Everyday Design

Creative Scrum: Tunnel of Chaos

Learn to successfully navigate the complexity that comes when you make a significant change or build something new.

Creative Scrum: Selling the Idea

Learn some practical steps to create alignment for your creative scrum process.

Creative Scrum: Defining the Outcomes

Learn the power of clear outcomes or objectives when implementing creative scrum.

Creative Scrum: Doing Research

Learn to leverage research to design your creative scrum process and workflow.

The Power of Self-Organizing Teams to Unlock Your Team’s True Potential

Explore how self-organizing teams can unlock your team’s true potential.

A Tale of Two Roles: Product Owner vs. Scrum Master

Understanding the roles of scrum master and product owner will help your business reach its goals faster and more efficiently

Creative Scrum: Backstory

There are backstories to Scrum, me and the organization I was working with. Understanding these was critical to navigating the unknowns of implementations and adaptation.

MinimalList. Declutter Your Mental Workspace

The clutter in your mental workspace has a greater impact on your productivity than the clutter in your physical workspace.

Creative Scrum

Have you wondered if Scrum can be used on creative teams made up of illustrators, videographers or motion designers? Spoiler... it can.

Scrum Marketing

Marketing is a great space to apply agile practices like Scrum. Learn 4 considerations you should make before you try it.

A Guide to Agile Writing

It can be hard keeping everything organized. Discover how you can use Scrum and Kanban in content creation.

How to use Scrum to get your home projects DONE.

Are you wondering how to manage your home renovation? Or maybe it's just small DIY projects. Learn a process to get your projects DONE.

3 Takeaways After Writing a 6,000 Word Scrum FAQs

An into for anyone wondering if Scrum is for them.

How can I use Scrum to manage my personal or professional development?

Wondering if Scrum works for non-software projects? You can set up a personal Scrum board to help you develop and grow.

Agile Homeschooling

Curious if Scrum can help you as a teacher? Learn how to apply Scrum in education increasing students' ownership and agency.

What to do when projects change?

Change isn’t always a bad thing, but uncertainty causes stress for many people. Learn how to navigate the uncertainty ahead.

Is Scrum a methodology or a framework?

Learn the difference between a framework and a methodology, and decide which one you need.

Scrum glossary and terminology cheat sheet

Leaning Scrum for the first time can be a bit overwhelming. There are a lot of terms and this Scrum glossary will help you learn the crucial Scrum concepts and dive deeper when you want more.

Learn how to apply Scrum to any type of work.

Scrum isn't just for software development. You can learn to apply it to many contexts both for teams and individuals.

Freedom and Flexibility

Learn how Scrum provides both freedom and flexibility to empower teams to deliver their best work.

Scrum vs. Agile.

A lot of people use scrum and agile interchangeably but they are different. Learn not only how to talk about them but how to apply them to your work for better results.

A How to Guide for Writing Acceptance Criteria with Examples

You want you and your team to be clear on outcomes. See acceptance criteria examples and learn how to use acceptance criteria and user stories to focus your team's work.

What is a Scrum Development Team?

The development team makes up most of the Scrum team. Whose on the team has a lot to do with the kind of work being produced. Learn how to establish an effective development team.

The role of the sprint goal in Scrum

Learn how to craft a solid sprint goal that will guide your Scrum team to deliver the most value for both the customer and the organization.

How do I keep my team focused on the right work?

Busy. It's the default answer to how things are going. Lean to apply rhythm to your team and experience higher levels of focus.

How to change direction after you’ve already invested a lot of effort?

If you’ve ever known you need to make a change, but you’re feeling the weight of how much work you’ve already put in, you know how difficult change can be. Learn the skills to navigate change when it's hard.

How a Scrum backlog increases team effectiveness

The backlog contains all current and future work for a Scrum team. Learn how well-maintained backlogs can enhance a team's effectiveness.

What is a sprint in Scrum?

Learn about Scrum sprints. What are they? How to run them? And why do they have such a big influence on productivity?

How To Align The Scrum Values With Your Organizational Culture

Learn how to navigate gaps between the values of Scrum and your organizational culture.

Why does Scrum have so many meetings?

If you’re considering Scrum, you’ve probably noticed there are several new meetings. Learn what each is about.

