Troubleshooting Agile

Stop trying to control what your software does! Instead, invite surprising answers from users that lead to amazing product innovations. This episode of Troubleshooting Agile features a lesson from 18th-century Spain via Elan Ullendorf. Links: - 500 maps article by Elan Ullendorff: https://escapethealgorithm.substack.com/p/should-this-be-a-map-or-500-maps - Wardley Mapping: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardley_map - Brain Writing: https://www.mindtools.com/ak3qj17/brainwriting - Clean Language: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_language -------------------------------------------------- You'll find free videos and practice material, plus our book Agile Conversations, at agileconversations.com And we'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show: email us at info@agileconversations.com -------------------------------------------------- About Your Hosts Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick joined forces at TIM Group in 2013, where they studied and practised the art of managem

Being puzzled is the first step to genuine questions and real learning. Join your hosts Squirrel and Jeffrey to discover why execs like you need more “aporia” to understand your teams and lead them effectively, on this episode of Troubleshooting Agile. Links: - Aporia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aporia - Derrida: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Derrida - Dave Snowden's talk: https://gist.github.com/owulveryck/4ac8c96c16f5a48de24f8a0e949ad9a5 -------------------------------------------------- You'll find free videos and practice material, plus our book Agile Conversations, at agileconversations.com And we'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show: email us at info@agileconversations.com -------------------------------------------------- About Your Hosts Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick joined forces at TIM Group in 2013, where they studied and practised the art of management through difficult conversations. Over a decade later, they remain united in their pass

You’re allowed to do much more than you think, including working outside your team, disappointing others (helpfully), or learning things that aren’t on your business card. On this episode, we continue our theme of agency with inspiring ideas from a listener email. Links: - Things You're Allowed to Do: https://milan.cvitkovic.net/writing/things_youre_allowed_to_do/ - Stone Soup: https://agileconversations.com/blog/stonesoup/ -------------------------------------------------- You'll find free videos and practice material, plus our book Agile Conversations, at agileconversations.com And we'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show: email us at info@agileconversations.com -------------------------------------------------- About Your Hosts Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick joined forces at TIM Group in 2013, where they studied and practised the art of management through difficult conversations. Over a decade later, they remain united in their passion for growing profitable

Successful experiments with negative results are a vital part of learning to have agency. Discover how to fail for success on this episode of Troubleshooting Agile with our guest. Sammy Hath: Links: - https://hath.blog/posts/hire/ - https://hath.blog/posts/cultivating-destroying-agency/ - Message to Garcia episode: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/message-to-garcia - Patrick McKenzie: https://www.kalzumeus.com/ - Paul Graham on agency at university: https://www.paulgraham.com/college.html - Commander’s intent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intent_(military) -------------------------------------------------- You'll find free videos and practice material, plus our book Agile Conversations, at agileconversations.com And we'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show: email us at info@agileconversations.com

"Agency" "empowerment" "accountability" can be empty promises to your tech team, or real skills you can learn. In this episode, Squirrel and Jeffrey are joined by “competent minion” Sammy Hath to discuss how to solve difficult problems. Links: - https://hath.blog/posts/hire/ - https://hath.blog/posts/cultivating-destroying-agency/ - Message to Garcia episode: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/message-to-garcia - Patrick McKenzie: https://www.kalzumeus.com/ - Paul Graham on agency at university: https://www.paulgraham.com/college.html - Commander’s intent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intent_(military) -------------------------------------------------- You'll find free videos and practice material, plus our book Agile Conversations, at agileconversations.com And we'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show: email us at info@agileconversations.com -------------------------------------------------- About Your Hosts Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick joined force

Fast feedback to executives on whether executing the HiPPO (Highest Paid Person's Opinion) actually made your software more profitable. Get answers on how and why "prediction markets" speed up learning, on this episode of Troubleshooting Agile, with Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick. Links: - Manifest prediction markets conference: https://www.manifest.is/ - Previous episode on predictions and bets: https://agileconversations.com/blog/lies-predictions-experiemnts-bets/ - Public prediction markets: https://manifold.markets/ - CITCON session: https://citconf.com/wiki/index.php?title=Prediction_markets,_track_records_and_reputations_in_Software -------------------------------------------------- You'll find free videos and practice material, plus our book Agile Conversations, at agileconversations.com And we'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show: email us at info@agileconversations.com -------------------------------------------------- About Your Hosts Douglas Squirre

Frequent repetition and practice doesn't constitute micromanagement, if done well: it reinforces accountability and alignment. Tune in to this episode of Troubleshooting Agile to find out how and why you and your tech team need daily rehearsal and feedback, with your hosts, Squirrel and Jeffrey. Links: - Toyota Kata Practice Guide: https://theleanthinker.com/2017/12/21/mike-rother-the-toyota-kata-practice-guide/ - Dojo handout: https://itrevolution.com/product/conversational-dojo-kit/ - Shuhari: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuhari - Karate Kid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LerwIYmNFXY - Situational Leadership: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situational_leadership_theory -------------------------------------------------- You'll find free videos and practice material, plus our book Agile Conversations, at agileconversations.com And we'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show: email us at info@agileconversations.com -------------------------------------------------- Abo

