No Nonsense Agile Podcast
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Episode 100 – A retrospective
Welcome to our 100th episode.
In this episode, we talk about what we’ve learnt from our guests about agile, product development and leadership. We discuss what the podcast is about and why we started it. We unpack our critical take on fake agile and discuss agile leadership and product development. Join us as we take a deep dive into the insights, experiences and conversations that have shaped our podcast ovr the last 99 episodes. And here’s to another hundred episodes of cutting through the nonsense and bringing you the advice you need to succeed.
Business Agility with Evan Leybourn
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they chat with Evan Leybourn from the Business Agility Institute about business agility. We discuss how to define and measure business agility, examples of agile organisations, and the struggle with traditional bureaucratic models. We delve into the different types of leadership, the nature of internal cultural and political changes, and the challenges faced by organisations in adopting and implementing agility.
Innovation and disaster with Ron Westrum
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they chat with Ron Westrum about how organisational culture drives innovation and disaster. We discuss generative, bureaucratic and pathological cultures, using real-world examples from NASA, Boeing and others. This episode highlights the importance of leadership integrity, openness, honesty, the free flow of information, and a mission-focused approach to achieving organisational goals. Listen for insights on identifying and promoting a generative culture, dealing with bad news, the role of technical maestros, and much more.
Unmanaged with Jack Skeels
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they chat with Jack Skeels about agile for digital and marketing agencies. Jack advocates for reducing the managerial overhead in organisations to promote productivity and improve communication. We discuss common hurdles in agile implementations. The value of a manager as a sports coach. The importance of scoping the work. Over managing and how real change must start from the top. This episode is full of practical advice and critical insights into organisation dynamics. This conversation is especially useful for those seeking to implement agile in a more holistic, efficient, and outcome oriented way in a service provider.
OKR’s with Adrian Howard
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they discuss objectives and key results with Adrian Howard.
Adrian explains how OKR’s can be used as a strategic instrument for aligning goals within your organisation. We walk through common pitfalls and misconceptions emphasizing the importance of using OKR’s focused on outcomes rather than outputs. We discuss the potential for using OKR’s with vendors. The idea of paired metrics. And how OKR’s can serve as indicators of underlying problems within your organisations culture and structure.
The Heart of Agile with Mike Leber
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as discuss business agility and the heart of agile with Mike Leber.
We talk about how the heart of agile liberates you from rigid process frameworks by focusing on collaboration, delivery reflection and improvement. We talk about how the agile industrial complex has turned agile into a heavyweight waterfall process. And how innovation is happening outside the traditional agile bubble. And lastly, we talk about agile leadership. If you’re interested in getting to the heart of agile and exploring business agility.
The state of product management with Jason Knight
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they chat with Jason Knight on the state of product management.
Jason shares his insights and experiences on the responsibilities of a product manager, the evolving nature of the role. Differentiating buyer and user features the importance of testing and validating ideas. Supporting cross-functional teams and fostering a mindset of continuous improvement. Jason shares insights from his experiences and discussions with thought leaders and provides advice for those navigating the product management field.
Dysfunction Mapping with Michael Lloyd
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they chat with Michael Lloyd about dysfunction mapping.
Whether you are new to the agile world or a seasoned professional, you’ll find valuable insights as we delve into understanding team dynamics, honing the coaching process. And the essential principle of iterative hypothesis testing. Join us as we learned the power of mapping dysfunctions to unveil powerful solutions in agile environments.
Developing digital products in China with Bianca Grizhar
In this episode, we talk to Bianca Grizhar about developing digital products in China. We discuss the cultural differences between Germany and China, and how Scrum improved team collaboration. We talk about the benefits of working directly with people offshore in cross functional, cross organisational teams. Whether you’re a product manager or a developer, this episode is packed with practical advice that will help you work more successfully with your offshore teams.
Mobius loop with Gabrielle Benefield
In this episode, we talked with with Gabrielle Benefield, the inventor of the Mobius loop, an outcome focused product development framework. Gabrielle shares her journey in agile product development from Silicon valley to Yahoo. And the importance of focusing on outcomes of outputs and improving decision speed. We discuss why organisations don’t focus on outcomes, the problem with contracts and scaling an outcome based approach. And finally, we talk about how you can use an experimental approach to bring an outcome driven, focus to your organisation.
