Where: Axosoft (Google Map)
13835 North Northsight Boulevard #205
Scottsdale, AZ 85260

Agenda:
6:00 Registration Food and Drink
6:25 Announcements
6:30 Begin the Meeting
8:00 Closing Messages and Announcements

Description:  Balancing Delivery and Discovery

Do your product teams frequently struggle to have groomed and well-defined stories ready for the developers? Do you find yourselves frequently in “feed the beast” mode to keep your development teams busy? Do your product teams have problems gaining shared understanding across product management, interaction designers, developers and QA?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, your product teams have the symptoms of single-track agile and this session is a great choice for you. In the workshop, Sean clarifies the key steps in establishing dual-track agile methodologies at your company by presenting his experiences and providing discussion opportunities for participants. In addition, Sean discusses specific discovery techniques and tools that can be used to tackle difficult product problems. A major outcome of these changes is to always have 1-2 sprints of discovered and groomed backlog for your development teams. In addition, using dual-track agile methodologies result in more efficient use of your development resources, products that better meet your customers’ needs and ultimately more success for your company.

Speaker Bio:  Sean McKeever

Sean has worked in product management for 20 years with a variety of technology companies, primarily in the K-16 education market. He also spent two years on mobile app and mobile platform product management at Workiva, where he first started using dual-track agile methods. His work there involved frequent interactions with prolific Product Management consultants, Marty Cagan and Jeff Patton, which accelerated his understanding and implementation of great discovery and delivery methodologies. At his current company, Edgenuity, Sean leads the product management team and specifically has been working with the product teams to make the transition from single-track agile to dual-track agile methodologies over the past two years.

Where:
IntraEdge (Google Map)
5660 W Chandler Blvd #1
Chandler, AZ 85226

Agenda:
6:00 Registration Food and Drink
6:25 Announcements
6:30 Begin the Meeting
8:00 Closing Messages and Announcements

Description:  Cultivating the Vital Behaviors of Innovation

Yes, innovation has become a buzzword – but for good reason – as it is the important process of creating new value in the form of novel products and services. Innovation is about doing, testing, and experimenting. True to that nature the format of this interactive workshop will focus on action and experiential learning. You will have the chance to learn why and how playful approaches can help teams become more innovative – especially when working in cross-functional teams. We will experience techniques for cultivating an appreciation and synthesis of different perspectives. We will explore what constitutes barriers to innovation, find out why innovation is so challenging, and learn about two avenues that can support innovation: 1) Innovation Frameworks and 2) Vital Behaviors of Innovation.

Speaker Bio:  Camilla Nørgaard Jensen, PhD

The slides from this April 3rd meeting have been posted – See them here!

Where: Axosoft (Google Map)
13835 North Northsight Boulevard #205
Scottsdale, AZ 85260

Agenda:
6:00 Registration Food and Drink
6:25 Announcements
6:30 Begin the Meeting
8:00 Closing Messages and Announcements

Description:  Cultivating Culture in a New Development Team

In this discussion, we will look at some of the lessons learned while growing an agile development organization from 6 people to 26 people in less than one year.  As a group, we’ll discuss what types of behaviors are desirable, why they are desirable, and ways to get those behaviors.  You will leave with ideas and techniques for encouraging behaviors which are in line with company and agile cultures and how to discourage other behaviors.

Speaker Bio:  Diana Sherwood

Diana Sherwood is an Agile Coach at Solera Health. She has a diverse background. She’s worked in software development for 10+ years, she has an iPhone App. Diana has worked as a software developer at General Dynamics, Motorola, and for Electronic Data Behandeling (EDB) in Norway. EDB basically means “IT” and she worked in their consulting  team. Outside of technology, Diana facilitates experiential learning events for teams which include: rock climbing and using Legos to increase collaboration and reveal system flaws. Currently, she works closely with the leadership at Solera Health to cultivate an Agile culture and to incorporate metrics driven experimentation.

Where: Axosoft (Google Map)
13835 North Northsight Boulevard #205
Scottsdale, AZ 85260

Agenda:
6:00 Registration Food and Drink
6:25 Announcements
6:30 Begin the Meeting
8:00 Closing Messages and Announcements

Description:  SAFe’s Continuous Delivery Pipeline

Speaker Bio:  Charles Maddox