Product Fields

www.jointinsights.com

www.productfields.com

Find more at www.masteringagility.org

S06 E10 Dave Snowden on Organizing for Emergence

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 09:12:42 GMT

In this conversation, Dave Snowden discusses various topics related to complexity, agility, and decision-making. He shares his experiences with travel and speaking engagements, emphasizing the importance of listening to the audience and adapting his presentations accordingly. Dave highlights patterns and cynicism in the Agile community, cautioning against the commoditization of Agile and the reliance on motivational speakers. He explains the principles of organizing for emergence and complexity, emphasizing the need to work with how things are and focus on local interactions. Dave also discusses the outcome of complexity models, the risk of losing purpose in breaking things down, and the challenge of organizational attention span. He concludes by discussing the contribution opportunities for Hexi and the importance of creating a capability to handle unknown unknowables. The conversation explores the concept of constant complexity in the world and the need for adaptability and strategic thinking.

The impact of AI and ecological collapse is discussed, highlighting the potential risks and opportunities they present. The tension between control and empowerment in organizations is examined, along with the role of risk in decision-making. The importance of building ecosystems and embracing distributed decision-making is emphasized. The conversation concludes with a reflection on the impact of work and the future of the Agile landscape.

Takeaways

Listen to the audience and adapt presentations accordingly
Beware of the commoditization of Agile and the reliance on motivational speakers
Organize for emergence and complexity by working with how things are and focusing on local interactions
Quantify human judgment and detect anomalies to make better decisions
Create a capability to handle unknown unknowables and shift to a profession mindset The world is experiencing constant complexity, and organizations need to adapt and embrace strategic thinking to navigate this reality.
AI and ecological collapse are significant factors that are changing the business landscape and require proactive preparation.
Overdependence on technology can hinder adaptability and resilience, and organizations should strive for a balance between technology and human intelligence.
Risk should be considered in decision-making, and organizations should focus on reducing risk through distributed decision-making and building ecosystems.
The impact of work extends beyond individual contributions, and collective efforts and teamwork are essential for long-term success.
The Agile landscape should focus on collaboration, innovation, and addressing unarticulated problems to become a sustainable movement.

For questions or requests that you would like us to check on, please drop a message on LinkedIn or join the Mastering Agility Discord community!

Participate as an audience member
Mastering Agility Mural
Mastering Agility merch

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#107 Striving for Value & Quality

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 08:09:08 GMT

The conversation revolves around the concept of value and its various interpretations. The hosts discuss the importance of defining and measuring value, the role of quality in delivering value, and the challenges faced by organizations in prioritizing value. They also touch on the impact of short-sightedness, the rise of disruptive competitors, and the influence of money on decision-making. The conversation concludes with a discussion on the pros and cons of different business models, such as SaaS and physical products. The conversation explores the concept of mediocrity and its impact on various aspects of work and life. It discusses the acceptance of mediocrity in education and society, the importance of measuring and striving for quality, and the need for personal and professional growth beyond mediocrity. The conversation also touches on the challenges of working in different cultural contexts and the role of uncertainty in agile practices.

Takeaways

Value is a widely used but often misunderstood term in the business world. It is important to define and measure value in order to make informed decisions.
Quality plays a crucial role in delivering value. Organizations should prioritize quality and avoid sacrificing it for short-term gains.
Employee happiness and engagement can be leading indicators of value. Creating a positive work environment can lead to better outcomes and customer satisfaction.
The rise of disruptive competitors and the need to stay ahead of the market require organizations to be adaptable and open to innovation.
Money can influence decision-making and lead to arrogance and mediocrity. It is important to balance financial considerations with long-term value creation.
Different business models, such as SaaS and physical products, have their own advantages and challenges. Organizations should carefully consider the trade-offs when choosing a business model. Mediocrity is often accepted and tolerated in education and society, but there is a need to strive for higher standards and quality.
Measuring and objectively assessing quality is becoming easier, and it is important to prioritize and invest in high-quality work.
Being a mediocre scrum master or leader is not ideal, but it is better than being harmful. Strive for excellence and continuous improvement.
Understanding cultural contexts and adapting to different dynamics within teams is crucial for effective collaboration.
Embracing uncertainty and creating structures for long-lasting change are essential in agile practices.

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

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S05 E10 A Mystery Koala guest and the R Word

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 27 Jun 2023 13:00:00 GMT

Sander Dur is a Professional Scrum Trainer at Scrum.org, podcast host of Mastering Agility, Professional Scrum Master and Lead Agile Consultant, and trainer at Xebia. Besides this, he's an avid writer for predominantly Serious Scrum on Medium.com. Sander has a major passion for the human side in complex domains. Ensuring a high level of psychological safety, therefore, is a critical part of his work. Organizations in complex domains can only survive when innovating. Innovation can only take place with the right balance between low social friction and high intellectual friction. While most organizations now understand how to apply Agile frameworks, they struggle with the delivery of value. Psychological safety is the next step in this evolution and Sander has a huge drive to help organizations reach that step.

Sander is enthusiastic, open-minded, and ambitious. He finds interpersonal relationships and intrinsic motivations very important in team dynamics. Besides his work, Sander loves to spend time with his family, enjoys sports and eating healthy, barbecuing, riding his motorcycle, and traveling.

Jim Sammons

My passion is helping people to:

Do more of the right work (and less of the wrong work).
Create more actual teams than just groups of people who work together.
Learning how to improve themselves, their team, and their organization incrementally.
Understand that less, not more, is usually part of the answer to some of the hardest questions we all face.
See their workplaces, teams, and their sphere of influence as something that is evolving, which requires an evolution of all of its parts to adapt.

https://twitter.com/stevevrporter

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S06 E12 Omnipresence and Needing to be Perfect

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 02 Jan 2024 09:00:00 GMT

Summary
In this second part of the conversation, Jim and Sander discuss their holiday plans and reflect on the highlights of the podcast in 2023. They also share their dream guests for future episodes and discuss the importance of understanding root causes in problem-solving. They explore how Scrum Masters can help teams become more effective and the need to build environments for product success. They also discuss the challenges of avoiding reactive approaches and the importance of continuous improvement. Finally, they discuss the importance of recognizing blind spots and areas for improvement. In this conversation, Jim and Sander discuss various topics related to their professional lives and personal preferences. They explore the balance between quality and satisfaction, the importance of professional emotional regulation, and the need to bury unwanted concepts. They also touch on the issue of hate and ad hominem attacks on social media and the value of constructive feedback. The conversation concludes with a discussion about the misuse of the Shu-Ha-Ri model and the joy of holiday food traditions.

Takeaways

Reflecting on the highlights of the past year can provide valuable insights and learning opportunities.
Understanding root causes is important for effective problem-solving and preventing recurring issues.
Scrum Masters can have a wider impact by building their skills and focusing on continuous improvement.
Creating environments for product success is crucial for long-term value creation.
Avoiding reactive approaches and focusing on proactive measures can lead to better outcomes.
Recognizing blind spots and areas for improvement is essential for personal and professional growth. Balancing quality and satisfaction is important in professional work.
Professional emotional regulation is crucial for maintaining composure and being a calming influence.
It's okay to have strengths and weaknesses, and not everyone has to be good at everything.
Unwanted concepts and practices should be buried to make room for more effective approaches.
Hate and ad hominem attacks on social media should be replaced with constructive feedback.
Being candid is important, but it's essential to avoid being an asshole.
Teaching should be focused on practical application rather than just theoretical knowledge.
Being a little like Mr. Miyagi and withholding certain information can be beneficial in facilitating learning.
Helping others should not be driven by selfish motives.
Identifying as a teacher or educator depends on the specific context and knowledge.
Food and holiday traditions bring joy and create memorable experiences.

Don't forget to check out our sponsor: https://scrummatch.com/en

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S01 E16 Talking Tech Debt with Steve Porter

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 28 Jun 2021 10:00:00 GMT

Technical debt is one of those things that can really bite your ass when you're not taking care of it. Tech debt sneaks in and before you know it, you’re spending more time repaying that debt rather than delivering actual value. But not all tech debt is wrong. And not everything that is perceived as tech debt is actually that. What about undone work? And what can we do to prevent this from accumulating? To what extent do we need to be transparent about it? Steve Porter, Scrum.org’s Professional Series Manager and developer at heart, joins us in this episode of Mastering Agility to discuss this.

What you’ll discover in this show:

- Introducing tech debt might be a good thing

- There is a difference between tech debt and work that is just not done

- Estimation of effort is still needed. Also discussing what has been done to remove it could be good to do during Sprint Reviews

Speakers:

Steve Porter

Supporting the Professional Scrum Trainer community

Steve Porter works with the Scrum.org team of experts and its wider trainer community to create and maintain its Professional Series of courses and assessments. Steve guides this collaborative process to ensure training is current and meets the needs of the professional Scrum community. Before joining Scrum.org, Steve was the product owner for TeamPulse, Telerik’s agile project management tool. He has also provided application lifecycle management (ALM) consulting services for organizations around the globe. At his core, Steve is still a developer. He taught himself how to code at an early age and has spent years turning ephemeral ideas into functioning software. It's the joy of this craft that Steve brings to all his interactions at Scrum.org.

Contact Steve Porter:
https://www.scrum.org/resources/blog?uid=119

https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevevrporter/

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Sander Dur is a business agility enthusiast, with a passion for people. Whether it’s healthy product development, agile leadership, measurement, or psychological safety, Sander has the drive to enable organizations to the best of their abilities. He is an avid article writer, working on a book about Scrum Mastery from the Trenches, and is connecting listeners with the most influential people in the industry.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://agilitymasters.com/en
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Additional resources:

Masteringagility.org
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://agilitymasters.com/en
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S02 E13 CoffeeCall with Tom Suter

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 29 Nov 2021 09:00:00 GMT

Trust is built at the coffee machine. At the walk to our cars. At the lunch table. But it’s hard to create that foundation of teamwork when all of our precious time is being spent in continuous only-work-related meetings in the virtual world that the pandemic has created. But there are other options for that!

Tom Suter, a co-founder of the CoffeeCall app, takes part in today’s discussion on how his idea can help bridge that gap that started to exist at the beginning of this challenge.

What you’ll discover in this show:

- Informal chats were, and are, highly missed
- Network building is challenging in a virtual world
- CoffeeCall is a great tool to have an informal chat while being timeboxed

Speakers:
Tom Suter

Co-Founder CoffeCall

I’m Tom Suter, co-founder of CoffeeCall and a huge fan of Agile and Lean methodologies preferring Scrum. I have a strong belief that every team can achieve astonishing results, become hyper-performing while having great fun. The key element for this is giving and getting trust. For the last 15 years, I’ve been fortunate to help a wide range of great teams and companies.

Contact Tom:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tsuter/

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Additional resources:

https://www.coffeecall.com/

Leave us a review on Podchaser:
https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/mastering-agility-1727952

(31) Becky Flint | LinkedIn

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S06 E16 Fred Deichler on Zelda's Guide to Agile

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 08:00:00 GMT

Summary

In this conversation, Sander, Jim and their guest Fred Deichler discuss various topics related to public speaking, conferences, and agile practices. They explore the importance of creating a positive work environment and advocating for clear direction and autonomy in teams. Fred shares his journey as a speaker and the nervousness he still experiences before each talk. They also discuss the impact of conferences and the value of networking and building relationships with experienced speakers. The conversation concludes with a discussion on the power of storytelling in talks and the importance of tangible takeaways for the audience.

Takeaways

· Advocate for a positive work environment that promotes clear direction and autonomy in teams.

· Embrace nervousness as a speaker and use transparency to create empathy with the audience.

· Build relationships with experienced speakers and learn from their experiences.

· Name concepts and techniques to make them more memorable and easier to discuss.

· Focus on education and providing tangible takeaways for the audience in talks.

If you like our podcast, please leave us a review. This helps us to grow the show and bring in even bigger guests.

Sponsors:
ScrumMatch: https://scrummatch.com/en
Xebia Academy: https://xebia.com/academy/nl/

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#127 Rowing in the Same Direction: Strategic Agility with Co-Founder and CEO of Dragonboat Becky Flint

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 07:00:00 GMT

"We don't do the thinking for you—we surface signals out of the noise."

In this episode of Mastering Agility, Sander and Jim sit down with Becky Flint, CEO and Co-Founder of Dragon Boat, to discuss the importance of strategic agility and value-driven product management. Becky shares her journey from working at PayPal to founding Dragon Boat, a product portfolio management platform. She highlights how modern organizations can thrive by aligning strategy with execution and enabling empowered, decentralized teams.

Get in touch with Becky:

Modern SPM Platform for Product Operating Model | Dragonboat

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanngross/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S01 E07 Cooking self-management with Ziryan Salayi and Jordan Gross

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 12:00:00 GMT

Abstract:

The Scrum framework thrives in complex environments, where more is unknown than that is known. That requires decentralized decision-making and self-managing teams. This level of autonomy is incredibly powerful, yet just as incredibly difficult to install. The guys from the Self-Org Chefs are here to talk to us.

What you’ll discover in this show:

- Self-management is a layered concept

- In order for self-management to work, a great level of trust is needed

- Leadership can make or break self-management in your environment

Speakers:

Ziryan Salayi

Organization and Team Transformation coach & Licensed Scrum.org Professional Scrum Trainer

I am an Agile professional who is passionate about getting the most out of people and teams. Getting organizations and individuals more agile, more customer-oriented, and creating high-performing teams has become my personal mission over the years. My aim is to enable employees to be fully empowered and support self-selection in all areas within agile organizations.

I believe in stimulating and enabling continuous improvement
and enjoy working in cross-cultural and virtual teams. Being part of
international companies has provided me the opportunity to further develop my
social and intercultural communication skills. This has allowed me to
successfully work with several virtual teams over the years.

Due to my knowledge of working in virtual teams and cross-cultural
management, I have also successfully worked in several international teams to
provide IT solutions to their customers

Contact Ziryan Salayi:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ziryansalayi/

Jordann Gross

Agile Transformation & Self-organization Coach

Jordann’s purpose is to nurture environments in which people can become their best selves. He believes one should manage the system and not just the people. Enabling environments in which people grow to new heights gives him energy.

Doing this made him an experienced enterprise and executive
coach. He coaches on agile leadership & mindset, facilitates
transformations to become future-fit, and designs adaptive & scaling
organizational structures.

Jordann’s hobbies around kid’s camp and board games give him
an energetic and playful approach. Leading to his motto: 'putting the fun in
functional.' As work in the current age of disruption should be something that
gives you energy.

Let's just hope your competition is ready for this!

Contact Jordan Gross:

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdu

https://www.adventureswithagile.co

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S04 E07 Graphic Facilitation with Gemma Honour

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Sat, 10 Dec 2022 15:00:00 GMT

Graphic Facilitation is a lot more than just drawing nice pictures. Of course, it’s nice when you create beautiful sketches, but there is more to it than meets the eye at first glance.

Join Sander Dur and Gemma Honour in this inspiring, open, and at times even intimate conversation about Gemma’s passion, experience, and personal stories.

What you’ll discover in this show:

– It’s not as hard to start making awesome sketches as you might think
– You can tap into a different part of the brain by using a pern
– Creative thinking can overcome problems that mere discussion might not fix

Speakers:

Gemma Honour
Agile Coach, Graphic Recorder and Visual Facilitator

Agile Coach, Visual Facilitator and Part Time Illustrator!

🦸‍♀️ I work with teams to help them uncover their super-powers! A Professional Scrum Master (PSMII), I use scrum and scrum with Kanban to help teams achieve business agility.

👁‍🗨 Visual Facilitator - highly skilled in creating and holding memorable workshops and coaching sessions that get people sharing understanding, thinking creatively, and working together effectively.

✏️ Illustrator - I specialize in illustrating thought-provoking graphics and templates for coaching and scrum professionals so that they can have bespoke coaching tools and social media images tailored to their brand and message.

Contact Gemma:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gemma-honour-4b404487/

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Sander Dur is a Professional Scrum Trainer at Scrum.org, podcast host of Mastering Agility, Professional Scrum Master and Lead Agile Consultant and trainer at Xebia. Besides this, he’s an avid writer for predominantly Serious Scrum on Medium.com. Sander has a major passion for the human side in complex domains. Ensuring a high level of psychological safety therefore is a critical part of his work. Organizations in complex domains can only survive when innovating. Innovation can only take place with the right balance between low social friction and high intellectual friction. While most organizations now understand how to apply Agile frameworks, they struggle with delivery of value. Psychological safety is the next step in this evolution and Sander has a huge drive to help organizations reach that step.

He gained experience as a Scrum Master, Agile Coach, and Leadership consultant in many different top-tier organizations, including Nike and ASML.

Sander is enthusiastic, open-minded, and ambitious. He finds interpersonal relationships and intrinsic motivations very important in team dynamics. Besides his work, Sander loves to spend time with his family, enjoys sports and eating healthy, barbecuing, riding his motorcycle, and traveling.

Let’s connect! Sander is always up for new connections and discussions!

Masteringagility.org
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Additional resources:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lyssaadkins/

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S02 E02 The Impact of Passion with Lyssa Adkins

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Thu, 02 Sep 2021 14:00:00 GMT

Frequent listeners of the show know that throughout the episodes “engagement” has been a recurring theme. Engagement of employees, with the organization, with their work, and with themselves. Today’s show zoom in a little bit deeper on that. Lyssa Adkins, one of the most influential people out there when it comes to Agile coaching, joins us to talk about where she discovered her passion and what the impact of passion is.

What you’ll discover in this show:

- Passion impacts your everyday life on a large scale

- Lyssa discovered her impact by doing rather than defining upfront

- Quality of work goes up when working with passionate people

Speakers:

Lyssa Adkins

Coach. Facilitator. Teacher. Inspirer.

My current focus is improving the performance of top leadership teams through insightful facilitation and organization systems coaching.

Making difficult decisions faster and with clear alignment, unknotting challenging multi-department impediments, creating the conditions for smooth organizational delivery, helping leaders take up the “Agile transformation” that is theirs to make…this is where I thrive and help thrive.

My Agile community focus is amplifying women’s voices, which is why I am a founder of the TENWOMENSTRONG #WomeninAgile programs.

I have been pleased to serve the emergence of Agile Coaching as a profession. In 2010, I co-founded the Agile Coaching Institute which has developed over 10,000 people in the knowledge, skills, and being-ness needed to yield genuinely competent agile coaching.

I am the author of Coaching Agile Teams which, as a top-ranking Agile book, was released as an audiobook in its 10th year.

I like to explore facilitating intense conflict, societal change, organizational change, the benefits and costs of being human in the workplace, agile coaching, agile transformation, adult human development, human systems dynamics, the role of nature, and books of all sorts. I tend toward a balance of the provocative and practical.

Contact Lyssa Adkins:
www.lyssaadkins.com

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://agilitymasters.com/en
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Additional resources:

Personal website:

www.lyssaadkins.com

Books:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=lyssa+adkins&crid=2JZ98CSO2E7V3&sprefix=lyssa+ad%2C

https://www.linkedin.com/in/romanpichler/

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S01 E09 The Value of Product Goals with Roman Pichler

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Wed, 12 May 2021 11:00:00 GMT

Abstract:

Last year, the Scrum Guide got updated. One of those updates has been the addition of the Product Goal. How do Product Goals relate to the Product Vision or the Sprint Goals. And how can we still distinguish this in our teams with all the different terminology without causing widespread confusion?
Product development legend Roman Pichler is here to share his vision on this.

What you’ll discover in this show:

- Product Goals are goals on the mid-term, six months out from now

- Product Vision and Goals need to be supported by the environment of the team, it’s not just the goal of the Product Owner

- Cascading goals makes it easier and more tangible for teams to create value

Speakers:

Roman Pichler

Product management expert

ROMAN PICHLER is a product management expert specialized in digital products. He has played a leading role over the last 10 years in advancing product management and developing new practices that help agile organizations and teams create great products.

Roman shares his knowledge through his training courses and consulting services, his three books on product management, his popular blog, podcast, and talks, and his product management tools, including his widely used product vision board.

As the founder and director of Pichler Consulting, Roman looks after the company’s offerings. This allows him to continue to practice product management and to experiment with new ideas. Roman is based in Wendover near London in the United Kingdom.

When he’s not busy with work, Roman enjoys spending time with his wife and three children, riding his bicycle in the local hills, playing the tenor saxophone, and helping with family events at Amaravati Buddhist monastery.

Contact Roman Pichler:
https://www.romanpichler.com

https://twitter.com/romanpichler

https://www.youtube.com/romanpichler

https://www.instagram.com/roman_pichler/

https://www.facebook.com/pichlerconsulting

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://agilitymasters.com/en
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Additional resources:

https://www.romanpichler.com/romans-books
https://www.romanpichler.com/roma

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S03 E05 Product Ownership in Hybrid Environments with Kai Stevens

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 09:00:00 GMT

We’re two years into the pandemic by now, and things have changed forever. One of those is the way we build products. Not just team-work wise, but just as much the way product ownership has changed.

Kai Stevens is one of the most awesome Product Owners/Product Managers that I know, so I decided to ask him to come on the show and talk about what he feels has changed and how deals with these changes.
What you’ll discover in this show:

- The pandemic has provided opportunities, for instance by deleting location restrictions
- Due to missing body language, new ways of stakeholder engagement are needed
- OKRs are still highly useful and might even provide more guidance than ever before

Speakers:
Kai Stevens
Group Product Manager Device Experience at tado° || Product Leadership || Product Owner Trainer at Scrum Facilitators

Passionate product owner driven to build game-changing (software) products together with inspiring people. Guiding and collaborating closely with leadership teams and multi-disciplinary development teams to maximize value. I am experienced in all aspects of product ownership ranging from vision and strategy all the way down to tactics. Colleagues find me pushing the limits to release early and often to validate assumptions and deliver value in rapid pace. When working with me you will experience a compelling WHY at any time while I leave the HOW to others with clear boundaries to become successful.
Contact Kai:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaistevens/

Sander Dur (host)Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Sander Dur is a Professional Scrum Trainer at Scrum.org, podcast host of Mastering Agility, Professional Scrum Master and Lead Agile Consultant, and trainer at Xebia. Besides this, he's an avid writer for predominantly Serious Scrum on Medium.com. Sander has a significant passion for the human side in complex domains. Ensuring a high level of psychological safety, therefore, is a critical part of his work. Organizations in complex domains can only survive when innovating. Innovation can only take place with the right balance between low social friction and high intellectual friction. While most organizations now understand how to apply Agile frameworks, they struggle with the delivery of value. Psychological safety is the next step in this evolution and Sander has a huge drive to help organizations reach that step.

He gained experience as a Scrum Master, Agile Coach, and Leadership consultant in many different top-tier organizations, including Nike and ASML.

Masteringagility.org
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Additional resources:

PSPO-A by Kai: https://www.scrumfacilitators.nl/etn/pspo-a-19-20-may-2022/

Mastering Agility events: https://www.meetup

https://www.supermeme.ai/

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

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S04 E05 Humour in the Workspace with Sanjeev NC

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Thu, 17 Nov 2022 23:00:00 GMT

The workplace is often a very serious place to be in. Face all tightened up, shoulders raised, and way too few smiles. Humour can do so much for people’s motivation and general atmosphere. Sanjeev NC creates wonderful content on serious topics and is one of the geniuses behind Supermeme.ai, an AI machine that generates memes on business content. He joins Sander to talk about Humour in the Workspace.

What you’ll discover in this show:

– How Supermeme.ai can help your business
– The wonderful videos and other content by Sanjeev
– What a smile can do

Sanjeev NC

Supermeme.ai - AI memes | Office Meetings TikTok Videos | Product @ SuperOps.ai | Business Humor

A generalist, by default. I truly believe in the generalist vision and I'm working on building a wide array of skills in the first 10 years of my career.

