Product Agility

Product Agility Podcast

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en-gbJune 15, 2023

golden state warriors

lightning round

Technical Debt is Good (with David Pereira CEO and Product Coach)

David Pereira is a Product Leader who over the last few years has led product teams to achieve exponential marketplace growth: from 5M € to 45M € revenue per year. Not only this he led product teams to discover solutions to innovate the second hand car market in Brazil, creating a business with a turn over of 200M USD per year.

🎙️ Welcome back to another episode of the Product Agility Podcast!

In this episode, David and I discuss the misconceptions about technical debt and explore could it even benefit the product and the team?

🔍David shares his insights on how to address emotional debt within teams and the power of retrospectives in improving collaboration.

🔥 Throughout our conversation, we uncover the dangers of scaling up mediocre solutions, the importance of honest communication, and the power of collaboration over dogmatism. 🤝

So, if you're curious about how emotional debt impacts our behavior in the workplace and want to gain practical tips and strategies from a true thought leader, this episode is a must-listen! 🎉

📝 If you enjoy this episode, please share it with a friend or colleague who could benefit from our discussion.

Chapters:

00:03:06 The Truth About Technical Debt: Why It's Not Always a Bad Thing
00:07:25 Putting Your Product in the Hands of Users: Why Confidence is Key and Cutting Corners is Necessary
00:10:44 The Pitfalls of Scaling: Why Promises and Deadlines Can Hold You Back
00:12:08 Scaling Your Product: Why Technical Debt is Like a Mortgage
00:16:00 The Cost of Emotional Debt: How Our Past Experiences Impact Our Behavior in the Workplace
00:18:37 Embracing Evolution: Why Addressing Emotional Debt is Crucial for Team Functionality
00:23:26 Scaling Up: Navigating Complex Changes in Software Engineering
00:26:52 Balancing Commitment and Technical Debt: Navigating Priorities in Agile Development
00:31:50 The Silent Killer: How Technical Debt Slowly Builds Up and Bites Us in the Arse
00:36:44 Scaling Up: The Importance of Knowing Your Goals and Technical Data in Product Development
00:39:45 Why Rushing Solutions Can Lead to Collapsing Boxes: The Importance of Realistic Timeframes in Problem-Solving
00:43:53 Why Adding More People to Your Development Team Could Slow You Down: Understanding the Complexities of Alignment and Capability

Host Bio

Stay up-to-date with us on our social media📱!

Ben Maynard

Product Agility Podcast

Listen & Share On Spotify & iTunes

Spotify - https://spoti.fi/3XzuzND
iTunes - https://apple.co/3YvTX8p

Want to come on the podcast?

Want to be a guest or have a guest request? Let us know here https://bit.ly/ProdPodCn

en-gbJune 08, 2023

Why Product Managers Don't Do The Job They Were Hired For (with David Pereira CEO and Product Coach)

In this episode, I had the pleasure of chatting with David Pereira, a seasoned CPO with over 15 years of experience in digital product management. 🚀

David is a Product Leader who over the last few years has led product teams to achieve exponential marketplace growth: from 5M € to 45M € revenue per year. Not only this he led product teams to discover solutions to innovate the second hand car market in Brazil, creating a business with a turn over of 200M USD per year.

We covered a range of topics, from the importance of trust and psychological safety in software engineering teams to the evolution of roles in agile coaching and how to not ace job interviews. 🤝

David also shared some valuable insights on building team connections and making emotional arguments to communicate your point effectively. 🤔

So sit back, relax, and enjoy this insightful conversation on bridging the gap between agility and product with David Pereira!

Good Bits

00:04:08 - "Was coming on this podcast a mistake?"
00:15:02 - When is a Product Defect Not a Product Defect?
00:18:28 - Making a Point - Make It Emotionally or Logically?
00:23:01 - How Ben Prioritises - Today Things Vs. Tomorrow Things
00:28:09 - How Do You Get Your Product To Somewhere No One Else Is?
00:33:09 - "This Interview Sucks."
00:37:21 - Convincer or Coach?

Host Bio

Stay up-to-date with us on our social media📱!

Ben Maynard

Product Agility Podcast

+ https://www.abykovets.com/en

Listen & Share On Spotify & iTunes

Spotify - https://spoti.fi/3XzuzND
iTunes - https://apple.co/3YvTX8p

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Want to be a guest or have a guest request? Let us know here https://bit.ly/ProdPodCn

en-gbJune 01, 2023

Team Performance From the Trenchs in Ukraine with Artem Bykovets (Lean Agile London 23)

Artem Bykovets - trainer, LeSS coach, leadership and organizational consultant

More than 11 years on the market, worked with teams in the following areas: IT, retail and pricing, gambling, multimedia, hardware, telecom, banks, CRM and others.

Founder of Simplesense. and creator of the Simplicity Day conference. Co-organizer of the #AgileWithUkraine initiative.

Conducts various trainings, workshops and lectures for companies of various sizes and specializations. Launches and supports companies on the path of organizational & Agile transformation.

The talks in ten are back! This time around we are at brilliant Lean Agile London 2023.

https://leanagile.london/

Fifth in the day 2 queue was...

Artem Bykovets, Ukrainian Agile Coach & Org Consultant flew to London to follow up on last year's Key Note with an emotional story of real people working in real teams in Ukraine.

