Johanna Rothman, known as the “Pragmatic Manager,” offers frank advice for your tough problems. She helps leaders and teams do reasonable things that work. Equipped with that knowledge, they can then decide how to adapt their product development. https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman 2023-09-18 21:49:42 -0400 Most consultants start their businesses because they love doing the work. But too few consultants can maintain a successful consulting business. The major key to maintaining—and growing—a successful consulting business is content marketing. Content marketing allows the consultant to “brag” about past successes, all while helping ideal clients find you. In this mini-workshop, Johanna Rothman will share her content marketing strategy. You will decide what might work for you. At the end of our time together, you will have a short list of actions you can use to create your content marketing strategy. Most consultants start their businesses because they love doing the work. But too few consultants can maintain a successful consulting business. The major key to maintaining—and growing—a successful consulting business is content marketing. Content marketing allows the consultant to “brag” about past successes, all while helping ideal clients find you. In this mini-workshop, Johanna Rothman will share her content marketing strategy. You will decide what might work for you. At the end of our time together, you will have a short list of actions you can use to create your content marketing strategy. Tue, 24 Feb 2026 00:00:00 -0500 https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/effective-content-marketing-how-to-help-your-ideal-clients-find-and-hire-you-ieee-boston-consultants-network https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/effective-content-marketing-how-to-help-your-ideal-clients-find-and-hire-you-ieee-boston-consultants-network As a consultant, I’ve spoken professionally since 1997, all to show my expertise and value. Now, in 2025—and beyond—we all need to show our value to all kinds of managers. Not just hiring managers, but managers who think they can reduce headcount because of AI. Those managers do not realize AI can be a helpful tool, but only humans can create great products customers will buy. I’ve put together this presentation so you can apply these ideas to help you see your expertise. The three secrets of effective speaking are: - Explain why your audience will care—what’s in this for them. - Use relevant stories to connect with the audience - And be enthusiastic so you can inspire your audience to act. Learn how your speaking can help you define your human value to everyone. As a consultant, I’ve spoken professionally since 1997, all to show my expertise and value. Now, in 2025—and beyond—we all need to show our value to all kinds of managers. Not just hiring managers, but managers who think they can reduce headcount because of AI. Those managers do not realize AI can be a helpful tool, but only humans can create great products customers will buy. I’ve put together this presentation so you can apply these ideas to help you see your expertise. The three secrets of effective speaking are: - Explain why your audience will care—what’s in this for them. - Use relevant stories to connect with the audience - And be enthusiastic so you can inspire your audience to act. Learn how your speaking can help you define your human value to everyone. Tue, 07 Oct 2025 00:00:00 -0400 https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/effective-public-speaking-how-to-show-your-human-value-in-an-age-of-ai-testflix-2025 https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/effective-public-speaking-how-to-show-your-human-value-in-an-age-of-ai-testflix-2025 Many teams and organizations decide on a specific agile approach, such as Scrum, and “install practices.” But, because an agile approach requires culture changes, many Scrum teams fail. As a result, many so-called “agile” teams practice waterfall while calling it “our agility. Instead of “failed agile,” or waterfall masquerading as agility, your team can use four specific principles to create more agility and better outcomes for everyone. When teams learn how to create a project rhythm, to visualize how they work, the measures that reinforce delivery and improvement, and how to create a culture of continuous improvement, they live the agile principles. And with any luck, they never have to have a standup. In this presentation, Johanna Rothman will clarify the four principles and the flow metrics, so you can learn to use these principles and watch your team improve daily. You will learn about and see examples of these principles: • How to create a project rhythm • Ways to visualize the work • Which measures reinforce delivery and improvement • How to create a culture of continuous improvement with experiments. Many teams and organizations decide on a specific agile approach, such as Scrum, and “install practices.” But, because an agile approach requires culture changes, many Scrum teams fail. As a result, many so-called “agile” teams practice waterfall while calling it “our agility. Instead of “failed agile,” or waterfall masquerading