I started my career in customer support, then transitioned into sales, then moved into marketing, and now a product manager. I started selling when I was in support, started speaking at conferences when I was in sales, and started building products when I was in marketing. The transition was natural.

I want to change the way technology is being supported right now and I believe that I will one day make a team of Customer Experience Engineers whose prime focus would actually be to focus on great customer experience rather than their individual roles (Sales, Pre Sales, Support, Marketing or Success).

Contact Sanjeev:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanjeev-nc/

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Sander Dur is a Professional Scrum Trainer at Scrum.org, podcast host of Mastering Agility, Professional Scrum Master, and Lead Agile Consultant and trainer at Xebia. Besides this, he’s an avid writer for predominantly Serious Scrum on Medium.com. Sander has a major passion for the human side in complex domains. Ensuring a high level of psychological safety, therefore, is a critical part of his work. Organizations in complex domains can only survive when innovating. Innovation can only take place with the right balance between low social friction and high intellectual friction. While most organizations now understand how to apply Agile frameworks, they struggle with the delivery of value. Psychological safety is the next step in this evolution and Sander has a huge drive to help organizations reach that step.

Sander is enthusiastic, open-minded, and ambitious. He finds interpersonal relationships and intrinsic motivations very important in team dynamics. Besides his work, Sander loves spending time with his family, enjoys sports, eating healthy, barbecuing, riding his motorcycle, and traveling.

Masteringagility.org
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Additional resources:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanngross/

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

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S01 E08 Continued recipe for self-management with Jordan Gross and Ziryan Salayi

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Sun, 02 May 2021 22:00:00 GMT

What you’ll discover in this show:

- Self-management is a layered concept

- In order for self-management to work, a great level of trust is needed

- Leadership can make or break self-management in your environment

Speakers:

Ziryan Salayi

Organization and Team Transformation coach & Licensed Scrum.org Professional Scrum Trainer

Agile Transformation & Self-organization Coach

Contact Jordan Gross:

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Masteringagility.org
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://agilitymasters.com/en

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S02 E15 State of the Agile Manifesto with Arie van Bennekum

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Sun, 12 Dec 2021 23:00:00 GMT

In 2001, a group of people with all different styles of developing software came together in a cabin in Utah to find commonalities in all their individual styles. They already knew that traditional, waterfall approached project couldn’t cut it anymore, but what would? The Agile Manifesto was written in that cabin. A manifesto that would have a massive impact on the way we develop products.

Arie van Bennekum, part of that group. joins us today to discuss how they got to their agreement in the first place, what he feels is the state of it after 20 years, and how to move forward.

What you’ll discover in this show:

- The manifesto is a fundamental set of principles when working with business agility
- Agility has no end state. But we’re also nowhere near where we could be.
- Pushing the status quo helps to make an agile transformation stick

Speakers:
Arie van Bennekum

Thought leader at Wemanity Group and IFAAI

Arie is a pragmatist who accommodates his pragmatism in structure, discipline and common sense. He is not afraid to enter untrained paths and take risks. He has done this since his first days in health care, later in the armed forces, and he continues to do so today. This has led to his special position as co-author of the Agile Manifesto. In the course of his Agile years Arie has become an expert in the field of business transformations towards Agile on the basis of strategic objectives and link this to very concrete objectives. He focuses on delivering value, bringing efficiency and creating support among stakeholders, through role and chain clarity based on the business model and the work packages.

The intellectual property IATM is basis for this. Arie strongly believes in leading on the
basis of exemplary behavior and from that perspective is also constantly
working on creating/strengthening an Agile (customer-oriented) culture within
Wemanity. Moreover, within Wemanity's culture, there is a strong focus on
continuous development of professionals and organization, optimal performance
based on knowledge sharing and feedback and clear task and division of roles,
for an optimal value delivery to Wemanity's customers.

Contact Arie:
Www.arievanbennekum.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ariev3/
https://twitter.com/arievanbennekum

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S06 E13 Cliff Hazell on Lessons from working at Spotify

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 08 Jan 2024 11:18:58 GMT

SummaryThe conversation covers topics such as dealing with remote teams, clear communication in remote work, the future of remote work, managing information overload, maintaining structure in communication tools, the importance of facilitation in meetings, balancing autonomy and alignment, the danger of focusing on shiny new tools, the shift from output to outcome, optimizing what we build, measuring output, outcomes, and impacts, finding the balance between autonomy and constraints, funding and budgeting agile work, and balancing autonomy and constraints in product design. In this conversation, Cliff Hazell shares insights on Spotify's product development approach and the challenges of implementing change in organizations. He emphasizes the importance of empowering product owners and managers to make decisions and secure the necessary budget. Cliff also discusses the need to treat investments differently, depending on the desired outcomes. He highlights the cultural challenges of working in diverse teams and the importance of open communication and understanding. The conversation also touches on budgeting in government organizations and offers advice on how to increase the chances of getting hired at Spotify.

Takeaways

Invest in good, clear, written communication in remote teams.
Focus on outcomes rather than just output.
Balance autonomy and alignment in organizations.
Avoid over-focusing on shiny new tools and frameworks.
Regularly review and measure the impact of the work being done.
Create a balance between autonomy and constraints in product design.
Consider a rolling window approach to funding and budgeting work.

If you like our podcast, please leave us a review. This helps us to grow the show and bring in even bigger guests.

Sponsors:
ScrumMatch: https://scrummatch.com/en
Xebia Academy: https://xebia.com/academy/nl/

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S01 E01 The Evolution of Business Agility with Dave West

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Wed, 10 Mar 2021 15:00:00 GMT

Since the notion of business agility started, many different frameworks have arisen. Dave West, CEO of Scrum.org, is joining us on the first podcast in the series to talk about the evolution of the whole concept of business agility, what role Scrum has played in it, and gives us his thoughts on how the future of business agility will look like.

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

#122 Anchors, Bold Moves, and Flies on Urinals: The Subtle Power of Behavioral Science with Phill Agnew

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 07:00:00 GMT

💡 Description:
In this thought-provoking episode of Mastering Agility, Jim and Marge sit down with Phil Agnew, host of the UK’s #1 marketing podcast, Nudge. Together, they explore the fascinating world of behavioral science, revealing how subtle nudges shape our decisions, from marketing campaigns to everyday life.

Discover the psychology behind why we choose one option over another, the ethical considerations of influence, and how businesses (and individuals) can apply these principles for positive change. Whether it’s anchoring on menus, using loss aversion to boost performance, or avoiding the pitfalls of overused marketing tricks, this episode is packed with actionable insights and real-world examples.

🔑 What You’ll Learn:

The role of behavioral science in marketing and decision-making.
Why ethical influence is more critical than ever.
How businesses and individuals can use nudges to drive behavior.
The power of anchoring, loss aversion, and social proof.
Surprising examples of influence—from handwritten notes to painted flies on urinals!

Connect with Phill on LinkedIn: (10) Phill Agnew | LinkedIn

Check out Phill's podcast Nudge: Nudge Podcast

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

ScanAgile 2025 - ScanAgile

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S04 E02 Flow Metrics for Scrum Teams with Will Seele

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 15 Aug 2022 17:00:00 GMT

Creating proper flow in your product development is hard. Applying proper metrics might just give you that nudge that you need in order to open up the lines to delivery of value. But where to start? There are so many sources that suggest different things!

Will Seele joins Sander to discuss his and Dan Vacanti’s new book: Flow Metrics for Scrum Teams.

What you’ll discover in this show:

- It's easy to apply the first metrics
- Failing isn't bad at all, it creates resilience
- Will's stance on the KanBan vs Scrum debate

Speakers:
Wilbert Seele
I will help you thrive in uncertainty

My focus areas include organizational and behavioral design as well as Evidence-Based Management. I’ve been involved in several major transformations in sectors such as banking, insurance, and marketing, and these days I’m often asked to provide a 'second opinion on the quality of product development and delivery organizations. Besides this, I’m a Professional Scrum Trainer for Scrum.org and a Professional Kanban Trainer with Prokanban.org.

Contact Will:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/wjseele/

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Additional resources:
https://prokanban.org/scrum-flow-metrics/
https://agileforhumans.com/
Lost Connections - Johann Harri

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S04 E09 Professional Agile Leadership with Joanna Plaskonka

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 14:00:00 GMT

Professional Agile Leadership is vastly different from traditional management. In fact, management does not mean leadership by default. However, quite often managers are looked upon to be leaders in an Agile organization, while they are rarely involved.

But what should Professional Agile Leadership look like? Join Sander Dur and Joanna Plaskonka to find out!

What you’ll discover in this show:

– Leadership means leading; showing by example, paving the way forward
– Massive changes are needed in our university system in order to set future leaders up for success
– Leaders ensure psychological safety

Speakers:

Joanna Plaskonka
Agile Coach, Consultant, and Professional Scrum Trainer

Agile Coach, Visual Facilitator, and Part-Time Illustrator!

My educational background is related to Control Engineering and Robotics. I did not become an engineer automating a chocolate factory (like most children would dream to be), however, I learned a lot and finished my Ph.D. studies in Robotics with honors.

My professional career started in the field of Software Configuration Management. It quickly turned out to be that supporting people in creating effective processes and valuable products is what propels my career positively. My adventure with Scrum and Agile began in 2010 and continues to this day. I am currently a Professional Scrum Trainer, Agile Coach, and consultant. My mission is to deliver the best learning experience and have a positive impact on people and organizations.

Contact Joanna:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/joanna-plaskonka/

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Sander Dur is a Professional Scrum Trainer at Scrum.org, podcast host of Mastering Agility, Professional Scrum Master, and Lead Agile Consultant and trainer at Xebia. Besides this, he’s an avid writer for predominantly Serious Scrum on Medium.com. Sander has a major passion for the human side in complex domains. Ensuring a high level of psychological safety, therefore, is a critical part of his work. Organizations in complex domains can only survive when innovating. Innovation can only take place with the right balance between low social friction and high intellectual friction. While most organizations now understand how to apply Agile frameworks, they struggle with the delivery of value. Psychological safety is the next step in this evolution and Sander has a huge drive to help organizations reach that step.

He gained experience as a Scrum Master, Agile Coach, and Leadership consultant in many different top-tier organizations, including Nike and ASML.

Sander is enthusiastic, open-minded, and ambitious. He finds interpersonal relationships and intrinsic motivations very important in team dynamics. Besides his work, Sander loves to spend time with his family, enjoys sports and eating healthy, barbecuing, riding his motorcycle, and traveling.

Let’s connect! Sander is always up for new connections and discussions!

Masteringagility.org
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur
h

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

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#117 - Beyond Frameworks: Ambition, AI, and Agility - Part 2

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Fri, 22 Nov 2024 17:30:07 GMT

In this podcast episode, Jim and Sander discuss the final stages of Sander and Ryan Brooks's upcoming book, Solving for Value: A Journey of Ambition and Stupidity. Sander shares his excitement around the book's December 1st release and the launch event. The book, originally focused on Scrum, evolved to address broader challenges around creating value in product management beyond just following frameworks.

Jim and Sander explore shifts in the industry toward product-centric models, noting the risks of adopting frameworks like Scrum without considering organizational context and the tendency for companies to prematurely abandon or restructure teams when products fail, disregarding the team’s accumulated knowledge and cohesion.

They discuss the rising use of AI in product management and workforce reductions tied to AI, cautioning that while AI has potential, it also brings significant ethical and operational risks. Jim and Sander question whether AI advancements could meet needs without fully replacing human roles and the broader impacts on industry and society.

The conversation touches on the potential impact of technologies like Neuralink and AI on future work and human life, noting ethical, social, and economic implications, including the challenges of accessibility to these advancements. They wrap up by promoting the book's storytelling approach, which mixes a business fable with real-life insights, aiming to deliver practical, relatable learning for those in product development and management.

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

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S07 E08 Cliff Hazel and Chris Stone on Going for Chaos

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 21 May 2024 07:00:00 GMT

Summary

The conversation explores the overuse of the phrase 'it depends' and the importance of providing context and honesty in responses. The speakers discuss the value of understanding the starting point and the direction one is moving in. They also emphasize the need to optimize for value rather than efficiency and consider the broader impacts and trade-offs of decisions. The role of fun in retrospectives is highlighted, as well as the importance of finding a sustainable pace and taking care of administrative tasks. The conversation concludes with the question of the biggest learning for the year.

Takeaways

Avoid overusing the phrase 'it depends' and provide context and honesty in responses.
Understand the starting point and the direction one is moving in.
Optimize for value rather than efficiency and consider the broader impacts and trade-offs of decisions.
Incorporate fun into retrospectives to keep participants engaged and improve the quality of actions.
Find a sustainable pace and take care of administrative tasks to avoid burnout.
Continuously learn and adapt to improve and grow.

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S05 E03 A New Hope .... For Dependencies

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 08 May 2023 17:00:00 GMT

Do more of the right work (and less of the wrong work).
Create more actual teams than just groups of people who work together.
Learning how to improve themselves, their team, and their organization incrementally.
Understand that less, not more, is usually part of the answer to some of the hardest questions we all face.
See their workplaces, teams, and their sphere of influence as something that is evolving, which requires an evolution of all of its parts to adapt.

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

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#115 Hosts against Humanity: A tale of Scrum, Smurfs & big decisions - Part 1

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 07:00:00 GMT

This episode features an interview with the hosts of Mastering Agility who discuss their personal and professional journeys into Agile. Sander and Jim share how they transitioned into the Scrum Master role from various career paths. Both highlight the importance of adaptability, continuous learning, and servant leadership in their Agile work.

Jim initially worked in a tech company as a vice president managing multiple roles but shifted to Agile after being recruited by someone who saw potential in his leadership style. He explains that his previous experience prepared him for the Scrum Master role by teaching him to focus on value and relationships. Sander’s Agile journey began with a course on Scrum, which helped him rethink how to approach work, particularly after recovering from burnout. He reflects on how his burnout changed his perspective on success, leading him to focus on what gives him energy and purpose.

They also dive into common challenges in Agile transformations, with both hosts mentioning frequent client questions like “How long does it take to become Agile?” or “What metrics should we use?” They emphasize that Agile success depends on adaptability, calculated risk-taking, and fostering an environment where teams can figure out what works for them, much like Spotify did. They criticize organizations that fear risk and avoid change, likening them to companies like Blockbuster and Blackberry, which failed to adapt and ultimately lost their market positions.

In discussing work-life balance, Jim and Sander reflect on the impact their careers have had on their personal lives. Jim opens up about struggling with anxiety in the past, while Sander discusses the mental shift he experienced after his burnout, learning to prioritize happiness over traditional markers of success. They also stress the importance of creating space for self-care and setting boundaries in their work, noting that personal well-being is critical to professional success.

The episode ends on a lighter note, where each of the hosts shares something personal. Sander reveals that he was once a ballroom dancer, while Jim talks about how he dealt with anxiety. They discuss hypothetical alternative careers if they didn't need to work for money, with suggestions ranging from running a sustainable farm to being a professional helper, tying back to their values of service and learning.

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S07 E07 Evelien Hölsken on Free A Girl

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 14 May 2024 07:00:00 GMT

Summary
Evelien Hölsken, founder of the Free A GIrl Foundation, discusses her work to end sexual exploitation of children. She shares her journey from a commercial background to the nonprofit sector and explains how she was inspired to start her own foundation. Evelien discusses the challenges of fundraising and the need for transparency in the nonprofit sector. She also highlights the importance of education and prevention in combating child exploitation. Evelien shares heartbreaking stories of children trapped in the sex trade and the impact her foundation has had in rescuing and rehabilitating survivors. She emphasizes the need for continued efforts to bring justice to perpetrators and support survivors.

Want to donate or contribute? Check out the website:
https://www.freeagirl.us/

Keywords
sexual exploitation, children, nonprofit sector, fundraising, transparency, education, prevention, rescue, rehabilitation, justice

Takeaways

The Free A Girl Foundation works to end thesexual exploitation of children and has rescued almost 8,000 children so far.
The foundation focuses on both rescue and rehabilitation, as well as prevention and raising awareness.
There are challenges in fundraising, but transparency and personal connections with donors can help.
The justice system needs improvement to ensure perpetrators are convicted and survivors feel safe to report cases.
Education and prevention are crucial in combating child exploitation, and the foundation runs programs to empower survivors and educate communities.
The foundation aims to continue its work until there is no more sexual exploitation of children.

Titles

Empowering Survivors: Education and Awareness
Challenges and Triumphs: Fundraising for a Nonprofit

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

Sound Bites

"The direct impact, the outputs, the results are the rescue of almost 8,000 children."
"There's lots of impunity. So perpetrators are arrested, they are hardly convicted."
"We educate survivors to become lawyers themselves, or judges, or prosecutors or other kind of professions that have to do with human rights."

Chapters

00:00Introduction and Background

08:04Rescue and Impact

21:32Empowering Survivors

25:26Fundraising and Awareness

33:37Call to Action

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S06 E17 Dan Balcauski on Pricing Strategies

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 12 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT

Summary

The conversation explores various aspects of pricing strategies, including benefits framing, pricing orientations, value-based pricing, and the challenges associated with it. The importance of regularly reviewing pricing and making incremental changes is emphasized. The fear of pricing conversations and risk mitigation strategies are discussed. The emotional relationship with money and its impact on pricing decisions is explored. The chapter concludes with a discussion on bundling price increases with value increases. The conversation explores the topics of costs, value, different business models, adjusting pricing based on value, defining value, and getting started with pricing strategy. It also touches on the concept of overpriced products.

Takeaways

Regularly review and update pricing strategies to align with market changes and customer value.
Consider benefits framing and value-based pricing to effectively communicate the value of products or services.
Understand the emotional relationship customers have with money and the impact it has on pricing decisions.
Mitigate risks associated with pricing changes by conducting market research, testing, and communicating effectively with customers. Consider the costs and value of your product or service when determining pricing.
Different business models, such as razor and razor blades, can impact pricing strategies.
Adjust pricing based on the value customers receive from your product or service.
Define value by understanding the functional, emotional, and social jobs your product or service fulfills.
Start thinking about your pricing strategy early in your company's development and treat it as an ongoing process.
Perceived value plays a significant role in customers' willingness to pay.
Be mindful of unexpected fees and their impact on customers' perception of value.
The most overpriced products can vary based on individual perspectives and preferences.

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S06 E15 Becky Savill on Workplace Learning for Human Beings

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 08:00:00 GMT

Summary

In this conversation, Becky Savill discusses her recently launched book and the importance of workplace learning for humans. She shares her experience of unpacking the physical copy of her book and the pride she felt in achieving this milestone. Becky emphasizes the need for self-directed learning and the limitations of traditional learning approaches. She also discusses her career transition from audio engineer to scrum master and the skills she gained from her previous profession. The conversation highlights the importance of creating space for learning in organizations and the cultural shift needed to prioritize learning investments. The conversation explores the importance of seeking diverse perspectives and learning from others. It emphasizes the value of being the smartest person in the room and the benefits of expanding perspectives beyond the agile field. The discussion also touches on the experience of writing a book as a couple and provides advice for personal growth and development.

Takeaways

Self-directed learning is more effective and engaging than traditional approaches.
Creating space and a culture that supports learning is essential for individual and organizational growth.
Learning communities, such as communities of practice, provide valuable opportunities for collaboration and knowledge sharing.
Balancing structure and flexibility in learning approaches allows for individual preferences and needs to be met.
Investing in learning and development is crucial for attracting and retaining top talent in organizations. Seek opportunities to be the smartest person in the room and help others, but also gravitate towards rooms where you can learn from experienced individuals.
Expand your perspectives beyond the agile field and seek agility outside of agility.
Collaborating on a project with your partner can be a rewarding experience that strengthens your relationship.
Be curious and ask open-ended questions to learn from others and seek diverse perspectives.
Don't overthink and be brave in pursuing your goals and seeking feedback.

If you like our podcast, please leave us a review. This helps us to grow the show and bring in even bigger guests.

Sponsors:
ScrumMatch: https://scrummatch.com/en
Xebia Academy: https://xebia.com/academy/nl/

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S06 E11 2023 Reflections and Finding Root Causes

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Wed, 27 Dec 2023 09:00:00 GMT

SummaryIn this conversation, Jim and Sander discuss their holiday plans and reflect on the highlights of the podcast in 2023. They also share their dream guests for future episodes and discuss the importance of understanding root causes in problem-solving. They explore how Scrum Masters can help teams become more effective and the need to build environments for product success. They also discuss the challenges of avoiding reactive approaches and the importance of continuous improvement. Finally, they discuss the importance of recognizing blind spots and areas for improvement. In this conversation, Jim and Sander discuss various topics related to their professional lives and personal preferences. They explore the balance between quality and satisfaction, the importance of professional emotional regulation, and the need to bury unwanted concepts. They also touch on the issue of hate and ad hominem attacks on social media and the value of constructive feedback. The conversation concludes with a discussion about the misuse of the Shu-Ha-Ri model and the joy of holiday food traditions.

Takeaways

Reflecting on the highlights of the past year can provide valuable insights and learning opportunities.
Understanding root causes is important for effective problem-solving and preventing recurring issues.
Scrum Masters can have a wider impact by building their skills and focusing on continuous improvement.
Creating environments for product success is crucial for long-term value creation.
Avoiding reactive approaches and focusing on proactive measures can lead to better outcomes.
Recognizing blind spots and areas for improvement is essential for personal and professional growth. Balancing quality and satisfaction is important in professional work.
Professional emotional regulation is crucial for maintaining composure and being a calming influence.
It's okay to have strengths and weaknesses, and not everyone has to be good at everything.
Unwanted concepts and practices should be buried to make room for more effective approaches.
Hate and ad hominem attacks on social media should be replaced with constructive feedback.
Being candid is important, but it's essential to avoid being an asshole.
Teaching should be focused on practical application rather than just theoretical knowledge.
Being a little like Mr. Miyagi and withholding certain information can be beneficial in facilitating learning.
Helping others should not be driven by selfish motives.
Identifying as a teacher or educator depends on the specific context and knowledge.
Food and holiday traditions bring joy and create memorable experiences.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S01 E04 Humanizing the workspace with Gunther Verheyen

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Sun, 04 Apr 2021 22:00:00 GMT

Ever since the industrial revolution we've been getting more distanced from the value of people in the workspace. People are being called resourced and treated as such. A computer mouse is a resource. An office chair is a resource. People are people. In this episode, we're talking to Gunther Verheyen about we can humanize the workspace again.

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

DocDur Agile #1

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 12 Jul 2022 12:00:00 GMT

DocDur Agile is an open office where Agile Practitioners can ask any question they encounter in practice situations and would like to have some advice or a different perspective. Think of it as seeing a regular doctor have a physical check-up.

If you have questions or requests that you would like the Doc to have a check on, please drop a message on LinkedIn or join the Mastering Agility Discord community!

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Sander Dur is a Professional Scrum Trainer at Scrum.org, podcast host of Mastering Agility, Professional Scrum Master and Lead Agile Consultant, and trainer at Xebia. Besides this, he's an avid writer for predominantly Serious Scrum on Medium.com. Sander has a major passion for the human side in complex domains. Ensuring a high level of psychological safety, therefore, is a critical part of his work. Organizations in complex domains can only survive when innovating. Innovation can only take place with the right balance between low social friction and high intellectual friction. While most organizations now understand how to apply Agile frameworks, they struggle with the delivery of value. Psychological safety is the next step in this evolution and Sander has a huge drive to help organizations reach that step.

He gained experience as a Scrum Master, Agile Coach, and Leadership consultant in many different top-tier organizations, including Nike and ASML.

Sander is enthusiastic, open-minded, and ambitious. He finds interpersonal relationships and intrinsic motivations very important in team dynamics. Besides his work, Sander loves to spend time with his family, enjoys sports and eating healthy, barbecuing, riding his motorcycle, and traveling.

Let’s connect! Sander is always up for new connections and discussions!

