Product Owner®, and host of the Agile Mentors Podcast training at Mountain Goat Software. He's passionate about making a difference in people's day-to-day work, influenced by his own experience of transitioning to Scrum and seeing improvements in work/life balance, honesty, respect, and the quality of work. Hunter Hillegas is the Chief Technology Officer at Mountain Goat Software. With over 20 years of experience in software development, product ownership, and team leadership, he leads the creation of tools like the AI Toolkit and Team Home to support effective, engaging learning experiences. Hunter lives in Santa Barbara, California, with his wife and their dog Enzo.
Lai-Ling Su: Why the Us-Versus-Them Mentality Is the Fastest Path to Team Self-Destruction Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. "The quickest way to self-destruction is to have an us-versus-them mentality. Because it permeates into every behavior, every action or inaction, and it impacts every single outcome as a result of it." - Lai-Ling Su Lai-Ling shares a compelling story about a leadership team in healthcare technology that was self-sabotaging their way into non-delivery—so much so that critical commercial outcomes were at serious risk. Yet the team themselves couldn't see it; it was invisible to them. She identifies three layers of the us-versus-them dynamic that needed unpicking. First, recent M&A activity had merged a larger corporate entity with a smaller, more nimble one, and people remained ferociously loyal to leaders from their old organizations. Second, business goals were separate from technology goals, causing people to fall back to people-pleasing within their direct reporting lines rather than collaborating on shared purpose. Third, the tension between growth ambitions and addressing legacy activities created another divide. What struck Lai-Ling most was how these "classic" patterns were invisible to those experiencing them—they just accepted it as part of doing business. The destruction wasn't always stormy and visible; sometimes it was silent, with work piling up, nothing getting done, yet no one overtly upset. In this segment, we talk about the importance of creating awareness and how Scrum Masters must be willing to point out these patterns, even at the risk of being seen as the odd ones out. Self-reflection Question: What "classic" anti-patterns might be invisible in your organization right now because everyone has accepted them as just part of doing business? Featured Book of the Week: The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande Lai-Ling approaches the book recommendation differently—she believes no single book has fundamentally influenced her, but books as a collective have made her who she is. She emphasizes reading far and wide across all topics and genres, looking for patterns in unexpected places. One standout is The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande, which challenges the perception that checklists take away autonomy. Gawande writes about how checklists are a rapid-fire communication tool that can mean the difference between a seriously injured soldier dying on the battlefield or making it to a hospital with a good chance of survival. Lai-Ling also recommends When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi, about a surgeon who became a cancer patient and had to navigate a massive identity shift—much like the identity shift we ask leaders to make during transformations. [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]
The Scrum That Actually WorkedIn 1996, Chrysler — a Fortune 500 company with resources to hire the best talent and buy the best tools — had spent two years and millions of dollars building payroll software.It hadn't printed a single paycheck.The project was called C3: Chrysler Comprehensive Compensation. It was supposed to unify payroll for 87,000 employees across multiple divisions. It had executive sponsorship from CIO Susan Unger. It used Smalltalk, an object-oriented programming language that promised to solve exactly the kind of tangled legacy problems Chrysler faced.How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] https://www.agiledad.com/- [instagram] https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/- [facebook] https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/- [Linkedin] https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/
Libsyn Description: In this episode, Jason tackles a modern construction epidemic: email overload. For the sender, it feels productive. You fire it off, get a dopamine hit, and move on. But for the receiver especially project managers and project engineers it becomes an endless queue of stress, batching, and overwhelm. Jason explains why email as a primary internal communication tool slows projects down, increases stress, and hides capacity issues. He challenges leaders to rethink how they delegate and to use better systems like Scrum, Kanban boards, and task management platforms to create flow instead of chaos. What you'll learn in this episode: Why email multiplies communication time by 4x. How batching and queueing create hidden work-in-progress. Why email culture overwhelms PMs and PEs. The leadership responsibility behind delegation overloa. Better alternatives for managing internal work and communication. If your team is drowning in inboxes… Is it because of workload or because of how you're assigning it? If you like the Elevate Construction podcast, please subscribe for free and you'll never miss an episode. And if you really like the Elevate Construction podcast, I'd appreciate you telling a friend (Maybe even two