as agility, your team can use four specific principles to create more agility and better outcomes for everyone. When teams learn how to create a project rhythm, to visualize how they work, the measures that reinforce delivery and improvement, and how to create a culture of continuous improvement, they live the agile principles. And with any luck, they never have to have a standup. In this presentation, Johanna Rothman will clarify the four principles and the flow metrics, so you can learn to use these principles and watch your team improve daily. You will learn about and see examples of these principles: • How to create a project rhythm • Ways to visualize the work • Which measures reinforce delivery and improvement • How to create a culture of continuous improvement with experiments. Tue, 20 May 2025 00:00:00 -0400 https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/create-your-successful-agile-project-principles-over-practices-pmiloc https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/create-your-successful-agile-project-principles-over-practices-pmiloc Most leaders want organizational agility. They think that means the teams need to use a ticketing tool and do a lot of upfront planning. That planning will then allow the leaders to manage according to the plan. But all that planning creates a lot of work in progress and multitasking—which looks a lot like a waterfall approach. The teams have so much work that they never quite finish. The teams roll over items from sprint to sprint and don’t fix defects when they first appear. The teams feel a ton of pressure and might even talk about “agile” death marches. Everyone feels as if “agile” let them down. No one has to work this way. Instead, we can review the various feedback loops and decide what to do next. Any team—including managers—can create agility when they create and sustain short feedback loops. Short feedback loops are the secret sauce to real agility, regardless of what you call your approach. Most leaders want organizational agility. They think that means the teams need to use a ticketing tool and do a lot of upfront planning. That planning will then allow the leaders to manage according to the plan. But all that planning creates a lot of work in progress and multitasking—which looks a lot like a waterfall approach. The teams have so much work that they never quite finish. The teams roll over items from sprint to sprint and don’t fix defects when they first appear. The teams feel a ton of pressure and might even talk about “agile” death marches. Everyone feels as if “agile” let them down. No one has to work this way. Instead, we can review the various feedback loops and decide what to do next. Any team—including managers—can create agility when they create and sustain short feedback loops. Short feedback loops are the secret sauce to real agility, regardless of what you call your approach. Thu, 20 Mar 2025 00:00:00 -0400 https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/see-your-feedback-loops-the-secret-sauce-to-more-and-effective-agility-eag https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/see-your-feedback-loops-the-secret-sauce-to-more-and-effective-agility-eag Is your team or project supposed to “be agile?” You might not feel that way if you have a years-long backlog, standups are individual status reports, and everyone is still multitasking. The people on the project want to do great work. But how you work feels a lot like an “agile” death march. There’s a reason you feel that way. You’re using fake agility—a waterfall lifecycle masquerading as an agile approach. Worse, fake agility is the norm in our industry. No one has to work that way. Your management does not care about “agile”—but they care a lot about agility. Instead of fake agile, you can assess your culture, project, and product risks to select a different approach. You can choose how to collaborate, so you can iterate over features and when to deliver value. When you do, you are more likely to discover actual agility and an easier way to work. Is your team or project supposed to “be agile?” You might not feel that way if you have a years-long backlog, standups are individual status reports, and everyone is still multitasking. The people on the project want to do great work. But how you work feels a lot like an “agile” death march. There’s a reason you feel that way. You’re using fake agility—a waterfall lifecycle masquerading as an agile approach. Worse, fake agility is the norm in our industry. No one has to work that way. Your management does not care about “agile”—but they care a lot about agility. Instead of fake agile, you can assess your culture, project, and product risks to select a different approach. You can choose how to collaborate, so you can iterate over features and when to deliver value. When you do, you are more likely to discover actual agility and an easier way to work. Wed, 05 Feb 2025 00:00:00 -0500 https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/fake-agile-is-the-norm-how-to-instill-agility-not-agile-practices-hands-on-agile https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/fake-agile-is-the-norm-how-to-instill-agility-not-agile-practices-hands-on-agile