Arguing Agile Podcast

Some people say you can't build products without being guided by evidence.

Some people say you can't build products without strong intuition.

We're arguing about the balance so you don't have to!

This episode, we also welcome back friend of the show Alex Polyakov, CEO and Founder of Project Simple. Alex and his company are on a mission to make Teams better by building the first ever AI Agile Software Management Platform. Go see what Project Simple is all about by visiting them at projectsimple.ai!

Connect with Alex on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/apolyako

00:00 Podcast Intro
00:17 Topic Intro: Evidence vs Intuition
00:58 Relationship Between Intuition & Evidence
02:31 Intuition & Experience
04:02 Survivorship Bias
06:14 Domain Expertise + Curiosity + Leadership
09:34 OKRs Done Wrong
10:43 Alex, on OKRs
12:06 Leading vs Lagging
14:57 Experiments, Conceptually
19:10 Experiments in Business Value
20:58 Product Management (AirBnB)
25:17 Coaching Talent
27:34 Building the Perfect Product Manager
29:25 Enter the Training-Industrial Complex
31:04 Transitioning from Founder to First Product Manager
33:45 Vision & Company Founders
35:24 Examples of Failures
37:59 iPhone Example (Risk)
40:49 Risk vs Evidence
42:41 Misinterpreting Data
46:08 Wrap-Up

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In agile software development, everyone loves to say they know what the customer needs... but who do you really need to listen to, and what are they really saying?  

This podcast explores the different roles and their interpretations of "customer needs", from product managers to founders to the actual customer!

0:00 Topic Intro: It's What the Customer Needs
0:33 When the Product Manager or Owner Tells You
1:57 Jumping to Solutions (vs Exploring Problems)
6:43 "The Customer Said" Defense
10:04 When a Proxy Product Owner Tells You
12:02 Business Analysts & UX Researcher
15:37 Proxy Cons: Decision Making Delays & Bottlenecks
20:37 When Your Boss Tells You
23:28 Red Flag on Idea Validation
26:08 When Sales Tells You
30:49 Negatives of Sales
33:28 When a Founder Tells You
34:53 Founders: 24/7 Type of People
39:09 When the Customer Directly Tells You
42:03 Process & Stakeholder Management
45:54 Customers Don't Know Your Systems
48:04 Wrap-Up

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AA153 - "I" Know What the Customer Needs

Weaponizing Efficiency: Is it really helping your software development, product, and teams?

Efficiency is crucial, but at what cost? This episode digs deep into the dark side of "weaponized efficiency" in software development, product management, and team & business agility. We discuss how seemingly well-intentioned practices can stifle creativity, breed fear, and ultimately hurt value creation.

Join us for a thought-provoking discussion that will challenge assumptions about efficiency and equip you with strategies to push back against pedantic optimization efforts.

0:00 Topic Intro: Weaponizing Efficiency
0:41 Standardizing Creativity out of the Org
4:37 Fear-Based Management
7:33 Garbage Metrics, Discouraging Peering
11:31 Where Ideas Come From
14:43 Financing Siloes
17:29 Learning is Wasted Time
19:49 Driving Costs (and Value) Down
24:07 Working ON (versus IN) the Business
25:53 Real Efficiency Gains are Outside Development Teams
29:13 Making/Saving Money
33:33 Wrap-Up

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If your product has a combination of hardware and software, this is the podcast for you!

This podcast is all about agile in the manufacturing world with manufacturing expert and consultant to the stars, Clint Murt!

Clint joins Enterprise Business Agility Coach Om Patel and Product Manager Brian Orlando for an exploration of a realm where just creating great software isn't enough. We quickly discover that, when hardware enters the picture, complex compounds exponentially.

Special shout out to the Everything Electric Show and the Fully Charged Podcast for the clip of Ford CEO Jim Farley discussing issues around software in the automotive industry

0:00 CEO of Ford Jim Farley on Software in Manufacturing
1:23 Clint's Intro & an Overview of Manufacturing
3:38 Dependencies
5:40 Arguing on: Dependencies & Ecosystems
8:33 Challenging Agile Tropes on Dependencies
10:43 Compounding Problems
12:17 Short Term Metrics
14:57 Upfront Cost
17:52 Sales Running Ahead
21:57 User Experience
25:20 Inventory Management
30:00 Embedding with Customers
35:27 Multi-Team Collaboration
37:54 Quality
41:34 Summarizing the Podcast
43:10 Six Sigma & Lean/Agile
44:30 Wrap-Up

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AA151 - Hardware & Software Products and Teams: Agile in Manufacturing

Senior Product Coach Mike Miller is back on the Podcast, joining Brian & Om for a fun and lightweight podcast discussion about the unspoken realities of agile software development!