The adversity the Ukrainian people are facing is hard to comprehend. Artem did an amazing job at helping us understand their reality and as a bonus shared with us data that shows how well Ukrainian teams are rising to their formidable challenge.

Links:

+ https://www.agilewithukraine.com/

+ https://www.linkedin.com/in/abykovets

+ https://youtube.com/c/ArtemBykovets

Host Bio

Stay up-to-date with us on our social media📱!

Ben Maynard

Product Agility Podcast

Listen & Share On Spotify & iTunes

Spotify - https://spoti.fi/3XzuzND
iTunes - https://apple.co/3YvTX8p

Want to come on the podcast?

Want to be a guest or have a guest request? Let us know here https://bit.ly/ProdPodCn

en-gbMay 23, 2023

Drunk Agile & a Free Teaching Tool with Prateek Singh (Lean Agile London 23)

Prateek is the Head of Learning and Development at ProKanban.Org and as an Independent Agile Consultant, over the past fifteen years has been working to shape, improve and lead software development teams and products.

While his career started as a software developer, I eventually moved into multiple team lead roles where mentoring, identifying and removing impediments, ensuring sustainable project pace and ensuring that the team delivers high-quality products were my main responsibilities.

Prateek on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/singhpr13/

The talks in ten are back! This time around we are at brilliant Lean Agile London 2023.

https://leanagile.london/

Fourth in the day 2 queue was...

One of the Drunk Agilists, Prateek Singh! Co-host of the Drunk Agile Podcast with Dan Vacanti (a pioneer in using Flow Metrics, and his works have been instrumental in the shaping of my TameFlow Approach)

Prateek and Dan have an interesting approach to their podcast, they drink and they talk.

So are you may have guessed, their closing Keynote at Lean Agile London did not break with tradition!

But it is much more than this, they actually ran an incredibly useful game that I feel should be in the tool kit of any Product Agilist...

Drunk Agile on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC758reHaPAeEixmCjWIbsOA

Drunk Agile on Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/drunk-agile/id1550106773

Host Bio

Stay up-to-date with us on our social media📱!

Ben Maynard

Product Agility Podcast

Listen & Share On Spotify & iTunes

Spotify - https://spoti.fi/3XzuzND
iTunes - https://apple.co/3YvTX8p

Want to come on the podcast?

Want to be a guest or have a guest request? Let us know here https://bit.ly/ProdPodCn

en-gbMay 23, 2023

Flight Level 3, Product and Organisational Outcome with Klaus Leopold (Lean Agile London 23)

Dr. Klaus Leopold is computer scientist and Kanban pioneer with many years of experience in helping organizations from different industries on their improvement journey with Lean and Kanban. He is author of the bestseller “Rethinking Agile”, “Practical Kanban” (www.practicalkanban.com) and co-author of the book “Kanban Change Leadership”.

Klaus was awarded with the Brickell Key Award for “outstanding achievement and leadership” within the Lean Kanban community in San Francisco, 2014. His main interest is establishing lean business agility by improving organizations beyond the team level, especially in large environments from 50 to 5000 people. Klaus speaks regularly at renowned Lean and Kanban conferences worldwide. He publishes his current thoughts on his blog www.LEANability.com and you can follow him on Twitter at @klausleopold.

The talks in ten are back! This time around we are at brilliant Lean Agile London 2023.

https://leanagile.london/

Third up on Day 2 we have... Drum Roll Please

The one and only Klaus Leopold! Co-creator of Flight Levels and Keynote Speak from Lean Agile London 2023!

In Klaus's talk he shared insights and tips on how to align work against organisational and other strategic outcomes in a visual and engaging way.

Here is his talk blurb

Making Strategy Happen with Flight Levels

Do you feel like your company strategy lives only in PowerPoint presentations? In this talk, I will show how you can align your long-term company vision and goals with daily operational work using a Flight Level 3 system. I will also show how you can map your current strategy tools to SOFI – Flight Level’s strategy interface and how to effectively invest your budget in your strategic portfolio.

It doesn’t take that much to make strategy a reality. An effective Flight Level 3 system is a perfect start.

Host Bio

Stay up-to-date with us on our social media📱!

Ben Maynard

Product Agility Podcast

Listen & Share On Spotify & iTunes

Spotify - https://spoti.fi/3XzuzND
iTunes - https://apple.co/3YvTX8p

Want to come on the podcast?

Want to be a guest or have a guest request? Let us know here https://bit.ly/ProdPodCn

en-gbMay 23, 2023

Forget Customer Delight, Lets Go for Citizen Delight with Kubair Shirazee (Lean Agile London 23)

The talks in ten are back! This time around we are at brilliant Lean Agile London 2023.

https://leanagile.london/

For the 2nd episode of day 2 from the Lean Agile London 2023 conference, we hear about the only talk at the conference that nearly left me in tears...

Kubair Shirazee - Peace Through Prosperity https://www.drupal.org/peace-through-prosperity

Kudos to Jordi Falguera for thrusting my and Kubair together! I am so pleased he did, Kubair is an inspiration with a surprising message for all of us Product Agility, Product and Agile people out there.

Here is the talk blurb

Exploring Agile’s greater promise!

In addition to his work with commercial enterprises, Kubair also holds the position of Chief Product Owner at Peace Through Prosperity. This innovative lab has been engaged in a 10+ year experiment in cross pollinating Agile values, principles, and practices from the enterprise to society, to affect societal/planetary transformation.