Your product requires several teams working together. But most of the scaling frameworks add control points, which create hierarchy and less collaboration. That hierarchy and control points slow everything and make it more difficult to finish faster. You don’t need a framework to release a complex product. Instead, organize the work to remove the barriers to collaboration. With principles based on collaboration, you can create an effective agile and lean program to create and release products your customers want. Scale collaboration, descale process, and release products that customers want. Your product requires several teams working together. But most of the scaling frameworks add control points, which create hierarchy and less collaboration. That hierarchy and control points slow everything and make it more difficult to finish faster. You don’t need a framework to release a complex product. Instead, organize the work to remove the barriers to collaboration. With principles based on collaboration, you can create an effective agile and lean program to create and release products your customers want. Scale collaboration, descale process, and release products that customers want. Mon, 27 Jan 2025 00:00:00 -0500 https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/agile-and-lean-program-management-scaling-collaboration-across-the-organization-pmiloc https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/agile-and-lean-program-management-scaling-collaboration-across-the-organization-pmiloc Is your team or project supposed to “be agile?” You might not feel that way if you have a years-long backlog, standups are individual status reports, and everyone is still multitasking. The people on the project want to do great work. But how you work feels a lot like an “agile” death march. There’s a reason you feel that way. You’re using fake agility—a waterfall lifecycle masquerading as an agile approach. Worse, fake agility is the norm in our industry. No one has to work that way. Your management does not care about “agile”—but they care a lot about agility. Instead of fake agile, you can assess your culture, project, and product risks to select a different approach. You can choose how to collaborate, so you can iterate over features and when to deliver value. When you do, you are more likely to discover actual agility and an easier way to work. Is your team or project supposed to “be agile?” You might not feel that way if you have a years-long backlog, standups are individual status reports, and everyone is still multitasking. The people on the project want to do great work. But how you work feels a lot like an “agile” death march. There’s a reason you feel that way. You’re using fake agility—a waterfall lifecycle masquerading as an agile approach. Worse, fake agility is the norm in our industry. No one has to work that way. Your management does not care about “agile”—but they care a lot about agility. Instead of fake agile, you can assess your culture, project, and product risks to select a different approach. You can choose how to collaborate, so you can iterate over features and when to deliver value. When you do, you are more likely to discover actual agility and an easier way to work. Thu, 23 Jan 2025 00:00:00 -0500 https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/fake-agile-is-the-norm-how-to-instill-agility-not-agile-practices-agile-boulder https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/fake-agile-is-the-norm-how-to-instill-agility-not-agile-practices-agile-boulder Is your team or project supposed to “be agile?” You might not feel that way if you have a years-long backlog, standups are individual status reports, and everyone is still multitasking. The people on the project want to do great work. But how you work feels a lot like an “agile” death march. There’s a reason you feel that way. You’re using fake agility—a waterfall lifecycle masquerading as an agile approach. Worse, fake agility is the norm in our industry. No one has to work that way. Your management does not care about “agile”—but they care a lot about agility. Instead of fake agile, you can assess your culture, project, and product risks to select a different approach. You can choose how to collaborate, so you can iterate over features and when to deliver value. When you do, you are more likely to discover actual agility and an easier way to work. Is your team or project supposed to “be agile?” You might not feel that way if you have a years-long backlog, standups are individual status reports, and everyone is still multitasking. The people on the project want to do great work. But how you work feels a lot like an “agile” death march. There’s a reason you feel that way. You’re using fake agility—a waterfall lifecycle masquerading as an agile approach. Worse, fake agility is the norm in our industry. No one has to work that way. Your management does not care about “agile”—but they care a lot about agility. Instead of fake agile, you can assess your culture, project, and product risks to select a different approach. You can choose how to collaborate, so you can iterate over features and when to deliver value. When you do, you are more likely