Get ready to talk about all those elephants in corners - from the unspoken challenges teams experience, to budgeting woes, to inflated titles, to unclear goals and value propositions!

0:00 Topic Intro: Things You Don't Say Out Loud in Agile
0:19 Project Managers Retitled to Product Manager
2:40 Product vs Project
4:17 Truer for Scrum Masters?
10:33 Middle Management is Unnecessary
18:41 Peering is Rare
22:45 Systems over Agile Coaching
27:25 Annual Budgeting is King
34:50 Backlog Managers are the Norm
38:36 PO as Delivery Manager
40:21 Product Goals (Do they Exist?)
43:11 Strategy (It's Hard, and also Rare)
47:23 More on Backlogs & Prioritization
50:25 Customer Value - what Value?
52:05 Value Must be Defined
55:10 PO/SM with Technical Knowledge
58:48 The Typical Answers
1:02:50 Wrap-Up

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AA150 - Things You Don't Say Out Loud in Agile

In this episode, we answer an interview question that Brian has started to notice Product Managers stumbling over: "What are some indicators you would look for to know if an agile team is working effectively?"

0:00 Topic Intro
1:49 Velocity
4:39 Delivery and Forecasting
6:21 Flow Metrics (Cycle Time, Lead Time, WIP)
7:50 Say-Do Ratio
10:17 Different Uses for Say-Do
11:31 Retro Improvements
14:48 Impediment Resolution
16:45 Roadmap Categorization & Finance
19:54 Backlog Health
22:51 Customer Satisfaction and Value Confirmation
26:47 Surveys
28:09 A Rant on Steering Feature Factory Culture
29:56 Team Satisfaction (Niko Niko)
33:27 Team or Service NPS
36:29 Bug Leakage / Escaped Defects
40:27 Training (L&D)
43:55 Leads Kanban: People Development
47:01 Meeting Duration & Effectiveness
49:23 Wrap-Up

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This podcast is your ultimate introduction to the cryptic, mysterious, and sometimes clandestine world of software development finance.

Join Product Manager Brian Orlando and Enterprise Business Agility Coach Om Patel as they explore the finance-side of the house with special guest and CPA, Newton Owi!

Listen as we discuss the ins-and-outs of software-finance, including an explanation of Capex vs Opex, an overview of capitalization, an in-depth review of Internal vs External Use Software, and a discussion of Technical Feasibility. We wrap by reviewing strategies for R&D Budgeting and why, how you might save money on MVPs, and it wouldn't be the Arguing Agile Podcast without an in-depth discussion of how Cross-Functional Teams benefit from having access to financial expertise.

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Have a world-changing product idea but don't know how to get it to users? This no-nonsense episode of the Arguing Agile podcast breaks down the REALITY of building products from the ground up.

Listen as two industry veterans discuss market research, MVPs, user feedback, and go-to-market strategies so that you can avoid costly mistakes and boost your chances of success.   

0:00 Topic Intro: 0 to 1
0:36 Hey Kid, I Got This New Idea!
1:55 What Problem Are We Trying to Solve?
3:42 Identifying a Market and/or Audience for MVP
7:18 Research & Product Market Fit
8:25 Data-Driven Culture (or Not)
12:56 Team Members Talking Directly to Customers
14:23 Strong Opinions, Loosely Held
17:29 Interview Your Customers (and Competitor Customers)
20:19 MVP-to-Pilot
24:43 Realtime Alpha/Beta Feedback
27:42 Alpha/Beta Misconceptions
29:06 Alpha Partners & Clarity of MVP
32:27 Leveraging (Technical) Debt
34:46 Usability
37:53 Monetization
41:07 Go to Market Strategies
45:40 Find or Create Your Audience
48:32 What We Learned
50:19 Wrap-Up

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AA147 - Creating and Launching New Software Products (0 to 1)

Ever wondered about why you hunger for an episode on Release Planning or why Brian's Spotify rant struck a chord?