Sprint Goals with Maarten Dalmijn
In this episode, Murray Robinson chats with Maarten Dalmijn about Sprint Goals. We discuss how sprint goals should act as a primary mission for a sprint, around which everyone’s tasks should revolve, rather than focusing on individual deliverables. We talk about challenges to implementing this approach, the importance of measuring outcomes over output, and the need for competency and trust in the team. This conversation highlights the importance open dialogue with stakeholders, and the necessity of adaptability in the face of uncertainty.
Tesla and SpaceX with Joe Justice
In this episode, we talked to Joe Justice about how Tesla and Space X have developed a new operating model based on self-organizing teams that continuously discover, deliver, and improve to achieve a thousand year goal. It’s like the most radical combination of open space agility, OKR’s, Continuous Discovery, Continuous Delivery and Continuous Improvement, you can think of. Whatever you think of Elon Musk, these companies are way ahead of most other companies and accelerating further. Tune in for a fascinating discussion about how Tesla and Space X work.
Essence with Ivar Jacobson
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they chat with Ivar Jacobson about Essence; a standard to develop patterns and pattern libraries that is being used by Scrum, SAFE, Lean and Kanban organisations. We discuss object oriented software engineering, use cases, UML, RUP, Essence and AI assisted method coaching. Join us to hear from one of the founders of the software engineering industry.
The Art of Action with Stephen Bungay
Join Murray Robinson, Shane Gibson, and special guest Stephen Bungay to discuss how military principles like “Mission Command” can be applied to manage teams effectively in uncertain conditions.
Empowering teams to take initiative with Jose Corella
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they dive into a discussion with Jose Corella on how leadership principles from the US Air Force can find applications in civilian organisations.
Recoding America with Jennifer Pahlka
Join hosts Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation with Jen Pahlka, founder of Code for America and author of "Recoding America". They discuss the current challenges faced by governments...
Product thinking and user story mapping with Jeff Patton
Join hosts Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation with Jeff Patton, an advocate of agile and lean ways of working and author of the book “User Story Mapping.” In this episode, we focus on the concepts of product thinking and user story mapping.
Amazons product development process with Ryan Lysne
Join hosts Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they sit down with special guest Ryan Lysne, a Product Director at Amazon, responsible for the Amazon app, the content creator economy, and worldwide...
Working with executives with Peter Lam
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they discuss the nuances of agile transformations with management consultant expert, Peter Lam. We delve deep into: 🔹 The value and effectiveness of...
Can you be an agile project manager with Jem Jelly
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they delve into a comprehensive discussion on agile project management with certified scrum trainer, Jem ‘Jelly’ D’jalel.
From the Wild West to Agile and Beyond with Jim Highsmith
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they chat with Jim Highsmith, one of the authors of the Agile Manifesto. Take a journey through the history of software development, from the wild west to structured methods and the emergence of the agile movement.
Modern Product Management with Pawel Huryn
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they chat with Pawel Huryn about product management. What it is, and isn’t? How to motivate teams and what makes a product succeed. We discuss the difference between product management, which focuses on discovery and project management, which focuses on delivery. And how to do both at the same time in one empowered product team. We talk about how you can become a product manager and the best product management tools to use. Join us as we uncover valuable insights to help you succeed in this critical role.
Scrum Anti Patterns with Stefan Wolpers
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they chat with Stefan Wolpers about scrum anti-patterns. Explore common anti-patterns, such as scrum masters assigning tasks to disempowered teams, and...
What really happened at Spotify with Brendan Marsh
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they converse with Brendan Marsh about his experience working at Spotify. Understand how Spotify's agile methodologies aim to achieve speed to market and...
Fundamentals of product management with Roman Pichler
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they delve into the fundamentals of product management with Roman Pichler, renowned author of 'Agile Product Management with Scrum'. Topics we'll explore in...
The agile brand has been destroyed by con men and clowns with Brett Maytom and Michael Kusters
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they take a critical look at the current state of the agile industry with guests Michael Kusters and Brett Maytom. In this episode, we address: 🔸 The...
Bring back business analysis with Howard Podeswa
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they dive into the world of agile business analysis with guest Howard Podeswa. In this episode, we'll uncover: 🔸 The role and value of a business analyst 🔸...