During his interactive talk, Kubair will share his personal experience of implementing Agile principles, values, and practices in conflict-affected communities as part of the Peace Through Prosperity initiative, and share lessons learned in Social Transformation that he has brought back to the Enterprise and how this cross pollination has enabled Kubair and his teams to succeed in both the Enterprise realm and the Societal system all enterprises exist within.

Kubair's Bio

I am an Enterprise Agile Coach, with over 20+ years experience facilitating transformation of people, teams, businesses and communities — in other words, I facilitate people who have a vision for moving past the status quo and explore better ways of working together. Building and nurturing high performance teams has been described as my ‘superpower’.

I have taken multiple digital products to market, as well as optimised and scaled teams for my own startups and other organisations.

Currently, I coach Agile coaches, Executives, Leaders and Teams, facilitating them improve product, service development and operations.

Outside of my professional pursuits, I volunteer in the international development sector, coaching non-technical teams to apply agile principles, values and practices, so that they design and deliver impactful products to secure livelihoods in marginalised communities.

My work experience spans pharmaceuticals, healt

Host Bio

Stay up-to-date with us on our social media📱!

Ben Maynard

Product Agility Podcast

Listen & Share On Spotify & iTunes

Spotify - https://spoti.fi/3XzuzND
iTunes - https://apple.co/3YvTX8p

Want to come on the podcast?

Want to be a guest or have a guest request? Let us know here https://bit.ly/ProdPodCn

en-gbMay 23, 2023

Pub Quizzes and Flowing with Product Agility with Gabrielle Benefield (Lean Agile London 23)

The talks in ten are back! This time around we are at brilliant Lean Agile London 2023.

https://leanagile.london/

For the first episode of day 2 from Lean Agile London 2023 we have a legend from the agile world...

Gabrielle Benefield - Founder of Mobius Navigator - a decision-making navigator and outcome accelerator

Gabrielle told me about her innovative and definitely different closing keynote for Day 1 of Lean Agile London before we dived into a conversations on the problems with frameworks and learning.

Make sure you listen to the end to hear Gabrielle's brilliant final words.

The Amazing Mid-Conference Interactive Chaotic 45-Minute Stand Up-Agile Dynamic Quiz Show Happy Hour!

Pub quiz meets trivial pursuit

Join us for an exciting end-of-day session with a twist! The Amazing Interactive Chaotic 45-Minute Stand Up-Agile Dynamic Quiz Show Happy Hour is not your typical session. Our roving network of quizmasters will challenge you with questions and games that will test your knowledge of agile and your athletic ability (think geeks meet games). You’ll have a chance to network with fellow attendees, have a laugh, and have a blast while doing it.So, bring your A-game and let’s dive into this Amazing Mid-Conference Interactive Chaotic 45-Minute Stand Up-Agile Dynamic Quiz Show Happy Hour!

Gabrielle Bio

Gabrielle Benefield is an author, speaker and advisor specialising in Agile and Lean product strategy and innovation. She is the founder of Evolve Beyond, a global consultancy headquartered in London working with diverse industries including finance, telecommunications, energy and gaming. Gabrielle is the founder of Mobius Outcome Delivery (mobiusloop.com), a navigator to align strategy to delivery using measurable outcomes, and flexiblecontracts.com, a Lean Agile contract model.

Previous to Evolve Beyond, Gabrielle was a successful executive in Silicon Valley, leading major Product, design, and technology divisions. She used Agile and Lean methods to take a startup to successful Initial Public Offering, then led one of the largest Agile enterprise transformations at Yahoo! scaling up to 250+ teams in the US, India, Europe, and Asia. Gabrielle founded the Scrum Foundation in 2009 with Jeff Sutherland (the inventor of Scrum) and other leading Agile thought leaders, to promote enterprise Agil

Host Bio

Stay up-to-date with us on our social media📱!

Ben Maynard

Product Agility Podcast

Listen & Share On Spotify & iTunes

Spotify - https://spoti.fi/3XzuzND
iTunes - https://apple.co/3YvTX8p

Want to come on the podcast?

Want to be a guest or have a guest request? Let us know here https://bit.ly/ProdPodCn

en-gbMay 23, 2023

50 Shades of Retrospective With Chris Stone (Lean Agile London 23)

The talks in ten are back! This time around we are at brilliant Lean Agile London 2023.

https://leanagile.london/

For the last episode of day 1 from Lean Agile London 2023 we have a man whose reputation preceeds him (in a good way)

Chris Stone - The Virtual Agile Coach

Chris and I have been meaning to record a longer episode for a while so when I saw hi come into the social area of the conference looking for a cup of coffee I took my opportunity and pounced!

What did you talk about?

Well his talk (below) and agile naturism. Sound odd. It was a bit.

Chris's talk synopsis from Agile London 2023

Tired of the same old retrospective format? Struggling to turn insights into actions? Having difficulties creating a safe, inclusive environment where people participate equally?

Join me for an interactive exploration of my top tips, strategies, and hacks for continuous improvement.

In this unique and engaging slideless session, you’ll participate in a “choose your own adventure” experience that will allow you to influence where we focus our time. No standard one way presentation here; this is your talk, focused on your challenges.