Can the Scrum Master and Product Owner be the same person?

Is it Product Owner vs Scrum Master? Sharing from personal experience how one person being the Scrum Master and Product Owner is possible, but not recommended. Every scrum team must have a product owner and scrum master.

Learn to forecast progress in Scrum

Learn how velocity enables you to forecast future progress on your Scrum projects.

How to use story points in Scrum?

Story points are a numeric value assigned by the team to a given user story. Learn to master story points for your team can effectively estimate the work you need to do.

Learn to write user stories in Scrum

Everything you need to know to integrate user stories into your work and everyday life. Learn how to focus on the end user's needs, motivations, and goals. Then you can deliver not just what they ask for but what they really want and need.

What is the definition of done in Scrum?

Has someone ever told you something was done, but later you find it was only partially done? Scrum gives us the Definition of Done to solve this problem.

What is a product owner?

Products are how businesses deliver value today. Learn how the Product Owner plays a vital role in the Scrum team.

What is a Scrum Master?

You may have heard someone say they are a Scrum Mast but have wondered what that is. Learn what a Scrum Master does.

What are the roles in Scrum?

A brief overview of the roles in Scrum along with how they work together and if one person should play multiple roles.

How is a scrum master different than a project manager?

What’s the difference between a Scrum Master and a project manager? Whether it's a theoretical question trying to understand Scrum or a personal question from a project manager trying to discern if they would be a good Scrum Master, you’ll learn how a scrum master compares to a project manager.

What if I don't have all the roles in Scrum?

When you’re starting out in Scrum, you might not have someone to play all the roles, and you may be wondering: Can someone play multiple roles in Scrum?

Who attends each Scrum meeting?

We already have a lot of meetings and don’t want more. Scrum adds more meetings. Does everyone need to be at each meeting? Why do they need to be there? We’ll start by clearly outlining the purpose of each meeting and then describing the role each person plays. This helps everyone engage and contribute through these meetings.

What is a sprint review in Scrum?

It’s the moment of truth. The Scrum team demonstrates their work from the current sprint to stakeholders for review. Learn the why, the who and the how of the sprint review.

How to do sprint planning in Scrum?

It’s the first day of a new sprint and the whole team is together! Learn how to facilitate sprint planning in Scrum.

How does backlog refinement work in Scrum?

Is your backlog refinement meeting taking forever, or maybe just not feeling as effective as it should? Learn to run efficient and effective backlog refinement sessions.

Keep your team in sync with a daily standup in Scrum.

It's called many things, the Daily Scrum, the Daily Standup, or the Daily Checkin. Learn how to lead it effectively.

How to conduct a retrospective in Scrum?

The retrospective is an essential part of practicing Scrum. Learn the value of a retrospective and how to practice it well.

Scrum: expectations vs. reality

Are you wondering what you might be getting into with Scrum? This article will help you set expectations grounded in reality.

Is Scrum hard to learn?

Scrum doesn't have to be intimidating, with its new jargon and concepts. In fact, Scrum is easy to learn but hard to practice.

What are the pros & cons of scrum?

A quick survey of the benefits you’ll experience and the challenges you’ll face with Scrum.

What is the definition of Scrum?

Are you wondering what people are talking about when they mention Scrum? Here is a brief walkthrough of the fundamentals and definition of Scrum.

Why use Scrum?

Are you wondering, "Why use Scrum?" If you want to know how Scrum helps you, I'm sharing 3 common challenges I think Scrum addresses well.

My Experience with Certifications

There are a lot of certification options out there. Find practical first steps to identify and earn the right certifications for you.

Personal Reviews Will Improve Your Leadership Starting Today

To know where you’re going, you must know where you are and where you’ve been. Learn how regular reviews will refocus your attention on what’s important.

I'm Sharing My Favorite Hacks For Scheduling Your Day

Stewarding time, energy, and focus is a critical task for a leader. I share my schedule and the adjustments I've made over the past two years.

How 1 on 1 Coaching Will Make You a Better Leader

Your team is doing challenging work. There are a variety of inputs and frequent conversations. 1on1s will help your team stay focused, effective, and engaged.

Practicing Agility as a Leader

Sometimes things don't go the way we planned them. Change is inevitable. Learn how a mindset of agility enables you to adapt as a leader.