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Additional resources:

Discord community:https://discord.gg/6YJamBJxUV

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

#128 Starry Nights and Soulless Office: Jim and Sander on Van Gogh, Corporate Dementors, and the Art of Mastery

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 07:00:00 GMT

"I don’t like the phrase 'meet people where they are.' If you only do that, it’s too easy for everyone to settle. Instead, I try to meet them a half-step ahead—and take them on a field trip to what’s possible."

In this episode, Jim and Sander talk about the pursuit of mastery, how to inspire growth, and why being too comfortable can kill progress. From Van Gogh's late start to corporate energy vampires, this conversation is part therapy, part stand-up, and -as usual- fully human.

In this heartfelt and candid episode, Sander and Jim meet up at the Xebia studio for a conversation that blends humor, vulnerability, and inspiration. They unpack what it means to pursue mastery, how creativity emerges in unlikely places, and why many of us wrestle with the pressure of "starting too late."

The dynamic duo reflects on Jim's experiences from the Van Gogh Museum, shares personal goals like writing a book and dives deep into what success truly means—especially when you feel like time is slipping away.

They also tackle workplace dynamics, including how to deal with energy vampires on teams, giving and receiving feedback effectively, and staying authentic even when the work gets tough.

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

https://agileintheether.co.uk/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S03 E08 Creating Communities of Practice with Emily Webber

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Wed, 15 Jun 2022 08:00:00 GMT

Developing, learning, and sharing knowledge is vital to the success of your organization. Training will get you so far, but creating communities of practice provides the chance to really set a sustainable path for development.

Emily Webber is joining Sander to discuss how and why to create communities of practice, and what the benefits are to both people and organizations.

What you’ll discover in this show:

- Communities are more than a group of people with the same interest
- CoPs enable cross-pollination of knowledge
- Being part of CoPs can increase the satisfaction of people

Speakers:
Emily Webber
Independent agile, delivery and organizational consultant, coach, and trainer

I offer Agile and Lean coaching, mentoring, development, and training to support Agile delivery and lasting transformation. I am passionate about helping organizations, stakeholders, teams, and individuals to reach their full potential and develop a culture of continuous improvement.

I work with teams to deliver valuable work that meets user needs and that everyone is proud of, I coach teams and individuals to quickly grasp Agile and Lean principles and techniques to be able to start applying them to see immediate results. I create meaningful connections between people and build communities to increase learning.

I seek opportunities to give back to the Agile community and am a co-founder and organizer of Agile on the Bench; a meet-up in London, a presenter and contributor at Agile and Lean conferences and meet-ups, and a mentor for Agile professionals.

Contact Emily:
www.emilywebber.co.uk

Twitter

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Additional resources:

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

#120 From Critique to Connection: The Path to Growth and Connection through feedback with James De Mulder

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Fri, 24 Jan 2025 16:58:05 GMT

Description:
In this episode, Sander and Jim dive deep into the art and science of feedback. Joined by James De Mulder, they explore the nuances of giving and receiving feedback, its role in personal and team growth, and the challenges that come with it. Learn how principles from Nonviolent Communication (NVC) can transform feedback into a powerful tool for connection and collaboration. Plus, discover how AI tools like ChatGPT can help you refine your feedback skills.

💡 What You'll Learn:

Why feedback is about connection, not criticism.
How to use the four components of Nonviolent Communication in feedback.
Tips for delivering feedback that resonates and empowers.
The importance of timing and context in feedback conversations.
How managers can foster psychological safety and trust within teams.
Practical applications of AI for practicing and improving feedback delivery

Connect with James on LinkedIn: (9) James De Mulder | LinkedIn

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

Masteringagility.org
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://agilitymasters.com/en

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S02 E11 Serious Scrum with Willem-Jan Ageling and Sjoerd Nyland

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Sun, 14 Nov 2021 23:00:00 GMT

Agility and Scrum are topics that people love to talk about and write about. If you just scroll through a random LinkedIn feed, something about Scrum is likely to pop up. Yet the ability to post anything makes it prone to deliver articles with little value or low quality.

Today’s guests created a great platform that does not only publish quality articles, it is also a wonderful learning experience for people who like to grow their Scrum knowledge as well as their writing skills. Sjoerd Nyland and Willem-Jan Ageling join us to talk about Serious Scrum.

What you’ll discover in this show:

- Serious Scrum has a thriving community
- You don't have to be a prolific writer to start
- Serious Scrum provides a great learning experience

Speakers:

Willem-Jan Ageling

Founder at Serious Scrum

👋 My name is Willem-Jan Ageling. I coach teams to create high-value products in complex environments. I am the co-owner of and writer for Serious Scrum. I currently work as a Senior Agile Coach at Worldline.

✔️Together with Sjoerd Nijland, I founded the independent community Serious Scrum. With Sjoerd and Maarten Dalmijn, I saw the need to be free from constraints of the latest version of the Scrum Guide. This is why we created the Serious Scrum Playbook, which is our baseline to discuss Scrum.

🌊 Founder and owner of Serious Scrum, the largest independent publication and Slack community on Scrum with more than 4000 members.

✉️ You can reach out to me by connecting on LinkedIn, or dropping me a message on the

Contact Willem-Jan:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/willemjanageling/
https://medium.com/@WJAgeling

Sjoerd Nyland

Founder at Serious Scrum

Professional Agile Leader (PAL), Scrum Trainer (R2M), Distinguished Scrum Master (PSMIII), Scaled Scrum Professional (SPS), Advanced Professional Product Owner (PSPOII). Kanban Master (PK & PSK), Lean UX facilitator (PSU), Service Design facilitator, Coaching High-Performance Teams. Certified Neuro-Linguistic Programming Business Practitioner, Authentic Leadership, Evidence-Based Management, E-Commerce Professional.

Contact Sjoerd:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sjoerd-nijland-9323376/

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gothelf/

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S01 E19 Embracing an innovation mindset with Jeff Gothelf

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Wed, 21 Jul 2021 11:00:00 GMT

As the world around is constantly changes, we need to innovate the way we work, as well as our products in order for us to survive in the long run. Classic cases like Nokia and Blockbuster made very clear what happens if you focus on the wrong things. However, it can be quite a challenge to move from our traditional cash cow and follow a path of more risk (but a higher potential margin). Stakeholders might be cautious of the fact that this might not bring them the ROI they expected. To inspire us in this week’s episode of Mastering Agility, Jeff Gothelf talks to us about his experience and ideas.

What you’ll discover in this show:
- Innovation is not something that’s just for the teams
- It takes a lot of courage to innovate
- Engagement across all levels in the organization is fundamental for success

Speakers:

Jeff Gothelf

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AND BUSINESS AGILITY

COACHING, CONSULTING, TRAINING & KEYNOTES

I believe humility and learning are in short supply. To improve that, I teach executives and teams -- through advising, workshops, keynotes, coaching & books -- to focus on their customers, learn from mistakes and create an agile culture that continuously improves their products and services and the way they work.

More recently I've codified the principles of modern product development and applied them to building a platform of thought leadership and recognized expertise. I capture this approach in my latest book, Forever Employable.

I'm excited to partner with executives and companies looking to improve not only their products but the culture that builds them. To learn more please reach out directly to me at jeff@gothelf.co.

Contact Jeff Gothelf:
https://jeffgothelf.com/

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://agilitymasters.com/en
https://sander-dur.medium.com/
Additional resources:

https://www.amazon.com/Forever-Employable-Stop-Looking-Work/dp/B087D2HHZX/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=jeff+gothelf&qid=1626867560&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Sense-Respond-audiobook/dp/B081ZFFRXZ/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=jeff+gothelf&qid=1626867571&sr=8-4

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S05 E06 Lead without Blame with Tricia Broderick part I

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 13:00:00 GMT

For questions or requests that you would like us to check on, please drop a message on LinkedIn or join the Mastering Agility Discord community!

Participate as an audience member
Mastering Agility Mural

Tricia Broderick

Are you struggling to lead your teams toward success during these chaotic times?

Tricia Broderick, co-author of Lead without Blame, focuses on this specific challenge. She is a leadership and organizational advisor. With over twenty-five years of experience, her transformational leadership ignites the growth of leaders and teams to deliver quality outcomes. Tricia boldly role models putting people first. Her aim is to create inclusive connections and collaborations that challenge and support people in an authentic, vulnerable, and engaging way. She is a highly-rated trainer, coach, facilitator, and motivational keynote speaker.

In 2022, she co-authored with Diana Larsen, Lead without Blame. A detailed framework for leaders to move past outdated workplace blame and shame strategies to cultivate resilient teams capable of facing adversity and setbacks confidently.

Sander Dur

Do more of the right work (and less of the wrong work).
Create more actual teams than just groups of people who work together.
Learning how to improve themselves, their team, and their organization incrementally.
Understand that less, not more, is usually part of the answer to some of the hardest questions we all face.
See their workplaces, teams, and their sphere of influence as something that is evolving, which requires an evolution of all of its parts to adapt.

Contact Magdalena
https://magdalenafirlit.com/
agileinthespotlight.com
https://www.youtube.com/c/MagdalenaFirlitAgileInTheSpotlight/featured
https://twitter.com/magda_firlit
https://www.linkedin.com/in/magdalenafirlit/

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S02 E08 Professional Agile Leadership with Evidence Based Management with Magdalena Firlit

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 10:00:00 GMT

Peter Drucker famously said: “You can’t improve what you can’t measure”. Measurements and metrics are incredibly useful when it comes to product improvement, having the desire to get a better market position or just improvement of yourself as an individual. But then the next challenge; what to measure? And why?

Magdalena Firlit, Agile Transformation Consultant and Professional Scrum Trainer, talks to us about the PAL-EBM (Professional Agile Leadership Management with Evidence-Based Management) framework. Patricia Kong was a guest earlier this year to talk about EBM, but how does it relate to leadership?

What you’ll discover in this show:

- You can start creating metrics at any time
- It’s a dialogue between (top-level) management and teams, not a top-down approach
- Measuring less than all four Key Value Areas leaves out great potential data
Speakers:

Magdalena Firlit
Agile Transformation Consultant

I am a Professional Scrum Trainer, Agile transformation consultant, trainer, mentor, life and business coach (graduated postgraduate university course in coaching (ICF compliant) and training. I am also a lecturer at the Universities teaching a postgraduate course for managers “Holilider”, Introduction to Agile and Agile Leadership.

I gained many years of professional experience, working for several companies, observing their Agility path. I specialize in Agile transformation. I cooperate with organizations of various sizes (large, medium, small, start-ups) and with all levels – from teams to C-level. It is most important to me to understand company needs, why do they want to change, what benefits does the transformation brings.

Sander Dur (host)
Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”
Sander Dur is a business agility enthusiast, with a passion for people. Whether it’s healthy product development, agile leadership, measurement, or psychological safety, Sander has the drive to enable organizations to the best of their abilities. He is an avid article writer, working on a book about Scrum Mastery from the Trenches, and is connecting listeners with the most influential people in the industry.

Masteringagility.org
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://agilitymasters.com/en

Additional resources:
Read the EBM Guide

Magdalena

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S03 E06 Ethics in Product with Anthony Murphy

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Wed, 13 Apr 2022 12:00:00 GMT

Many organizations know what to build, how to build it, and to a lesser extent, why. Tons of features go out to the teams who are creating wonderful products. But when it comes to ethics, we don’t incorporate that much into our products.

Anthony Murphy is an active advocate for bringing ethics back into our products. Whether that’s the accessibility of people with a disability, minorities in ethnicity, or other aspects, they should become a part of it.

What you’ll discover in this show:

- We talk a lot about the why, how, and what of a product, but rarely about the ethics
- How topics like accessibility should be taken into your product
- We’re on the verge of change in the human aspect of work

Speakers:
Anthony Murphy
Product Coach & Director of the Association of Product Professionals

Anthony is a Product Coach, Director of the Association of Product Professionals, and Founder of Product Pathways.
As a coach, Anthony helps organizations be successful in products. His experience spans several industries, from Healthcare to even AI and Machine Learning. He has shipped products at every stage of the product life-cycle (even sunset them!) and has worked across start-ups, all the way to large enterprises.
An international keynote speaker and writer. Anthony is also a coffee lover, beer lover, and a father to two cats and a little human.
Contact Anthony:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ant-murphy/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ant_murphy
Medium: http://antmurphy.medium.com
Site: http://antmurphy.me
Association of Product Professionals: http://productprofessionals.com
Product Pathways: http://productpathways.com

Sander Dur (host)
Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Additional resources:
A11y - https://www.a11yproject.com
Ethics canvas -
Mastering Agility events: https://www.meetup.com/ma

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

#100 Denise Tilles on Product Operations

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 28 May 2024 08:00:00 GMT

Summary

Denise discusses the concept of product operations and its role in helping product managers make faster and better quality decisions. Product operations involves providing PMs with the necessary inputs and support to set strategy, prioritize, create roadmaps, and collaborate effectively with stakeholders. It differs from traditional agile approaches by focusing on the system around teams rather than just the teams themselves. Denise also highlights the importance of defining the product and understanding the problem to be solved. She emphasizes the need for buy-in from leadership and the importance of clear communication and stakeholder management in implementing product operations. In this part of the conversation, Denise discusses the challenges of stakeholder discussions and balancing strategic decisions with short-term opportunities. She also talks about the relationship between strategy and incentives in a product organization. The conversation then shifts to the topic of Denise's book on product operations and why she decided to write it. She emphasizes the importance of understanding what product operations is and how it can be implemented in different areas of a company. The chapter ends with a discussion on scaling challenges and the role of go-to-market alignment and data in product operations. In this conversation, Yuval and Jim discuss various topics related to agile portfolio management and OKRs. They explore the challenges and benefits of implementing agile practices in traditional project management offices (PMOs) and the importance of aligning goals and strategies at different levels of the organization. They also delve into the use of OKRs as a tool for setting and measuring goals, emphasizing the need for outcome-oriented goals and collaboration in their development. Throughout the conversation, they highlight the importance of continuous improvement and adaptability in managing portfolios and achieving organizational success.

Takeaways

Product operations helps PMs make faster and better quality decisions by providing the necessary inputs and support.

Product operations focuses on the system around teams, rather than just the teams themselves, setting it apart from traditional agile approaches.

Defining the product and understanding the problem to be solved are crucial for effective product operations.

Buy-in from leadership is essential for implementing product operations.

Clear communication and stakeholder management are key to successful product operations. Balancing stakeholder discussions and strategic decisions can be challenging, especially when short-term opportunities arise.

The relationship between strategy and incentives in a product organization is complex and can lead to conflicting goals.

Product operations is a key function in a company and understanding its role and potential is crucial.

Implementing product operations requires considering areas of deficit and opportunity within the organization.

Denise's book on product operations provides actionable tips and real-life experiences to help companies navigate these challenges. Agile practices can be challenging to implement in traditional PMOs, but they offer benefits such as increased alignment and adaptability.

OKRs are a useful tool for setting and measuring goals, but they should be outcome-oriented and developed collaboratively with the people doing the work.

Continuous improvement and adaptability are key to managing portfolios effectively and achieving organizational success.

Experimentation and learning are crucial for driving innovation and differentiation in portfolio management.

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

Masteringagility.org
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://agilitymasters.com/en
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S02 E07 The End of Scrum? with David Pereira

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 18 Oct 2021 10:00:00 GMT

Ever since the industrial revolution, we’ve been working with bosses and managers. Two/three decades ago, business agility started to take over the way organizations have been developing their products and thinking about how to overcome the challenges they’re facing.

Now we’re in the second half of 2021, and David Pereira sees a massive impediment in making an agile transformation stick. In today’s show, David discusses what he sees could potentially introduce the end of Scrum.

What you’ll discover in this show:
- The current state of Scrum implementations could be improved
- Leadership and management plays a crucial role in that
- Letting go of command and control is keeping organizations from advancing
Speakers:
David Pereira
Head of Product Management

I am a passionate Product Leader with ten years of product management experience. Over the last years, I led many product teams in successful endeavors.

Some highlights of my journey are:
• Reinventing the route planning for thousands of people over Brazil. I led this project from concept to go-live. It resulted in 4M USD cost saving with a 200K USD investment.
• Innovate the secondhand car market in Brazil. We created a business of 200M USD per year. I was responsible for three Product Teams. I led them in discovering solutions that innovated this market.
• Exponential marketplace growth: from 500K € to 45M € revenue per year. My role was to find alternatives on how to scale the business, I was the Product Owner of it.

Curiosity drives me daily. My biggest fear is the comfort zone. Curiosity spurs action; knowledge kills it.
One of my hobbies is writing articles. I share my ideas on Medium, and I'm an editor at Serious Scrum.

Contact David:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidavpereira/

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Additional resources:

Find David on:

o Medium

o LinkedIn

o YouTube

Find David’s Udemy courses:

https://www.udemy.com/user/david-pereira-51/

Sorry Scrum the game might be over for you

https://www.linkedin.com/in/hkniberg/

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S03 E09 Evolving Culture and Frameworks with Henrik Kniberg

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Wed, 22 Jun 2022 07:00:00 GMT

It seems these days people are looking for the one-size-fits-all approach to get all of their organizational challenges solved. The problem with that is that there is no single approach that you can map to your organization. How to deal with these challenges?

Henrik Kniberg joins Sander to discuss how to grow both culture and frameworks to fit them into your organization and what you can do to support it.

What you’ll discover in this show:

- Contrary to popular belief, the Spotify Model does not exist
- Copy pasting cultures and frameworks, does not work
- Finding your corporate culture is an empirical process too

Speakers:
Henrik Kniberg
I code Minecraft @ Mojang, coach teams & leaders, and jam a lot!

I do Minecraft design/development at Mojang, and coach the teams using Agile & Lean principles and methods like Scrum, XP, and Kanban. Previously worked with Spotify and LEGO, helping to implement agile culture there and in other fast-moving and fast-growing environments.

I cofounded OperationalExcellence.com together with Niklas Modig.

I accidentally sort of co-created something called the Spotify Model.
https://labs.spotify.com/2014/03/27/spotify-engineering-culture-part-1

I'm into climate change, and co-founded http://GoClimate.com. Help us save the world!

Contact Henrik:
http://www.crisp.se/henrik.kniberg

Twitter

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Sander Dur is a Professional Scrum Trainer at Scrum.org, podcast host of Mastering Agility, Professional Scrum Master and Lead Agile Consultant, and trainer at Xebia. Besides this, he's an avid writer for predominantly Serious Scrum on Medium.com. Sander has a major passion for the human side in complex domains. Ensuring a high level of psychological safety, therefore, is a critical part of his work. Organizations in complex domains can only survive when innovating. Innovation can only take place with the right balance between low social friction and high intellectual friction. While most organizations now understand how to apply Agile frameworks, they struggle with the delivery of value. Psychological safety is the next step in this evolution and Sander has a huge drive to help organizations reach that step.

He gained experience as a Scrum Master, Agile Coach, and Leadership consultant in many different top-tier organizations, including Nike and ASML.

Let’s connect! Sander is always up for new connections and discussions!

Masteringagility.org
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Additional resources:

https://www.minecraft.net/nl-nl

Disc

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://agilitymasters.com/en
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S02 E03 flOwKRs with Jurgen Appelo

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Thu, 23 Sep 2021 14:00:00 GMT

OKRs provide perfect opportunities to guide your product or experience to value. The thing with OKRs, though, is that they seem to be challenging to truly implement and use to your benefit. Where do we start? How do they relate to Product Goals? Is this the classic chicken-egg story when it comes to the Product Backlog (or ‘wish lists’) and OKRs?

Jurgen Appelo (TedX speaker, thought leader, workshop king, and keynote speaker) joins Mastering Agility to take us through his thoughts about setting objectives and measuring their results.

What you’ll discover in this show:

- Creating habits help when implementing OKRs
- These objectives are relevant on all levels
- Continuous flow supports the achievement of goals
Speakers:

Jurgen Appelo

Entrepreneur, Author, and Top 100 Keynote Speaker on Agility, Leadership, and Innovation. Manage the System and Lead the People!

Jurgen calls himself a creative networker. But sometimes he’s a writer, speaker, trainer, entrepreneur, illustrator, manager, blogger, reader, dreamer, leader, freethinker, or… Dutch guy. Inc.com has called him a Top 50 Leadership Expert and a Top 100 Leadership Speaker. Since 2008, Jurgen writes a popular blog at NOOP.NL, offering ideas on the creative economy, agile management, organizational change, and personal development. He is the author of the book Management 3.0, which describes the role of the manager in agile organizations; How to Change the World, which describes a supermodel for change management; Managing for Happiness, which offers you practical ideas to engage workers, improve work, and delight clients; and most recently, Startup, Scaleup, Screwup, which contains 50% inspiring stories and 50% practices to follow and dives into the major topics that business leaders and entrepreneurs are confronted with.

Contact Jurgen Appelo:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jurgenappelo/
www.jurgenappelo.com

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host ‘Mastering Agility”

Additional resources:
https://shiftup.work/

The discussed new blog po

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

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#121 Wise bees, optimized Learning and acceptable Discomfort: Mastering Agility Hosts and Ryan Brook Reflect on 2024

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Wed, 29 Jan 2025 07:00:00 GMT

In this reflective and inspiring year-end episode of Mastering Agility, hosts Sander Dur and Jim Sammons are joined by "Solving For Value" co-author and "evil twin" Ryan Brook, along with editor extraordinaire Marge Scheuerer, for a conversation about leadership, agility, and the ever-elusive definition of success.

From personal growth in 2024 to the challenges of balancing work and personal satisfaction - this episode dives deep into what it means to be a leader, a consultant, and, above all, human. With topics ranging from the over-certification of Scrum Masters to giving back through charitable work, this episode is packed with humor, introspection, and actionable insights for leaders and agile practitioners alike.

Why not all Scrum Masters are created equal.
The importance of balancing career ambitions with personal fulfillment.
What it means to be a leader versus a manager.
The evolving definition of “enough” in life and work.
Pro bono work and giving back to the community.
How to create personalized approaches to learning and leadership.
The joys of being authentic—and the challenges it brings.

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

ScanAgile 2025 - ScanAgile

Connect with Ryan:

Optilearn | Scrum Training That You Can Trust

(9) Ryan Brook | LinkedIn

Get Solving For Value:

Solving for Value - Mastering Agility

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S01 E11 The Six Enablers of Business Agility with Karim Harbott

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Sun, 30 May 2021 22:00:00 GMT

Abstract:

Any agile transformation can be incredibly challenging. Complexity is sky high, and so is risk. Talk through some of these challenges, accompanied by all his experience he condensed into his highly anticipated new book The 6 Enablers of Business Agility (released June 1st). Adopting the latest and greatest agile tools and practices won’t be enough to respond to rapid market change. But if that’s not the case, what can we do?! Join us now for some great advice and words of experience by this world-leading business agility and leadership consultant!

What you’ll discover in this show:

- Implementing new roles for everyone alone is not going to cut it
- We can learn from giants like Microsoft, Netflix, and Apple
- It all falls back to having engaged employees

Speakers:

Karim Harbott

Business Agility and Leadership consultant, entrepreneur, author, and international keynote speaker

Karim Harbott is a world-leading business agility and innovation coach. He is a serial entrepreneur and founding partner of Agile Centre, a global agile training and consulting firm, and the Business Agility Academy, the leading international business agility certification body. He is also a non-executive director of the Scrum Alliance, the world’s first, and largest, agile certification body.

Contact Karim Harbott:
https://www.karimharbott.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/karimharbott/?originalSubdomain=uk
https://twitter.com/karimharbott?lang=en

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Sander Dur is a business agility enthusiast, with a passion for people. Whether it’s healthy product developme

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://agilitymasters.com/en
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

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S01 E10 Starting with Self-Management with Stephanie Ockerman

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 25 May 2021 18:00:00 GMT

Abstract:

A few episodes ago, Jordan Gross and Ziryan Salayi joined us to talk about the self-management recipe. In my own experience, it can be incredibly hard to start doing self-management right. What makes it so hard is that the discussion about what we can expect from self-managing teams and what the common understanding is, is being skipped. Today author, self-management expert, and Co-Active Coach Stephanie Ockerman joins to talk about how organizations can start doing it right.