We could run this session 50 times together, and each would be different.

You’ll leave this session with practical tools and strategies that you can immediately implement with your teams to drive continuous improvement.

Who is Chris Stone?

As The Virtual Agile Coach, I'm on on a mission to help people to continuously improve each and every day and have fun while they do it.

With over a decade of experience creating high performing teams across a range of industries, from smaller, lean enterprises to some of the worlds largest companies, I'm dedicated to creating environments where people can be their best selves on their best day and be supported on their worst.

I'm the Managing Partner of Virtually Agile, a challenger consultancy, a regular on the conference circuit, podcaster, trainer, blogger and soon to be author, I always seek new ways to share my expertise and inspire others to think creatively about how they can continuously improve.

Host Bio

Stay up-to-date with us on our social media📱!

Ben Maynard

Product Agility Podcast

Listen & Share On Spotify & iTunes

Spotify - https://spoti.fi/3XzuzND
iTunes - https://apple.co/3YvTX8p

Want to come on the podcast?

Want to be a guest or have a guest request? Let us know here https://bit.ly/ProdPodCn

en-gbMay 22, 2023

Breaking Your Mindset & Starting a Status Quo Challenging Product with Jordi Falguera (Lean Agile London 2023)

The talks in ten are back! This time around we are at brilliant Lean Agile London 2023.

https://leanagile.london/

Third we have... Jordi Falguera the Opening Keynote from Lean Agile London 2023!

His talk was about breaking your mindset so that you can achieve what you need to achieve.

Tantalisingly he also mentioned a product he has created, norne out of the frustration of UpWork and Fiverr.

Speedy Time Agency a service that you can send a WhatsApp voice note too and get your Fiver-like tasks done for you, but with less stress and energy. Who wouldn't want that!

Of course I had to learn a little more about this, brilliantly he obliged!

Here is his talk blurb

Your mindset is a crucial factor in determining your success in life. To truly achieve extraordinary results, it’s essential to unleash your mindset and push beyond your limits in a real and pragmatic way.

In this talk, we will explore various topics such as the Mindset Redesign Framework (MRF), Bloom’s taxonomy, low vs high order thinking, and pattern recognition to help you develop the right mindset for success. We will also share practical strategies for reducing your cognitive load, including the Ignition time and ITEM (Individual Talent Exploration and Maximization), and discuss how coaching and mentorship can help you achieve your goals.

Through real-life and thought provoking examples you will gain valuable insights and learn how to apply these concepts to your personal and professional life. Join us for this engaging and insightful keynote and unlock the full potential of your mindset in a lean and agile way!

About Jordi Falguera

As a Business Agility Executive Coach and Strategic Advisor, for more than 10 years, I had the opportunity to participate and lead multiple international transformations from big companies in more than 14 countries and very diverse cultures.
These experiences allow me to support directors and executives to align and properly connect their corporate strategy with their execution, contributing to successfully adopting an Agile-Lean mindset in their companies.
I also participate as a speaker and keynote speaker in multiple conferences across Europe, Asia and America.

My biggest passion since the beginning is optimization. That's why I love sharing my knowledge with executives about:
- Learning techniques (effective learning)
- Strate

Host Bio

Stay up-to-date with us on our social media📱!

Ben Maynard

Product Agility Podcast

Listen & Share On Spotify & iTunes

Spotify - https://spoti.fi/3XzuzND
iTunes - https://apple.co/3YvTX8p

Want to come on the podcast?

Want to be a guest or have a guest request? Let us know here https://bit.ly/ProdPodCn

en-gbMay 22, 2023

Flamingos & Flow - Lightweight Metrics and Why Cycle Time Can Be Useless: Haroon Khalil (Lean Agile London 2023)

The talks in ten are back! This time around we are at brilliant Lean Agile London 2023.

https://leanagile.london/

The second guest is Haroon Khalil, his talk on FLOWmingos shared a fantastic metaphor for how to help an organisation, tech or product, find out what matters to them and use lightweight metrics to help them get there more effectively

What do Flamingos have to do with flow metrics?

Are you curious about the minimum viable light-weight metrics that can help teams and organizations focus on? ︎ delivery of valuable bets

︎ managing the arrival and departure rates of their work︎ creating less overwhelm in the system of work and reduce burnout︎ Improving the time it takes to get things done︎ better visualise where your blockers exist and how to help systematically manage and resolve them in an effective way︎ Metaphors and dancing with Data and making meaningful insights to help us move to ‘better”: I’ll give you a clue, I’ll be sharing the metaphor of Flamigos.

Why join this talk?

WHAT?
Would you like to know more about why Flamingos can help us better understand the key concepts around Flow. Learn tips and tricks on how we can experiment and to invite people to improve the flow of value in our organizations.

SO WHAT?
With extensive experiments with over 500 global teams, Haroon will share a Flow navigation guide for how to get started and how to take your TransFLOWmation to the next level.

NOW WHAT?
We have flow charts that help us identify how we are flowing, now what do we do? How do we co-create the spaces to socialise flow with managers and leaders?

Haroon Khalil - A Selection of his Best Bits

Lean-Agile Practitioner | Coaching | Mentoring | Flow | Enterprise Agility | Product Leadership | Visual Facilitator | C-Suite & Board Member Consultancy

⭐ Key Conferences & Talks ⭐

🏈 March 2022 - Speaker at Egypt's first ever Regional Scrum Gathering (RSG). Facilitated a session on 'Unearthing Agile Leaner-ship'.

