Karl Sakas — February 17, 2020 Are your agency’s PMs “professional babysitters”? Yes and no; let’s explore. A coaching client wrote: “I’ve always seen project managers as glorified babysitters. Why do agency employees need a ‘professional babysitter’ to tell them what to do at work?” A few months earlier, he’d noted: “I feel like [PMs] … Continue reading Are Your Project Managers “Professional Babysitters”?
Daria Bagina — February 12, 2020 Dwight D. Eisenhower, the World War II leader and U.S. President, wrote: “[…] plans are of no particular value, but […] planning is indispensable”. It’s a powerful phrase that aligns all so well with Scrum. Contrary to a myth that there is no planning in Scrum, planning is actually … Continue reading Sprint Plans are Worthless, but Sprint Planning is Everything
Daniel Burrus — February 10, 2020 When the competition launches a new product, how you react says a lot about you as a professional and your company as an organization. But it is likely that you act quickly and decisively to address the changing factors and conditions after they’ve occurred. This is called agility, and … Continue reading Why Agility Cannot Stand Alone
Steve Trapps — February 6, 2020 One of the teams I worked with suggested dropping the Sprint Retrospective and the Sprint Review from the sprint and only do them every other sprint. The team’s Scrum Master said that it was… “Ok, as it is empowering the team to make decisions and have a say in … Continue reading The Importance of the Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective
Christiaan Verwijs — February 6, 2020 A while ago, I received an interesting scientific article from Gunther Verheyen titled “Getting Things Done: The Science Behind Stress-Free Productivity” (Heylighen & Vidal, 2007). The article discusses possible scientific explanations for the success of a personal productivity approach called “Getting Things Done” (GTD; Allen, 2001). The authors apply … Continue reading Thinking By Sprinting: What Cognitive Science Tells Us About Why Scrum Works
Sahin Guvenilir — February 5, 2020 As a servant leader, a Scrum Master focuses on the needs of others, before her/his needs. “Reveal, not resolve” mentality plays an important role in this context. Because any time the Scrum Master steps in and takes action on behalf of the team, this may create two negative impacts: … Continue reading When Should a Scrum Master Step in and Take an Action?
Don Dalrymple — January 29, 2020 We are overwhelmed from the complexity and volume of information every day. Much of it comes from the ease of team members and customers having the convenience of being able to email and text us. In your given day, think about how much you read in your inbox. Pages … Continue reading How to Simplify the Complexity of Projects
Hannah Cohen — January 27, 2020 Project kickoff is one of the most important stages in the lifecycle of a project. Learn how to excel at this stage in this article. Well begun, they say, is half done. Nowhere is this more applicable than at the start of a project. How you start often sets … Continue reading The 9-Step Checklist for Kickass Project Kickoffs
Being agile marketers requires us to venture outside of our comfort zones. Jennifer Cannon on January 24, 2020 Settling into habits can be the beginning of a dangerous routine that will eventually set teams behind. The rapid evolution of more sophisticated marketing technology demands attention, but organizations lacking the agility (or the willingness) to adapt … Continue reading Applying agile to deliver better customer journeys
Karl Sakas — January 23, 2020 Feeling the need to create urgency so that employees meet deadlines? See 20+ root causes to explain why this happens at agencies. Spoiler: You may be part of the problem. Frustrated that her employees were taking forever to complete work, an agency owner asked, “How can I create a … Continue reading Need to Create Urgency For Your Team to Meet Deadlines?