Get the inside scoop at this retrospective feast!  We'll examine the recipes for our most popular content from 2024, revealing the juicy trends and themes that tickled your fancy. Plus, we are giving a sneak peek into future episodes, inspired by your binge-worthy favorites!

0:00 Topic Intro
0:46 AP17: Scrum Master's Role in Release Planning
2:41 Back-up Communicator
6:27 Playing the Role
10:55 Acceptance Criteria
12:51 Sprint Review Checklist
14:51 Tricky AC & Stories
20:00 Agile vs Traditional Software Budgeting
26:04 Roadmap Features and Milestones in Agile
30:33 Gantt Charts
33:38 AA120 - Did AirBNB Fire All Their Product Managers?
38:46 Build vs Buy (or Extend)
40:07 AP2: Brian Hates on Spotify & Capital One
45:07 Take-Aways

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Why Do Incompetent Men Rise to the Top? ️

This week's #ArguingAgile #Podcast tackles Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic's 2013 HBR article on this very real issue with #leadership.

Read the Article:
https://hbr.org/2013/08/why-do-so-many-incompetent-men

0:00 Topic: Incompetent Men in Leadership
0:37 Ratios of Men to Women in Management
3:03 Management vs Leadership
5:04 We Can't Measure Leadership
7:53 Downfall of Bad Managers
10:10 Personality Disorders
11:50 Short Term Thinking
13:31 Women Leaders
14:55 Humility Fails to Impress
16:52 Is Hiring Broken?
18:42 HR, Taylorism, and the Ivory Tower
21:17 Leading with Emotional Intelligence
24:29 Systemic Problems
25:55 The Wrong Conclusions
29:00 Discrimination
30:26 Wrap-Up
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Buckle up fellow agilists because this episode we're asking the question - should your next Scrum Master be your Manager?

Enterprise Agility Coach Om Patel and Product Manager Brian Orlando are breaking the working agreement for this week's podcast to review an article posted on Scrum.org by Ryan Ripley titled: "Your Next Scrum Master Should Be Your Manager."

Read the Article:
https://www.scrum.org/resources/blog/your-next-scrum-master-should-be-your-manager

0:00 Topic Intro
1:16 Article Premise
3:34 Why the Change?
4:29 Positional Authority
6:18 What to do Instead
8:03 Managing Change
10:54 Badly Run Companies
13:16 These Problems Happen Anyway
15:07 Alignment
19:50 Leveraging Authority (or Not)
22:21 Training and Mindset
26:29 Scrum Masters as Managers
29:22 Building Trust and Expertise
32:33 Role Conflicts & Positional Authority
36:26 Perception of Getting Things Done
37:36 The Scary Part of Town
40:14 Weekend Warriors vs Professionals
44:36 Wrap-Up

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Is ego the silent assassin in your team's success story? Tag a friend who needs to hear this conversation!

In this blistering episode of the Arguing Agile Podcast, Enterprise Agility Coach Om Patel and Product Manager Brian Orlando crack open the Pandora's box of ego in the workplace and its devastating impact on team dynamics, product development, and overall success.

A big thank you to Jeff Gothelf whose recent article titled: "Ego Killed the Empowered Product Team" served as the inspiration and backdrop for this episode.

Read the Article:
https://jeffgothelf.com/blog/ego-killed-the-empowered-product-team/

0:00 Topic: Ego Killed the Empowered Product Team
0:15 Ego and Experience
2:09 Start with Why
5:22 Reading the Intro
6:13 Humility: The Oxygen for Empowerment
7:46 Ego as a Glass Ceiling
11:59 Challenging Ideas
15:03 Ego in Strategy and Sales
17:09 Collaborative Strategy and Vision
21:50 Ego, but also Bad Systems
24:53 The Tony Roberts Band
27:03 Soften the Executive Ego
29:04 Process Change: Product Impact
32:21 Learning from Evidence
34:52 Finishing the Article
35:46 The Unmovable Object
39:05 Customer Involvement
40:53 Think About YOUR Ego
43:08 Wrap-Up

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The question came up recently at a community event: "What Technical Skills Should a Scrum Master Have?"