🌍 January 2022 - Panel member at the Global Agnostic Agile conference. The session focused on Leadership and Business Agility, hosted by Arie Van Bennekum (Agile Manifesto Co-author).

🏈 September 2021 - Speaker at Pakistan's first ever Regional Scrum Gathering (RSG), 'Agile in the face of uncertainty: Let My People Flow'.
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/haroon-k-4998a716/

Host Bio

Stay up-to-date with us on our social media📱!

Ben Maynard

Product Agility Podcast

Listen & Share On Spotify & iTunes

Spotify - https://spoti.fi/3XzuzND
iTunes - https://apple.co/3YvTX8p

Want to come on the podcast?

Want to be a guest or have a guest request? Let us know here https://bit.ly/ProdPodCn

en-gbMay 22, 2023

Product Story Generation & The Product Disposition Canvas - Stuart Young (Lean Agile London 2023)

The talks in ten are back! This time around we are at brilliant Lean Agile London 2023.

https://leanagile.london/

First up we have Stuart Young, I dragged him outside on a rather chilly morning to learn more about his talk

Product Story Generation & The Product Disposition Canvas

Here is the synopsis of his talk at Lean Agile London

Grounded on your perspective of the product and your personal product stance it is useful to plot a path that will lead to product success.

During this talk I will introduce the Product Disposition Canvas, as a useful tool given any product situation.

We will navigate the terrain between strategy to tactics and visionary to execution, unlocking your ability to create stories that bring stakeholders and teams on a compelling journey.

If you are a product passionate individual keen to find powerful ways to engage, inspire, teach and learn whilst discovering your strengths and product blind spots, this is the talk for you.

Stuart's Bio

I’m a Certified Scrum Trainer and Visual Storyteller with a deep-rooted appreciation for methods of Design Thinking and Agile Ways of working. My key driver is to enable individuals, teams and organisations to tell impactful stories. As a result, people can make decisions faster, take action, reduce waste and drive value.

As a Visual Storytelling thought leader and practitioner within the Agile Community and beyond I endorse the use of Visual Storytelling to engage stakeholders, address customer needs, enhance team collaboration and accelerate learning.

Facilitating a suite of Design Thinking, Visual Storytelling and Product Agility workshops I encourage teams to work more visually, creating visually compelling stories that make the intangible tangible, catalysing customer centric creativity, driving product innovation and business success.

I joined Radtac-Cprime in 2015 where I continue to assist organisations with an array of Product Innovation and visualisation services.

Stu on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuart-young-2b683729/

Host Bio

Stay up-to-date with us on our social media📱!

Ben Maynard

Product Agility Podcast

Listen & Share On Spotify & iTunes

Spotify - https://spoti.fi/3XzuzND
iTunes - https://apple.co/3YvTX8p

Want to come on the podcast?

Want to be a guest or have a guest request? Let us know here https://bit.ly/ProdPodCn

en-gbMay 22, 2023

Exploring Cross-cultural Learning & The Value Of Reflection with Ali Ezzeddine

Think that remote learning is the same as real face to face learning (not over Zoom but so you can actually smell their breath).

Think again.

What is clear from getting to know Ali Ezzeddine is that in addition to a desire for knowledge in pursuit of helping people learn - he also deeply believes that physical proximity and real face-to-face interaction is crucial in education.

In this episode Ben and Ali dip into the critical role that emotions play in an educational setting - Learners are more likely to be engaged and motivated when they are happy.

Certificates? Bah! When are the actually valuable? What if you only got on if you had evidenced you can implement what you have learnt?

All this and we explore one of the most impactful training tools you probably are not using yet...

Chapters:

00:03:00 Why & How We Should Challenge Learners
00:06:56 What's the one question we can ask that will make people think?
00:07:47 Learning Should Provoke Curiosity
00:11:29 When Training is Piled High and Sold Cheap
00:11:50 What is a Knowledge Gap?
Linking Practice And Failure To Enhance Learning And Reduce Fear.
00:14:10 What Would Ben Like to See Changed in Training From the Back of the Room?
00:17:24 Cultures That Hinder Curiosity
00:21:36 What are the "Vibes" from In-Person Training that you do not get in remote?
00:25:04 What's the Thing that Remote Work & Education Can Never Do?
00:28:39 Episode Recap and Some Big News!

Key Takeaways:
We need to grow as learners, rather than just obtaining a certificate.
Physical proximity is really important to learning and don't ignore finding ways to leverage a culture to enhance the learning experience.
Technology cannot replace face-to-face contact and physical proximity in training, these are key to creating an emotional and therefore recallable learning experience.

Guest Bio

Ali is a certified educational consultant and Training from the Back of the Room trainer in various educational fields. He is also trilingual in Arabic, French and English and is a lifelong learner.

Ali has spent years researching how we as humans learn and has spent just as long putting it into practice. A dedicated father and all-around lovely human being, Ali's wisdom and gentle demeanour make him easy to learn from.

Host Bio

Stay up-to-date with us on our social media📱!

Ben Maynard

Product Agility Podcast

Listen & Share On Spotify & iTunes

Spotify - https://spoti.fi/3XzuzND
iTunes - https://apple.co/3YvTX8p

Want to come on the podcast?

