Imitation is not flattering: B2B Startups Must Forge Their Own Organizational Structures
Scrum hasn’t much to say about organizational design. And rightfully so – if there is any area that has no universally applicable template, org design is it. B2B startups – that is, companies whose customers are other businesses – have an especially hard time with organizational design. Their customers are hundreds or even thousands of […]
My Grumpiest Take on Scrum
I was lucky enough to meet Ken Schwaber on my journey to becoming a Professional Scrum Trainer with Scrum.org. It was at a Train-The-Trainer event at scrum.org HQ in Massachusetts, and when he entered the room he introduced himself: “Hi, I’m Ken and I’m living proof that you can be a grump and still be […]
Scrum For Startups: Finding the Sweet Spot
In the Winter of 2016 – 2017, I changed jobs. I had been working as an Agile Coach at a 60-person technology start up here in Toronto, Canada and after helping them to stabilize their value delivery process, I wanted to get some experience as a Coach within larger companies. And so I took a […]
Get Better at Planning (Without Trying to get Better at Planning)
I was triggered by a recent conversation. If you are an Agile Coach / Scrum Master / etc you have probably been asked some variant of this question: Can you help us get better at pointing stories? Now, the correct answer to that question is one word, and that word is “no.” But you’re a […]
Employee Engagement and Professional Scrum – Part 5 of 5
In this 5th and final post in the series, we will cover questions 10-12 of the Gallup Q12 Engagement survey, and how they can be addressed through Professional Scrum. Question 10: I have a best friend at work. This is – by far – the most controversial question in Gallup’s Q12 survey. I will not […]
Employee Engagement and Professional Scrum – Part 4 of 5
In this post we will cover questions 7-9 of the Gallup Q12 Engagement survey, and how they can be addressed through Professional Scrum. Stay tuned for the 5th and final instalment, coming soon!! Question 7: At work, my opinions seem to count We often refer to “Professional” Scrum being simply Scrum, but with an emphasis on […]
Employee Engagement and Professional Scrum – Part 3 of 5
In this post we will cover questions 4-6 of the Gallup Q12 Engagement Survey, and how they can be addressed through Professional Scrum. Question 4: In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work. This question from the Gallup Q12 engagement survey is one that many managers struggle with. I will […]
Employee Engagement and Professional Scrum – Part 2 of 5
Improving Employee Engagement with Professional Scrum (Questions 1-3 of Gallup’s Q12 Survey) In Part 1 of this series, I wrote a bit about Employee Engagement. Part 1 was all about measuring and understanding the current state of engagement in your organization. We also covered the importance of having an engaged staff – because it often leads to […]
Employee Engagement and Professional Scrum – Part 1 of 5
Between Agility and Better Business Outcomes is Employee Engagement Editors Note: this was initially published to our newsletter in July 2021. To receive early access to more content like this (including the next part in this series!), subscribe here. Somewhere in between all the hard work that goes into becoming a more “agile” organization, and the […]
Virtual Retrospectives – Tips & Tricks
Esther Derby (who literally co-wrote the book on Agile Retrospectives) had some sage advice at a recent webinar: When facilitating Retrospectives for remote teams, structure becomes increasingly important. Facilitators need to be methodical about going through the 5 stages of a Retrospective, and constantly remind the group which stage they are in. Even though many […]