Brian didn't answer the originally posed question, turning it into "What skills should a SM have," and that bugged him so much, he wanted to turn the actual question into a podcast!

On this episode, Enterprise Agility Coach Om Patel and Product Manager Brian Orlando discuss the corporate atmosphere that may be behind this question, as well as answering the re-worded question, and even delving into some pros and cons of the Scrum Master having technical skills.

0:00 Topic Intro: What Technical Skills Should a SM Have?
0:23 Om's Response: Should Haves
1:39 Om's Example
2:28 Brian's Counter-point
4:53 Desire for Knowledge
7:50 Additional Value via Skills
11:35 More Examples (New Dev Laptop Example)
14:31 Speed to Knowledge
16:21 Barriers to Initial Employment
19:12 Om's Counterpoint: Curiosity & Willingness to Learn
21:32 Product Managers & the BA Skillset
23:35 Skills a SM Should Have
24:36 Programming Knowledge/Skill
26:54 Self-Imposed Barriers
28:58 Public Opinion vs Reality
31:30 Is a SM Entry Level?
35:44 You Get What You Pay For...
37:13 ...but Entry-Level Can Be Done

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Minimum Viable Product as made famous by Eric Reis in the Lean Startup is barely recognizable and likely unusable due to the proliferation of different concepts associated with the term.

Enterprise Agility Coach Om Patel and Product Manager Brian Orlando discuss and debate what MVP is, what it's supposed to be, and try to discern any usefulness from the jargon that seems to have coopted and repurposed "Minimum Viable Product!"

0:00 Topic Intro: MVP
0:18 Why Talk About MVP?
1:16 Discussion Framework
3:14 Users/Market Want Everything
5:18 Arguing on the Dropbox Video "MVP"
10:31 Terminology Hang-ups
13:02 Platform Compatibility
15:18 Release Planning (Alpha, Beta, Production)
17:18 Laundry List of Assumptions
20:09 Agreeing on the Obvious
21:43 The Case Against Expansion of the Term MVP
24:47 Assuming Risk (or Gambling)
27:12 Skipping the Learning
29:48 Wireframes
30:41 Arguing on: What is a Product (Again)
34:03 Running Out of Money
35:44 Summary: Test Feasibility
39:29 Wrap-up
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HELP! Our Backlog has 500 Bugs and we feel like we're never going to dig ourselves out!!!

Remain calm...

On this episode, Enterprise Agility Coach Om Patel and Product Manager Brian Orlando walk through how a company or shop might get to this point, and discuss some strategies to help dig yourself out of this deep, dark hole!

0:00 Topic Intro: 500 Bugs in the Backlog
0:28 Initial Reactions
2:44 Reasons
3:55 Process
5:10 Rogue QA, or the Perception Thereof
7:18 It's Done, But...
8:53 Customers Pay the Bills
10:12 Culture - the 3 (or 4) "P's"
11:28 The Business of Prioritization
13:39 A Strategy for Digging Out
15:59 Involving Customers/Stakeholders
17:41 Another Strategy - Categorization
19:30 Pushing Back on Customer Involvement
21:04 Rank Ordering and Closing Bugs As-Is
24:28 Definition of Done
28:36 Program DoD
29:11 The Restaurant Analogy
33:04 Customer Validation
37:10 Surveying Customers
40:02 Podcast Summary
41:44 Wrap-Up

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Recently, a small audience was shocked to learn that Product Manager Brian Orlando has no team members in the permanent role of QA (or Testing).

On this episode, Enterprise Agility Coach Om Patel and Product Manager Brian Orlando discuss why the audience reacted like Brian just kicked their dog, and what it takes to get a hypothetical team to the same point.