to discover actual agility and an easier way to work. Fri, 10 Jan 2025 00:00:00 -0500 https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/fake-agile-is-the-norm-how-to-instill-agility-not-agile-practices https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/fake-agile-is-the-norm-how-to-instill-agility-not-agile-practices Is your team or project supposed to “be agile?” You might not feel that way if you have a years-long backlog, standups are individual status reports, and everyone is still multitasking. The people on the project want to do great work. But how you work feels a lot like an “agile” death march. There’s a reason you feel that way. You’re using fake agility—a waterfall lifecycle masquerading as an agile approach. Worse, fake agility is the norm in our industry. No one has to work that way. Your management does not care about “agile”—but they care a lot about agility. Instead of fake agile, you can assess your culture, project, and product risks to select a different approach. You can choose how to collaborate, so you can iterate over features and when to deliver value. When you do, you are more likely to discover actual agility and an easier way to work. Is your team or project supposed to “be agile?” You might not feel that way if you have a years-long backlog, standups are individual status reports, and everyone is still multitasking. The people on the project want to do great work. But how you work feels a lot like an “agile” death march. There’s a reason you feel that way. You’re using fake agility—a waterfall lifecycle masquerading as an agile approach. Worse, fake agility is the norm in our industry. No one has to work that way. Your management does not care about “agile”—but they care a lot about agility. Instead of fake agile, you can assess your culture, project, and product risks to select a different approach. You can choose how to collaborate, so you can iterate over features and when to deliver value. When you do, you are more likely to discover actual agility and an easier way to work. Thu, 21 Nov 2024 00:00:00 -0500 https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/be-more-effective-see-your-feedback-loops-and-increase-agility-pmi-prague https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/be-more-effective-see-your-feedback-loops-and-increase-agility-pmi-prague If you're like my clients (or me!), you have too much work to do. (I'm beginning to think “too much work” is the norm.) But how do you decide what to do first, second, and third? And never? Cost of Delay. When we use Cost of Delay, we don’t need long and involved calculations, or too-far-off predictions. Instead, we can use a given team’s real data (cycle time), and the real effects of delaying work. Join Johanna Rothman as she explains the four costs of delay, how to calculate them, and how to avoid ranking traps, such as the sunk cost fallacy. (There's a slide at the very end with links to all the blog posts and newsletters you might want to read after you review the deck.) If you're like my clients (or me!), you have too much work to do. (I'm beginning to think “too much work” is the norm.) But how do you decide what to do first, second, and third? And never? Cost of Delay. When we use Cost of Delay, we don’t need long and involved calculations, or too-far-off predictions. Instead, we can use a given team’s real data (cycle time), and the real effects of delaying work. Join Johanna Rothman as she explains the four costs of delay, how to calculate them, and how to avoid ranking traps, such as the sunk cost fallacy. (There's a slide at the very end with links to all the blog posts and newsletters you might want to read after you review the deck.) Wed, 09 Oct 2024 00:00:00 -0400 https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/too-much-work-in-progress-how-to-use-cost-of-delay-to-rank-and-choose https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/too-much-work-in-progress-how-to-use-cost-of-delay-to-rank-and-choose Your team is supposed to use an agile approach, such as Scrum. But you have a years-long backlog, your standups are individual status reports, and you’re still multitasking. You and your team members wish you had the chance to do great work, but this feels a lot like an “agile” death march. There’s a reason you feel that way. You’re using fake agility—a waterfall lifecycle masquerading as an agile approach. Worse, fake agility is the norm in our industry. No one has to work that way. Instead, you can assess your culture, project, and product risks to select a different approach. That will allow you to choose how to collaborate so you can iterate over features and when to deliver value. When you do, you are more likely to discover actual agility and an easier way to work. The last slide includes the links to posts I referred to in the video. Your team is supposed to use an agile approach, such as Scrum. But you have a years-long backlog, your standups are individual status reports, and you’re still multitasking. You and your team members wish you had the chance to do great work, but this feels a lot like an “agile” death march. There’s a reason you feel that way. You’re using fake agility—a waterfall