Lai-Ling Su: The Product and Service Story That Every Scrum Master Needs to Hear Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. "It was kind of at that moment that I realized, like, community was about providing people with the opportunities that they otherwise wouldn't have had. And whilst you could technically execute your product or service well, the customer experience is fundamentally a deeply emotional one." - Lai-Ling Su Lai-Ling shares a powerful story from when she was just 11 years old, running front of house at her family's restaurant inside an Australian workers' club. When a popular band was booked to play on a Saturday night, the venue reached max capacity—and almost everyone wanted food. With no ticketed order system and only her memory to match orders to customers, chaos ensued. One father approached her, yelling about how long his food was taking. At the end of the night, Lai-Ling mustered the courage that only an 11-year-old possesses and asked him point-blank why he had reacted so strongly. His answer floored her: he only got to see his son every other weekend, and this evening was supposed to create a cherished memory together. Instead, they were hangry most of the night. This moment taught Lai-Ling that customer experience is fundamentally emotional—it's not about the food, but about what the interaction means to the people we serve. For the next decade, she continuously inspected every aspect of their restaurant operations, always seeking to improve how they served customers while remaining commercially viable. In this episode, we refer to the "Scrum Masters are the future CEO's, and a podcast by the Lean Enterprise Institute" blog post by Vasco. Self-reflection Question: When was the last time you paused to understand the deeper meaning behind a stakeholder's frustration, rather than just addressing the surface-level complaint? [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]
The Concept of Scrum Fluid TeamsFluid Scrum Teams are a concept introduced by Willem-Jan Ageling, where a stable group of individuals (e.g., 20 members) self-organize into smaller, temporary teams each Sprint to address specific objectives. This approach allows for flexibility and adaptability, as team compositions change based on the current needs of the projects at hand.How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] https://www.agiledad.com/- [instagram] https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/- [facebook] https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/- [Linkedin] https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/
Comedian and actor Mike Bubbins welcomes one of the key players of Warren Gatland's golden generation, former Wales centre Jonathan Davies, to his bar. He will be discussing the players and coaches from Llanelli who inspired him the most.
What if the estimates we fight so hard to defend are actually the very thing slowing us down? In this episode, Felipe sits down with Vasco Duarte --- Agile coach, author of #NoEstimates, and host of the Scrum Master Toolbox podcast --- for a candid conversation about why traditional estimation may be creating more illusion than clarity... and what to do instead. Vasco brings serious field credibility. He led initiatives at Nokia involving 500 people, 100 teams, across four continents. And he saw projects fail not because the work was impossible --- but because leaders trusted the plan more than the evidence unfolding in real time. This conversation hits home for construction and project management professionals who operate under pressure, contracts, and commitments. Key Takeaways -
Cat & Cloud Podcast Cat & Cloud Coffee www.catandcloud.com/ Specialty Coffee Ambassador: Meeting Guests Where They Are - Ep# 438 EPISODE SUMMARY Chris, Jared, and Casey dig into a classic specialty coffee problem: the gap between “coffee nerd language” and what customers actually need to have a great experience. They unpack why trust and hospitality come before origin stories and point scores, and how to guide people with simple, confidence-building choices instead of overwhelm. Along the way they riff on the limits of the 80+ point mindset, why the market ultimately decides what's valuable, and how cafés can create “stair steps” that help guests level up over time. The thesis is simple: make it welcoming, make it relatable, and help people win on their first step. CHAPTER TITLES 00:00 Cold Open: Fruit and Chocolate, and Casey on the Mic 05:00 Scrum Boards and the “Smallest Viable” Way to Improve 15:00 Sharing in Specialty Coffee: Engage and Build Trust 21:00 It's a Party not a Club. Welcoming others into Specialty Coffee 26:00 Specialty Scores, Coffee Assessment, and What “Value” Really Means 35:00 Specialty Coffee Industry Shifts 45:00 Knowing and Responding to the Guest Cat & Cloud: Instagram www.instagram.com/catcloudcoffee/ Webstore www.catandcloud.com/ We LOVE our Wholesale Partners! Interested in serving our coffee at your business? Learn more about our Partner Program https://catandcloud.com/pages/wholesale Links – The Home of Scrum: scrum.org Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time - by Jeffrey Sutherland and J.J. Sutherland (book) Cat & Cloud Coffee was founded in 2016 by three friends who believe experiences and connections shape our lives. Former barista champions and lifelong coffee professionals, they envisioned a better way to do business and set out to create a values-driven organization that put culture first. Our mission is to inspire connection by creating memorable experiences. Whether it's with guests in our 4 retail locations in Santa Cruz, our team members, or our wholesale partners across the country, we strive to leave everyone better than we found them. The Cat & Cloud Podcast is a space for us to share our experiences and adventures in coffee and business in hopes of inspiring more people to create culture and values-driven organizations. Hosted by Chris Baca and Jared Truby Produced by: Casey Ryan Feb. 2026
In this episode of Startup Hustle, Matt Watson interviews John Morlan, founder and CEO of Smarter Risk, about the transformative impact of AI on startups. John shares his journey of integrating AI into his business, enhancing productivity, and improving collaboration with developers. He discusses the balance between product-led and sales-led growth strategies, the importance of knowledge management, and the challenges of achieving product-market fit. The conversation emphasizes the necessity of hands-on involvement from founders and the evolving role of AI in business operations.⏱️ Episode Breakdown00:00 Introduction to AI in Startups00:57 John's Journey with AI04:58 Prototyping and Development with AI09:47 Balancing Coding and Leadership15:03 Sales vs. Product-Led Growth19:51 Building a Knowledge Base with AI24:57 Final Thoughts on AI and ProductivityLinks & ResourcesConnect with John Morlan on LinkedInWhat Smart CTOs Are Doing Differently With Offshore Teams in 2025Subscribe to the Global Talent SprintFull Scale – Build your dev team quickly and affordablyIf you're trying to get your team out of the basement and into real product ownership, this episode is your playbook. Stop being a ticket factory. Build teams that think, create, and lead.Follow the show, rate it, and send this to someone who's still trying to do “real Scrum.” They need it more than you do.