What you’ll discover in this show:

- Self-management is supported by a good level of self-awareness

- Self-management can be seen as a three-legged stool; Shared goals, boundaries, and clear responsibilities

- Starting without being aligned on expectations can lead you in different directions

Speakers:

Stephanie Ockerman
Professional Scrum Trainer, Coach, Learning Experience Creator

I combine my expertise in agile product delivery, Co-Active coaching, facilitation, experiential training, project management, and leadership to help individuals, teams, and organizations deliver valuable products in a complex and unpredictable world.

My Superpowers:
- Keen Observation - I pick up on what's not being said. I am intuitive.
- Passion and Determination - I work hard for work that matters. I'm resilient and keep moving forward.
- Laser Focus - I remove distractions. I frequently reflect on alignment.
- Organization - I move easily between seeing the whole and breaking down the details.
- Generosity - I take care of myself, so I can operate at my best and better serve others.
- Compassionately Direct - I appreciate transparency and direct communication while respecting our humanity.

Contact Stephanie Ockerman:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanieockerman/
https://www.agilesocks.com/

Sander Dur (host)
Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Additional resources:

Download the free Mini-Guide Coaching with the Scrum Values.
If you're ready to create more impact by leveling up your coaching skills, and you want an accessible course where you can go at your own pace and apply your learning on the job immediately, my self-guided online course Coaching Skills for Impact is for you. You will be able to empower your team to take greater ownership of their goals, their processes, and their outcomes. http://bit.ly/CoachingSkillsM

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

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S05 E09 Ron Eringa, Tony Hinkley, Stas Pavlov, and Jim Sammons live at Scrum.org's Face2Face in London

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 07:00:00 GMT

Do more of the right work (and less of the wrong work).
Create more actual teams than just groups of people who work together.
Learning how to improve themselves, their team, and their organization incrementally.
Understand that less, not more, is usually part of the answer to some of the hardest questions we all face.
See their workplaces, teams, and their sphere of influence as something that is evolving, which requires an evolution of all of its parts to adapt.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://agilitymasters.com/en
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

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S01 E06 Zombie Scrum with Johannes Schartau and Christiaan Verwijs

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 13:00:00 GMT

Abstract:

Scrum is lightweight framework; easy to understand, hard to master. It provides four formal events and one container event. It’s not prescriptive. But still, it’s pretty hard to use in practice. Just going through the motion is not going to help teams and organizations to reap the benefits Scrum can provide. Johannes Schartau and Christiaan Verwijs from The Liberators are here to talk to us about what they call “Zombie Scrum” is how you can cure it.

What you’ll discover in this show:

- Scrum Zombies can appear in every organization
- The Zombie plague can be cured!
- Zombie Scrum is not just a team problem

Speakers:

Johannes Schartau

Organizational Consultant

I am an Agile Coach, international speaker, complexity and integral thinker, Liberating Structures user, and Zombie Scrum fighter. I am also the co-author of the "Zombie Scrum Survival Guide" together with Christiaan Verwijs and Barry Overeem. Out now as part of the Professional Scrum Series at Addison-Wesley.

Contact Johannes Schartau:
https://twitter.com/IntegralAgile
https://www.linkedin.com/in/johannes-schartau/
https://www.theliberators.com

Christiaan Verwijs

Co-Founder of The Liberators

I enjoy igniting positive change in teams and organizations. It is my strong belief that people should be empowered to drive change themselves, rather than being told by management or consultants how to change. My mission is to liberate the world from dehumanizing and demotivating workplaces by helping organizations find better ways to tap into the creativity, intelligence, and wisdom of people. I feel that this is the best way forward in this world of complex work. Based on my personal experience and my background in software engineering and organizational psychology, I have found both the Scrum Framework and Liberating Structures to be powerful ingredients here.

On a more personal note, I live in Utrecht together with Lisanne and our crazy cat Fender. I enjoy painting, reading, and gaming. I also enjoy a good beer paired with a good burger.

Contact Christiaan Verwijs:
https://theliberators.com
https://survey.zombiescrum.org

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Sander Dur is business agility enthusiast, with a passion for people. Whether it’s healthy product development, agile leadership, measurement or psychological safety, Sander has a drive to enable organizations to the best of their abilities. He is an avid article writer, working on a book about Scrum Mastery from the Trenches and is connecting listeners with the most influential people in the industry.

Additional resources:

For more information on Zombie Scrum, check this website out:

(18) Laura Heikkurinen | LinkedIn

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

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#139 The Leader in All of Us: Changing Narratives, Changing Organizations with Laura Heikkurinen

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 06:30:00 GMT

“I dream of a world where we don’t have managers — just autonomous, inspired teams.”

In this insightful episode of Mastering Agility, hosts Sander and Jim sit down with Laura Heikkurinen, Lead Transformation Coach at OP Financial Group, live at the Scan Agile 2025 conference. Together, they dive into the nuances of modern leadership, the tension between management and empowerment, and how organizations can create psychologically safe environments where everyone is empowered to lead — regardless of job title.

Laura shares powerful reflections from her experience leading enterprise transformation, explains why language matters when redefining leadership, and offers candid takes on navigating toxic leadership legacies, neurodivergent inclusion, and the delicate balance between pushing a change forward or letting it go.

Connect with Laura:

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

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#133 Kumbaya Won't Save You - Facing Resistance, Building Growth, and Leading Without the Fluff with Martijn Versteeg

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 07:00:00 GMT

"The people stuff is hard. It always is"

Get ready for a powerful conversation on Mastering Agility where hosts Jim and Sander sit down with Martijn Versteeg — tech entrepreneur, leadership facilitator, and former rowing coach.

We dive deep into the real challenges of leadership, change resistance, and personal growth.
From building peer groups for tech leaders across Europe to handling brilliant jerks in teams, Martijn shares practical tools, models, and stories you can immediately apply.

🌟 Why is "the people stuff" always the hardest part?
🌟 How do you truly build psychological safety (without making it kumbaya)?
🌟 And what can a vanilla orchid teach us about growth?

Connect with Martijn: (27) Martijn Versteeg | LinkedIn

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

Yerkes-Dodson: Lore, not Law — The Learning Scientists

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#131 Drawn to Agility: Creating Clarity with Every Line with Olina Glindevi and Ben Walder

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Wed, 14 May 2025 07:00:00 GMT

"If you're going to write about Agile, you better work Agile."

In this special live episode, hosts Jim and Sander chat with Olina Glindevi and Ben Walder, the creative duo behind The Visual Agile Coach Playbook, at the ScanAgile 25 conference in Helsinki. They share the origin story of their book, their collaboration journey, and the power of visual thinking in agile coaching and team collaboration.

The motivation and madness behind writing The Visual Agile Coach Playbook while juggling day jobs and family life.
Using visuals as a serious and practical tool in agile work — not just as decoration or “fun stuff.”
The creative friction between Ben’s structured writing approach and Olina’s visual process — and how they found agility in their collaboration.
Why they believe trust, feedback, and staying in your lane can lead to stronger results when working in teams.
The role of visual agile coaches and how visuals can unlock alignment, clarity, and engagement in teams.
A sneak peek into their next project — a collaborative book on the future of work.

Get the book: https://a.co/d/1V11eSO

Connect with Olina & Ben (51) Olina Glindevi ✏️ | LinkedIn & (51) Ben Walder | LinkedIn

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

Masteringagility.org
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://agilitymasters.com/en
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

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S02 E14 Performance Engineering in Formula 1 with Ernesto Desiderio

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 15:00:00 GMT

Long-time listeners know that I am a massive Formula 1 fan. In previous episodes, former F1 driver Giedo van der Garde and author Jurriaan Kamer were guests to discuss this topic. Being able to learn and adapt between races, continuously innovate, and learn to outperform the competition requires a high-level ability to respond to changing circumstances.

In today’s episode, Ernesto Desiderio, Performance Engineer, takes the driver seat in our talk on performance engineering, his experience during the dramatic crash of Romain Grosjean at the end of the 2020 season, he gives away a signed copy of his book AND gives tips on how to get into F1. How’s that for a packed episode?!

What you’ll discover in this show:

- Formula 1 goes hand in hand with continuous learning
- Performance Engineers collaborate with a lot of people at once
- Tips on how to get into F1

Speakers:
Ernesto “Ernie” Desiderio

Performance Engineer in Formula 1

Ernesto Desiderio is a Performance Engineer and the creator of the P-D-R® (Perception-Decision[1]Reaction) Process. He has been working with the Haas F1 team since 2018, engineering every setup direction with the aim of preparing the best possible car, as well as helping drivers overcome their physical and mental barriers and optimize the speed and consistency of their performances. Before his stint in F1, Ernesto has worked on the LMP1-H project competing in the World Endurance Championship for Toyota in Germany, and before that he had experience working with NASCAR and IndyCar teams through Dallara both in Italy and in USA.

Contact Ernesto:
linkedin.com/in/ernestodesiderio

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Additional resources:

The book:

https://www.amazon.com/Formula-One-Race-Engineering-Performance-ebook/dp/B09K7QWXWH

The crash:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ7_En2xEm4

The giveaway link:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sanderdur_give-away-formula-one-race-engineering-optimizing-activity-6872253646332035072-NAys

Leave us a review on Podchaser:

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S03 E07 Becoming a Professional Scrum Trainer with Ryan Brook

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Fri, 27 May 2022 15:00:00 GMT

Becoming a Professional Scrum Trainer is a highly challenging process. It takes time, and patience, and sometimes it’s even frustrating. But what it also is, is rewarding. There are about 360 PSTs all over there world. Being among that number and being able to teach awesome courses is an awesome experience.

Ryan Brook and your host, Sander Dur, are talking about their respective journeys and the challenges they encountered.

What you’ll discover in this show:
- The PST journey is different for everybody
- Dealing with frustration when things don’t go your way is part of it
- The entire journey is meant to make you a better trainer

Speakers:
Ryan Brook
Primary Trainer @ Optilearn | PST @ Scrum.org | Troublemaker

I am an experienced Scrum Master and Agile Coach based in Gloucester, UK with past clients including BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin. I specialise in team-level turnaround and cutting through organisation crap that builds up over time. Think of me as someone who will help identify your business 'bloat' and work with you to remove it. I firmly believe that the best trainers and those who practice active consultancy.

Prior to my move into the software industry, I qualified as a teacher and spent a number of years teaching in secondary education. I pride myself on inclusivity, accessibility and being an engaging public speaker. I play an active role in the Scrum community through blogging and appearing at events, alongside being a trainer for Optilearn (optilearn.co.uk).

Contact Ryan:
Linkedin

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Sander Dur is a Professional Scrum Trainer at Scrum.org, podcast host of Mastering Agility, Professional Scrum Master and Lead Agile Consultant and trainer at Xebia. Besides this, he's an avid writer for predominantly Serious Scrum on Medium.com. Sander has a major passion for the human side in complex domains. Ensuring a high level of psychological safety therefore is a critical part of his work. Organizations in complex domains can only survive when innovating. Innovation can only take place with the right balance between low social friction and high intellectual friction. While most organizations now understand how to apply Agile frameworks, they struggle with the delivery of value. Psychological safety is the next step in this evolution and Sander has a huge drive to help organizations reach that step.

He gained experience as a Scrum Master, Agile Coach, and Leadership consultant in many different top-tier organizations, including Nike and ASML.

Let’s connect! Sander is always up for new connections and discussions!

Masteringagility.org
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Additional resources:

Optilearn

Ryan’s courses

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

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S01 E14 Going to Mars, AI and ML, and being an author with Joe Justice

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 14 Jun 2021 10:00:00 GMT

Joe Justice is an interesting man. Famous for building electrical cars, while combining Scrum for both soft- and hardware, Joe has been all over the globe for anything you can think of. In this episode, he’s talking to us about his experience in different countries, his thoughts on humanity going to Mars, the future state of machine learning and artificial intelligence, but he’s also giving away a signed copy of his book Scrum Master: The Agile Training Seminar for Business Performance. Give Joe one word, and he just takes off.

What you’ll discover in this show:

- Japan has created a high-level state of safety and honor.
- Artificial intelligence and machine learning can be incredibly useful in the future for predicting business opportunities
- Epameinondas Anastasiou is a really hard name to pronounce for Joe

Speakers:
Joe Justice
Author of Scrum Master - The Agile Training Seminar for Business Performance

Joe applied agile to automotive manufacturing in 2006, founding Team WIKISPEED, and set 4 world records. WIKISPEED became the first automotive manufacturer to accept Bitcoin in 2012, and was featured on the cover of Bitcoin Magazine issue #3. Joe Justice joined Tesla in 2020, where Joe operated Agile@Tesla from the company headquarters.

Joe Justice is a TED.com speaker, guest lecturer at both MIT and Oxford University in England, featured in Forbes 5 times to date including as owner of a "Company to watch" by Forbes Billionaire Club, cited in more than 8 business paperbacks and hardcovers, the subject of a Discovery Channel documentary for his work creating the disciplines Extreme Manufacturing, Scrum@Hardware, and The Justice Method. Joe Justice founded WIKISPEED and operated Agile@Tesla from Tesla's Fremont, California global headquarters.

Joe has worked with all 3 of the largest military and defense contractors, autonomous and smart road technologies, ultra-lightweight structures, AI labs, guest lectured at UC Berkeley, MIT, on behalf of Carnegie Melon, CU Denver, The University of Washington, spoken at Google, Microsoft, Zynga, Lockheed Martin, HP Labs, The Royal Bank of Canada, Pictet bank, and others. Joe's work has been featured in Forbes, Harvard Business Review, CNN Money, the Discovery Channel, and others.

Contact Joe Justice:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/joejustice/
Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Sander Dur is a business agility enthusiast, with a passion for people. Whether it’s healthy product development, agile leadership, measurement, or psychological safety, Sander is driven to enable organizations to the best of their abilities. He is an avid article writer, working on a book about Scrum Mastery from the Trenches, and is connecting listeners with the most influential people in the industry.

Additional resources:

Find his book right here: https://www.amazon.com/Joe-Justice/e/B08RW4P8YN%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

Watch Joe’s Tedx talk on

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian-banner-3173229/
https://www.youtube.com/@beeagilenow

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

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S04 E04 Agile Problems with Aina Alive

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Wed, 16 Nov 2022 11:00:00 GMT

Embracing an agile mindset, or implementing business agility in your organization, can be pretty challenging. Sometimes, agile even pose problems. But what are these types of problems? Forbes contributor Aina Alieva joins Sander to discuss her viewpoint on Agile Problems,

What you’ll discover in this show:

- What problems can arise while working with Agile
- How imposter syndrome can happen to anyone
- Alignment is essential

Aina Alive

Aina Alive is an experienced Agile Coach and a Business Consultant currently working for Sun Life (Canada) and a founder and CEO at Bee Agile Tutoring. She is a keynote speaker at PMI/Agile and Leadership Development Conferences and Symposiums. Her book "It Starts with YOU. 40 Letters to my Younger Self on How to Get Going in Your Career" hit the #1 position in the #jobhunting category on Amazon.
Aina has close to 10 years of experience in transforming businesses, leading change and developing leaders.
Aina has a vision for a world where leaders and teams are empowered to experiment with and execute new ideas and produce maximum results.

Contact Aina:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/aina-alive/

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Sander Dur is a Professional Scrum Trainer at Scrum.org, podcast host of Mastering Agility, Professional Scrum Master, and Lead Agile Consultant and trainer at Xebia. Besides this, he's an avid writer for predominantly Serious Scrum on Medium.com. Sander has a major passion for the human side in complex domains. Ensuring a high level of psychological safety, therefore, is a critical part of his work. Organizations in complex domains can only survive when innovating. Innovation can only take place with the right balance between low social friction and high intellectual friction. While most organizations now understand how to apply Agile frameworks, they struggle with the delivery of value. Psychological safety is the next step in this evolution and Sander has a huge drive to help organizations reach that step.

He gained experience as a Scrum Master, Agile Coach, and Leadership consultant in many different top-tier organizations, including Nike and ASML.

Sander is enthusiastic, open-minded, and ambitious. He finds interpersonal relationships and intrinsic motivations very important in team dynamics. Besides his work, Sander loves spending time with his family, enjoys sports, eating healthy, barbecuing, riding his motorcycle, and traveling.

Masteringagility.org
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Additional resources:

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

#144 Listener Q&A: Answering Your Submissions

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 01:46:06 GMT

In this episode, Ryan Brook brings his homework with him as he joins hosts Jim Sammons and Rich Visotcky for a vibrant Q&A session to answer questions from our viewers. Ryan flips the script, taking over emcee duties to extract key ideas and insights from Rich and Jim as they cover a range of topics from team autonomy and navigating roles to measuring outcomes and outputs to understand the impacts of agility.

Join us for a lively session answering your questions! Have a question you want answered in a future episode? Comment on this episode, or reach out to us.

00:00:00 Opening

00:00:29 Introductions

00:02:54 Question Setup

00:04:16 Navigating New Roles in an Organization

00:13:07 Coaching Leadership on Agility and Fixed Projects

00:20:09 Managing Dependencies in Agile and Waterfall

00:28:38 Metrics for Agile Progress

00:36:00 Creating a Culture of Experimentation

00:47:23 Measuring Outcomes vs Output

00:52:40 The Gantt Chart Debate

00:58:16 Tools for User Story Mapping

01:05:21 Balancing Team Autonomy with Organizational Goals

01:13:01 Change Management in UI/UX Handoffs

01:19:38 Managing Parallel Sprints

01:29:13 Closing

Connect with Mastering Agility

📢 Follow the podcast for more inspiring stories
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#140 Poker, Projects, and Probability: Lessons from the Poker Table with Stacy Oliver

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 06:30:00 GMT

“In both poker and business, humans are the biggest variable—and the biggest opportunity."

In this episode of Mastering Agility, Jim welcomes long-time friend and seasoned agile coach Stacy Oliver for a fascinating conversation that blends the worlds of poker, game theory, and agility. Drawing from decades of experience at the card table and in the corporate world, Stacy shares how concepts like expected value (EV), Game Theory Optimal (GTO) play, and the Independent Chip Model (ICM) can help leaders make better bets on their projects, teams, and portfolios.

Stacy and Jim explore how decision quality, not just outcomes, determines success, and how understanding your constraints, risks, and probabilities can help you maximize return on investment in any game you’re playing.

Connect with Stacy: (13) Stacy Oliver | LinkedIn

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

#138 More Watts, Less Waste: Efficiency Lessons from Triathlon and Scrum with Dana Mykytiuk

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 12:33:09 GMT

“You can build software with Excel. You can finish an Ironman on a cheap bike. But will it be enjoyable? That’s another question.”

In this inspiring and energetic episode, Sander and Jim sit down with Dana—Scrum Master, team lead, and passionate triathlete—just ahead of her session at the Online Scrum Master Summit. Together, they unpack:

Dana’s journey into agile and what drew her to the Scrum Master Summit.
How her dual passions—agile coaching and triathlon—intersect in powerful and unexpected ways.
The surprising overlap between triathlon training and software delivery: focus, iteration, adaptation, and complexity.
The value and limitations of tools—whether it’s JIRA or a $6,000 triathlon bike—and why mindset still trumps everything.
The importance of coaching: in sports and in software. Do you really need to know how to code to be an effective coach?

Connect with Dana: (31) Dana Mykytiuk | LinkedIn

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

(30) Tamara Gretz | LinkedIn

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#123 Curiosity and Crust: What Sourdough Teaches About Agile with Tammy Gretz

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 08:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Jim sits down with Tammy Gretz, an Agile and Design Thinking coach based in Central Ohio. They dive deep into the nuances of coaching, the value of curiosity and partnership, and how these concepts relate to agile methodologies and design thinking. They also touch on topics like personal growth, learning through experimentation, and even the art of baking sourdough bread as a metaphor for empiricism and patience in agile practices.

Connect with Tammy

Tammy Gretz

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

linkedin.com/in/tricia-broderick

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#129 Building Resilience and Embracing Change: The Path to Agile Success with Tricia Broderick

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 07:00:00 GMT

"Resilience isn’t about avoiding change; it’s about learning to thrive within it."

Join us for a special live episode of the Mastering Agility Podcast, recorded at the ScanAgile Conference 2025! Our guest, Tricia Broderick, is a leadership expert, coach, and passionate advocate for building high-performing and resilient teams. In this insightful conversation, we explore how leaders can foster true agility in their teams, navigate uncertainty, and empower individuals to drive innovation.

Tricia shares her experiences in leadership development, the key challenges she sees in agile transformations, and practical strategies for cultivating a culture of trust, resilience, and collaboration. Whether you’re a seasoned leader or an aspiring change agent, this episode is packed with actionable takeaways you won’t want to miss!

Connect with Tricia:

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

(22) Radhika Dutt | LinkedIn

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#125 From Pivotitis to Product Perfection: Fighting Product Diseases with Radhika Dutt

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Sat, 15 Mar 2025 18:35:58 GMT

In this eye-opening episode, we sit down with Radhika Dutt, the mind behind Radical Product Thinking. Radhika challenges the conventional wisdom of product development, explaining why big, vague visions, shallow strategies, and blind iteration often lead teams astray. She introduces us to the Radical Product Thinking framework, which helps teams avoid common "product diseases" like HERO Syndrome, Pivotitis, and Obsessive Sales Disorder.

We also discuss the dangers of Silicon Valley’s "fail fast" mentality, how to balance vision vs. survival, and why spreadsheet-driven prioritization can be misleading. Plus, Radhika gives us a sneak peek into her next book on rethinking metrics, OKRs, and goal-setting—challenging another widely accepted business practice.

Connect with Radhika:

Contact | Radical Product Thinking

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

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#117 - Beyond Frameworks: Ambition, AI, and Agility - Part 1

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 12:31:26 GMT

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

#106 Untrapping Product Teams with David Pereira

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 07:00:00 GMT

Summary

In this episode, David shares his experience of writing his book 'Untrapping Product Teams' and discusses the challenges and traps that product teams often face. He talks about the importance of resilience and a growth mindset for product managers. David emphasizes the need for a balance between discovery and delivery, stating that discovery is not an excuse to not deliver anything. He also highlights the value of evidence-based decision making and the importance of focusing on building the present and the future simultaneously. In this conversation, David shares his thoughts on writing more books and explores the challenges of being a product manager. He discusses the importance of creating a space where product teams can thrive and the need for unconventional product management. David also emphasizes the value of experimentation and creating an environment where product owners can experiment. He highlights the significance of building relationships with stakeholders and the importance of aligning with them rather than managing them. The key takeaway is that no matter where you are, you can drive change and take action for a better tomorrow.

Takeaways

Resilience and a growth mindset are crucial traits for product managers.
Discovery is not an excuse to not deliver anything; it should be balanced with delivery.
Product teams should focus on learning faster than it takes to deliver.
Building the present and the future simultaneously is essential for success.
Evidence-based decision making is key to effective product management. Writing more books and creating additional content based on the book
Creating a space where product teams can thrive
The importance of experimentation and creating an environment for product owners to experiment
Building relationships with stakeholders and aligning with them
Taking action and driving change for a better tomorrow

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

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S07 E05 Esther Derby on Gearing Positive Change

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 06:00:00 GMT

Summary

This conversation explores the concept of empathy and its importance in various contexts. Esther Derby gives valuable insights into defining empathy, the possibility of having too much empathy, and practical tips for practicing empathy. The conversation also delves into the role of empathy in product design, overcoming barriers to empathy, and effective communication. Additionally, it highlights the importance of creating a safe environment for empathy and discusses the challenges and benefits of empathy in virtual settings.

