By

Mike Stuedemann

Top 10 Ways to be a Great Product Owner – Part 2

In last week’s post, I shared the first of 10 recommendations on how to become a great Product Owner. In this post, I complete the list by sharing my top 5 recommendations.  5.) Share your Product Roadmap – Having a Product Roadmap allows a great Product Owner to communicate the next steps that he or...
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Top 10 Ways to be a Great Product Owner – Part 1

While there is some debate within the Scrum community, the Product Owner accountability is often described as the most difficult accountability in Scrum. In this two-part blog series, I want to highlight 10 ways to become a great Product Owner. The first five of these recommendations are as follows: 10.) Have a Product Vision –...
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Banning the T-Word

When we are young, we are taught not to use certain words. Our parents, teachers, and mentors showed us that while certain words make us feel better in the moment, they are often seen as a sign of immaturity and not welcome in professional speech. I am wondering if it’s time to add “transformation” to...
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How to be a Good Stakeholder

Much of the Agile and Scrum Training offered in today’s market is focused on a role or an accountability.  There are classes for Product Owners, Developers and Scrum Masters. People have even created training for leaders and managers working in an Agile environment.    One role that’s been underserved in the Agile training space is...
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Establishing a Baseline for Product Development Improvement – Going beyond “Why”?

Many organizations move toward a more agile way of working without fully understanding the benefits that they are trying to capture. While coaches and consultants, yours truly included, emphasize that they should start with their “Why?” (shout-out to Simon Sinek), the “Why?” will only get you so far. Stating that we want to “Decrease time...
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Does a Scrum Master need to be Technical?

One of the most common questions that we get when teaching people about Scrum involves the Scrum Master.  Specifically, does a Scrum Master need to be “technical”? In order to answer this question, we first need to explore what it means to be “technical”.  Defining this word isn’t as easy as it seems.  First, everyone...
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Technical Debt is Having its Moment

“Technical Debt” has been a topic of discussion within the software industry for several years.  However, recent events such as the Southwest airlines debacle and the FAA outage has brought “Technical Debt” and its consequences into the main stream, even garnering mention on the front page of the New York Times.   “Technical Debt”, as...
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How to Interview A Scrum Master

One of the common questions that we get at agilityIRL is, “How do we find good Scrum Masters?” One of the crucial steps in hiring for any role is the interview. In this blog, I want to provide you with some of my favorite Scrum Master interview questions and techniques. This entry is not intended...
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Never Give Up on People – A Message from Ben Franklin and the Surgeon General

As we begin Summer 2022, COVID continues to occupy a significant portion of our time and attention. While vaccines, therapies, and drugs have all had a significant impact on hospitalizations and fatalities, the disease remains a significant threat to many, particularly those who are immunocompromised. While a full description and debate of the successes and...
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Show Your Work (Godin)

As many of our regular readers know, we are huge fans of Seth Godin.  For those of you who may be unfamiliar with his work, Seth is a leader, marketer, and author.  You can read more about him here: https://www.sethgodin.com . While never formally identifying himself as an Agilist, Seth very much embodies an Agile mindset....
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