- Working With the Unknown: What Agile Professionals Need to Know About Agentic AIInnovar Group, Greenwood Village, CO
Agentic AI doesn’t just make our tools smarter—it introduces systems that can set goals, make decisions, and take initiative. When you’re working on one of these systems, you’re not just shipping features anymore. You’re building something that behaves more like a teammate. And that changes everything: how we plan, how we measure success, and how we think about our own roles.
In this candid, fast-moving talk, Erika Lenz opens up the emerging world of agentic AI—what it is, how it works, and why it asks something new of us as Agile professionals. Whether you’re technical or not, this session will give you a clear, grounded sense of what’s changing and how to find your footing.
You’ll explore:
• How agentic systems differ from traditional LLMs—and why that matters
• What’s missing from our current Agile toolkit when working with agentic projects
• How to shift your role to shape AI behavior, not just deliver features
• Where typical test cases and user stories fall short—and what to do insteadYou don’t need to be an AI expert to help lead this shift. You just need to know where to look, what to listen for, and how to bring your full perspective to the table. Because when your next “feature” thinks for itself, your voice matters more than ever.
Who should attend this session? All Agilists interested in AI!
About Erika
Erika Lenz is a Denver-based innovator, product manager, and agile coach whose career reflects a deep commitment to personal growth, leadership development, and creative problem-solving. With a unique blend of expertise in the humanities, ecosystems, and technology, Erika thrives at the intersection of human behavior, organizational change, natural systems, and product innovation. She has presented at the Agile Alliance conference, Scrum Gathering, Mile High Agile, multiple meetups, and podcasts on topics like change leadership, systems thinking, conflict resolution, coaching, and flow. In her free time, she dances Argentinian tango, Lindy Hop, and barefoot ecstatic dance.
She also co-hosts the Agile Denver "AI for Agilists" SIG.Schedule:
5:30 - 6:10 PM Snacks, drinks and networking.
6:10 - 6:15 PM Quick Announcements/sponsor recognition
6:15 - 7:15 PM Presentation and Discussion
7:15- 7:30 PM Final Questions and Wrap UpSponsored by Innovar Group IT staffing. https://innovargroup.com/
- Kanban Community of PracticeLink visible for attendees
What is a Community of Practice?
A Community of Practice develops over time, with committed members engaging in many “informal conversations” about a shared domain of interest. This creates a set of cases and stories that become a shared repertoire for their practice, whether they realize it or not. To learn a bit more about the concept of a “Community of Practice”, check out this link https://bit.ly/2YTyyZh.What is the Agile Denver Kanban CoP?
The Agile Denver Kanban CoP is a long-running meetup that started in June of 2011. We are a “Community of Practice”, where core members, who are practitioners, have regularly engaged with each other over several years.
Our meetups generally consist of us sharing our personal experiences and stories, learning from each other more about how to apply lean thinking, lean management (leadership), and agile principles, along with pull, flow, kanban, and system thinking concepts.
Our specific focus is on how to catalyze and manage change, improve business workflow processes, and predictably forecast and answer the question “When will it be done?” We are associated with the broader Agile Denver group, which has several other “special interest groups” (SIGs) associated with it, of which we are one. And we are also connected with the U.S. and global Lean Kanban community.Agile Denver Kanban CoP Meetup Events
Starting from 2024, we’ve updated our schedule to better accommodate our community. We host two different types of meetups: Public Meetups and Core Member Meetups.Public Meetups
These will now be held on the 3rd Thursday of the month on a quarterly basis. Public meetups are open to everyone and feature presentations on various topics where attendees can interact, engage, and ask questions:- January: Lean Coffee
- April: TBD
- July: TBD
- October: TBD
Core Member Meetups
- These will now be held every month on the 1st Thursday.
Core Member Meetups are smaller gatherings exclusively for a limited number of active core members, designed for deeper discussions and two-way interactions.
If you’re interested in becoming a core member to engage in these smaller interactions, we encourage you to demonstrate commitment through regular attendance at our public meetups and interaction with core members in between. For more information on becoming a core member, feel free to reach out on the #leankanban channel in Agile Denver Slack, and connect with the organizers or other core members.
We look forward to seeing you at our meetups! Make sure to check back frequently for updates, posted comments and questions, and announcements as our meetup dates approach each month.
Take care,
Ed Schaefer, Trevor Peterson and John Bannister