The Three Paths Scrum OpensI have watched teams celebrate their “perfect Sprint.” Every ceremony attended. Every artifact updated. Every role filled. And yet their product no closer to solving the user's problem than it was three Sprints ago. They'd mistaken the map for the journey.How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] https://www.agiledad.com/- [instagram] https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/- [facebook] https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/- [Linkedin] https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/
Comedian and actor Mike Bubbins welcomes one of his heroes to the bar - the legendary and iconic entertainer Max Boyce. With a career spanning over 50 years, Max reveals his top five outside halves.
Prabhleen Kaur: The Art of Coaching Product Owners on What vs. How Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. The Great Product Owner: Master of Stakeholder Relationships and the Power of No "The best PO is the person who has the superpower of saying no, and they can deal with the stakeholders with the same prowess." - Prabhleen Kaur Prabhleen describes working with a Product Owner who managed multiple stakeholders—not just a handful, but a significant number with competing priorities. What made him exceptional was his deep understanding of each stakeholder's pulse and motivations. He knew when to push back and how to frame the "no" in a way that stakeholders could accept. This wasn't random resistance—it came from thorough preparation manifested in clear roadmaps that made most incoming work predictable for the team. His user stories stood out for their richness in context: beyond the business requirements, they included information about who would be impacted, which proved invaluable for a team dealing with multiple interconnected systems. He leveraged JIRA's priority field effectively, ensuring the moment anyone opened the board, they could immediately understand what mattered most. Prabhleen emphasizes that this PO understood his role as the "what" while respecting the team as the "how." By maintaining strong stakeholder relationships built on mutual understanding, he created space for the team to prepare, plan, and deliver without constant firefighting. Self-reflection Question: Does your Product Owner have the preparation and stakeholder relationships needed to confidently say "no" when priorities compete, or does every request become an emergency? The Bad Product Owner: Technical Experts Who Manage the Sprint Backlog "The PO is the what, and the team is the how. When POs start directing the team about how to do things, the sprint goal gets compromised." - Prabhleen Kaur Prabhleen addresses a common anti-pattern she's observed repeatedly: Product Owners with technical backgrounds who cross the line from "what" into "how." When POs come from developer or technical roles, their expertise can become a liability if they start prescribing solutions rather than defining problems. They direct the team on implementation approaches, suggest specific technical solutions in user stories, and effectively manage the sprint backlog instead of focusing on the product backlog. The consequences are predictable: stories keep getting added or removed mid-sprint, the sprint goal becomes meaningless, and the team ends up delivering nothing because focus is constantly shifting. Prabhleen's solution starts in backlog refinement, where she ensures conversations about technical approaches happen openly with the whole team during estimation. When a PO suggests a specific implementation, she facilitates discussion about alternatives, allowing the team to voice their perspective. The key insight: everyone comes from a good place—the PO suggests solutions because they believe they're helping. The Scrum Master's role is to create space for the team to own the "how" while helping the PO see the value in stepping back. Self-reflection Question: When your Product Owner has technical expertise, how do you help them contribute their knowledge without directing the team's implementation choices? [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]
In this episode, Matt Watson interviews Matt Haycox, an experienced entrepreneur who shares insights from his 25 years in business, focusing on capital raising, the challenges of entering the tech space as a non-technical leader, and the impact of AI on business development. Haycox discusses his journey from traditional businesses to tech ventures, emphasizing the importance of understanding both technical and commercial aspects of business. He also highlights the value of learning from mistakes and building trust within teams.Chapters00:00 Introduction to Matt Haycox02:52 Matt's Entrepreneurial Journey05:46 Transitioning into Tech and SaaS09:00 The Role of AI in Business Development11:55 Understanding the Micro-SaaS Landscape15:08 The Importance of a Good CTO18:03 Learning from Mistakes in Business21:05 Conclusion and ResourcesLinks & ResourcesConnect with Matt Haycox on LinkedInWhat Smart CTOs Are Doing Differently With Offshore Teams in 2025Subscribe to the Global Talent SprintFull Scale – Build your dev team quickly and affordablyIf you're trying to get your team out of the basement and into real product ownership, this episode is your playbook. Stop being a ticket factory. Build teams that think, create, and lead.Follow the show, rate it, and send this to someone who's still trying to do “real Scrum.” They need it more than you do.