Takeaways

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others.
Having too much empathy can lead to over-indexing on others' emotions and neglecting one's own needs.
Practicing empathy involves actively listening, asking open-ended questions, and seeking to understand others' perspectives.
Empathy plays a crucial role in product design, customer satisfaction, and effective communication.

7 Rules for Positive, Productive Change: Micro Shifts, Macro Results

https://a.co/d/iUONUbZ

Check out our sponsors:
www.wiserbees.com
www.xebia.com
www.scrummatch.com
www.masteringagility.org

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S07 E02 Tom Siebeneicher on Our Journey in Public Speaking

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 06:00:00 GMT

Summary In this conversation, Sander and Don discuss their journey in public speaking and share their experiences and insights. They talk about how they started doing public speaking, the challenges they faced, and the lessons they learned along the way. They emphasize the importance of having a supportive network, being open to feedback, and continuously improving their presentations. They also discuss the cultural differences they encountered at different conferences and the impact of their talks on the audience. They conclude by sharing their plans for the future, including exploring speaking opportunities outside of the agile community.

Keywords public speaking, journey, challenges, lessons, feedback, cultural differences, networking, improvement, future plans

Takeaways
Start doing public speaking by finding a supportive network and being open to feedback.
Continuously improve your presentations based on feedback and lessons learned.
Be aware of cultural differences at different conferences and adapt your approach accordingly.
Engage with the audience and create a dialogue during your talk.
Explore speaking opportunities outside of your comfort zone to gain new perspectives and experiences.

Check out our sponsors:
www.wiserbees.com
www.xebia.com
www.scrummatch.com
www.masteringagility.org

Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Background 01:00 Starting in Public Speaking 10:30 Supportive Network and Structure 13:20 Lessons Learned and Continuous Improvement 21:30 Choosing Conferences and Networking 25:40 Feedback and Integration 31:00 Future Plans and Topics

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S06 E06 Driving Value with Sprint Goals with Maarten Dalmijn

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 05:00:00 GMT

Do more of the right work (and less of the wrong work).
Create more actual teams than just groups of people who work together.
Learning how to improve themselves, their team, and their organization incrementally.
Understand that less, not more, is usually part of the answer to some of the hardest questions we all face.
See their workplaces, teams, and their sphere of influence as something that is evolving, which requires an evolution of all of its parts to adapt.

Masteringagility.org
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://agilitymasters.com/en
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S03 E02 Psychological safety and Human Debt with Duena Blomstrom

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Wed, 12 Jan 2022 18:00:00 GMT

Who likes working in an environment where there’s a constant fear of repercussions when voicing an unpopular opinion? Or where someone else steals your glory? No one, right? It’s way more important to feel safe and comfortable speaking up when something is not right. An environment where it’s okay to fail and learn.

CEO, serial entrepreneur, Forbes contributor, and public speaker Duena Blomstrom joins Sander Dur to discuss psychological safety and a term that she calls Human Debt and what the impact is on the workspace.

What you’ll discover in this show:

- Psychological safety goes beyond Scrum Teams
- For people to step up and create great teamwork, empowerment is required
- Too often discussions on psychological safety are skipped within organizations

Speakers:
Duena Blomstrom
Author, Keynote Speaker, Founder, CPO

Duena is the author of the book “Emotional Banking: Fixing Culture, Leveraging FinTech and Transforming Retail Banks into Brands”. She is a serial entrepreneur and intrapreneur, a mentor for start-ups, a LinkedIn Top Voice, named an industry influencer in most lists, a Forbes contributor, a blogger with cutting-edge, unconventional and unapologetic opinion style, an international keynote speaker at industry events, the inventor of the EmotionalBanking™ and MoneyMoments concepts and the Co-Founder and CEO of PeopleNotTech Ltd – a software solution provider revolutionizing the organizations of companies that need to use technology and new ways of work focused on the concept of Psychological Safety in high performing teams.

Contact Duena:
www.duenablomstrom.com

www.peoplenottech.com

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Additional resources:

https://geraldjleonard.com/

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S02 E04 Workplace Jazz with Gerald J. Leonard

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 27 Sep 2021 18:00:00 GMT

I frequently ask people where they see any form of agility outside of regular development. Joe Justice initially triggered me with that thought during our conversation in the previous season’s episode. A lot of answers passed the revue but never has anyone mentioned Jazz. Yet, Gerald J. Leonard has written a book around this very example.

The smooth sound and the way jazz musicians play work together are similar to how agile teams work together. Inspecting and adapting how they create the value, that beautiful sound. Gerald has some very excellent comparisons to share with us!

What you’ll discover in this show:

- Concert halls can help you in delivering value

- Jazz players adapt to each other like people in Agile teams

- Beauty, as always, lies in the eyes of the beholder

Speakers:

Gerald J. Leonard

Gerald J. Leonardoffers a unique approach to accomplishing more productivity in the workplace. As an accomplished musician, creativity, innovation, and peak performance are part of my world. Gerald leverages these very principles to give your business the edge needed to succeed in a highly competitive workplace. He's the author of Culture Is The Bass: 7 Principles for Developing A Culture That Works and Workplace Jazz: How to IMPROVISE – 9 Steps to Creating High-Performing Agile Project Teams.

Contact Jurgen Appelo:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/geraldjleonard/

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://agilitymasters.com/en
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Additional resources:

https://geraldjleonard.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrl2kR2UdHM

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

#112 The Product Operating Model with Chris Jones - Part 2

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Fri, 27 Sep 2024 07:00:00 GMT

summary

In this conversation, hosts Sander Dur and Jim Sammons discuss various topics including the impact of books, the secrecy of Apple, consumer behavior, and the product operating model with their guest Chris Jones. They explore the concept of the product operating model, which focuses on shifting from output-oriented approaches to outcome-oriented approaches. They also discuss the importance of building and solving problems in product development, as well as the role of product strategy in driving cohesive decision-making. The conversation explores the implementation of the product operating model and the role of product owners and product managers. It discusses the shift from locally implemented frameworks to a more holistic approach throughout the entire organization. The conversation also touches on the involvement of CFOs in funding and investment decisions and the ideal composition of the C-suite in a product organization. Examples of companies that have successfully adopted the product operating model are mentioned. The distinction between product ownership and product management is clarified, emphasizing the importance of collaboration and a holistic approach. The conversation concludes with a discussion on the future of product management and the potential for automation.

takeaways

Books can have a significant impact on personal and professional growth.
The secrecy of companies like Apple can be both a strength and a weakness.
Consumer behavior is influenced by both product features and brand image.
The product operating model emphasizes outcome-oriented approaches over output-oriented approaches.

· Building and problem-solving are key aspects of successful product development.

· A cohesive product strategy is essential for effective decision-making. The product operating model is a holistic approach that should be implemented throughout the entire organization, rather than just in specific teams or departments.

· CFOs are increasingly involved in funding and investment decisions related to product development.

· Successful adoption of the product operating model requires collaboration and a shift from a command-and-control mindset to a focus on outcomes and value.

· The distinction between product ownership and product management lies in the level of responsibility and the scope of the role.

· Product management is a complex and judgment-based role that is less likely to be automated in the future.

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

#112 The Product Operating Model with Chris Jones - Part 1

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 24 Sep 2024 13:55:43 GMT

summary

takeaways

Books can have a significant impact on personal and professional growth.
The secrecy of companies like Apple can be both a strength and a weakness.
Consumer behavior is influenced by both product features and brand image.
The product operating model emphasizes outcome-oriented approaches over output-oriented approaches.
Building and problem-solving are key aspects of successful product development.
A cohesive product strategy is essential for effective decision-making. The product operating model is a holistic approach that should be implemented throughout the entire organization, rather than just in specific teams or departments.
CFOs are increasingly involved in funding and investment decisions related to product development.
Successful adoption of the product operating model requires collaboration and a shift from a command-and-control mindset to a focus on outcomes and value.
The distinction between product ownership and product management lies in the level of responsibility and the scope of the role.
Product management is a complex and judgment-based role that is less likely to be automated in the future.

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S06 E07 Visualisation Superpowers and the Importance of Testing with Brendan Gardner

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Thu, 23 Nov 2023 05:00:00 GMT

Do more of the right work (and less of the wrong work).
Create more actual teams than just groups of people who work together.
Learning how to improve themselves, their team, and their organization incrementally.
Understand that less, not more, is usually part of the answer to some of the hardest questions we all face.
See their workplaces, teams, and their sphere of influence as something that is evolving, which requires an evolution of all of its parts to adapt.

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

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S06 E05 Making Change Last and a Thousand Tangents

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Thu, 16 Nov 2023 05:00:00 GMT

Do more of the right work (and less of the wrong work).
Create more actual teams than just groups of people who work together.
Learning how to improve themselves, their team, and their organization incrementally.
Understand that less, not more, is usually part of the answer to some of the hardest questions we all face.
See their workplaces, teams, and their sphere of influence as something that is evolving, which requires an evolution of all of its parts to adapt.

Masteringagility.org
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://agilitymasters.com/en
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S06 E19 David Asch on the Agile Enterprise

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 15:11:06 GMT

SummaryIn this conversation, David Ash discusses his book, The Agile Enterprise, and his experiences applying Agile principles across companies. He shares his initial hesitation about writing the book and his journey of self-discovery and overcoming imposter syndrome. David emphasizes the importance of leaders who think differently and the need for organizations to prevent and address fires rather than constantly firefighting. He also explores the role of AI and technology in augmenting work and the challenges of quantifying the costs of technical debt. The conversation concludes with a question for the next guest about the future of development and incorporating new technologies.

Takeaways

Overcoming imposter syndrome is a common challenge, but recognizing one's expertise and unique perspectives can lead to valuable contributions.
Applying Agile principles beyond software development can lead to success in various departments and stages of company growth.
Leadership is not determined by job titles, but by individuals who take initiative and think differently.
Preventing and addressing fires in organizations requires a balance between firefighting and proactive measures to improve processes and prevent future issues.
AI and technology should be seen as tools to augment work and should be incorporated thoughtfully to enhance productivity and outcomes.
Breaking the chain of technical debt requires a collaborative effort between technical teams and the business side of the company to prioritize and address issues.

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S02 E09 Dynamic Reteaming with Heidi Helfand

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 01 Nov 2021 13:00:00 GMT

Do you know how most organizations and frameworks advocate for keeping stable teams? Where there is little change in team composition? Today we’re talking about doing the exact opposite. Where a change in team structure is welcome.

Heidi Helfand, the author of the book Dynamic Reteaming, sits down with us to discuss the benefits that could be achieved by having more occurring change, rather than keeping things the way they are.

What you’ll discover in this show:

- How Dynamic Reteaming relates to the Tuckman model

- What the effect is on the delivery of value

- What potential could be missed when keeping teams the way they are

Speakers:

Heidi Helfand

Author of Dynamic Reteaming

Heidi Helfand is the author of the book Dynamic Reteaming. She coaches software development teams using practical, people-focused techniques, with the goal of building resilient organizations as they double and triple in size.

Heidi is currently VP of Engineering Growth at Kin Insurance, which offers affordable coverage to homeowners in catastrophe-prone regions. Her 20+ year career in SAAS launched Procore Technologies and AppFolio to IPO and Expertcity to acquisition by Citrix. She was on the original development team that built GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar. Heidi is based in Southern California.

Contact Heidi
https://www.heidihelfand.com/

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Additional resources:

Find the book:

https://www.heidihelfand.com/dynamic-reteaming-book/

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

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S06 E03 Public Speaking with Artur Margonari part I

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 05:00:00 GMT

Do more of the right work (and less of the wrong work).
Create more actual teams than just groups of people who work together.
Learning how to improve themselves, their team, and their organization incrementally.
Understand that less, not more, is usually part of the answer to some of the hardest questions we all face.
See their workplaces, teams, and their sphere of influence as something that is evolving, which requires an evolution of all of its parts to adapt.

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

#136 Hope Is Not a Strategy: Leading Culture Change That Works with Anna Lavrova

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 06:00:00 GMT

n this reflective and insightful episode, Jim is joined by organizational coach Anna Lavrova to unpack her talk at the Scrum Master Summit and dive into the real mechanics of organizational culture. They discuss why people often feel "off" in their roles—not because of the work, but because of the culture—and how leaders can make sense of multicultural, multi-context teams in today’s workplace.

Connect with Anna: LinkedIn

The Culture Map: Book – Erin Meyer

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

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#104 The Happiness Blueprint with Antoni Tzavelas

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Wed, 26 Jun 2024 11:50:12 GMT

SummaryIn this conversation, Anthony shares his insights on happiness and its impact on individuals and teams. He discusses the challenges he faced in his life and how he overcame them to find happiness. Anthony emphasizes the importance of self-reflection, empathy, and a positive mindset in fostering happiness. He also introduces the concept of the happiness blueprint, which includes elements like inspiration, mindset, power, alliance, care, and transformation. Anthony highlights the need for organizations to prioritize happiness in the workforce and shares the success story of a high-performing team. He concludes by offering advice on improving daily scrum or stand-up meetings.

Takeaways

Self-reflection and self-awareness are key to finding and maintaining happiness.
Empathy and kindness towards oneself and others contribute to happiness.
The happiness blueprint includes inspiration, mindset, power, alliance, care, and transformation.
Happiness positively impacts individuals, teams, and organizations, leading to higher engagement and performance.

Chapters

00:00Introduction and Tough Crowd

01:23Discovering the Importance of Happiness

03:28The Impact of Challenging Experiences on Happiness

04:56Overcoming Challenges and Making a Change

06:22The Impact of Challenging Experiences on Family

07:49Feeling Lucky and Grateful

09:13The Influence of Upbringing on Happiness

10:09The Meaning of Happiness

10:58Inspiration from Others

11:55The Happiness Blueprint

13:24The Dangers of Toxic Positivity

14:22Dealing with Bad Days

15:21Resources for Practicing Happiness

21:56Accepting and Embracing Yourself

23:25Dealing with Turmoil and Anger

25:56Developing Emotional Intelligence

27:04Empathy vs Sympathy

28:17The Importance of Self-Change

29:42The Search for Dopamine Hits

30:26The Impact of Happiness on the Workforce

34:18The Resistance to Happiness in Organizations

37:41Success Story of a High-Performing Team

40:36Improving Daily Scrum or Stand-Up

42:04Question for the Next Guest

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

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#101 Fred Deichler on The Agile Coaching Growth Wheel

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 08:00:00 GMT

Summary

In this conversation, Fred reflects on his experience speaking at Scan Agile and shares his biggest lesson learned. He also discusses the Agile Coaching Growth Wheel and the need for unifying standards in the agile coaching profession. The conversation explores the difference between agile coaches and scrum masters and the importance of theory and practical experience. Fred emphasizes the value of diversity in agile teams and shares insights on articulating the value of agile coaches.

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

DocDur Agile #2

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 18 Jul 2022 22:00:00 GMT

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Sander Dur is a Professional Scrum Trainer at Scrum.org, podcast host of Mastering Agility, Professional Scrum Master and Lead Agile Consultant, and trainer at Xebia. Besides this, he's an avid writer for predominantly Serious Scrum on Medium.com. Sander has a major passion for the human side in complex domains. Ensuring a high level of psychological safety, therefore, is a critical part of his work. Organizations in complex domains can only survive when innovating. Innovation can only take place with the right balance between low social friction and high intellectual friction. While most organizations now understand how to apply Agile frameworks, they struggle with the delivery of value. Psychological safety is the next step in this evolution and Sander has a huge drive to help organizations reach that step.

He gained experience as a Scrum Master, Agile Coach, and Leadership consultant in many different top-tier organizations, including Nike and ASML.

Sander is enthusiastic, open-minded, and ambitious. He finds interpersonal relationships and intrinsic motivations very important in team dynamics. Besides his work, Sander loves to spend time with his family, enjoys sports and eating healthy, barbecuing, riding his motorcycle, and traveling.

Let’s connect! Sander is always up for new connections and discussions!

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Additional resources:

Discord community:https://discord.gg/6YJamBJxUV

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

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S06 E01 Forever Employable with Jeff Gothelf

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Thu, 02 Nov 2023 11:00:00 GMT

Do more of the right work (and less of the wrong work).
Create more actual teams than just groups of people who work together.
Learning how to improve themselves, their team, and their organization incrementally.
Understand that less, not more, is usually part of the answer to some of the hardest questions we all face.
See their workplaces, teams, and their sphere of influence as something that is evolving, which requires an evolution of all of its parts to adapt.

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S01 E02 Applying inspection and adaptation in Formula 1 with Giedo van der Garde

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 23 Mar 2021 11:00:00 GMT

Formula 1 is a hypercompetitive sport, with over 400 million people tuning in every year. Margins are within tenths of a second, budgets going over 200 million dollars, and teams are larger than the average company. When it comes to Formula 1 teams, the ability to inspect and adapt is incredibly important. Former Formula 1 driver Giedo van der Garde talks to us about his experience.

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S05 E11 Dealing with scattered SDLC processes

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 11 Jul 2023 08:00:00 GMT

Do more of the right work (and less of the wrong work).
Create more actual teams than just groups of people who work together.
Learning how to improve themselves, their team, and their organization incrementally.
Understand that less, not more, is usually part of the answer to some of the hardest questions we all face.
See their workplaces, teams, and their sphere of influence as something that is evolving, which requires an evolution of all of its parts to adapt.

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S05 E04 Sociocracy 3.0 with Serge Beaumont

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 15 May 2023 16:00:00 GMT

Do more of the right work (and less of the wrong work).
Create more actual teams than just groups of people who work together.
Learning how to improve themselves, their team, and their organization incrementally.
Understand that less, not more, is usually part of the answer to some of the hardest questions we all face.
See their workplaces, teams, and their sphere of influence as something that is evolving, which requires an evolution of all of its parts to adapt.

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S05 E02 Invest in Yourself

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 01 May 2023 19:00:00 GMT

For questions or requests that you would like us to check on, please drop a message on LinkedIn or join the Mastering Agility Discord community!

Mastering Agility Mural

Sander Dur (host)
Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Do more of the right work (and less of the wrong work).
Create more actual teams than just groups of people who work together.
Learning how to improve themselves, their team, and their organization incrementally.
Understand that less, not more, is usually part of the answer to some of the hardest questions we all face.
See their workplaces, teams, and their sphere of influence as something that is evolving, which requires an evolution of all of its parts to adapt.

Throughout my career, I have worked with clients of all sizes, industries, and technologies. Whether it’s leading a transformative strategy at a Fortune 100 or helping a new startup understand its unique value proposition the common focus I bring to each role is “making people better.” I strive to help those around me improve through mentorship, training, workshops, or just grabbing a coffee and lending an ear to their experiences. This focus on continuous improvement and servant leadership is why I love what I do each day.

In my spare time, I enjoy making things out of wood, metal, and other materials (like coffee). I also enjoy hiking, board games, jigsaw puzzles, and playing with my Golden Doodle puppy Roxy (agile is her middle name), and I am usually listening to an audiobook or podcast.

Contact Jim:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S04 E08 Estimation with John Coleman

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 23:00:00 GMT

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

DocDur Agile #3

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 09 Aug 2022 12:00:00 GMT

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Sander Dur is a Professional Scrum Trainer at Scrum.org, podcast host of Mastering Agility, Professional Scrum Master and Lead Agile Consultant, and trainer at Xebia. Besides this, he's an avid writer for predominantly Serious Scrum on Medium.com. Sander has a major passion for the human side in complex domains. Ensuring a high level of psychological safety, therefore, is a critical part of his work. Organizations in complex domains can only survive when innovating. Innovation can only take place with the right balance between low social friction and high intellectual friction. While most organizations now understand how to apply Agile frameworks, they struggle with the delivery of value. Psychological safety is the next step in this evolution and Sander has a huge drive to help organizations reach that step.

He gained experience as a Scrum Master, Agile Coach, and Leadership consultant in many different top-tier organizations, including Nike and ASML.

Sander is enthusiastic, open-minded, and ambitious. He finds interpersonal relationships and intrinsic motivations very important in team dynamics. Besides his work, Sander loves to spend time with his family, enjoys sports and eating healthy, barbecuing, riding his motorcycle, and traveling.

Let’s connect! Sander is always up for new connections and discussions!

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Additional resources:

Discord community:https://discord.gg/6YJamBJxUV

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S03 E04 Accelerating your Scrum Formula 1 style with Laurens Bonnema and Laila Nouijeh

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 09:00:00 GMT

Formula 1 is one of Sander’s biggest passions, but also a topic that ties in together really well with business agility. Formula 1 teams need to do so much more than just being shown on tv. There is a whole process behind it, where hundreds of people work together to strive for a single goal; becoming the world champion.

Laurens Bonnema and Laila Nouijeh saw the same overlap Sander does, and created an entire talk around it. They’ve been doing this at large conferences like Agile 2019 and the AgilityMasters.com Meetup. Find you what you can do to Accelerate your Scrum Formula 1 style!
What you’ll discover in this show:
- Formula 1 teams break goals down into small, granular level improvements
- A race is like the Sprint Review; it is a display of all the work that has gone into it in the past time and now it’s time to elicit feedback
- Hundreds of people CAN work together on a single product
Speakers:
Laurens Bonnema
Mentor to leaders creating resilient organizations. I make boring business notes fun!

I am an Agile Trainer & Management Consultant and a mentor to leaders creating resilient organizations. I have a strong background in IT with experience in almost every role. I take great pride in my work, and it shows in the recommendations I have received over the years.

I strive to merge classic and Agile management in the conviction that it is the future of professional management.

As a Professional Scrum Trainer and SAFe Program Consultant, I help to improve the profession of software delivery as well as marketing, human resources, and finance. I bring my experience in enterprise IT since 1999 and on Scrum Teams since 2006 to my teaching, am a driving force in the Agile community, and am a sought-after speaker at conferences and events.

Contact Laurens:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurensbonnema/

Laila Nouijeh
Laïla is a Scrum Master with PGGM where she guides multiple IT teams. Her strong social skills, blistering honesty, and powerful drive enable her to motivate people and teams to max out their awesome. She is curious and inquisitive and continually looks for ways to improve herself and her teams.

Contact Laila:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/laila-nouijeh-a551579/

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Additional resources:
Discord community:https://

Masteringagility.org
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://agilitymasters.com/en
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S03 E01 The Empowered Organization with Marty Cagan

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 08:00:00 GMT

Ever since Agile started, different frameworks have emerged. There has been an abundance of training and hyped certificates to get people up to speed. After a few days of following a course, they are now the experts of agility. But does that really support you and your organization in creating the right value?

True power comes from empowerment. Having teams and people in the right place, empowered to make the decisions, instead of blindly following the traditional hierarchy is where a lot of organizations could benefit from. Marty Cagan, author and responsible for building products for organizations like HP and eBay, joins us to talk about how empowering organizations.

What you’ll discover in this show:

- Just implementing any framework won’t help you solve your problems
- It takes a whole lot of courage to give power to whoever should have it
- Product Discovery is tough but incredibly valuable

Speakers:
Marty Cagan
Partner, Silicon Valley Product Group

Marty Cagan founded the Silicon Valley Product Group in 2003 to pursue his interests in helping others create successful products through his writing, speaking, advising, and coaching. Previously, Marty served as an executive responsible for defining and building products for some of the most successful companies in the world, including HP Labs, Netscape Communications, and eBay.

Marty is the author of INSPIRED: How To Create Tech Products Customers Love, and the recently released EMPOWERED: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products. Marty is an invited speaker at conferences and companies worldwide and is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Cruz and of the Stanford University Executive Institute.

