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What we’re about
We are a community of agile practitioners from around the world: Scrum Masters, agile coaches, Product Owners, supporting ourselves on practical issues from business agility to agile product development.
We meet on Zoom and Slack. (Hands-on Agile is the largest global Slack group for all things agile with more than 19,000 members. To join the Hands-on Agile Slack group just add your credentials here: Join Our ‘Hands-on Agile’ Slack Team.)
The related blog is branded differently – Age of Product –, as is the corresponding newsletter. Join 49,000+ agile peers here: Food for Agile Thought.
Upcoming events (3)
See all- HoA #64: Mastering Work Intake: The Key to Sustainability and FlowLink visible for attendees
Abstract: Mastering Work Intake: The Key to Sustainability and Flow w/ Jeremy Willets and Tom Cagley
Agile and Lean embrace the idea that teams and organizations pull prioritized work. But what happens when work gets pushed on a team or organization? If you’ve seen this anti-pattern, you’re no longer dealing with work “intake” — you’re dealing with work “entry.” Pushing work kills sustainable pace and consistent flow of value delivery. Mastering the work intake challenge could very well make or break your career. Or even your company.
In this session, we’ll start by defining work intake. Then, we’ll focus on how work enters different levels of organizations and discuss strategies for recognizing and solving work intake anti-patterns.
Meet Jeremy Willets and Tom Cagley
Jeremy Willets is a team lead at Rockwell Automation. He started in software as a Technical Writer on a Scrum team more than a decade ago: “It wasn’t long before I fell in love with Agile. I’ve served thriving organizations as a Scrum Master, Agile Coach, Senior Agile Coach, Release Train Engineer, and mentor. I’ve even been fortunate enough to speak at a few conferences. When I’m not working with people and teams, you can find me with my family or maybe even making music as TLNGO.”
Tom Cagley is a consultant, speaker, author, coach, and agile guide who leads organizations and teams to unlock their inherent greatness. Tom helps teams and organizations improve cycle time, productivity, quality, morale, and customer satisfaction and then proves it. Tom has been an internationally respected blogger and podcaster for over 18 years, focusing on software processes and measurement. His blog entries and podcasts have been listened to or read millions of times. He co-authored:
- Mastering Work Intake with Jeremy Willets and
- Mastering Software Project Management: Best Practices, Tools and Techniques with Murali K. Chemuturi.
Jeremy’s website.
Tom’s website.Please Note:
The number of concurrent participants is limited to 100; first come, first served.
- HoA #65: The Lean Tech Manifesto with Fabrice BernhardLink visible for attendees
Abstract: The Lean Tech Manifesto
The release of the Agile Manifesto on February 13th, 2001, marked a revolutionary shift in how tech organizations think about work. By empowering development teams, Agile cut through the red tape in software development and quickly led to significant improvements in innovation speed and software quality.
This new and refreshing approach brought by Agile led to its adoption beyond just the scope of a development team, spreading across entire companies, far beyond the initial context it was designed for by the manifesto's original thinkers. And here lies the problem: the Agile Manifesto was designed for development teams, not for organizations with hundreds or even thousands of people.
As enthusiasts of Agile, Benoît and I went through phases of excitement and then frustration as we experienced these limitations firsthand while Theodo grew and our clients became larger. What gave us hope was seeing organizations on both sides of the Pacific, in Japan and California, achieve levels of growth and success almost unmatched while retaining the principles that made the Agile movement so compelling.
The "Lean Tech Manifesto" is the result of spending the past 15 years studying these giants and experimenting as we scaled our own business. It tries to build on the genius of the original 2001 document but adapt it to a much larger scale. I will share the connection we identified between Agile and Lean principles and also the tech innovations that we found the best tech organisations adopt to distribute work and maintain team autonomy.