Want to be a guest or have a guest request? Let us know here https://bit.ly/ProdPodCn

en-gbMay 18, 2023

Maximizing Learning Potential: Remote Learning, Brain Function And Multilingual Training with Ali Ezzeddine

When are you learning at your best?

When are you bored?

When you spend all of your time distracted?

Or is it the opposite of all these?

I guess it is the opposite.

In this episode, we go delve into what makes for effective learning environments as we are joined by Ali Ezzeddine, a teacher of teachers that believes that if the content is engaging and attractive, individuals will be motivated to learn.

So if you want people to remember things that you say to them, chances are something in this episode will help you with that.

We explore the crucial conundrum of in-person vs. remote learning, and Ali shares some brilliant book recommendations and choice snippets from them.

Ali also talks about the "Netflix generation" or "YouTube generation" who have more choices and distractions than previous generations and how this means we have to think differently if we want to engage people with what we say or the products we produce.

The Best Bits:
00:03:01 - Ali's Story
00:08:39 - How Ali Found Training From the Back of the Room
00:11:55 - Research Beyond Training From the Back of the Room?
00:13:59 - We are built to learn together (well, some of us)
00:14:58 - Learning is multisensory. Remote training just is not the same
00:19:27 - Learning, Distractions and the Netflix & Youtube Generation
00:22:43 - The Importance Of Learning How To Learn
00:27:56 - Episode Recap

Guest Bio

Ali is a certified educational consultant and Training from the Back of the Room trainer in various educational fields. He is also trilingual in Arabic, French and English and is a lifelong learner.

Ali has spent years researching how we as humans learn and has spent just as long putting it into practice. A dedicated father and all-around lovely human being, Ali's wisdom and gentle demeanour make him easy to learn from.

Host Bio

Stay up-to-date with us on our social media📱!

Ben Maynard

Product Agility Podcast

Listen & Share On Spotify & iTunes

Spotify - https://spoti.fi/3XzuzND
iTunes - https://apple.co/3YvTX8p

Want to come on the podcast?

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en-gbMay 11, 2023

Reading Hacks: How To Read More Books, Faster with Noel Warnell

Want to read faster?

Want to remember more of what you read?

Would you like to know how some people consume books at 30 times the rate at which people speak?

Would you like some proven reading hacks that will allow you to bust that bulging backlog of books?

Then this episode is just for you!

Ben was joined by Noel Warnell. Noel has spent the time that we could have done researching and blending together proven practices for engaging with books in new, different and extremely effective ways.

The Best Bits (In Our Opinion)

00:05:40 Noel's multiple techniques stolen from other people and blended into one
00:08:48 Is a growth mindset needed for these techniques?
00:10:50 You are not bad at reading, here's why
00:14:00 Making A Decision To Continue Reading A Book Based On Its Visual Presentation
00:17:14 Reading Hack: Skipping To The End
00:20:37 Reading Hack: Quit!
00:26:05 The Evolution Of Confidence In Decision Making
00:30:41 Business Books as Graphic Novels?
00:33:10 Speed Read an Audiobook? Sounds like nonsense...
00:42:30 Can Noel entice you learn direct from the master?
00:43:32 Episode Recap! (Ben goes off script and entertains himself)

Guest Bio

Noel is a creative, energetic and enthusiastic human with over 22 years experience of software product delivery, 11 of them working with leaders and agile teams.

His approach is solution focused, experiment driven and full of passion to help organisations and individuals avoid dysfunction and improve the way they work with agility.

Most of his clients have been in the finance sector, which has provided the opportunity to work with large human systems of multiple teams (60+), be part of significant transformation initiatives (c.800 people) and launch many products delivering high value for both customers and the client. However he has also helped design and launch agile transformations in retail, publishing and beverages companies.

I enjoy creating memorable experiences for companies using a range of techniques including Liberating Structures, Constellations, Clean Language and improv games.

Feel free to contact Noel about:

Agile adoption
Digital transformation
Product development
Workshop creation and facilitation
Leadership coaching
Graphic facilitation

Host Bio

Stay up-to-date with us on our social media📱!

Ben Maynard

Product Agility Podcast

Listen & Share On Spotify & iTunes

Spotify - https://spoti.fi/3XzuzND
iTunes - https://apple.co/3YvTX8p

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Want to be a guest or have a guest request? Let us know here https://bit.ly/ProdPodCn

en-gbMay 04, 2023

The Likeability Penalty, Habits - Design For How People Learn & Change with Julie Dirksen

This episode took some unexpected turns, turns which will give anyone interested in change at an individual or systemic level food for thought.

You can explain skills to people, but can you ever do this to the extent that the other person will be proficient without practice?

Julie and Ben spoke about how unjust the world can be as Julie shared the details of a study that explains how the Likeability penalty explains why many women have long been paid less.

If you are serious is helping individuals and organisations change for good then this episode has so much for you. Don't believe us, check this out...