How to make better decisions using Ammerse with Jonathan Crossland
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they talk with veteran developer, Jonathan Crossland about Ammerse, a value based decision making guide for products and teams. Ammerse is a mnemonic for...
The problem with sales led development with Rich Mironov
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they talk with Rich Mironov about the problem with sales led development. It's easy for B2B enterprise companies to fall into a sales lead development model...
UX Design in empowered product teams with Donna Spencer
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they talk with Donna Spencer from Maker X about user experience design in empowered product teams. We discuss user research, information architecture, and...
Pattern Libraries for knowledge work with Al Shalloway
Join hosts Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation with Al Shalloway, the founder of Amplio, as they discuss the re-emergence of pattern libraries in the realm of knowledge work. In this...
Kanban and the Collaboration Equation with Jim Benson
Join hosts Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in conversation with Jim Benson, renowned author of "Personal Kanban," as they delve into his new book, "The Collaboration Equation." In this episode: Jim...
agile innovation
Join hosts Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they share their unique insights and experiences with startups, scale-ups, venture capitalists, and corporate innovation. In this episode: We delve...
Mission command with Eric Lopez
Join hosts Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in an intriguing conversation with special guest Eric Lopez, a seasoned management consultant, CEO, and retired US Army Colonel who commanded troops in...
Continuous discovery with Teresa Torres
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they converse with special guest, Teresa Torres, a renowned product coach, speaker, and author of "Continuous Discovery Habits." In this episode: Torres...
The lean product development playbook with Dan Olsen
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation with Dan Olson, author of the lean product development playbook. A practical guide to building products that customers love. Most new products...
3 amigos
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a discussion of the Three Amigos pattern, where a product person, a developer, and a tester work ahead of the team to define features before estimation. We explore the benefits, challenges, and anti-patterns of the three Amigos approach, emphasising the importance of early preparation, collaboration and testable requirements.
ProductOps with Anabela Cesario
Guests Anabela CesarioShane GibsonMurray RobinsonResources OutSystems B2B PM Academy Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation with Anabela Cesário VP of product ops at...
Jonathan Hall – implementing continuous delivery
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation with Jonathan Hall about implementing Continuous Delivery. CI/CD requires a level of test automation that seems impossible for most...
Jeff Gothelf – Lean UX and Sense and Respond
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation with Jeff Gothelf about Lean UX and Sense and Respond. Lean UX explains how to do UX design and product development in a highly agile way.
Adam Thomas – product survival metrics
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation with Adam Thomas about Product Survival Metrics. Empower the product team to make decisions quickly in uncertain situations by negotiating...
Christian Crumlish – the intersection between UX design and product management
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation with Christian Crumlish about the intersection between UX Design and Product Management.
Agile project management and leadership with Willem-Jan Ageling
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they engage in an insightful conversation with Willem-Jan Ageling on agile project management and leadership.
Understand the importance of a goal-oriented leader who supports and empowers their team, and the common anti-patterns to avoid.
Bryan Finster – continuous delivery
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation with Bryan Finster about Continuous Delivery and SAFe. Continuous delivery improves quality, productivity, value, and developers’ lives
Product Management with Scott Baldwin
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation with Scott Baldwin about product management
Chris Butler – agile product management
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation with Chris Butler about agile Product Management at Microsoft, Facebook and Google. Three core things, that product managers should do.
Matthew Skelton – Team Topologies
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation with Matthew Skelton about Team topologies.
Sandy Mamoli – Building great teams
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation with Sandy Mamoli about building great teams. Why do some teams perform well and others perform poorly.
Simon Wardley – Wardley maps
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation with Simon Wardley about Wardley maps. Wardely maps are a discussion tool that surfaces assumptions about competitive landscapes.
Assessing agile capability
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation about assessing the agile capability of individuals, teams and partners.
Tony Ulwick – Outcome driven innovation
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation about Outcome-Driven Innovation with Tony Ulwick. Most products fail in the market because they don’t meet customers’ needs better than the alternatives
Debbie Levitt – UX design
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation about UX design with Debbie Levitt. UX Design is research based information architecture and interaction design that requires deep expertise.