lifecycle masquerading as an agile approach. Worse, fake agility is the norm in our industry. No one has to work that way. Instead, you can assess your culture, project, and product risks to select a different approach. That will allow you to choose how to collaborate so you can iterate over features and when to deliver value. When you do, you are more likely to discover actual agility and an easier way to work. The last slide includes the links to posts I referred to in the video. Thu, 26 Sep 2024 00:00:00 -0400 https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/visualize-your-agile-approach-practical-ways-to-increase-your-agility-bahamas-meetup https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/visualize-your-agile-approach-practical-ways-to-increase-your-agility-bahamas-meetup Senior leaders often want to see months- or years-long product roadmaps. But these predictions often do not create products your customers will love. While customers aren’t fickle, they often do not know what they want until you give them something to try. That means product leaders need to integrate experiments and options into their roadmaps. In this presentation, Johanna Rothman will explain: - How to limit the duration of a roadmap and show possible options. - Clarify the three ideas of experiments including defining what to measure, how long to experiment, and when to learn from the experiment. - What to do when your customers react differently to your experiment, including when half your customers love the feature and the other half hate it. - How to set expectations for senior leaders and customers for when the roadmap will change. Senior leaders often want to see months- or years-long product roadmaps. But these predictions often do not create products your customers will love. While customers aren’t fickle, they often do not know what they want until you give them something to try. That means product leaders need to integrate experiments and options into their roadmaps. In this presentation, Johanna Rothman will explain: - How to limit the duration of a roadmap and show possible options. - Clarify the three ideas of experiments including defining what to measure, how long to experiment, and when to learn from the experiment. - What to do when your customers react differently to your experiment, including when half your customers love the feature and the other half hate it. - How to set expectations for senior leaders and customers for when the roadmap will change. Tue, 25 Jun 2024 00:00:00 -0400 https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/product-strategy-agility-how-to-use-experiments-and-options-to-create-products-your-customers-love https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/product-strategy-agility-how-to-use-experiments-and-options-to-create-products-your-customers-love Many companies still organize by creating functional teams across the space-time continuum, not cross-functional teams in one place. That leads to slower-than-desired product development. In response, teams tend to increase their Work in Progress (WIP), which increases the chance that teams will take shortcuts and miss necessary steps, which increases the number of defects or production support issues. As a result, everyone becomes frustrated, but no one knows quite what to do. You have choices. While you might not be able to change where people work, you can influence the entire system. First, you can make the problems obvious to everyone with cycle time, a value stream map, and a feedback loop delay map. Then, your team can change its working agreements to focus on less WIP, more collaboration, and more frequent check-ins. Finally, revisit all the team working agreements to decide how to rank the work—not just the planned work, but also the unplanned work. It all starts with recognizing when you have unplanned feedback loops and the costs of those loops. Join Johanna Rothman as she explains how to use flow metrics to support your teams and how they can work better. And maybe, with a little luck, influence management to keep all the people, but change some of their decisions. This talk arose from my newsletter: https://www.jrothman.com/newsletter/2024/02/three-tips-to-focus-to-deliver-better-products-faster/ Many companies still organize by creating functional teams across the space-time continuum, not cross-functional teams in one place. That leads to slower-than-desired product development. In response, teams tend to increase their Work in Progress (WIP), which increases the chance that teams will take shortcuts and miss necessary steps, which increases the number of defects or production support issues. As a result, everyone becomes frustrated, but no one knows quite what to do. You have choices. While you might not be able to change where people work, you can influence the entire system. First, you can make the problems obvious to everyone with cycle time, a value stream map, and a feedback loop delay map. Then, your team can change its working agreements to focus on less WIP, more collaboration, and more frequent check-ins. Finally, revisit all the team working agreements to decide how to rank the work—not just the planned work, but