Contact Marty:
www.svpg.com
Twitter: @cagan
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cagan

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Additional resources:

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S02 E16 Scaling with Nexus with Patricia Kong and Jesse Houwing

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Sun, 19 Dec 2021 23:00:00 GMT

Implementing Scrum is hard. It’s easy to understand, yet hard to implement. It’s a fundamental shift in the way products are being built. And that’s just a single team. Now imagine when multiple teams are going to work together. That provides a new array of challenges to work with.

Friend of the show Patricia Kong and Jesse Houwing join Sander Dur to discuss Scrum.org’s scaling model called Nexus. Where do we start? And what things do we needs to consider if we even need to scale at all? Find out right here!

What you’ll discover in this show:

- Doing Scrum right is the first thing that you want to do
- Alignment is key for a smooth flow
- Throwing any scaling framework across an entire department at once has big potential threats that could lead to a diminished delivery of value

Speakers:
Patricia Kong
Speaker * Author * Coach * Instructor

Patricia Kong is co-author of "The Nexus Framework for Scaling Scrum" published by Pearson and a well-known public speaker and mentor. She is a co-developer of the Evidence-Based Management Framework for Business Agility and Nexus Framework for Scaling Scrum. Patricia helps organizations thrive in a complex world by focusing on enterprise innovation and leadership and teams. She is a people advocate and fascinated by organizational behavior and misbehaviors. Patricia is experienced working with 1$B+ clients focusing on business development and delivery engagements. Patricia lived in France and now lives in her hometown of Boston. Patricia is fluent in 4 languages.

Contact Patricia:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/patricia-kong-2238232/
https://twitter.com/pmoonk88?lang=en

Jesse Houwing
Trainer, coach and tinkerer

My source of inspiration
My grandfather had a unique will to understand things and to be able to take them apart and put them back together, either in their original shape, or combine things to turn them into something new. He had been solving little life’s problems using automation long before it became a common thing. The doorbell that signaled the start a vacation full of wonderful experiments and learning now hangs in our little hallway.

My ultimate Epic Shit moment
Training people in Scrum, the agile mindset in general, quite often leads people to new insights, epiphanies and sometimes to life changing inspiration. When people contribute that specific training to be a career changing event, that’s epic.

Contact Jesse:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessehouwing/

Sander Dur (host)
Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Masteringagility.org

https://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S01 E18 Answering listeners questions with Mike Cohn

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 12 Jul 2021 18:00:00 GMT

Estimation is hard. We forecast how much work we can take into the Sprint during Sprint Planning, but is still is exactly that: a forecast. We don’t know if we are correct. That’s the beauty of empiricism. We won’t know if we’re right or wrong until we observe the outcomes. And that is what makes this such a widely discussed topic. We always seem to have a need of being correct on forehand. We give listeners the opportunity to send in questions regarding planning and estimation, that Agile Royalty (according to Jeff Gothelf) Mike Cohn will answer! Listen now and find out!

What you’ll discover in this show:

- Velocity is not a metric that displays quality or value

- I find Krupananda Mannekunta’s name pretty hard to pronounce

- Estimates can be useful to give a relative timeframe for long-term planning too

Speakers:

Mike Cohn

Owner of Mountain Goat Software, author, speaker, and consultant

As an in-demand agile and Scrum instructor, I train groups all over the world on how to adopt and succeed with agile software development using the Scrum framework.

As an author, I've written three popular books on Scrum and agile: "Succeeding with Agile," "Agile Estimating and Planning" and "User Stories Applied for Agile Software Development."

I'm co-founder and past chairperson of the non-profit Agile Alliance, and also co-founded and served on the board of directors of the non-profit Scrum Alliance.

I started running projects with Scrum in 1995, working in domains from banking to aerospace to video game development, with companies ranging in size from 1 to 400,000.

I served as VP of development at four different companies where agile was instrumental to their success. Three of those companies were startups, and the other was a Fortune 40 company.

My hands-on experience means my Scrum and agile training and coaching is relevant to the real business world and not just theory.

Contact Mike Cohn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikewcohn/

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://agilitymasters.com/en
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Additional resources:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://agilitymasters.com/en
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S01 E13 SPECIAL: Hard topics: beyond shame, trust, and burnouts with Patricia Kong

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 22:00:00 GMT

Abstract:

In this special episode of the ‘Mastering Agility’ podcast, Patricia Kong and I have a conversation about topics that are close to both our hearts; shame, trust, and the experience of burning out. It seems that is the social standard to always say that everything is great, when asked how you’re doing. That real life should be like Instagram. The truth is; it’s not. Far from that. Working remotely impacts trust within teams. Shame affects your overall self-esteem. Burnouts are increasingly more common. Patricia is ruthlessly honest about her views and experience.

What you’ll discover in this show:

- Being open and transparent about how you feel is powerful

- Understanding what feeds you energy on the workspace can prevent burnouts

- The way others treat you might say more about them, than it says about you

Speakers:

Patricia Kong

Organizational Agility, Innovation, Product Ownership | Speaker * Author * Coach * Instructor

Patricia Kong is co-author of "The Nexus Framework for Scaling Scrum" published by Pearson and a well-known public speaker and mentor. She is a co-developer of the Evidence-Based Management Framework for Business Agility and Nexus Framework for Scaling Scrum. Patricia helps organizations thrive in a complex world by focusing on enterprise innovation and leadership and teams. She is a people advocate and fascinated by organizational behavior and misbehaviors. She emerged through the financial services industry and has led product development, product management and marketing for several early stage companies in the US and Europe. Patricia is experienced working with 1$B+ clients focusing on business development and delivery engagements. Patricia lived in France and now lives in her hometown of Boston. Patricia is fluent in 4 languages.

Contact Patricia Kong:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/patricia-kong-2238232/
https://twitter.com/pmoonk88?lang=en

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Additional resources:

Join our respective talks at Scrum Day Europe! Feel free to reach out any time.
Tickets available right here:
https://www.scrumdayeurope.com/

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S06 E03 Public Speaking with Artur Margonari part 2

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 13 Nov 2023 05:00:00 GMT

Do more of the right work (and less of the wrong work).
Create more actual teams than just groups of people who work together.
Learning how to improve themselves, their team, and their organization incrementally.
Understand that less, not more, is usually part of the answer to some of the hardest questions we all face.
See their workplaces, teams, and their sphere of influence as something that is evolving, which requires an evolution of all of its parts to adapt.

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S06 E02 Hot takes with Gillie and Sabrina

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 05:00:00 GMT

Do more of the right work (and less of the wrong work).
Create more actual teams than just groups of people who work together.
Learning how to improve themselves, their team, and their organization incrementally.
Understand that less, not more, is usually part of the answer to some of the hardest questions we all face.
See their workplaces, teams, and their sphere of influence as something that is evolving, which requires an evolution of all of its parts to adapt.

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S05 E12 You Are Enough

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Wed, 19 Jul 2023 16:00:00 GMT

Do more of the right work (and less of the wrong work).
Create more actual teams than just groups of people who work together.
Learning how to improve themselves, their team, and their organization incrementally.
Understand that less, not more, is usually part of the answer to some of the hardest questions we all face.
See their workplaces, teams, and their sphere of influence as something that is evolving, which requires an evolution of all of its parts to adapt.

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S05 E08 Graveyard Backlogs

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 12 Jun 2023 17:00:00 GMT

Do more of the right work (and less of the wrong work).
Create more actual teams than just groups of people who work together.
Learning how to improve themselves, their team, and their organization incrementally.
Understand that less, not more, is usually part of the answer to some of the hardest questions we all face.
See their workplaces, teams, and their sphere of influence as something that is evolving, which requires an evolution of all of its parts to adapt.

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S04 E06 Learning from Failure - Mastering Agility x the Agile Wire

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 28 Nov 2022 12:00:00 GMT

If you have questions or requests that you would like us to check on, please drop a message on LinkedIn or join the Mastering Agility Discord community!

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Sander Dur is a Professional Scrum Trainer at Scrum.org, podcast host of Mastering Agility, Professional Scrum Master and Lead Agile Consultant, and trainer at Xebia. Besides this, he's an avid writer for predominantly Serious Scrum on Medium.com. Sander has a major passion for the human side in complex domains. Ensuring a high level of psychological safety, therefore, is a critical part of his work. Organizations in complex domains can only survive when innovating. Innovation can only take place with the right balance between low social friction and high intellectual friction. While most organizations now understand how to apply Agile frameworks, they struggle with the delivery of value. Psychological safety is the next step in this evolution and Sander has a huge drive to help organizations reach that step.

He gained experience as a Scrum Master, Agile Coach, and Leadership consultant in many different top-tier organizations, including Nike and ASML.

Sander is enthusiastic, open-minded, and ambitious. He finds interpersonal relationships and intrinsic motivations very important in team dynamics. Besides his work, Sander loves to spend time with his family, enjoys sports and eating healthy, barbecuing, riding his motorcycle, and traveling.

Let’s connect! Sander is always up for new connections and discussions!

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Additional resources:

Discord community:https://discord.gg/v9dySNdK

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Psychological Safety with Jeff Bubolz and Jeff Maleski - Mastering Agility X the Agile Wire

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 06:00:00 GMT

This week we have a cross-episode with the guys from the Agile Wire! After some pleasantries, we jump into the topic of psychological safety in the workplace. How important this can be for teams and organizations to enable a level of comfort for actual conflict to emerge. Here in the Midwest sometimes we struggle with giving feedback to each other. Thoughts about enabling the ability to bring your whole self to work.

Focus on problems and not individuals.

COIN Feedback model

Context
Observation
Impacts
Next steps

Leading by example. Discussing how things are going to be when there is conflict. Structure follows culture – examples of some structures that we’ve seen companies employ in order to facilitate openness and transparency.

We jump into values and how different teams and organizations that use them. All too often they are meaningless posters set up on a wall, or a conversation in onboarding, and rarely else. Tying back to structures, if we don’t build the systems to highlight and reinforce the values we should expect them to erode over time.

Bring your whole self to work. It means you’re the same person at home that you are at work. It shouldn’t feel like you’re meeting a whole new person when you engage outside of work. From a business perspective is it valuable to have your employees waste their thinking capital trying to be a different person at work when they could be applying that towards your business goals?

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

DocDur Agile #5 What to do with backlog spillover and identified improvement items

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Wed, 31 Aug 2022 09:00:00 GMT

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Sander Dur is a Professional Scrum Trainer at Scrum.org, podcast host of Mastering Agility, Professional Scrum Master and Lead Agile Consultant, and trainer at Xebia. Besides this, he's an avid writer for predominantly Serious Scrum on Medium.com. Sander has a major passion for the human side in complex domains. Ensuring a high level of psychological safety, therefore, is a critical part of his work. Organizations in complex domains can only survive when innovating. Innovation can only take place with the right balance between low social friction and high intellectual friction. While most organizations now understand how to apply Agile frameworks, they struggle with the delivery of value. Psychological safety is the next step in this evolution and Sander has a huge drive to help organizations reach that step.

He gained experience as a Scrum Master, Agile Coach, and Leadership consultant in many different top-tier organizations, including Nike and ASML.

Sander is enthusiastic, open-minded, and ambitious. He finds interpersonal relationships and intrinsic motivations very important in team dynamics. Besides his work, Sander loves to spend time with his family, enjoys sports and eating healthy, barbecuing, riding his motorcycle, and traveling.

Let’s connect! Sander is always up for new connections and discussions!

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Additional resources:

Discord community:https://discord.gg/v9dySNdK

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S04 E03 Missing Skills within the Scrum Team

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Thu, 18 Aug 2022 08:00:00 GMT

Scrum Teams are cross-functional. This is often perceived as “you should be able to do all the work of the others in the team”. Can you imagine how tough that must be? Luckily for us, this is a common misconception. But what DOES it mean? And what skills are Scrum Teams lacking? Daria Bagina is joining Sander to discuss her viewpoints.

What you’ll discover in this show:

- What cross-functionality means
- What part do Scrum Masters play in the cross-functionality of the Scrum Team
- How to resolve the lack of certain skills

Speakers:
Daria Bagina
PST, Author, Mentor

Helping teams and organizations get the most out of Agile since 2014. My passion is in teaching, coaching, mentoring, and facilitating. Contact me if your company is looking for an experienced agile practitioner to help them with their transformation.

My goal as a Scrum Master is to help teams succeed and to create an encouraging motivating organizational culture.
I have extensive experience working with a variety of teams and individuals always looking for the best way to approach new problems.
I'm a passionate Agile advocate. I believe old ways of working can no longer support emerging businesses and the only way to build products that will elevate the economy is through a new mindset of work.

Contact Daria:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dariabagina/

Sander Dur (host)
Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Additional resources:

www.scrummastered.com
https://www.youtube.com/c/ScrumMastered
Pizzagility events:

Masteringagility.org
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://agilitymasters.com/en
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S03 E03 Empiricism and Science with James Coplien

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 10:00:00 GMT

Agility is more than just product development. It’s the whole mindset, a paradigm shift in the way your organization works. Examples are abundant where empiricism is practiced, for instance in the way the world has to deal with a pandemic like the one that is going on right now.

Speaker, author, trainer, consultant, and legend James Coplien joins Sander Dur in this episode of the Mastering Agility podcast to have a great discussion on where he sees business agility has evolved to, how science has taken a few big hits, and the influence of large players on the market.

What you’ll discover in this show:

- Agility didn’t start as agility
- Large players in the market don’t necessarily have a good impact on the overall state of business
- Science has taken a big hit during the last couple of years

Speakers:
James Coplien
Lean/Agile Process and Architecture Coach

Executive consultant in the areas of organizational development and software architecture with more than 40 years of experience. Extensive foundations, experience, and industry leadership in software patterns, organizational patterns, software architecture, and electronic design automation. Innovative integration of deep technical insights and concern for the human side of your business.

Specialties: Software architecture, organizational transformation, software patterns, EDA software, object-oriented design, Agile software development. Certified Scrum Trainer®, Certified ScrumMaster, Certified Scrum Practitioner, Certified Scrum Product Owner.

Contact James:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/coplien/
jcoplien@gmail.com

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Additional resources:

Discord community:https://discord.gg/6YJamBJxUV

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S02 E17 Tom and Mary Poppendieck on the Agile in Action podcast with Bill Raymond

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Sun, 26 Dec 2021 23:00:00 GMT

https://agilerocks.co.uk/

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S02 E05 Applying Scrum with Kanban with Andy Hiles

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 04 Oct 2021 19:00:00 GMT

Scrum is purposely incomplete. It is a framework that perfectly lends itself to build upon. There are so many complimentary practices that can be used with Scrum. Kanban is one of those. You might even have used aspects of it without knowing it!

Andy Hiles, Owner of Agile Rocks - Training and Coaching, just released his first book on Applying Scrum with Kanban. Personally, I think it’s a masterpiece that’s easy to read. And the best thing about this show.. He’s giving signed copies away!

What you’ll discover in this show:

- Scrum and Kanban are not mutually exclusive

- Even though the title suggests otherwise, this is not a pointless book

- Behavior changes trump any framework

Speakers:

Andy Hiles

Owner of Agile Rocks - Training and Coaching

Andy is a highly experienced agile practitioner, Scrum coach, and Professional Scrum and professional Kanban Trainer.

Over his years of working in both the private and public sectors, he has developed a deep understanding of the challenges around organizational complexity and the impact on delivery teams and behavior.

A firm believer that great teams build great products, Andy strives for success and in doing so displays his experience and passion for agile in every engagement.

Contact Andy Hiles:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahiles/

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://agilitymasters.com/en
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Additional resources:

Buy the book!:

https://www.amazon.com.br/dp/B09H5169Q1

https://agilerocks.co.uk/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe378dTE928fCAkhmZr63UA

https://www.scrum.org/andy-hiles

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://agilitymasters.com/en
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S02 E01 Empirically Unfucking with John Riley

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 16 Aug 2021 17:00:00 GMT

John Riley is the founder of ReadySetAgile and PST for Scrum.org. When I talked to him about the topic for this episode, he brought up to talk about empirically unfucking things. I have no clue what it meant, so I was eager to find out.

Empirically unfucking things means getting out of a messed-up situation supported by empirical evidence. This might be harder than it sounds. How do return to a good state from a messy scenario?

What you’ll discover in this show:

- It could be helpful when Sprint financials are transparent

- Competitors are stakeholders too

- Therefore we can invite them to Sprint Reviews

Speakers:

John Riley

Principal Agile Coach & Trainer at Ready Set Agile

John Riley is an experienced Agile Coach, Professional Scrum Trainer, and community speaker helping others embrace the values and purposes of agility. He believes in the simple principles of continuous learning, a test-first mindset, and enabling teams to be self-organizing to foster creativity and continuously deliver the highest value to users.

John's background in manufacturing and software delivery allows him to lead by example to coach individuals, teams, and organizations to achieve their highest abilities.

Contact John Riley:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/johril/

www.readysetagile.com

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Additional resources:

https://www.readysetagile.com/

Watch the Nordstrom Innovation Lab: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Clo2t0QGmms&t=96s

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jurriaankamer

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S01 E20 Continuous learning in Formula 1 with Jurriaan Kamer

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 26 Jul 2021 10:00:00 GMT

Formula 1 is the world’s biggest traveling circus. Races are fast-paced, but so is learning. What you on screen is just one part, but the actual learning starts after the race. Hundreds of terabytes of data are collected each competitive weekend. But what do teams do with that data? How can they improve the way they work, ultimately to move up the field? Teams work with a massive amount of people, large budgets, and high pressure. Staying ahead of the competition is crucial. Jurriaan Kamer, co-author of Formula X talks about his insights.

What you’ll discover in this show:

- Bigger budgets don’t necessarily mean faster improvement

- Autonomy and culture are critical to drive success

- Even staggering amounts of people can work as one

Speakers:

Jurriaan Kamer

Organization designer & transformation at The Ready | Author 'Formula X' | Speaker

The forces of complexity, humanity, and technology are putting pressure on our organizations that can't be met by traditional ways of working. Our organizations need to be better for their people and better for the world. This requires a shift from 'plan & predict' to 'sense & respond'.

I support leaders who want to make their organizations 'complexity conscious' and 'people positive'.
More at: www.jurriaankamer.com

Contact Jurriaan Kramer:
https://www.jurriaankamer.com/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG1WPfl4intvNQy5_5bVBcw

http://medium.com/@jurriaankamer

https://twitter.com/jurriaankamer

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://agilitymasters.com/en
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Additional resources:

Pick up a copy of the book Formula X:

Available in Dutch (www.formule-x.nl), English (www.formula-x.co) or German (www.formel-x.de). Also available as audiobook.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/thevirtualagilecoach/

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S01 E17 Remote after Covid with Chris Stone

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 05 Jul 2021 13:00:00 GMT

The pandemic has made a tremendous impact all around the world. We needed to adapt our ways of working, how we approach problems, find out a new work-life balance. Now that vaccinations are getting up to speed, and more and more people are getting vaccinated, the world is slowly reopening. After working from home for such a long time, going back to what we’re used to will pose a whole new set of challenges. What did we learn? What challenges can we expect? Will we ever go back to the office full-time again? Chris Stone has been working remotely even before the pandemic hit. He’s the right guy to talk about this.

What you’ll discover in this show:

- Employers will now have to convince employees to work from the office, instead of the other way around

- Remote is here to stay

- Not being limited to a physical office creates a new range of audience and employees

Speakers:

Chris Stone

Virtual Agile Coach

For eight years now I've been fostering an environment for the success of high-performing teams and organizations through the use of agility. I've worked across a wide range of industries and with some of the largest organizations in the world, as well as with smaller, more lean enterprises.

As The Virtual Agile coach, I intend to enable frictionless innovation, regardless of location. I'm therefore a firm believer in enabling agility whilst working virtually. Through this platform, I'll share my advice, guidance, coaching, mentoring, and training, along with a series of actionable experiments for you to try.

Contact Chris Stone:
https://www.thevirtualagilecoach.co.uk/

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://agilitymasters.com/en
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Additional resources:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://agilitymasters.com/en
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S01 E05 How conversations drive Value with Jeff Patton

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 12 Apr 2021 12:00:00 GMT

Abstract:

Nothing quite captures emotions and the perception of value as just having a simple conversation. JIRA tickets full of details still cannot display what a face-to-face conversation can. But challenging times, like now with the pandemic going on, require a different approach. Jeff Patton joins us to share his insights!

What you’ll discover in this show:

- COVID has shown that product delivery still continuous steadily

- Political discussions within the organizations are hard to break

- The point where conversations start to stop have a huge impact

Speakers:

Jeff Patton

VETERAN PRODUCT MANAGER, AGILE, LEAN, UX AND PRODUCT DESIGN EVANGELIST

Jeff Patton is the glue that connects good product management and strategy, lean user experience, and agile delivery practices together. He has authored numerous articles, essays and, most recently, a book, “User Story Mapping.” An independent consultant with a unique teaching and speaking style, he uses hand-drawings and engaging story-telling to share his passion for product design.

Contact Jeff Patton:
https://www.jpattonassociates.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/productdesigncoach/

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Additional resources:

Buy Jeff’s book right here!

Masteringagility.org
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://agilitymasters.com/en
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S02 E10 Dynamic Reteaming at Redgate with Chris Smith

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 08 Nov 2021 20:00:00 GMT

In last week’s episode, Heidi Helfand talked to us about her book “Dynamic Reteaming”. Dynamic Reteaming has great potential to provide when treated correctly. We took the Tuckman model and stable teams for granted for decades. Now Dynamic Reteaming is taking over in complex domains.

The thing with theory is, though, that theory does not always map well in practice. Theory is picture-perfect, while practice almost never is. Chris Smith, Head of Product Delivery at Redgate Software, provides a great case study of how this can work in practice!

What you’ll discover in this show:

- What format Redgate uses to do Dynamic Reteaming

- How softskills come to play when working with trust

- What benefits were uncovered at Redgate

Speakers:
Chris Smith

Head of Product Delivery at Redgate Software

Chris is Head of Product Delivery at Redgate. His job is to lead the software development teams that work on Redgate's ingeniously simple database software, building teams with clarity of purpose, freedom to act, and a drive to learn. For the last three years, Chris has led Redgate's annual reteaming process which gives people a strong influence over which team they are part of, encouraging them to move towards the work they find most engaging

Contact Chris:
Blog: https://leadingagileteams.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissmithagile/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cj_smithy
Email: chris.smith@red-gate.com

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Additional resources:
Leave a review:
https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/mastering-agility-1727952/reviews

Find the book:

https://www.heidihelfand.com/dynamic-reteaming-book/

https://leadingagileteams.com/category/teams/reteaming/

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S05 E05 A typical Scrum Master day and fostering self-management

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 22 May 2023 17:00:00 GMT

Do more of the right work (and less of the wrong work).
Create more actual teams than just groups of people who work together.
Learning how to improve themselves, their team, and their organization incrementally.
Understand that less, not more, is usually part of the answer to some of the hardest questions we all face.
See their workplaces, teams, and their sphere of influence as something that is evolving, which requires an evolution of all of its parts to adapt.

linkedin.com/in/sam-falco/

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

#145 Consistency, Creativity, Compliance, and the Five X's with Sam Falco and Dan Neumann

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 19:21:12 GMT

In this episode, Jim and Rich delve into the complexities of Agile methodologies with Sam Falco and Dan Neumann, discussing the balance between consistency and flexibility, the challenges of planning in complex environments, and the importance of discipline in Agile practices. Together, they explore various frameworks for navigating complexity, the significance of measuring effectiveness, and the necessity of making small bets in uncertain conditions. The need for organizations to adapt their approaches based on the context and to embrace feedback as a means of continuous improvement is critical for continued success.

