The Agile startup and the venture capital—Part 1: The “pitch”
A tale of startups, VCs, their colliding intentions and a disillusioned Agile coach Part 1 of 4—The “pitch” In the past year, I’ve been working mostly from co-working spaces, coffee shops, the odd university campus here and there and, when I get really lucky (i.e., I have enough money), I …
Expertise and professionalism are on the same boat…
I will certainly not teach you that nowadays we are facing challenges that are increasingly complex… The need for specialized knowledge and skills in both professional and technical fields is critical for numerous organizations, and issues depend on everyone’s capacities. Therefore, the organizations’ requirements towards their employees are cumbersome and, …
Improving collaboration with user stories
As you probably already know, among the values and principles promoted by Agile approaches, there is collaboration; that is, collaboration between the various contributors who take part in the development, marketing, and use of the product. Although user stories are way too often overlooked and misunderstood, they play a critical …
On the production of original content
In a domain like ours, it’s important to establish our individual and collective credibility. It is also important to maintain this credibility by showing initiative and creativity on a sustained basis. To do this, different avenues are open to us. One of them is the creation of unique and relevant …
Agile Marketing
Agile approaches value individuals and interactions over processes and tools, greater customer collaboration, and responding to change over following a plan. First intended for software development, these values may be applied to other business fields. In many ways, the new business realities are in line with these principles that promote …
Awaken dormant leaders!
I have a secret to tell you: I discovered in the last couple of years that I have an internal detector for dormant leaders. Do you know any in your organization? Dormant leaders are those people with enormous leadership potential who are holding back their leadership for all sorts of …
Unravelling team spirit
As an Agile coach, I love to use metaphors to help people understand what I’m explaining. One of the examples I use most is to compare a software development team to a sports team. After all, just like in a hockey team, you have many players with different roles and …
Getting rid of the 3 Ms or how Agile tackles the problem of Muda, Mura, and Muri?
“Costs do not exist to be calculated, costs exist to be reduced.”—Taiichi Ohno 3M is not only a famous Post-it® company. It’s also an acronym for the three major causes of what generates costs and delays in any process (manufacturing or not): Muda, Mura, and Muri. As industries around the …
Get the most out of your Scrum grinder!
Know and optimize your output of business value in several easy steps to get the most ROI out of the Scrum framework. Scrum is like a modern, sophisticated meat grinder. Compared to the traditional knife method or heavy manually handled cast iron meat grinder, it is designed to process your …
Your edge—there’s more to it than simply achieving!
Do you struggle with rejection and failure? Do you feel like giving up after having unsuccessfully attempted something? You may be closer to finding your true edge than you think. My business partner and I have started practising the daily “Edgy” challenge. We didn’t come up with the term. We …