0:00 Topic Intro: We Have No QA
0:26 The Backstory
1:46 It's What We've Always Done
2:43 Handoff Disfunctions
4:55 Efficiency
7:27 Brian's Programming Story
8:52 Unpacking Brian's Tirade
10:00 What Are Testers Doing?
12:21 Real Example of Collaboration
14:49 QA and Customers
16:57 Process Improvement
19:18 Customer Verification
22:14 Cross-Functionality vs. Penny-Pinching
25:19 Team Collaboration vs Silos
27:02 Brian's Rant on Silos
30:47 Summary & Key Takeaways
33:10 Wrap-Up

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On this week's podcast, we're joined by Alex Polyakov. Alex is the CEO and Founder of Project Simple. Alex and his company are on a mission to make Teams better by building the first ever AI Agile Software Management Platform and solving the ever-growing list of problems and frustrations that come with Jira. Go see what Project Simple is all about by visiting them at projectsimple.ai

...or connect with Alex on LinkedIn!

Enterprise Agility Coach Om Patel and Product Manager Brian Orlando sit down with Alex to talk about his journey from Software Engineer to CEO and Founder, the frustrations of Jira, and many, many other topics.

0:00 Guest Intro
0:33 Alex's Journey
3:01 Raising Funding
4:44 Fear of Failure
6:08 Learning New Skills
9:58 Sponsorship & Mentorship
12:35 Rotating Roles
13:36 Making a Difference
15:25 Strategy and Problem Solving
19:15 Start-Up Success Factors
20:58 Investing
23:57 Early Investors
25:48 Jira
30:07 Better Concepts and Systems
33:06 Better Ways of Working
36:40 Delegation and Ownership
38:47 Visibility
40:40 Wrap-Up

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We're reviewing Ron Jeffries article: "Estimation is Evil" from the February 2013 issue of the Pragmatic Programmers magazine.

This article is mostly known for being the source most people quote when they say the inventor of story points is sorry he created them, or that the inventor of story points doesn't like story points. We dig into this claim, reading the article and summarizing and pontificating on key points.

Join, Enterprise Agility Coach Om Patel and Product Manager Brian Orlando as they time-travel back to the not-so-good old days of 2013 (and before)!

The source article:
https://ronjeffries.com/articles/021-01ff/estimation-is-evil/

0:00 Topic Intro: Estimation is Evil by Ron Jeffries
1:14 Article Opening: A Historical Snapshot
7:07 Undistinguished Teams
8:45 "All Our Requirements" is Wrong
11:06 80/20 Rule in Requirements
14:11 Forcing the Answer
16:05 Contracts in Agile
18:11 Forecasting & Stretch Goals
24:52 Asking for "Better" Estimates
28:28 Financing Software
31:41 How Much Do You Want to Spend?
35:24 Relative Estimation (the Soundbite Section)
40:17 Two Ways to Go
44:58 Article Conclusion
52:33 Summary
54:02 Wrap-Up

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How do you "sell" management on Retrospectives?

This question was posed to the group at a community networking event and we thought it was such a deep question, we'd bring it into the podcast!

On this episode, Enterprise Agility Coach Om Patel and Product Manager Brian Orlando discuss ways to bring up retrospectives and way to engrain them into the culture of your organization.

0:00 Topic Intro
0:14 Om's Initial Reaction
0:42 Om's First Pitch
1:52 A Manager's Fallacy
4:25 Escaping Middle Management Purgatory (ROI)
5:38 Start Small
7:38 One on Ones
8:28 Business Alignment
11:40 Aligning Teams
16:38 Not Visible = Not Urgent
17:49 Communities of Practice & Getting Help
19:43 Marketing Continuous Improvement
21:35 Pushback: Management Fiat
23:44 Team Empowerment
27:09 Om's Story
30:29 Wrap-Up

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https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5idXp6c3Byb3V0LmNvbS8xNzgxMzE5LnJzcw

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In this podcast, Enterprise Agility Coach Om Patel and Product Manager Brian Orlando discuss the most common disagreements, arguments, and spirited discussions that Scrum Masters find themselves in throughout their careers.

There were so many topics, we had to split this podcast into two!

0:00 Topic Intro: Most Common SM Disagreements
0:35 Impediment Disagreements
2:59 Using the Definition of Done
6:34 Building Communication
10:53 Meeting Fatigue
15:20 More Effective Retrospectives
17:43 Example - One Cause of Meeting Fatigue
20:53 Cultural Resistance
26:58 Personality Clashes
28:56 Scrum Master Value
32:47 Conflict and Perspectives
34:13 Wrap-Up

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Please Subscribe to our YouTube Channel:
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Apple Podcasts:
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Spotify:
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Amazon Music:
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