also the unplanned work. It all starts with recognizing when you have unplanned feedback loops and the costs of those loops. Join Johanna Rothman as she explains how to use flow metrics to support your teams and how they can work better. And maybe, with a little luck, influence management to keep all the people, but change some of their decisions. This talk arose from my newsletter: https://www.jrothman.com/newsletter/2024/02/three-tips-to-focus-to-deliver-better-products-faster/ Thu, 20 Jun 2024 00:00:00 -0400 https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/focus-your-distributed-component-teams-to-deliver-better-products-faster-virtual-agile https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/focus-your-distributed-component-teams-to-deliver-better-products-faster-virtual-agile Your team is supposed to use an agile approach, such as Scrum. But you have a years-long backlog, your standups are individual status reports, and you’re still multitasking. You and your team members wish you had the chance to do great work, but this feels a lot like an “agile” death march. There’s a reason you feel that way. You’re using fake agility—a waterfall lifecycle masquerading as an agile approach. Worse, fake agility is the norm in our industry. No one has to work that way. Instead, you can assess your culture, project, and product risks to select a different approach. That will allow you to choose how to collaborate so you can iterate over features and when to deliver value. When you do, you are more likely to discover actual agility and an easier way to work. Your team is supposed to use an agile approach, such as Scrum. But you have a years-long backlog, your standups are individual status reports, and you’re still multitasking. You and your team members wish you had the chance to do great work, but this feels a lot like an “agile” death march. There’s a reason you feel that way. You’re using fake agility—a waterfall lifecycle masquerading as an agile approach. Worse, fake agility is the norm in our industry. No one has to work that way. Instead, you can assess your culture, project, and product risks to select a different approach. That will allow you to choose how to collaborate so you can iterate over features and when to deliver value. When you do, you are more likely to discover actual agility and an easier way to work. Wed, 05 Jun 2024 00:00:00 -0400 https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/visualize-your-agile-approach-practical-ways-to-increase-your-agility-pmi-lakeshore https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/visualize-your-agile-approach-practical-ways-to-increase-your-agility-pmi-lakeshore Your team is supposed to use an agile approach, such as Scrum. But you have a years-long backlog, your standups are individual status reports, and you’re still multitasking. You and your team members wish you had the chance to do great work, but this feels a lot like an “agile” death march. There’s a reason you feel that way. You’re using fake agility—a waterfall lifecycle masquerading as an agile approach. Worse, fake agility is the norm in our industry. No one has to work that way. Instead, you can assess your culture, project, and product risks to select a different approach. That will allow you to choose how to collaborate so you can iterate over features and when to deliver value. When you do, you are more likely to discover actual agility and an easier way to work. Your team is supposed to use an agile approach, such as Scrum. But you have a years-long backlog, your standups are individual status reports, and you’re still multitasking. You and your team members wish you had the chance to do great work, but this feels a lot like an “agile” death march. There’s a reason you feel that way. You’re using fake agility—a waterfall lifecycle masquerading as an agile approach. Worse, fake agility is the norm in our industry. No one has to work that way. Instead, you can assess your culture, project, and product risks to select a different approach. That will allow you to choose how to collaborate so you can iterate over features and when to deliver value. When you do, you are more likely to discover actual agility and an easier way to work. Thu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 -0400 https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/visualize-your-agile-approach-practical-ways-to-increase-your-agility-scrum-masters-of-the-universe https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/visualize-your-agile-approach-practical-ways-to-increase-your-agility-scrum-masters-of-the-universe Your product requires several teams working together. But most of the scaling frameworks add control points, which create hierarchy and less collaboration. You don’t need a framework to release a complex product. Instead, organize the work to remove the barriers to collaboration. You can create an effective agile and lean program to create and release products your customers want. See the book at www.jrothman.com/alpm. And a couple of recent Pragmatic Manager newsletters: - https://www.jrothman.com/newsletter/2024/02/three-tips-to-focus-to-deliver-better-products-faster/ - https://www.jrothman.com/newsletter/2024/01/flow-metrics-and-why-they-matter-to-teams-and-managers/ Your product requires several teams working together. But most of the scaling frameworks add control points, which create hierarchy and less collaboration. You don’t need a framework to release a complex product. Instead, organize the work to remove the barriers to collaboration. You can create an effective agile and lean program to create and release products your customers want. See the book at www.jrothman.com/alpm. And a couple of recent Pragmatic Manager newsletters: - https://www.jrothman.com/newsletter/2024/02/three-tips-to-focus-to-deliver-better-products-faster/ - https://www.jrothman.com/newsletter/2024/01/flow-metrics-and-why-they-matter-to-teams-and-managers/ Fri, 15 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -0400 https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/scaling-collaboration-across-the-organization-agile-and-lean-program-management https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/scaling-collaboration-across-the-organization-agile-and-lean-program-management Your team is supposed to use an agile approach, such as Scrum. But you have a years-long backlog, your standups are individual status reports, and you’re still multitasking. You and your team members wish you had the chance to do great work, but this feels a lot like an “agile” death march. There’s a reason you feel that way. You’re using fake agility—a waterfall lifecycle masquerading as an agile approach. Worse, fake agility is the norm in our industry. No one has to work that way. Instead, you can assess your culture, project, and product risks to select a different approach. That will allow you to choose how to collaborate so you can iterate over features and when to deliver value. When you do, you are more likely to discover actual agility and an easier way to work. Your team is supposed to use an agile approach, such as Scrum. But you have a years-long backlog, your standups are individual status reports, and you’re still multitasking. You and your team members wish you had the chance to do great work, but this feels a lot like an “agile” death march. There’s a reason you feel that way. You’re using fake agility—a waterfall lifecycle masquerading as an agile approach. Worse, fake agility is the norm in our industry. No one has to work that way. Instead, you can assess your culture, project, and product risks to select a different approach. That will allow you to choose how to collaborate so you can iterate over features and when to deliver value. When you do, you are more likely to discover actual agility and an easier way to work. Tue, 05 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -0500 https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/agile-not-working-for-you-see-your-reality-and-incorporate-agility https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/agile-not-working-for-you-see-your-reality-and-incorporate-agility Independent consultants often work for the promise of their business, their way. However, many technical consultants fail because while they enjoy delivering client value, they don’t like the marketing they need to do to get those clients. We can reframe marketing and all other client interactions as relationships that focus on mutual benefit. If you and your client don’t both benefit from your interactions, something’s wrong—and you can fix that. Instead of avoiding interactions, you can build relationships in the “consulting engine” loop that most successful consultants use: - Determine your unique value - Attract your ideal clients with content marketing or active marketing - How to use the discovery call and proposal (and fees!) to reinforce a relationship of trust and competence - How to think about your current and future offerings and when to change them. When you focus on client relationships with mutual benefit, you can make your successful practice, your way. Independent consultants often work for the promise of their business, their way. However, many technical consultants fail because while they enjoy delivering client value, they don’t like the marketing they need to do to get those clients. We can reframe marketing and all other client interactions as relationships that focus on mutual benefit. If you and your client don’t both benefit from your interactions, something’s wrong—and you can fix that. Instead of avoiding interactions, you can build relationships in the “consulting engine” loop that most successful consultants use: - Determine your unique value - Attract your ideal clients with content marketing or active marketing - How to use the discovery call and proposal (and fees!) to reinforce a relationship of trust and competence - How to think about your current and future offerings and when to change them. When you focus on client relationships with mutual benefit, you can make your successful practice, your way. Mon, 18 Sep 2023 00:00:00 -0400 https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/successful-independent-consulting-relationships-that-focus-on-mutual-benefit https://speakerdeck.com/johannarothman/successful-independent-consulting-relationships-that-focus-on-mutual-benefit