Tom Gilb – Software metrics
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation about Software Metrics with Tom Gilb. Tom Gilb inspired the authors of the Agile manifesto with his innovative incremental and scientific approach to Software Engineering. In this podcast we talk about Evo and Value Agile.
Todd Lankford – Agile anti patterns
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation about Agile anti patterns with Todd Lankford. Patterns are common solutions to common problems.
Erik de Bos – Agile is a paradigm shift
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation about Agile as a paradigm shift with Erik de Bos. Most organisations are slow moving bureaucracies defined by authoritarian hierarchies, rules and contracts. Agile is a completely new way of thinking and a new vocabulary which makes new concepts and information available.
Team Skills vs Roles
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation about effective agile product teams. Business people and technical people work together daily in one long-lasting customer-focused team. Roles vs Skills. The power of words. Do titles create hierarchy and functional silos within the team? T-shaped people. Should everyone be a developer? Are specialised roles useful? Specialists need to be on the team all the way through. Should people be paid the same and treated the same? Long-lasting product teams vs project teams. The best requirements, architecture and design come from self-managed teams. Servant leadership vs hierarchy. Teams have multiple leaders. One united product team across vendors and organisations.
Agile and flow with Staffan Noteberg
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation with Staffan Noteberg about Agile and Flow. Agile is about adapting to unexpected change.
Mary and Tom Poppendieck – Lean software development
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation with Mary and Tom Poppendieck about Lean and Software Development. Organizations have queues because they don’t care about the customer.
Bruce Taylor – Working with offshore teams
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation with Bruce Taylor about working with offshore teams in developing countries. Why do people send their work offshore? Cost or talent? Is it cheaper to send work offshore or not?
Kyle Griffin – Uncertainty, complexity and change
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation with Kyle Griffin about uncertainty, complexity and change. Our requirements are probably wrong. So show people and build small bets. Our plan...
agile 2 with Raj Nagappan
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson for a conversation with Raj Nagappan on using Agile 2 to create awesome products.
Lisa Crispin – Holistic testing
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation with Lisa Crispin on Holistic Testing. Build quality in. Continuous testing for continuous delivery.
LeSS with Bas Vodde
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation with Bas Vodde on LeSS. LeSS is true Scrum at Scale not just at the team level.
Jurgen Appelo – Designing an agile organisation
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation with Jurgen Appelo on how to design an organisation to support self management, continuous innovation and human experience. Jurgens unFix model supports gradual change, dynamic teams, and recognises that managers play an important role
Product leaders with David Pereira
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation with David Pereira about Product Leaders. Successful Product Leaders don’t write requirements; they define the problem, set a goal and empower the team to get the job done.
Scott Ambler – Disciplined agile toolkit
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation with Scott Ambler about the Disciplined Agile Toolkit
agile ux design with Jared Spool
Guests Jared SpoolShane GibsonMurray RobinsonResources https://leaders.centercentre.com/ Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation with Jared Spool about user experience design. We...
The joy of agility with Joshua Kerievsky
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation with Joshua Kerievsky about his new book “Joy of Agility”. In this podcast we talk about the poor state of agile today. Commodification, fake agile, dark scrum and water-scrum-fall. Real agility should be a joy to work in. Agility doesn’t mean process frameworks, it means moving with quick, easy grace and being quick, resourceful, and adaptable. Use mantras and stories to get the message across. Be quick but don’t hurry. Be poised to adapt. Be balanced and graceful.
DevOps with Mirco Hering
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation with Mirco Hering where we dive into the world of DevOps.
Join us as Mirco shares his insights on the essence of DevOps and its implementation challenges, from redefining DevOps beyond tools to the importance of feedback loops. Mirco sheds light on the goals and misconceptions surrounding DevOps. Discover how DevOps aligns with agile principles and explore the role of professional services firms in driving agile and DevOps transformations. Join us as we share practical advice for adopting DevOps practices effectively.
Agile Military ideas with Ben Ford
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation with former Royal Marine Commando Ben Ford about how agile practices mirror modern military practices in the field. We discuss John Boyd’s OODA loop and the value of an accurate model of one’s environment for good decision making. And we discuss mission command and the value of leadership training to develop an effective approach for orders, planning, delegation, and review. We hope this episode provides food for thought on how you can utilise some of these military leadership principles to enhance your agile practices in the software product development world.
