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.
Navigating the World of Product Management (with George Nurijanian, Product Owner @ Xero & Founder @ prodmgmt.world)
Fighting Fires in B2B Product Management (with Rich Mironov, Product Consultant & author ”The Art of Product Management”)
Servitising Product Management & Setting Up Product Teams For Success (with Jas Shah, Product Consultant & Founder @ Bitsul)
Curing Product Diseases with a Radical Product Vision (with Radhika Dutt, author ”Radical Product Thinking”)
Driving Organisational Alignment with Survival Metrics (with Adam Thomas, founder @ Approaching One)
Product Leadership Principles for Tumultuous Times (with Giff Constable, former CPO @ Meetup & author ”Talking to Humans”)
Solve Customer Problems Quickly by Joining the No-Code Revolution (with Natalie Furness, founder @ Minimum Viable Stack)
How to Deploy Empathy to Truly Understand User Needs (with Michele Hansen, author ”Deploy Empathy”)
Chinese Startup Culture & Putting the Minimum into MVP (with Carlos Lastres, Creative & Marketing Director @ Kaiyan Medical)
Finding a PM Superpower and Using your Product Sense (with Peter Knudson & Braxton Bragg, co-authors "Product Sense")
Escaping VC Culture & Building Products that Focus on True Lifetime Value (with Rand Fishkin, author "Lost & Founder" & co-founder @ SparkToro)
Taking Data Science from Academia to the Heart of your Product (with Paul Meinshausen, co-founder @ Aampe)
All Aboard! Why You Need To Get Product Onboarding Right (with Ramli John, MD @ ProductLed)
Challenges & Opportunities for Africans Making Products for Africans (with Abisoye Falabi, Senior PM @ TradeDepot)
Getting into the Habit of Continuous Discovery (with Teresa Torres, author "Continuous Discovery Habits")
Platform Product Management & Getting Ready for Launch Day (with John Zilch, Director of PM @ Upland & founder @ Launch Day)
Putting Customers at the Heart of your Product Decisions (with Hubert Palan, founder & CEO @ Productboard)
Applying Agile Principles to Education & Measuring Learning (with Chris Hull, founder & CPO @ Otus)
Data-Driven Product Development & Ethics in AI (with Korbinian Spann, founder & MD @ Insaas)
Avoiding Bulls**t Product Advice & Focusing on the Essential (with Henry Latham, founder @ Prod MBA)
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