Chapters:

00:05:03 Importance Of System-level Feedback & Forming Habits
00:08:54 Inequality in Starting Salaries Due to Gender - Individual Vs. System Perspective.
00:11:24 The Gender Dynamics Of Salary Negotiations
00:15:20 Systemic Understanding For Effective Learning Interventions
00:17:32 Challenges Of Measuring The Effectiveness Of Behavior Change Without Feedback
00:20:32 Anxiety Surrounding Coaching Conversations
00:24:36 The Benefits Of Demonstrations Over Instructions In Learning.
00:28:53 The Limits Of Ai In Replacing Doctors: Strategies For Teaching And Learning
00:32:01 How many examples are enough to help you learn?
00:35:27 Will Ben & Julie Start a career in Stand Up Comedy?
00:41:12 The End and Episode Recap!

Guest Bio

Julie is an independent consultant and instructional designer with over 15 years of experience creating highly interactive e-learning experiences for clients from Fortune 500 companies and technology startups.

She has a degree in Instructional Systems Technology and a whole lot of background in things like UX design, game-based learning, and behaviour change.

Julie has also been an adjunct faculty member in the Visualization Department at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, where I created and taught courses in project management, instructional design, and cognitive psychology.

Julie likes learning :-)

Julies website - https://usablelearning.com/ - https://usablelearning.com/
Courses https://designbetterlearning.com/ - https://designbetterlearning.com/

Host Bio

Stay up-to-date with us on our social media📱!

Ben Maynard

Product Agility Podcast

Listen & Share On Spotify & iTunes

Spotify - https://spoti.fi/3XzuzND
iTunes - https://apple.co/3YvTX8p

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Want to be a guest or have a guest request? Let us know here https://bit.ly/ProdPodCn

en-gbApril 27, 2023

The Gap Between Learning And Application: Why We Fail At Change with Julie Dirksen

How important is context and experience in learning and teaching?

Why do people with no prior knowledge or experience in a subject struggle to apply new information?

Do we care what people learn when we bestow information to them or what they are able to do with it when we are not present?

Ben was terrifically excited to have one of his heroes, Julie Dirksen, join him for a wide-ranging conversation on learning, behavioural and organisational change.

They explored the challenges of creating effective training programs that lead to lasting behaviour change, including the criticality of practice and repetition.

This episode offers invaluable insights into effective learning design that goes beyond the classroom to create lasting and meaningful change.

Chapters

00:01:39 Why Ben is so excited about this episode and why you should be too!
00:02:33 Who is Julie Dirksen?
00:04:55 Who is the audience for Julie's book "Design For How People Learn"?
00:08:04 Care about what people learn from you? Don't!
00:09:00 The Pitfalls Of Unconscious Action
00:12:32 Importance Of Novelty In Training Learning And Attention
00:15:53 The Phenomenon Of Hyperbolic Or Temporal Discounting: Why We Value Immediate Rewards More Than Future Ones
00:19:00 Immediate Rewards Increase Motivation For Behavior Change
00:25:39 Knowledge Gaps Are Only a Small Part of the Change Equation
00:27:3 Why is it hard for novices to acquire knowledge
00:31:10 What is the difference between a skill and knowledge?
00:33:55 The Importance Of Habits In Developing Skills
00:37:34 Why Team Self Management so often fails
00:42:30 The key ingredient to turn learning into CHANGE
00:43:25 Using Triggers To Change Habits
00:49:23 The End and the Recap

Host Bio

Stay up-to-date with us on our social media📱!

Ben Maynard

Product Agility Podcast

Listen & Share On Spotify & iTunes

Spotify - https://spoti.fi/3XzuzND
iTunes - https://apple.co/3YvTX8p

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Want to be a guest or have a guest request? Let us know here https://bit.ly/ProdPodCn

en-gbApril 20, 2023

How to Increase Engagement and Information Retention Using Brain Science with JP Bayley

In this episode, Ben and his guest JP Bayley answer these questions and delve into the power of using metaphors and storytelling in training.

💥How do we get full engagement from the first minute of a workshop or training session?

💥Will having coaching skills make you a better trainer?

💥 Is having the humility to admit you do not know something, step back and admit this something you should do as a trainer or facilitator?

If you want critical tips and insights in into effective facilitation and training techniques, listen on!

Key Moments

00:02:40 The History of Training from the Back of the Room!
00:04:22 How to help Introverts and Extroverts in a Workshop or Training setting
00:05:26 The Difference Between Introversion And Shyness/Social Anxiety
00:10:14 Images Trump Words - Can Images be more than we can see with our eyes?00:12:44 Tips For Effective Teaching: Flexibility In Approach & Style
00:17:30 The Power of Connecting People When Learning
00:18:45 Will having coaching skills make you a better trainer?
00:19:24 The Importance Of Confidence And Humility In Handling Mistakes
00:22:28 Book Recommendations - What to Learn About How People Learn
00:28:04 Episode Recap

JP Bayley Bio

JP Bayley is a business agility coach and trainer. As a Professional Scrum Trainer (PST), Professional Kanban Trainer (PKT), Flight Levels Guide (FLG) and a Certified Trainer for Training from the BACK of the Room! He offers training courses, workshops, and coaching.

He also co-organizes Lean Agile London (LALDN) and the virtual Lean Agile Global (LAG) and has delivered talks at conferences in USA, UK, and Ireland.

Useful Links

Lean Agile London - https://leanagile.london/
JP Bayley on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jpbayley/
Actineo Consulting - https://actineo.xyz/
Brain Rules, John Medina -https://brainrules.net/
Powerful Teaching - https://www.powerfulteaching.org/
Understanding How We Learn, A Visual Guide - https://www.learningscientists.org/uhwl
Feedback Driven Meta Cognition - https://www.retrievalpractice.org/feedback

Host Bio

Stay up-to-date with us on our social media📱!