Meet Fabrice Bernhard
Fabrice Bernhard is the co-author of The Lean Tech Manifesto and the Group CTO of Theodo, a leading technology consultancy he cofounded with Benoît Charles-Lavauzelle and scaled from 10 people in 2012 to 700 people in 2022. Based in Paris, London and Casablanca, Theodo uses Agile, DevOps, and Lean to build transformational tech products for clients all over the world, including global companies—such as VF Corporation, Raytheon Technologies, SMBC, Biogen, Colas, Tarkett, Dior, Safran, BNP Paribas, Allianz, and SG—and leading tech scale-ups—such as ContentSquare, ManoMano, and Qonto.
Fabrice is an expert in technology and large-scale transformations and has contributed to multiple startups scaling more sustainably with Lean thinking. He has been invited to share his experience at international conferences, including the Lean Summit, DevopsDays, and CraftConf. The Theodo story has been featured in multiple articles and in the book Learning to Scale at Theodo Group.
Fabrice is also the co-founder of the Paris DevOps meetup and an active YPO member. He studied at École Polytechnique and ETH Zürich and lives in London with his two sons.
Fabrice’s Book: The Lean Tech Manifesto.
Fabrice on LinkedIn.Please Note:
The number of concurrent participants is limited to 100; first come, first served.
- HoA #66: Escape the Feature Frenzy, Build to Sell with Sandrine OlivenciaLink visible for attendees
Abstract: Escape Feature Frenzy, Build to Sell
In tech firms, everyone from employees to founders is familiar with the overwhelming and endless Product Backlog that we affectionately call “feature frenzy.” This results in constant pressure to add new features, leading to a feeling of never catching up. Despite hard work, there’s a sense that more time should be spent with customers rather than on internal politics.
Building a successful product should be about solving problems, not just adding features. A product reflects how different specialists think and work together to create an irresistible product that people cannot live without while also generating profits for the company.
However, Agile has evolved into a delivery-focused process with divided responsibilities, leading to communication issues and products that are less stable and less satisfying for customers. This is not what the founders of Agile envisioned at the end of the 20th century.
Build to Sell introduces strategies that combine lean engineering with modern product management to combat “feature frenzy.” The key topics covered in the book include:
- Emotion-Centric Design: Focusing on user emotions to create unbiased experiences.
- Chief Product Engineer: Leading with a blend of technical, strategic, and financial insight.
- Performance-Based Product: Enhancing performance rather than just adding features.
- Design to Cost: Balancing creativity with cost control to ensure profitability.
Meet Sandrine Olivencia
Sandrine Olivencia co-founded Taktique, a firm dedicated to providing training and coaching in lean product design and development tailored specifically for busy individuals. She is committed to imparting practical skills and knowledge in a manner that suits the demanding schedules of professionals. Trained in management and computer science, Sandrine Olivencia is an accomplished product engineer who now teaches in leading engineering and management schools.
Sandrine has also been an executive coach for 15 years. She specializes in applying lean thinking to help fast-paced startups and scale-ups grow rapidly yet respectfully and sustainably. Supported by her team of lean coaches, she also works with larger organizations in various industries. Her work involves training leadership teams, managers, and operational team leaders to use lean strategy and lean engineering tools and concepts tailored to their specific contexts. The aim in these complex environments is to effectively spread lean thinking across the organization to boost engagement, enhance collaboration, and increase operational efficiency.
Sandrine's strong expertise lies in designing and developing impactful products in both the tech and service sectors, as well as in shaping learning organizations that support sustainable growth. With a 30-year career in the high-tech and digital industries, Sandrine has guided and mentored many CEOs and their teams, drawing on principles from her book "Build to Sell: The Lean Secret to Crafting Irresistible Products."
She also co-authored “The Lean Sensei," a book on working with and developing into a lean sensei that earned a Shingo Prize.
She discovered Agile in Silicon Valley in 2002 while working on a challenging project with a bioengineering firm. She was an active member of Agile France and organized several Agile conferences. Today, she is a member of the French Lean Institute and a faculty member at the US Lean Enterprise Institute.
When she is not teaching, writing, or learning, Sandrine enjoys painting, singing opera, and taking long walks in the forest.
Website: https://www.taktique.com
Blog: https://blog.taktique.com
Book page: https://www.buildtosellbook.comPlease Note:
The number of concurrent participants is limited to 100; first come, first served.