00:00 Intro

04:08 Understanding Complexity in Agile

09:02 The Challenge of Planning in Complex Environments

13:49 Navigating Regulations and Constraints

15:57 Frameworks for Managing Complexity

21:46 Managing Risk and Boundaries in Complexity

26:07 Efficiency vs. Effectiveness

30:20 The Complexity of Decision Making

37:15 Consistency vs Flexibility

44:05 Discovering the Time to Change

47:53 Building and Falling Into Habits

51:58 Finding the Balance of Consistency and Flexibility

53:40 Iterating Towards a Solution

54:37 Complexity Needs Good Process

55:25 Using Cadence for Evolution and Consistency

57:01 It Takes Discipline to Deliver

Connect with Mastering Agility:

📢 Follow the podcast for more inspiring stories
💬 Join the conversation on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/mastering-agility
📩 Contact us for trades or sponsorships

👉 If you enjoyed this episode, leave a review and share it with someone who needs to hear it!

Connect with our guests:

linkedin.com/in/meetdanneumann/

Check out our sponsors:

www.xebia.com

www.jointinsights.com

www.productfields.com

Find more at www.masteringagility.org

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

#135 Mastering the Mind: Mental Fitness, Meaning, and the Inner Game with René de Leijer

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 19:43:29 GMT

“Mental fitness is like going to the gym—but for your mind.”

In this insightful episode, Jim welcomes René de Leijer—Agile Coach, Scrum Master, and co-creator of The Inner Game—to explore what it truly means to help people, teams, and organizations grow. René shares his philosophy on being “strategically lazy,” the importance of psychological safety, and how embracing your inner saboteurs can lead to personal and team transformation.

#143 Generosity, Community, and the Changing Agile Landscape with Jose Casal

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 06:30:00 GMT

“Generosity as a strategy — I’ve never seen it not pay back eventually.”

In this lively conversation, Jim and Sander welcome Jose Casal — agile coach, trainer, and long-time conference organizer — to reflect on the people, purpose, and future of agile gatherings. As part of the Scan Agile 2025 organizing team, Jose shares why he continues to invest months of volunteer effort into building events that foster connection and inspiration.

From his global journey (Spain → UK → Finland) to his professional philosophy of “generosity as a strategy,” Jose unpacks the challenges and rewards of running community-driven conferences in a shifting industry landscape. The trio dive into the realities of sponsorship, the impact of AI on agile investment, and why human connection remains the ultimate ROI.

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

#141 Embracing Agility Beyond Tech: Insights with Michal Epstein

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 06:30:00 GMT

“Agile is not just for software — it’s for solving problems anywhere there’s complexity:"

At Scan Agile 2025, Jim and Sander dive into a thought-provoking conversation with Michal Epstein about the transformative power of agility beyond traditional tech environments. Discover how agile principles can be applied in diverse fields like biotech and construction, and learn about the importance of stakeholder collaboration and value-driven approaches. Key takeaways include understanding that agile is a mindset transcending industries, the crucial role of stakeholder engagement, the benefits for non-tech teams, the importance of communication and transparency, and insights into value-based pricing.

Connect with Michal: (14) Michal Epstein | LinkedIn

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

Claim your free ticket for the Online Scrum Master Summit

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

#134 From Gut to Great: Smarter Group Decisions in Agile with Tobi Mende

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 06:00:00 GMT

In this thought-provoking episode, Jim sits down with Tobias -Tobi- Mende, engineering leadership consultant and speaker at the upcoming Online Scrum Master Summit from June 17-19 to explore the real challenges of decision-making in agile teams. Drawing from 15+ years of experience, Tobi shares how poor visibility, lack of strategy, and fear of failure hold teams back—and how we can fix it.

If you're a Scrum Master, team lead, or product manager frustrated by indecision, vague priorities, or never-ending meetings—this episode is for you. Tobi delivers tactical ways to empower teams, improve clarity, and reintroduce confidence into team decisions—without falling into top-down traps or analysis paralysis.

📅 Join Tobi at the Online Scrum Master Summit

Learn his structured approach to team decision-making—with real-world tools your team can use tomorrow.

Connect with Tobi: LinkedIn

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

#130 Slides, Science, and Shaping the Future: Building Brave Cultures from Playgrounds to Boardrooms

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 07:00:00 GMT

"Let people twist, turn, and break your product a little — that's where the magic happens."

In this special ScanAgile 25 edition, hosts Jim and Sander sit down with Linda Liukas — renowned author, educator, and playground designer — for a rich conversation about creativity, risk, resilience, and the future of learning and public spaces.

Linda shares her journey from writing Hello Ruby to designing cutting-edge computer science-themed playgrounds that challenge how we think about education, risk-taking, and play. Together, they explore the parallels between playgrounds and workplaces, how organizations can foster real innovation (hint: it's not about micromanaging), and why letting people "own" a product or process leads to bigger impacts.

Whether you're a leader, educator, or innovator, this episode will spark ideas about autonomy, growth, and designing environments — both physical and cultural — where people can thrive.

Connect with Linda: (27) Linda Liukas | LinkedIn

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

#116 Neurodiversity in Scrum Teams with Anita Kalmane-Boot - Part 2

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 08:00:00 GMT

summary

In this conversation, Sander Dur and Anita Kalmane-Boot explore the concept of neurodivergence, discussing its implications in personal and professional settings. They delve into the definitions of neurodiversity and neurodivergent conditions, share personal experiences, and highlight the importance of understanding and accommodating neurodivergent individuals in team environments.

The discussion also touches on the challenges faced by neurodivergent people, the process of diagnosis, and the need for open conversations about mental health in the workplace. Sander and Anita discusse the complexities of neurodiversity, the challenges of social interactions, and the dynamics of remote work. They reflect on personal experiences and emphasize the importance of self-acceptance and creating supportive environments for neurodivergent individuals.

The discussion also touches on parenting, confidence versus arrogance, and the need for understanding in team dynamics.

takeaways

Neurodiversity encompasses a range of brain wiring differences.
Neurodivergent individuals may experience unique challenges in social settings.
Understanding neurodivergence can enhance team dynamics and productivity.
Open conversations about neurodivergence can reduce stigma.
Diagnosis can provide clarity and self-acceptance for neurodivergent individuals.
Different neurodivergent conditions can affect individuals in various ways.
Accommodating neurodivergent individuals requires understanding their unique needs.
Not all neurodivergent individuals are the same; diversity exists within the spectrum.
Creating inclusive environments benefits everyone, not just neurodivergent individuals.
Awareness and education about neurodiversity are crucial for fostering acceptance. Remote work can alleviate social anxiety for neurodivergent individuals.
Observing team dynamics in person is crucial for effective Scrum Mastering.
Planning ahead can reduce stress and improve decision-making.
Self-acceptance is a vital yet challenging journey for many.
Creating confident environments is essential for personal and team growth.
Neurodiversity encompasses a range of conditions that require understanding.
Confidence should be nurtured without crossing into arrogance.
Parenting plays a significant role in developing children's self-esteem.
Engaging in open conversations can foster better team dynamics.
Understanding neurodiversity is an ongoing learning process for society.

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

#116 Neurodiversity in Scrum Teams with Anita Kalmane-Boot - Part 1

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 09:27:05 GMT

summary

The discussion also touches on parenting, confidence versus arrogance, and the need for understanding in team dynamics.

takeaways

Neurodiversity encompasses a range of brain wiring differences.
Neurodivergent individuals may experience unique challenges in social settings.
Understanding neurodivergence can enhance team dynamics and productivity.
Open conversations about neurodivergence can reduce stigma.
Diagnosis can provide clarity and self-acceptance for neurodivergent individuals.
Different neurodivergent conditions can affect individuals in various ways.
Accommodating neurodivergent individuals requires understanding their unique needs.
Not all neurodivergent individuals are the same; diversity exists within the spectrum.
Creating inclusive environments benefits everyone, not just neurodivergent individuals.
Awareness and education about neurodiversity are crucial for fostering acceptance. Remote work can alleviate social anxiety for neurodivergent individuals.
Observing team dynamics in person is crucial for effective Scrum Mastering.
Planning ahead can reduce stress and improve decision-making.
Self-acceptance is a vital yet challenging journey for many.
Creating confident environments is essential for personal and team growth.
Neurodiversity encompasses a range of conditions that require understanding.
Confidence should be nurtured without crossing into arrogance.
Parenting plays a significant role in developing children's self-esteem.
Engaging in open conversations can foster better team dynamics.
Understanding neurodiversity is an ongoing learning process for society.

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

#115 Hosts against Humanity: A tale of Scrum, Smurfs & big decisions - Part 2

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Sun, 27 Oct 2024 20:34:07 GMT

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

#114 - Agile HR: From Managing to Empowering Employees with Riina Hellstrom - Part 1

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 10:13:34 GMT

Summary

In this conversation, Sander Dur and his guest Riina Hellstrom explore the evolving role of HR in organizations, emphasizing the shift from traditional "resource management" to a more agile, empowering approach. They discuss the importance of adopting an agile mindset in HR practices, the impact of AI on the workforce, and the necessity for continuous learning and adaptation in the face of change.

Riina shares insights on how HR can create value for employees, the challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the need for leaders to prioritize initiatives effectively. The conversation highlights the importance of co-creating change with employees and fostering a positive work environment that encourages engagement and fulfillment.

takeaways

HR should empower employees to succeed.
Agile mindset is crucial for modern HR practices.
Value streams in HR can enhance employee experience.
AI will significantly impact HR roles and functions.
Continuous learning is essential for career development.
Leaders must prioritize initiatives effectively.
Co-creating change with employees fosters engagement.
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted HR's importance.
HR needs to adapt to technological advancements.
A positive work environment enhances employee satisfaction.

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#113 The end of the Goldrush? The Agile Crisis with Jurgen Appelo - Part 2

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Fri, 04 Oct 2024 07:00:00 GMT

"The way we have been working for the last 20 years with standard frameworks and methodologies, we're going to leave behind."

Summary In this conversation Sander Dur, Jim Sammons and their guest Jurgen Appelo explore the impact of the current crisis on the agile community and the need for adaptation and learning new skills. They discuss the concept of agile being dissolved rather than dead, and the changing nature of the agile world. They emphasize the importance of being a lifelong learner and continuously adapting to new technologies and ways of working. The conversation also touches on the need for individuals to invest in their own development and the challenges of finding new opportunities in a rapidly changing landscape. The conversation explores the potential impact of AI and LLMs on various aspects of work and life. Together with Jurgen, the hosts discuss the opportunities and challenges presented by these technologies, including the potential for job displacement and the need for continuous learning. They also touch on the concept of creative disruption and the importance of challenging complacency in large organizations, as well as the ethical implications of AI and the evolving boundaries of ethics. They conclude with reflections on their personal ambitions and the future of work.

key takeaways

Agile is not dead, but it is dissolved and evolving in response to changing circumstances.
The focus should be on outcomes rather than rigid frameworks and methodologies.
Continuous learning and adaptation are crucial in the face of technological advancements and changing job markets.
Individuals should take responsibility for their own development and invest in their skills and employability.
Controversial opinions and diversity of perspectives are essential for progress and innovation. AI and LLMs have the potential to significantly impact various aspects of work and life.
Job displacement is a concern, but there are also opportunities for continuous learning and personal growth.
Creative disruption is important for challenging complacency in large organizations.
Ethical considerations and the evolving boundaries of ethics are crucial in the development and use of AI.
Reflection on personal ambitions and the future of work is essential for navigating the changing landscape.

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

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S06 E09 Starting with Scrum and forming your Scrum Team

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 11 Dec 2023 09:00:00 GMT

Do more of the right work (and less of the wrong work).
Create more actual teams than just groups of people who work together.
Learning how to improve themselves, their team, and their organization incrementally.
Understand that less, not more, is usually part of the answer to some of the hardest questions we all face.
See their workplaces, teams, and their sphere of influence as something that is evolving, which requires an evolution of all of its parts to adapt.

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

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#110 The Agile Product Operating Model with Simon Reindl & Martin Hinshelwood

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 26 Aug 2024 07:00:00 GMT

summary

The conversation explores the challenges and misconceptions surrounding agile methodologies, particularly Scrum, and the need for a common understanding and language in the industry. The guests discuss the fatigue and disillusionment with agile and the constant influx of new buzzwords. They emphasize the importance of focusing on core principles and delivering value, regardless of the specific framework or terminology used. The conversation also touches on the lack of competence and understanding among practitioners, highlighting the need for accreditation and a governing body to ensure quality and consistency.

The conversation in this part revolves around the agile operating model and the need for certification. The hosts discuss the challenges of finding the right level of expertise and affordability in hiring co-hosts. They also touch upon the issue of online debates about using the wrong terminology. The conversation then transitions to the topic of the agile operating model and the potential for it to become the next big thing. They discuss the need for a certification process and the requirements for someone to be truly certified.

The conversation concludes with a discussion on the product operating model and the potential impact on organizations and the audience. The conversation explores the convergence of product and agile operating models, the challenges of scaling innovation, the importance of clear constraints and empowerment, and the need for a learning culture. It emphasizes the need to focus on core principles rather than structures, embrace failure as part of the learning process, and create a culture of trust and connectedness.

takeaways

The industry is experiencing fatigue and disillusionment with agile methodologies, particularly Scrum, due to the constant influx of new buzzwords and the overuse of terminology.
It is essential to focus on core principles and delivering value, rather than getting caught up in specific frameworks or terminology.
There is a lack of competence and understanding among practitioners, with many individuals claiming to be Scrum Masters or agile coaches without a basic knowledge of Scrum.
Accreditation and a governing body could help raise the bar and ensure quality and consistency in the industry.
A common understanding is crucial for effective collaboration and alignment within organizations.
Education and continuous learning are important for professionals in the field.
Clear constraints and empowerment are essential for creating a learning culture.
Leadership plays a critical role in defining purpose, setting constraints, and creating a culture of trust and connectedness.
Both hierarchy and networked communication are necessary in organizations to balance autonomy and alignment.

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

#109 Organizing the Scan Agile Conference with Kjell de Ruiter & Eliska Cejpova

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 19:00:00 GMT

Summary

The conversation revolves around the Agile24 conference and the feelings associated with its end. The Sander and his guests talk about the biggest concerns in the run-up to the conference and the importance of risk management and preparation. They reflect on improvements for next year, particularly in terms of party and networking. They discuss the smooth organization process and the real costs of volunteering. The conversation also touches on the approach to in-person conferences after COVID and the global attendance and success of the event.

The engaging and impactful speakers are discussed, as well as the experience of imposter syndrome and public speaking. The hosts emphasize the importance of conferences for networking and finding happiness in small moments.

Takeaways

Risk management and preparation are crucial for a smooth conference experience.
Volunteering for conferences is a non-profit effort that requires time and dedication.
Conferences provide valuable networking opportunities and the chance to find happiness in small moments.

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S07 E06 Joe Krebs on Agile Katas

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Fri, 10 May 2024 09:11:37 GMT

Summary
In this conversation, Joe Krebs joins us at the ScanAgile24 conference in Helsinki. He discusses the concept of Agile Kata and its role in continuous improvement. He shares his passion for this topic and how it originated from his experience with agile transformations. Joe emphasizes the importance of challenging existing processes and habits to drive meaningful change. He also highlights the need for a continuous improvement mindset and the challenges organizations face in embracing it. Joe shares success stories of organizations applying Kata and the potential benefits it brings. He concludes by discussing the importance of building the Agile Kata community and the slow progress in doing so.

Takeaways

Agile Kata is a pattern for continuous improvement that can enhance the world of Agile.
Agile transformations should not be treated as projects with an end date but as ongoing journeys of improvement.
Kata introduces scientific thinking and challenges existing habits and processes.
The biggest challenge in embracing continuous learning and improvement is breaking through existing habits and routines.

Chapters

00:00Introduction and Background

02:24The Importance of Continuous Improvement

04:17The Misconception of Agile Transformation

05:14Evolution of the Talk on Agile Kata

06:12The Challenge of Embracing Continuous Learning

07:40Challenges in Challenging Existing Processes

09:07The Time Investment for Creating New Habits

10:08Using Kata to Improve Business Situations

11:36Success Stories of Applying Kata

13:31Applying Kata in Lean Manufacturing Environments

14:55The Challenge of Having a Continuous Improvement Mindset

15:23The Danger of Zombie Scrum

20:35Challenging the Sprint-Based Approach

24:21Applying Kata in Simple Product Spaces

25:20The Slow Progress of Building the Agile Kata Community

27:35Question for the Next Guest

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S07 E03 Chris Williams on the Art of Simplicity

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 16 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMT

The conversation explores the concept of simplicity and its challenges in various contexts. It delves into the importance of feedback, organizational and cultural change, and the friction between doing the thing right and doing the right thing. The difficulty of simplicity is discussed, along with the power of simple solutions. The conversation explores the importance of simplicity in product development and the challenges organizations face in achieving it. The three main drivers in the workforce are identified as community, cause, and compensation, with their importance varying depending on career stage. Perks and benefits, such as ping pong tables and beer on tap, are no longer sufficient to attract and retain talent. The focus should be on creating work that matters and providing employees with a sense of purpose. Short-term focus and financial stress can hinder organizations and individuals from achieving simplicity. It is crucial to let go of unnecessary tasks and amplify the value of the work being done.

Takeaways

Simplicity is the antithesis to complexity and is essential in various domains, including software development and product design.
Feedback is crucial in achieving simplicity and ensuring that the right solutions are developed.
Organizational and cultural change are necessary to foster simplicity and create an environment that values simplicity.
There is often a friction between doing the thing right (craftsmanship) and doing the right thing (meeting customer needs and business goals). Balancing these two aspects is essential.
Simple solutions can be powerful and effective, and often the simplest solution is the best one. The three main drivers in the workforce are community, cause, and compensation, with their importance varying depending on career stage.
Perks and benefits are no longer sufficient to attract and retain talent; the focus should be on creating work that matters and providing employees with a sense of purpose.
Short-term focus and financial stress can hinder organizations and individuals from achieving simplicity.
It is crucial to let go of unnecessary tasks and amplify the value of the work being done

Check out our sponsors:
www.wiserbees.com
www.xebia.com
www.scrummatch.com
www.masteringagility.org

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S01 E03 The Importance of Sprint Goals with Maarten Dalmijn

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 29 Mar 2021 15:00:00 GMT

Sprint Goals provide the single objective, the single focus, for the Sprint when we're talking about what's the most important thing to do. Often it's a misunderstood or hard thing to create. Why do we need one? Can we really create only 1, we're working on so many things?! Maarten Dalmijn is here to talk to us about why Sprint Goals are so important and how to deal with these questions. There is so much to say about it that he's even writing a book on this specific topic!

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

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#114 - Agile HR: From Managing to Empowering Employees with Riina Hellstrom - Part 2

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 07:00:00 GMT

Summary

takeaways

HR should empower employees to succeed.
Agile mindset is crucial for modern HR practices.
Value streams in HR can enhance employee experience.
AI will significantly impact HR roles and functions.
Continuous learning is essential for career development.
Leaders must prioritize initiatives effectively.
Co-creating change with employees fosters engagement.
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted HR's importance.
HR needs to adapt to technological advancements.
A positive work environment enhances employee satisfaction.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

#119 Solving for Value with Ryan Brook and Sander Dur

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 18:58:21 GMT

In this conversation, Jim talks to Sander, and Ryan about their book 'Solving for Value', exploring its motivations, tone, and the importance of authenticity and empathy in consultancy. They delve into the complexities of work relationships, the significance of critical thinking, and the shared struggles many face in their professional lives.

The discussion also touches on the challenges of measuring success beyond monetary ROI and the personal reflections that come with being business owners, culminating in a light-hearted exchange about their favorite holiday movies. In this engaging conversation, Jim, Sander and Ryan discuss a variety of themes ranging from holiday movie favorites to the impact of social media and nostalgia. They discuss the allure of big cities, the dangers of apathy in the workplace, and the importance of critical thinking. The conversation wraps up with reading recommendations and reflections on the writing process.

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

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#111 Raging Against Fake Agile with Gillie & Marge

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 10:50:59 GMT

In this episode, the Mastering Agility Podcast-team discusses various misunderstandings and misapplications of Agile practices, particularly how Agile is often reduced to a set of tools or deadlines rather than its core principles of flexibility and value-driven work.

Key points include:

Agile can be misused to push unfinished work or prioritize speed over quality.
Many companies dehumanize employees by treating them as "resources" or "tools" rather than people.
It's necessary to challenge the status quo and question whether certain processes or features are necessary .
Innovation within organizations requires more than hackathons and "innovation days"
Agile is about responding to change, not just completing work faster. True agility requires the ability to stop work and pivot if needed.

The episode also touches on themes like trust within teams, the pitfalls of bureaucratic decision-making, and how large corporations struggle to implement true Agile principles compared to smaller, nimble organizations.

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

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#118 Agile Alchemy: Turning Refinement into Gold

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Fri, 29 Nov 2024 12:25:28 GMT

"Refinement is about gathering enough information to get started, not pre-cooking the entire task."

In this episode of Mastering Agility, Jim and Sander explore the concept of Refinement in agile teams, discussing its purpose in creating shared understanding, adding details, and aligning on goals. Refinement isn’t about perfect planning but ensuring teams have enough information to start effectively.

The hosts highlight the evolving role of the product owner, the importance of continuous communication, and practical strategies to avoid common pitfalls like over-refinement and meeting overload. Their key advice: focus on the five W’s and the how, empower teams to take ownership, and maintain flexibility in the refinement process.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform!

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

#108 The Silent Killer of Agile with Alex & Sally Sloley

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 07:00:00 GMT

Summary

The conversation covers karaoke, the Finnish Agile community, bad agile practices, agile transformations, fear, and personal advice. Sander Dur and his guests Sally and Aley Sloley discuss their dislike for karaoke and share stories about karaoke experiences. They praise the Finnish Agile community for their commitment and investment in creating a high-quality conference. They also discuss the negative impact of bad agile practices and the importance of sticking to true agile principles. The conversation delves into the concept of agile transformations and the need for continuous improvement rather than a definitive end state. They address the fear and resistance to change that often hinders agile adoption. They share personal experiences and offer advice on embracing experimentation and overcoming fear. The conversation concludes with a discussion on their mission to stop bad agile practices and the importance of staying true to one's beliefs. They also talk about using birds as metaphors in Sally's work and the importance of happiness in their careers. They share their fears and the impact of Agile on their lives.

Takeaways

The Finnish Agile community is committed and invested in creating high-quality events.
Bad agile practices, such as fake agile playbooks and op models, can be harmful and should be avoided
Agile transformations should focus on continuous improvement rather than a definitive end-state
Fear often hinders agile adoption and experimentation
Staying true to one's beliefs and principles is important in the face of resistance
Agile has had a positive impact on Sally's and Alex' lives and has given them hope and fulfillment.

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

#102 "No Matter What" with Agavni Jessaijan

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 11 Jun 2024 09:28:24 GMT

Summary

In this conversation, Sander Dur and Agavni Jessaijan discuss her diverse creative skills and her journey to self-employment. They explore the importance of communication and the belief that everything is possible. Agavni shares her experiences as an entrepreneur and the challenges she faced during the pandemic. They also discuss her participation in a special forces TV show and the lessons she learned from it. The conversation highlights the importance of autonomy, mastery, and purpose in motivation and the need for trust and teamwork. Agavni reflects on her experience on the TV show 'Kamp van Koningsbrugge' and how it taught her the importance of speaking her truth and staying true to her core. She discusses her physical and mental challenges during the show and how they helped her overcome her insecurities. Agavni emphasizes the need for compassionate communication and the integration of the head, heart, and gut brains in personal leadership. She also talks about her upcoming book, 'No Matter What,' which shares her personal journey and offers insights and wise questions for personal growth and development.

Takeaways

Diverse skills and experiences can lead to personal and professional growth.
Effective communication is essential for success, both personally and within organizations.
Believing that everything is possible can lead to innovation and problem-solving.
Entrepreneurship requires risk-taking and the ability to adapt to challenges.
Motivation is driven by autonomy, mastery, and purpose.
Trust and teamwork are crucial for achieving goals and overcoming obstacles. Speaking your truth and staying true to your core is essential in personal leadership.
Physical and mental challenges can help you overcome insecurities and develop resilience.
Compassionate communication and integrating the head, heart, and gut brains are key in personal leadership.
Asking wise questions can lead to personal growth and development.