Ben Maynard

Product Agility Podcast

Listen & Share On Spotify & iTunes

Spotify - https://spoti.fi/3XzuzND
iTunes - https://apple.co/3YvTX8p

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Want to be a guest or have a guest request? Let us know here https://bit.ly/ProdPodCn

en-gbApril 13, 2023

Unpacking Training From the Back of the Room And Instructional Design: Insights with JP Bayley

Training from the Back of the Room has made huge waves in the world of adult education. Its guidance and techniques, rooted in Brain Science, have enabled educators to improve their game significantly.

It was an honour to be joined by JP Bayley, who is 1 of 2 people who can deliver the Trainer Certification course for Training from the Back of the Room!

This episode gives valuable insights into designing effective training sessions that engage learners and accelerate learning through an in-depth exploration of

The importance of getting people talking during remote sessions and how TBR makes this achievable
How the 4C's map unlocks the ability for designing instructional design for accelerated learning and retention.
JP Bayley explains how to describe Training From the Back of the Room to your Grandma.
Connections activities are explained (they are awesome), and their importance is emphasized throughout any training session.

Chapters:

00:02:17 Introduction to JP Bayley
00:06:55 Training from the Back of the Room: What enticed JP into the community?
00:10:01 Low-Fi Social Networks - A Great technique, except when used unskillfully
00:12:50 The Importance Of Content Relevant Icebreakers
00:17:20 How to describe Training From The Back Of The Room to your Grandma
00:19:51 The Importance Of Building A Safe Space for any group event
00:23:47 Smaller Class Sizes Are Better For Virtual Learning
00:26:21 Benefits Of Smaller Virtual Class Sizes For Better Engagement
00:25:36 Spaced Learning and Ideal Class Sizes
00:27:31 Design Training for How People Learn

JP Bayley Bio
JP Bayley is a business agility coach and trainer. As a Professional Scrum Trainer (PST), Professional Kanban Trainer (PKT), Flight Levels Guide (FLG) and a Certified Trainer for Training from the BACK of the Room! He offers training courses, workshops, and coaching.

He also co-organizes Lean Agile London (LALDN) and the virtual Lean Agile Global (LAG) and has delivered talks at conferences in USA, UK, and Ireland.

Charities Supported by Lean Agile London in 2022

UNITERS (United Volunteers) - https://uniters.org.pl/en/
Medical Aid Now - https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/medicalnow

Useful Links

Lean Agile London - https://leanagile.london/
JP Bayley on Lin

Host Bio

Stay up-to-date with us on our social media📱!

Ben Maynard

Product Agility Podcast

Listen & Share On Spotify & iTunes

Spotify - https://spoti.fi/3XzuzND
iTunes - https://apple.co/3YvTX8p

Want to come on the podcast?

Want to be a guest or have a guest request? Let us know here https://bit.ly/ProdPodCn

en-gbApril 06, 2023

Scaling Product Creation Success: Small Teams And Large F*ck Ups (With Fred Fowler, Author)

Fred Fowler is the former mayor of Sunnyvale, Ca and an internationally recognized expert on the Scrum Framework. He is certified with a Doctor of Scrum, Professional Scrum Master Level III, and has published two books on Amazon. He also hosts two Advanced Scrum Case Study podcasts, runs a Silicon Valley Professional Scrum meetup group of 2000 members, and recently started a similar group based in Shanghai.

In this episode

We emphasize that Product Owners should be cautious of developers trying to create a million-dollar solution for a $10,000 problem.

We share personal anecdotes about our experiences creating solutions for organisations and how having clear priorities and a common Definition of Done is important if you use Scrum.

We also enjoyed providing examples of successful and unsuccessful projects, highlighting the importance of having the right team.

Overall, this episode provides valuable insights into problem-solving in business and how to approach it effectively. This ain't your normal "agile" podcast. This is Product Agility.

Chapters:

00:04:10 The Controversial Issue of Scaling Product Creation
00:06:14 The FBI's Project Sentinel - A Scrum Success Story
00:08:08 Healthcare.gov - Saved by Silicon Valley Agilists
00:08:59 Reasons For Scaling Up: Getting Results Quickly
00:12:19 Another valid, good reason why people would want to scale their Product Creation Efforts
00:14:41 The Importance Of A Common Definition Of Done
00:16:29 A proven technique to get people to consider their decisions to have multiple Product Backlogs
00:18:01 The Consequence Of Separating Technical And Business Decisions In A Company
00:22:00 The Best Podcast Fred has ever been on?
00:24:30 Who is the special guest in the next episode and episode recap

Key Takeaways:

🥡 The importance of finding the right solution for a problem, rather than overspending on a solution that is too big.
🥡Overspending on solutions, including the failed launch of healthcare.gov and how they can be turned around.
🥡Reasons why scaling might be the thing you have to do, even if we know it can cause pain
🥡The criticality of Technical Excellence in Product Creation

Silicon Valley Scrum (including Links to Fred's books) - https://www.siliconvalleyscrum.com/

Host Bio

Stay up-to-date with us on our social media📱!

Ben Maynard

Product Agility Podcast