Getting users to love your product isn't enough. Somebody needs to give you rectangular pictures of kings and presidents in exchange for it. Join your hosts, Squirrel and Jeffrey for product pitfalls and how to avoid them, on this episode of Troubleshooting Agile. Links: - Squirrel's tweet: https://twitter.com/douglassquirrel/status/1791438669070426526 - Rectangular pictures of the king: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/king-charles-banknotes -------------------------------------------------- You'll find free videos and practice material, plus our book Agile Conversations, at agileconversations.com And we'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show: email us at info@agileconversations.com -------------------------------------------------- About Your Hosts Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick joined forces at TIM Group in 2013, where they studied and practised the art of management through difficult conversations. Over a decade later, they remain united in their pas

If you or your tech leaders are exhausted from tracking an overwhelming number of individual tickets, features, or products, you're gardening when you should be farming. On this episode of Troubleshooting Agile, Squirrel and Jeffrey give their insights on how to manage whole "flocks" of engineers and customers. Links: - Briefing and Back Briefing : https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/briefing-and-back-briefing - Trapped on local optima: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_climbing#Local_maxima - Squirrel Squadron: https://squirrelsquadron.com -------------------------------------------------- You'll find free videos and practice material, plus our book Agile Conversations, at agileconversations.com And we'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show: email us at info@agileconversations.com -------------------------------------------------- About Your Hosts Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick joined forces at TIM Group in 2013, where they studied and practised the art

You've never been in a plane crash because accident investigations are blameless, but do you know how to run a blame-free postmortem? Timelines, timeboxes, and more ways to learn from disasters before they happen, when you join Squirrel and Jeffrey on this episode of Troubleshooting Agile. Links: - Airline Safety article - https://asteriskmag.com/issues/05/why-you-ve-never-been-in-a-plane-crash - Root Cause Analysis slides: https://douglassquirrel.s3.amazonaws.com/rca/hands-on-root-cause.pdf - Psychological Safety, Amy Edmondson - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhoLuui9gX8 - Squirrel Squadron - You can sign up to the free forum here: https://squirrelsquadron.com/ -------------------------------------------------- Order your copy of our book, Agile Conversations at agileconversations.com Plus, get access to a free mini training video about the technique of Coherence Building when you join our mailing list. We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at info@ag

When disaster looms and results are immediate, joint design really shines by driving informed, prompt, unpopular decisions. Learn how to keep your decision process when all about you are losing theirs, with your hosts, Squirrel and Jeffrey, Links: - Horowitz on wartime vs peacetime: https://a16z.com/peacetime-ceo-wartime-ceo/ - Squirrel decisiveness story: https://twitter.com/douglassquirrel/status/1782016446689673366 - Source of Livy quote: https://acoup.blog/2024/04/26/collections-phalanxs-twilight-legions-triumph-part-ivc-perseus/ - CITCON Europe 2024, May 24th & 25th: https://citconf.com/zagreb2024/ - Squirrel Squadron: https://squirrelsquadron.com -------------------------------------------------- Order your copy of our book, Agile Conversations at agileconversations.com Plus, get access to a free mini training video about the technique of Coherence Building when you join our mailing list. We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at info@agileconversations

Is your timid tech team constantly seeking direction and second-guessing themselves? Improvement is possible - if you create frequent accountability. Discover how your team can get a "message to Garcia", by tuning in this episode of Troubleshooting Agile. Links: - Patrick McKenzie tweet: https://twitter.com/patio11/status/1781424185094402558 - Sammy (Patrick's EA) on agency: https://hath.blog/posts/cultivating-destroying-agency/ - Message to Garcia: https://courses.csail.mit.edu/6.803/pdf/hubbard1899.pdf - Theory X and Theory Y: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-we-cannot-learn-damn-thing-from-semco-toyota-niels-pflaeging/ - Briefing and Back Briefing:https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/briefing-and-back-briefing - Radiating Intent:https://agileconversations.com/blog/driving-lessons/ -------------------------------------------------- Order your copy of our book, Agile Conversations at agileconversations.com Plus, get access to a free mini training video about the technique of Coherence Building w

The Imperial Japanese Navy and Borland Software made the same strategic mistake: testing hypotheses but ignoring negative results. Join your hosts, Squirrel and Jeffrey to discover what they missed and how you can make falsification work for you on this episode of Troubleshooting Agile. Links: - Shattered Sword: http://www.shatteredswordbook.com/ - Borland: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borland - Bank-robbing story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJVHTQSvUIo -------------------------------------------------- Order your copy of our book, Agile Conversations at agileconversations.com Plus, get access to a free mini training video about the technique of Coherence Building when you join our mailing list. We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at info@agileconversations.com -------------------------------------------------- About Your Hosts Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick first met while working together at TIM group in 2013. A decade later, they remain u