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

Masteringagility.org
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://agilitymasters.com/en
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

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S02 E06 Embracing Conflict with Tricia Broderick

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 11 Oct 2021 07:00:00 GMT

People are complex. When we work with other people for a while, the probability that some form of conflict will arise goes up. Conflict can be truly uncomfortable. However, no progress is without conflict. It’s the way we handle it that creates that progress. Constructive disagreements with the right support can be very powerful. Communication is key. But it could go sideways real fast, too.

In this episode of Mastering Agility, Tricia Broderick (leadership and organizational advisor, founder at Ignite) is passionately open about what conflict does to her, how teams and organizations can use it, and a whole lot more!

What you’ll discover in this show:

- The difference between drama and conflict

- Conflict, when handled correctly, is useful in your evolution as a team

- What to do with feedback that’s not that clear

Speakers:

Tricia Broderick

Founder at Ignite insight + innovation

Tricia Broderick is a leadership and organizational advisor. Tricia has over twenty years of experience in the software development industry. Her transformational leadership, at all levels of an organization, ignites the growth of leaders and high-performing teams to deliver quality outcomes. Tricia boldly role models putting people first. Her aim is to create inclusive connections and collaborations that challenge and support people in an authentic, vulnerable, and engaging way. As a result, she is a highly-rated trainer, coach, facilitator, and motivational keynote speaker. In 2020, she founded Ignite Insight + Innovation.

When not traveling to experience the world, Tricia lives in Denver with her family.

Contact Tricia:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tricia-broderick/
https://igniteii.com/

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Additional resources:

Masteringagility.org
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://agilitymasters.com/en
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S02 E12 Participatory budgetting with FirstRoot with Luke Hohmann

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Sun, 21 Nov 2021 23:00:00 GMT

In a previous episode, Lyssa Adkins spoke highly of Luke Hohmann and FirstRoot. FirstRoot lets students work with an actual budget, to come up with ideas, and make those ideas a reality. What do they need to make that concept come to life? What happens when it’s created, who’s going to clean up?

Luke Hohmann joins us today to talk about FirstRoot, and what the impact and potential are of participatory budgeting. But by giving away budget, does FirstRoot not impact its own business model? Listen to this week’s episode to hear Luke’s insights on business models, too!

What you’ll discover in this show:

- Participatory budgeting gives a whole new impulse to students and financials
- FirstRoot is a generationally timely company, that would not have worked in the past
- Designing business models could use a makeover

Speakers:
Luke Hohmann

Founder at FirstRoot

Founder and CEO of FirstRoot, Inc. Our mission is to create the next generation of impact investors. Our unique go-to-market strategy supports all stakeholders as youth use participatory budgeting to invest real money in their schools. Youth learn the 5 C's of modern education: creativity, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and civics as they experience true agency and stewardship over their futures, learning through their own experiences how money really works.

The author of four books, numerous articles and cited as an inventor on more than a dozen patents, Luke is an internationally recognized expert in Agile Software Development. Luke co-organized the first Agile conference in 2003, has served on the Board of the Agile Alliance and in partnership with the Scrum Alliance produced the "Collaboration at Scale", the world's largest monthly webinar devoted to helping organizations with 10 or more Scrum teams in 2 or more locations scale agility.

Luke is a highly sought after speaker has as keynoted such conferences as the Agile Alliance conference, Agile Australia, Lean-Agile Scotland, Agile New Zealand, the Austrian Innovation Forum, the CXPA and the SAFe Summit.

Contact Luke:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukehohmann/

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Additional resources:

https://firstroot.co/

Luke’s book “Beyond Software Architecture”:

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

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S07 E04 Amber Vanderburg on Communicating Technical Ideas to non-Technical Audiences

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 06:00:00 GMT

Summary

In this conversation, Amber shares insights on leading change and higher performance within teams. She emphasizes the importance of inspiring action rather than commanding action, drawing parallels between sports teams and product development teams. Amber also discusses the power of debriefing and learning from failure, as well as the need for effective communication and understanding of technical concepts for different audiences. She highlights the value of asking the right questions to assess baseline knowledge and prioritize information. Amber concludes by expressing her interest in seeing more discussions on talent development and the growth of individuals in the workplace.

Takeaways

Inspire action rather than command action to lead change and drive higher performance within teams.
Debriefing and learning from failure are essential for continuous improvement and success.
Effective communication involves understanding and translating technical concepts for different audiences.
Asking the right questions helps assess baseline knowledge and prioritize information.
Talent development is crucial for individuals to elevate their knowledge, skills, and abilities in the workplace.

Check out our sponsors:
www.wiserbees.com
www.xebia.com
www.scrummatch.com
www.masteringagility.org

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S06 E14 Teresa Torres on Leading Products through Discovery

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 09:31:50 GMT

Summary In this conversation, Teresa Torres discusses the importance of product discovery and how it differs from product development. She emphasizes the need to focus on building the right things and highlights the value of talking to customers regularly. Torres provides practical tips for engaging customers in the discovery process, including how to conduct effective interviews and use data to enhance the conversation. She also addresses organizational resistance and offers strategies for bridging the gap between product and sales teams. Overall, the conversation highlights the significance of customer-centricity in product development. In this conversation, Teresa Torres discusses various aspects of the discovery process in product management. She provides insights on dealing with unwilling participants in interviews, the use of recordings to involve the entire team, and the role of AI tools in synthesis. Torres also shares her perspective on roadmaps in the discovery process and how they can be adapted to represent ambiguity and uncertainty. Additionally, she shares a story about discovering the team was building the wrong thing and highlights the workplace depicted in the TV show 'The West Wing' as an ideal environment.

Takeaways

Product discovery focuses on building the right things, while product development focuses on how to build them.
Regularly talking to customers is essential for understanding their needs and building the right products.
Effective customer interviews involve asking open-ended questions and collecting specific stories about past behavior.
Overcoming organizational resistance requires starting small, building rapport with stakeholders, and demonstrating the value of customer insights.

Find out more about Teresa's content:
The book: https://www.producttalk.org/
The blog: https://www.producttalk.org/blog/
The course: https://learn.producttalk.org/home

Check out our sponsor: www.scrummatch.com
www.xebia.com

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

#113 The end of the Goldrush? The Agile Crisis with Jurgen Appelo - Part 1

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 07:00:00 GMT

"The way we have been working for the last 20 years with standard frameworks and methodologies, we're going to leave behind."

key takeaways

Agile is not dead, but it is dissolved and evolving in response to changing circumstances.
The focus should be on outcomes rather than rigid frameworks and methodologies.
Continuous learning and adaptation are crucial in the face of technological advancements and changing job markets.
Individuals should take responsibility for their own development and invest in their skills and employability.
Controversial opinions and diversity of perspectives are essential for progress and innovation. AI and LLMs have the potential to significantly impact various aspects of work and life.
Job displacement is a concern, but there are also opportunities for continuous learning and personal growth.
Creative disruption is important for challenging complacency in large organizations.
Ethical considerations and the evolving boundaries of ethics are crucial in the development and use of AI.
Reflection on personal ambitions and the future of work is essential for navigating the changing landscape.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

#105 The Future of Agile with Jose Casal

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 01 Jul 2024 22:00:00 GMT

In this conversation, the Sander Dur and Jose Casal discuss finding happiness in everyday life and the importance of incremental achievements. They also explore the role of leaders as organizational gardeners and the need to create environments for people to thrive.

The definition of business agility is examined, along with the future of Agile and business agility. Jose shares insights on the evolution of work and hierarchy, the need for better incentives, and the surprises of change and transformation.

Sander and Jose discuss the future of large organizations and the concept of a federation of micro businesses. The conversation concludes with a focus on dynamic team formation and the importance of cleaning up legacy products and services.

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

S06 E18 Johannes Geske and Stephen Sykes on ScrumMatch

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT

Summary

In this conversation, Sander Dur and his guests discuss the biggest lessons learned during the week and the importance of user feedback in the release strategy. They introduce Scrum Match, a platform that connects companies with true Scrum Masters who can deliver business value. They highlight the need for true Scrum Masters who can use Scrum as a means to an end and differentiate them from Scrum Masters in name only. The hosts also discuss the future of Scrum Match and the scaling of the platform. They emphasize the importance of focus and the value of feedback for both Scrum Masters and employers. In this conversation, the hosts discuss the importance of sponsorship in podcasting and share insights on building and maintaining relationships with sponsors. They emphasize the need to deliver value to sponsors and measure the success of sponsorships. The conversation also covers negotiation strategies for sponsorship deals.

Takeaways

User feedback is crucial in determining the best release strategy and ensuring that clients and users can absorb and work with new features.
The industry has produced many Scrum Masters who fail to deliver business results, leading to a lack of trust in the Scrum framework.
There is a need for a profession for Scrum Masters to separate those who can deliver value from those who cannot.
Scrum Match aims to connect employers with true Scrum Masters who have the practical experience and skills to deliver business value.
The future of Scrum Match involves scaling the platform, building partnerships, and expanding beyond just Scrum Masters.

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#126 Agile: Alive and Evolving with Arie van Bennekum

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Sun, 23 Mar 2025 12:13:25 GMT

"When people say Agile is dead, most of them have never seen it really working."

In this insightful episode, Sander sits down with Arie van Bennekum, one of the co-authors of the Agile Manifesto, to discuss the current state of Agile, common misconceptions, and the evolving nature of agile practices in modern organizations. Arie shares his thoughts on why Agile is far from dead and how many organizations still struggle to truly implement it. They also discuss the importance of leadership in agile transformations and how to anchor agile practices for long-term success.

Connect with Arie:

Arie van Bennekum

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www.xebia.com

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#137 Strategic Storytelling: Shaping Agile Culture Through Narrative with Osita Ifezue

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 13:07:54 GMT

"Origin stories create die-hard fans. Once your story and your product are inseparable, you win."

In this powerful episode of Mastering Agility, Jim and Sander sit down with storytelling strategist Osita Ifezue to explore how strategic storytelling can reshape the way agile teams operate, connect with customers, and innovate beyond the status quo. Recorded at ScanAgile 2025, Osita shares how organizations like LEGO, Apple, Nike, and IKEA use storytelling to drive customer loyalty, enhance internal alignment, and navigate change.

Connect with Osita: (31) Osita Ifezue | LinkedIn

Check out Think About It! With Osita Ifezue Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/2idqtZvGCMswcqIPvQMDCa?si=oQhfzXDkRFCYRDtW16PkUg

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

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DocDur Agile #4 Demonstrating Performance as a Scrum Master

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 07:00:00 GMT

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Sander Dur is a Professional Scrum Trainer at Scrum.org, podcast host of Mastering Agility, Professional Scrum Master and Lead Agile Consultant, and trainer at Xebia. Besides this, he's an avid writer for predominantly Serious Scrum on Medium.com. Sander has a major passion for the human side in complex domains. Ensuring a high level of psychological safety, therefore, is a critical part of his work. Organizations in complex domains can only survive when innovating. Innovation can only take place with the right balance between low social friction and high intellectual friction. While most organizations now understand how to apply Agile frameworks, they struggle with the delivery of value. Psychological safety is the next step in this evolution and Sander has a huge drive to help organizations reach that step.

He gained experience as a Scrum Master, Agile Coach, and Leadership consultant in many different top-tier organizations, including Nike and ASML.

Sander is enthusiastic, open-minded, and ambitious. He finds interpersonal relationships and intrinsic motivations very important in team dynamics. Besides his work, Sander loves to spend time with his family, enjoys sports and eating healthy, barbecuing, riding his motorcycle, and traveling.

Let’s connect! Sander is always up for new connections and discussions!

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Additional resources:

Discord community:https://discord.gg/6YJamBJxUV

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

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#103 Lean Portfolio Management and OKRs with Yuval Yeret

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Tue, 18 Jun 2024 08:00:00 GMT

Summary

In this conversation, Jim, Sander, and their guest Yuval discuss various topics including SAFE, lean portfolio management, and OKRs. They explore the misconceptions and polarizing nature of SAFE, the difference between a traditional PMO and a lean portfolio, and the challenges of managing different ways of working within a global organization. They also delve into the concept of OKRs, the importance of setting realistic goals, and the potential pitfalls of tying incentives to OKRs. The conversation concludes with a discussion on metrics and the value of thinking in bets.

Takeaways

SAFe is often misunderstood and polarizing, but it has valuable ideas and good information on its website.
Lean portfolio management focuses on managing different types of work within an organization's portfolio and measuring different things for different investments.
OKRs should be specific and motivating, but too many goals can be confusing and demotivating.
Tying incentives to OKRs can lead to unintended consequences and the wrong behavior.
Metrics such as lead time, cycle time, and customer satisfaction are important for measuring progress and making data-driven decisions.
Thinking in bets and adopting a VC mindset can help make better decisions and navigate uncertainty in business.

Check out our sponsor:
www.xebia.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carstenlutzen/

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S07 E01 Gojko Adzic on Specification By Example

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 14:20:35 GMT

Summary

In this episode, Goiko shares his experiences and insights on visualizing specifications, writing Specification by Example, and solving communication problems in software development. He discusses the challenges and patterns in the adoption of Spec by Example and the importance of identifying bottlenecks and visualizing problems. Goiko also talks about causing organizational change and the evolution of software development solutions. He concludes by discussing the promise and reality of no-code tools and sharing his recent work and projects. The conversation explores various themes related to software development and its impact on organizations and society. It discusses the power of expressing human knowledge in software and the role of visualization tools in increasing shared understanding. The shift from specialists to generalists in the software industry is examined, as well as the potential for smaller organizations and general-purpose work. The conversation also delves into the role of AI in minimizing political games in organizations and the responsibility of software professionals in creating good software. The need for spending more time on edge cases and negative use cases is highlighted, along with the societal impact of bad software and the potential for IT to become a profession. The conservation and shifting of complexity in software development is explored, and the conversation concludes with a discussion on the impact of shoddy software on people's lives.

Takeaways

Visualizing specifications can help improve understanding and reduce rework in software development.
The adoption of Spec by Example and other agile practices can be hindered by organizational politics and resistance to change.
Identifying bottlenecks and visualizing problems can lead to effective solutions and improvements in software development processes.
No-code tools have the potential to democratize software development and empower non-technical users to create automation. Visualization tools like FigJam and Zeppelin increase shared understanding in organizations.
The software industry is shifting towards smaller organizations and general-purpose work.
AI cannot eliminate political games in organizations, as they are driven by cultural factors.
There is a need for more focus on edge cases and negative use cases in software development.
The responsibility of software professionals is to create good software and address the societal impact of bad software.

Gojko's books

Check out our sponsors:
www.xebia.com
www.wiserbees.com
www.scrummatch.com
www.masteringagility.org

Sound Bites

Chapters

00:00Introduction

01:21Visualizing Specifications

03:04Early Experiences with Software Quality

04:09Solving Communication Problems

05:31Validating Real-World Usage of Spec by Example

06:29Getting Permission from Companies for Case Studies

08:28Persistent Challenges and Positive Patterns

09:49Adoption of Given-When-Then and Consolidation of Tools

11:42Identifying Bottlenecks and Visualizing Problems

13:01Causing Organizational Change

14:09The Challenge of Change Resistance

16:30The Evolution of Software Development Solutions

26:48Goiko's Recent Work and Projects

35:26The Power of Expressing Human Knowledge in Software

36:03Visualization Tools and Increased Shared Understanding

37:27Specialists vs. Generalists in the Software Industry

38:49The Shift Towards Smaller Organizations and General Purpose Work

41:49The Role of AI in Minimizing Political Games in Organizations

42:54The Responsibility of Software Professionals in Creating Good Software

51:01The Need for Spending More Time on Edge Cases and Negative Use Cases

53:31The Societal Impact of Bad Software and the Role of Governments

57:41The Potential for IT to Become a Profession

01:01:29The Conservation and Shifting of Complexity in Software Development

01:04:43The Impact of Shoddy Software on People's Lives

S01 E15 Adding Playfulness with Carsten Lutzen

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 15:00:00 GMT

Working environments can benefit greatly by having playful environments. But to have playful environments, you need those frontrunners that will take you there. Carsten Lutzen is the right guy for the job. His LinkedIn page and YouTube channel (see for details below) radiate creativity and he helps you get there. Working at the LEGO group, he is constantly surrounded by playful, but serious products. Let’s listen to his experience as the Playful Agile Coach.

And, we’re giving away a LEGO set! Go to http://masteringagility.org/index.php/give-aways/ to found out how you can enter!

What you’ll discover in this show:

- Humor breaks the tension

- Liberating Structures and icebreakers are great for starting and fostering collaborative discussions

- LEGO is still hiring!

Speakers:

Carsten Lutzen

Agile Coach in The LEGO Group

I like motivating people and helping them achieve their goals and to make sure that the team performs well. I love to look at processes and try to improve them using the tools in my (agile) toolbox. I don't believe that one methodology exists that will work on all projects, hence we need to tweak the tools for every single project and take the things that works and skip the things does not.

Another love of mine is making software that needs to be performant using clever software architecture combined with heavy computer science theory within the field of performance and optimization techniques.

Combining these two things it is possible to create user-centric software and experiences.

I have facilitated a lot of different workshops on agile thinking, agile mindset/behavior and how to find the balance between agility and a plan oriented apporaches.
I have taught more than 300 people in different sessions where we have worked on mindset, when to use agile tools and when not to use them.

Contact Carsten Lutzen:
https://www.youtube.com/c/CarstenLutzen

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://agilitymasters.com/en
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Additional resources:

https://www.lego.com/aboutus/careers

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

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S05 E07 Lead without Blame with Tricia Broderick part 2

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 05 Jun 2023 17:00:00 GMT

Do more of the right work (and less of the wrong work).
Create more actual teams than just groups of people who work together.
Learning how to improve themselves, their team, and their organization incrementally.
Understand that less, not more, is usually part of the answer to some of the hardest questions we all face.
See their workplaces, teams, and their sphere of influence as something that is evolving, which requires an evolution of all of its parts to adapt.

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

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S05 E01 What does a PO do all day and defining Scrum

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 19:00:00 GMT

If you have questions or requests that you would like us to check on, please drop a message on LinkedIn or join the Mastering Agility Discord community!

Mastering Agility Mural

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Sander Dur is a Professional Scrum Trainer at Scrum.org, podcast host of Mastering Agility, Professional Scrum Master and Lead Agile Consultant, and trainer at Xebia. Besides this, he's an avid writer for predominantly Serious Scrum on Medium.com. Sander has a major passion for the human side in complex domains. Ensuring a high level of psychological safety, therefore, is a critical part of his work. Organizations in complex domains can only survive when innovating. Innovation can only take place with the right balance between low social friction and high intellectual friction. While most organizations now understand how to apply Agile frameworks, they struggle with the delivery of value. Psychological safety is the next step in this evolution and Sander has a huge drive to help organizations reach that step.

He gained experience as a Scrum Master, Agile Coach, and Leadership consultant in many different top-tier organizations, including Nike and ASML.

Sander is enthusiastic, open-minded, and ambitious. He finds interpersonal relationships and intrinsic motivations very important in team dynamics. Besides his work, Sander loves to spend time with his family, enjoys sports and eating healthy, barbecuing, riding his motorcycle, and traveling.

Let’s connect! Sander is always up for new connections and discussions!

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

Jim Sammons

My passion is helping people to:

Do more of the right work (and less of the wrong work).
Create more actual teams than just groups of people who work together.
Learning how to improve themselves, their team, and their organization incrementally.
Understand that less, not more, is usually part of the answer to some of the hardest questions we all face.
See their workplaces, teams, and their sphere of influence as something that is evolving, which requires an evolution of all of its parts to adapt.

In my spare time, I enjoy making things out of wood, metal, and other materials (like coffee). I also enjoy hiking, board games, jigsaw puzzles, and playing with my Golden Doodle puppy Roxy (agile is her middle name), and I am usu

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/
https://agilitymasters.com/en
https://sander-dur.medium.com/

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

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S01 E12 Evidence Based Management with Patricia Kong

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Mon, 07 Jun 2021 10:00:00 GMT

Abstract:

When creating any sort of product, it's important to understand whether we are moving in the right direction. But how do we know that? How do we measure that? And what metrics do we use for that? Agile organizations know that frequent inspection of results limits risk and improves the ability to deliver value. Scrum.org created a complementary framework called Evidence-Based Management. Patricia Kong is here to talk about how we can use EBM to elevate our ability to deliver value.

What you’ll discover in this show:

- You don’t need to apply the whole framework at once

- The Evidence-Based Management framework provides a great set of metrics to start with

- Four Key Value Areas help organizations and teams to gather quantifiable data in order to figure out what to do next

Speakers:

Patricia Kong

Organizational Agility, Innovation, Product Ownership | Speaker * Author * Coach * Instructor

Patricia Kong is co-author of "The Nexus Framework for Scaling Scrum" published by Pearson and a well-known public speaker and mentor. She is a co-developer of the Evidence-Based Management Framework for Business Agility and Nexus Framework for Scaling Scrum. Patricia helps organizations thrive in a complex world by focusing on enterprise innovation and leadership and teams. She is a people advocate and fascinated by organizational behavior and misbehaviors. She emerged through the financial services industry and has led product development, product management and marketing for several early stage companies in the US and Europe. Patricia is experienced working with 1$B+ clients focusing on business development and delivery engagements. Patricia lived in France and now lives in her hometown of Boston. Patricia is fluent in 4 languages.

Contact Patricia Kong:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/patricia-kong-2238232/
https://twitter.com/pmoonk88?lang=en

Sander Dur (host)

Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”

Additional resources:

To learn more about Evidence-Based Management, check out the guide: https://www.scrum.org/resources/evidence-based-management-guide

For Scrum.org’s EBM certification, check it out right here:
https://www.scrum.org/assessments/professional-agile-leadershiptm-evidence-based-management-certification

Contact us at:

Masteringagility.org
https://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-dur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/

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#124 Survival, Strength, and Saving Lives: Arjan Erkel on 607 Days in Captivity and Rescuing Girls from Exploitation

Sander Dur, Ryan Brook, Jim Sammons, and Rich Visotcky — Fri, 07 Mar 2025 13:24:08 GMT

In this gripping episode, Sander and Jim sit down with Arjan Erkel, who shares his harrowing experience of being kidnapped and held hostage for 607 days in Dagestan. Arjan walks us through the terrifying moment of his abduction, the psychological battles he faced in captivity, and the resilience that helped him survive. He also discusses his remarkable mindset shift, the unexpected relationships he built with his captors, and how he reclaimed his life after being freed.

Beyond his personal story, Arjan sheds light on his work with Free a Girl, an organization dedicated to rescuing children from sexual exploitation. We also dive into what businesses and individuals can learn from his experiences—resilience, adaptability, and the power of taking small steps in difficult situations.

Support Free a Girl!

The Free a Girl foundation, has already rescued over 8,000 children from sexual exploitation.

Join the mission by donating, spreading awareness, or supporting the Paperclip Challenge to raise $100K.

🌍 Learn more & donate: Free a Girl

💡 Support the Paperclip Challenge: Help us trade up from a guitar and amplifier to $100K to support this cause. You have something to trade? Reach out to us via paperclipchallenge@optilearn.co.uk!

Connect with Arjan

📖 Book: Held Hostage – [Available on Amazon]
🌐 Website: ArjanErkel.com

🌐 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arjanerkel/

Connect with Mastering Agility

📢 Follow the podcast for more inspiring stories
💬 Join the conversation on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/mastering-agility
📩 Contact us for trades or sponsorships

👉 If you enjoyed this episode, leave a review and share it with someone who needs to hear this inspiring story!

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