Douglas Squirrel, or Squirrel to his friends, is a long-time tech and agile consultant who claims to have been fired from every CTO job he's ever had. He's here to try to get tech teams closer to "the business", promote constructive tension to make better decisions, and have effective conversations across the organisation. He's also the co-author of a practical playbook on the same topics, "Agile Conversations".
This episode is sponsored by One Knight Consulting. Spoiler alert, that’s me! I started One Knight Consulting because I have seen variations of the same problems plaguing product companies and I’ve seen them again and again. If you’re looking to get an independent diagnosis of your business with actionable next steps, trying to hire product people or coaching the ones you’ve already got, you can book a call with me. We can discuss your needs and how I can help.
Companies hire expensive engineers then get them into endless discussions about nothing, and lock them into backlogs. If engineers are given full business context, they can help to change the world.
Leaders need to get used to less control to get more productivtyTeams need to stop planning. It's less like a fire-and-forget rocket ride to a predetermined destination, and more like being on the Enterprise and responding to interesting signals from nearby planets.
We can increase trust with stakeholders with "Test Driven Development for People"You can structure conversations with sceptical stakeholders like a series of tests and follow a process to build trust outside of the technology organisation. There's a method and it works.
It's important for teams to be accountable, but not to be held accountable"Accountability" is often used as a stick to hit teams with by untrusting managers looking to maintain control. Teams can work with stakeholders to maintain buy-in and engagement.
Everyone can do something to improve their situationIt's no good complaining about your company or stakeholders, blaming them for everything & having a defeatist attitude. By having constructive conversations, everyone has a chance of affecting the change they want to see.
Buy "Agile Conversations""Agile Conversations brings a practical, step-by-step guide to using the human power of conversation to build effective, high-performing teams to achieve truly Agile results. Consultants Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick show readers how to utilize the Five Conversations to help teams build trust, alleviate fear, answer the “whys,” define commitments, and hold everyone accountable. These five conversations give teams everything they need to reach peak performance, and they are exactly what’s missing from too many teams today. "
Check it out on Amazon.
Join the Squirrel SquadronIf you want to join a free community of tech & non-tech execs who are all learning from each other, check out Squirrel Squadron.
Contact SquirrelYou can connect with Squirrel on LinkedIn or visit his website.
Paying Off Your Organisation’s Human Debt Through Agility & Psychological Safety (with Duena Blomstrom, Founder & CEO @ People Not Tech)
Moving Beyond Founder-Led Product Development & Setting PMs up for Success (with Jennifer Yang-Wong, VP of Product @ Contrary)
Connecting Product Management to Business Goals by Mastering your Product Strategy (with Gabrielle Bufrem, Product Leadership Coach & Advisor)
Taking Control of your Career with Life-Changing Conversations (with Julie Starr, Author ”The Coaching Manual”, ”The Mentoring Manual” & ”Brilliant Coaching”)
Designing Conversations that Matter with the Conversation OS Canvas (with Daniel Stillman, Executive Coach & Conversation Designer @ The Conversation Factory)
Product Managing APIs - What’s Different and What’s the Same? (with Deepa Goyal, Product Strategy Lead @ Postman & Author of ”API Analytics for Product Managers”)
Build Better Products Faster by Embracing Continuous Delivery (with Dave Farley, Consultant & Co-author of ”Continuous Delivery”)
The Big Pivot to Reinvent Product Management (with Yana Welinder, Founder & CEO @ Kraftful)
Landing That Perfect Role by Finding Your Inevitable Edge (with Erika Klics, Job Search Strategist & Founder @ ErikaKlics.com)
Doing the Splits to Accelerate your Product Growth (with Andres Glusman, CEO @ DoWhatWorks & A/B Test Enthusiast)
Moving to Customer-Led Growth by Forgetting the Funnel (with Georgiana Laudi & Claire Suellentrop, Founders @ Forget the Funnel)
Embracing Change to Innovate in Product Management (with Greg Coticchia, CEO @ Sopheon)
Achieving Product Excellence with the Product Operations Manifesto (with Antonia Landi, Product Ops Consultant & Co-Author ”Product Operations Manifesto”)
Is Product-Led Growth Really For You? (with Leah Tharin, Product-Led Growth Guru & Head of Product @ Jua)
(Don’t) Scream If You Want To Go Faster - How to Accelerate Product Development (with Ed Biden, Founder @ Hustle Badger)
The Rise of the Robots - How to Responsibly use AI in your Products (with ChatGPT 4, Cutting-edge language model @ OpenAI)
Moving from Value Streams to Software Profit Streams (with Luke Hohmann, Co-author ”Software Profit Streams” & former SAFe® Framework Contributor)
Getting Ahead of the Competition by Getting Good at Competitor Analysis (with Bethan Vincent, Managing Partner @ Open Velocity)
The Seven Deadly Mistakes of Productization (with Eisha Armstrong, Co-founder @ Vecteris & Author ”Productize”)
How to Move Fast Without Breaking Things (with Dani Grant, Co-founder & CEO @ Jam)
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