Do you have an "Eeyore" in your technology team, for whom it's all thorns and no roses? Can you help them to be more Tigger.. and would you even want to? Join Squirrel and Jeffrey as they discuss pessimism and burnout on this episode of Troubleshooting Agile. Links: - Eeyore & Tigger: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Winnie-the-Pooh_characters - Previous episode on burnout: https://agileconversations.com/blog/fixing-burnout-by-disagreeing-and-disappointing/ - Unilateral control model vs mutual learning: https://agileconversations.com/blog/directive-vs-mutual-learning/ - Motivational interviewing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivational_interviewing - Dr. Burns magic button: https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/in-therapy/200901/seven-questions-david-d-burns - Nonviolent communication: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonviolent_Communication -------------------------------------------------- Order your copy of our book, Agile Conversations at agileconversations.com Plus, get access to a free mini

Mistakes are only obvious looking backwards, looking forwards, they seem like good ideas. On this episode of Troubleshooting Agile, Squirrel and Jeffrey discuss why they encourage meaningful errors that lead to learning and how a negative result is a sign of a successful experiment. Links: - Retrospective Coherence: https://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot/retrospective-coherence-and-the-road-not-taken/ - Bicycle history: https://rootsofprogress.org/why-did-we-wait-so-long-for-the-bicycle - Covid predictions: https://thezvi.substack.com/ -------------------------------------------------- Order your copy of our book, Agile Conversations at agileconversations.com Plus, get access to a free mini training video about the technique of Coherence Building when you join our mailing list. We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at info@agileconversations.com -------------------------------------------------- About Your Hosts Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick

Agile is dead, but does anyone care? Cynefin tells us that we should be watching the slope of improvement, not aiming for a mythical "best practice". Squirrel and Jeffrey discuss why agile is irrelevant, on this episode of the (ironically named) Troubleshooting Agile podcast. Links: - Ubiquitous Language: https://martinfowler.com/bliki/UbiquitousLanguage.html - Cynefin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynefin_framework - No Vehicles in the Park episode: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/no-vehicles-in-the-park -------------------------------------------------- Order your copy of our book, Agile Conversations at agileconversations.com Plus, get access to a free mini training video about the technique of Coherence Building when you join our mailing list. We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at info@agileconversations.com -------------------------------------------------- About Your Hosts Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick first met while w

Has "adopting Jira" become the definition of "being agile"? If so, Squirrel says he’ll find another line of work! Tune in to hear Squirrel and Jeffrey's discussion on using the right tools for certain and uncertain environments, on this episode of Troubleshooting Agile. - Squirrel’s Jira tweet: https://x.com/douglassquirrel/status/1767536165790376281?s=20 - Chris Matts on Needs and Solutions: https://theitriskmanager.com/2015/04/19/communities-of-need-community-of-solutions/ - Confirmation bias: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias - Cynefin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynefin_framework - Last week’s episode on certainty and uncertainty: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/decentralisation-dilemmas -------------------------------------------------- Order your copy of our book, Agile Conversations at agileconversations.com Plus, get access to a free mini training video about the technique of Coherence Building when you join our mailing list. We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or

Build centralised, standard structures for your tech only when you're sure the terrain isn't moving under your feet and stable software is no guarantee against market avalanches. This week’s episode is all about centralisation and decentralisation, with your hosts, Squirrel and Jeffrey. Links: - Wardley Mapping: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardley_map - Pioneers, Settlers, Town Planners: https://wardleypedia.org/mediawiki/index.php/Pioneers_settlers_town_planners - Cynefin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynefin_framework - Entangled Trios: https://www.peterhinssen.com/blog/dealing-with-complexity-in-the-never-normal -------------------------------------------------- Order your copy of our book, Agile Conversations at agileconversations.com Plus, get access to a free mini training video about the technique of Coherence Building when you join our mailing list. We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at info@agileconversations.com -----------------------------

Cancel your standup and record your decisions in writing, not conversations. This week on Troubleshooting Agile, Collaborations Expert and Author, Sumeet Moghe joins Squirrel and Jeffrey to explore "async-first" software development. Links: - Sumeet Moghe: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sumeetmoghe/ and https://www.asyncagile.org/ - The Async-First Playbook: https://www.thoughtworks.com/en-gb/insights/books/async-first-playbook asyncagile.org - Alistair Cockburn graph: https://agileconversations.com/AlistairCockburnCommunicationGraph.png - Martin Fowler "Periodic Face-to-Face": https://martinfowler.com/bliki/PeriodicFaceToFace.html - James Tannier, Effective Remote Work: https://pragprog.com/titles/jsrw/effective-remote-work/ -------------------------------------------------- Order your copy of our book, Agile Conversations at agileconversations.com Plus, get access to a free mini training video about the technique of Coherence Building when you join our mailing list. We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas,

Go ahead and bravely demand the next feature right after the completion of the last! This week on Troubleshooting Agile, Squirrel tells us why he likes to be more demanding than Kent Beck. Links: - Kent Beck: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_Beck - Tidy First: https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/tidy-first-in-one-page - Extreme Programming: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_programming -------------------------------------------------- Order your copy of our book, Agile Conversations at agileconversations.com Plus, get access to a free mini training video about the technique of Coherence Building when you join our mailing list. We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at info@agileconversations.com -------------------------------------------------- About Your Hosts Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick first met while working together at TIM group in 2013. A decade later, they remain united in their passion for growing organisations through better conver