Agile Product Development
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation about Agile product development. discuss what a product is and what a product manager does. We talk about the value of customer feedback and the need to test your hypotheses. We define minimum viable products and discuss technical debt, scaling and co-designing products with customers. And we talk about how you can move from a project to a product mentality and the value of applying an iterative approach to your marketing and sales
Visualizing your workflow with Mark Jorgensen Chaudhry
Guests Mark Jørgensen ChaudhryShane GibsonMurray RobinsonResourcesJoin Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation with Mark Jørgensen Chaudhry about visualising your work so you can identify...
Matrix team models aka the “spotify model”
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation on the “Spotify Model” for scaling agile teams. We cover the role of leadership team structures. Tribe dynamics and the importance of coaching and support during organisational change. We share our experience with implementing this model in organisations and some of the anti-patterns. Join us to learn how to use the Spotify model to scale your agile organisation successfully.
Lean agile transformations with Matt Turner
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a conversation about the psychology of change in lean agile transformation with Matt Turner. We discuss how to implement agile and Kanban practices in IT operations, the challenges faced by managers, and the importance of visualising work and understanding flow. We also touch upon the misconceptions and misapplications of agile in the industry. Join us to learn how to be a much more effective change agent.
Quality skills vs roles
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they discuss why quality as a whole team’s responsibility. We discuss why it’s critical to integrate QA processes from the beginning, the importance of clear acceptance criteria, how to handle technical debt and the continuous improvement process. Tune in for an engaging and informative discussion on quality in your agile projects.
Invitational agile with Michael Delamaza
In this episode we discuss invitational coaching with Michael Delemaza, the differences between coaching and mentoring and the challenges faced in transforming traditional organizations into agile ones. We also talk about the importance of clear communication and alignment at the executive level, as well as dealing with politics and resistance within organizations.
Leadership support for becoming an agile organisation
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a no-nonsense Agile discussion. In this episode, we talk about leadership support for agile ways of working. Why leadership support is critical for change....
Fixed Price Agile Contracts
In this podcast, Murray and Shane talk about why projects with fixed price, fixed scope contracts often go way over time and budget. We talk about uncertainty, sales incentives and underestimating. How fixed scope contracts lead to big design up front, siloed delivery, authoritarian management and conflict with suppliers. We discuss how to use an agile approach to solve these problems. We talk about testing suppliers by starting small and scaling up. And we talk about agile contracts where you engage a supplier to provide a fixed team for a fixed time and budget to achieve a goal with a variable scope.
Scaling agile
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a no-nonsense agile discussion. In this podcast, Murray and Shane discuss how to scale agile. We discuss the problems with a big bang top-down agile transformation and the benefits of starting small and experimenting to find a scaling approach that works for you. We talk about the factory model of organisation vs autonomous product teams. And we contrast agile change management with waterfall change management.
agile projects
In this engaging episode, Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson dive into a spirited discussion on the compatibility of Agile and Project Management. Discussion highlights include: The Agile-Project...
Evolutionary design & agile architecture
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a no-nonsense agile discussion. In this podcast, we talk about evolutionary design and the problem with a narrow focus, planning at different time horizons, big blocks and small blocks and the importance of having flexible roadmaps that change as we learn. We also talk about centralised teams vs experts in teams, how the role of the coach is to build the team’s capability and how a coach should be a sports coach, not a therapist.
Is scrum broken?
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a no-nonsense agile discussion. In this podcast, we discuss Ron Jeffries’ recent article “Can scrum be fixed?” We talk about Ron’s concerns with the Scrum Industrial complex and Developers issues with Scrum. We talk about what we like and don’t like about Scrum and how the gaps we’ve experienced can be overcome.
Agile initiation and planning
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a no-nonsense agile discussion. In this podcast, we talk about our experience with planning agile initiatives. How to do just enough planning just in time. We discuss the team you need, user stories, UX concepts and technical architecture, how to develop a release plan and estimate time and cost in a 2 to 4-week timebox. We also talk about the common traps, pitfalls and bad patterns we see in planning agile initiatives.
Agile contracting and planning
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson in a no-nonsense discussion on agile and waterfall.
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