Published in The Helm·Sep 21Why “Quiet Quitting” Is Important For a Healthy OrganisationFevers are awful. I don’t know anyone who enjoys shivers and sweats simultaneously, but it is part of the process to kill a virus. Similarly, I don’t know many people who are fond of the “bust” part of economic boom-bust cycles, even though it does tend to reset prices to…Technology4 min read
Sep 11We need to change how we write job ads in tech.Do you thrive in a fast-paced environment? Are you a rockstar at your job? How about an enthusiastic problem-solver? Do you have a proven track record? What about a strong understanding of skill X? Do you feel comfortable with uncertainty? Are you able to multitask? Are you a fast learner…Technology4 min read
Aug 1621 concepts that have helped me as an Agile CoachMy job is to help organisations better respond to change and collaborate more effectively and sustainably to deliver value. Over the course of my career, some knowledge I have gleaned has been pivotal in helping me better understand how organisations and people work. This is by no means an exhaustive…Agile12 min read
Published in GEN·Dec 31, 2021The Hidden Costs of ChildcareLike many parents, I’m guilty of complaining when my daughter interferes with my work life. Whether its needing to pick them up from day care unexpectedly, a routine doctor’s visit, or even if they need to stay home sick and someone needs to look after them… the stress and logistics…Parenting6 min read
Oct 27, 2021Are we killing organizations with continuous improvement?The phrase “continuous improvement” is a pretty common one among agile and lean communities and the tech industry in general. Yet, it depends quite a lot on one’s interpretation of what constitutes an “improvement”. I have started to suspect that in many cases, we are mistaking our societal obsession with…Agile5 min read
Feb 15, 2021Why your Scrum team sucks.In James Clear’s book Atomic Habits he refers to the practice of “environment design” for helping you change your habits. The idea being that your environment plays a big role in whether you succeed or fail in adopting a new habit e.g. …Agile4 min read
Published in Curious·Jan 25, 2021The Struggle to Keep Up: Life as a Working Parent.Firstly, this post is a massive shoutout to all single parents, parents with multiple kids, parents working multiple jobs, working in places with less-than-satisfactory employee rights, living as expats with little or no support network — and generally anyone who needs to look after a dependent while also holding down…Parenting7 min read
Sep 10, 2020The Dark Horse Metric: A Case for Using ThroughputI’ve not come across many teams that use, let alone know that much about throughput. …Throughput6 min read
Jul 29, 2020What are scrum masters and agile coaches accountable for?If you’ve read my article “Scrum Master’s don’t own the process”, you might then ask what exactly are we held to account for? Our profession is sometimes thought of as not having any “skin in the game”. If we are not directly affected by outcomes, then doesn’t that mean we…Accountability3 min read
Jul 28, 2020Lost in Velocity.Shouldn’t we estimate spikes and bugs? What about “ghost work” like time spent on professional growth? Maybe we should re-estimate tasks that we partially completed? What if we associate story points with hours worked? That would make it easier for us to know how many story points to remove when…Velocity6 min read
