PEP Talk: Are You Creating Problems or Solving Them?

Summary
Solutions, solutions, solutions! Get your solutions here! We have technical solutions, DevOps solutions, automations, and metrics! ...The Agile community is caught in the middle of the Framework Wars — SAFe vs Scrum@Scale vs Modern Delivery vs Kanban and XP — and following the rules has become more important than solving the problems that led us to Agile in the first place!

The Design Thinking Double Diamond teaches us to research and understand problems, separately from solutions. When was the last time you stopped to really think about your problems, separately from how you are solving them? We also need to face the hard truth that yes, our teams are working hard, but sometimes they are creating more problems than they solve. In this session we’ll walk through one technique for shifting people’s attention back to problems. It's called the “PEP Talk”. It has been used in fortune 50 companies, government institutions, and individual Release Trains to help refocus people on the right things at the right time, promote cross-team collaboration, and inspire them to design win-win solutions that solve multiple problems at once, while also unlocking intrinsic motivation. It works great as a part of a Lean Portfolio Management approach, in an Agile VMO, with a Lean Agile Center of Excellence (LACE), or a Scrum of Scrum of Scrums because it is solution-agnostic. (Plus it helps you win at Buzzword Bingo!)"

Bio

### Pete Oliver-Krueger

Pete Oliver-Krueger is an Executive Agile Coach with the Eliassen Group, and co-author of the book “Shift: From Product to People,” a novel that tells the complex story of an organization evolving into real people-centered thinking. He has over 25 years of experience as an entrepreneur, inventor, speaker, trainer, and consultant for hundreds of teams – including Fortune 50 companies – specializing in Agile Transformations, Customer Discovery, Design Thinking, and Psychologically-Safe management techniques.

Pete can often be found at the Library of Agile!
[https://www.linkedin.com/in/peteok/ ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/peteok/)

### Michael Dougherty

“Agile Mike” has over 30 years of experience with software development and product leadership. He is published under the “Built for Success” column in CIO.com magazine and held the position of Vice President in the Agile Leadership Network! Michael has taught multiple SAFe courses for over the past five years to over 700 people + certified SAFe SPC5, AWS Cloud Architect, ICP-CAT (Coaching Agile Transitions), AHF (Agility Health Facilitator), Scrum CSP, and PMP.

During the past seven years, Michael has overseen an annual Portfolio of over $100 Million, consisting of over 80 engagements with over 30 Scrum Masters. Michael contributed and led five digital transformations, six SAFe engagements and coached over 20 clients.

Michael is now engaged in SAFe-related work for the US Government.

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/agilemichaeldougherty