Prabhleen Kaur: When Team Members Raise Concerns with Clarity, Not Anger Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. "My idea of success as a Scrum Master is when you look around, you see motivated people, and when something goes wrong, they come to you not in anger, but with concern." - Prabhleen Kaur Prabhleen offers a refreshing perspective on measuring success as a Scrum Master that goes beyond velocity charts and feature counts. She shares a pivotal moment when her team was in production, delivering relentlessly with barely any time to breathe. A team member approached her—not with frustration or blame—but with thoughtful concern: "This is not going to work out." He sat down with Prabhleen and the Product Owner, explaining that as the middle layer in an API creation team, delays from upstream were creating a cascading problem. What struck Prabhleen wasn't just the identification of the issue, but how he approached it: with options to discuss, not demands to make. This moment crystallized her definition of success. When team members feel safe enough to voice concerns early, when they come with ideas rather than accusations, when they see themselves as part of the solution rather than victims of circumstances—that's when a Scrum Master has truly succeeded. Prabhleen reminds us that while stakeholders may focus on features delivered, Scrum Masters should watch how well the team responds to change. That adaptability, rooted in psychological safety and mutual trust, is the true measure of a team's maturity. Self-reflection Question: When problems emerge in your team, do people approach you with defensive anger or constructive concern? What does that tell you about the psychological safety you've helped create? Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: Keep-Stop-Happy-Gratitude Prabhleen shares her favorite retrospective format, born from necessity when she joined an established team with dismal participation in their standard three-column retrospectives. She transformed it into a four-column approach: (1) What should we keep doing, (2) What should we stop doing, (3) One thing that will make you happy, and (4) Gratitude for the team. The third column—asking what would make team members happy—opened unexpected doors. Suggestions ranged from team outings to skipping Friday stand-ups, giving Prabhleen real-time insights into team needs without waiting for formal working agreement sessions. The gratitude column proved even more powerful. "Appreciation brings a space where trust is automatically built. When every 15 days you're sitting with the team making a point to say thank you to each other for all the work you've done, everybody feels mutually respected," Prabhleen explains. This ties directly to the trust-building discussed in Tuesday's episode—using retrospectives not just to improve processes, but to strengthen the human connections that make teams resilient. [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]
Prabhleen Kaur: How AI Is Changing the Way Agile Teams Deliver Value Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. "AI's output is not the final output—it's always the two eyes we have that will get us the best results." - Prabhleen Kaur Prabhleen brings a timely challenge to the coaching conversation: the impact of AI on teams and how Scrum Masters should navigate this transformation. She frames it as both a challenge and an opportunity—teams are now capable of delivering faster than consumers can absorb, fundamentally changing expectations and dynamics. Prabhleen has observed her teams evolve from uncertainty about AI to confidently leveraging it for practical benefits. Developers use AI for writing and understanding code, particularly helpful for onboarding new team members who need to comprehend existing codebases quickly. QA professionals find AI invaluable for generating test cases based on story and epic context already captured in JIRA. The next frontier? Agentic AI, where AI systems communicate with each other to produce better outputs. But Prabhleen offers an important caution: AI is learning from many conversations, not all of which are reliable. The human element—critical thinking and verification—remains essential. For Scrum Masters, this means facilitating conversations about how teams want to experiment with AI, exploring edge cases in testing that AI can help identify, and helping teams navigate the evolving landscape of possibilities while maintaining quality and judgment. Self-reflection Question: How are you helping your team explore AI as a tool for improvement while ensuring they maintain critical thinking about the outputs AI produces? [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]
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