Featured Resources
The Humanizing Work Guide to Splitting User Stories
The definitive source for how to split features and user stories well. Consolidated and updated from almost 15 years of Richard and Peter’s writing and teaching on the topic.
Agile CPG Innovation: Pharmavite case study
Agile applies well beyond software development. This case study describes how an Agile way of working transformed innovation for a leading vitamin and supplement company.
Book: Behavior-Driven Development with Cucumber
Learn how your software team can collaborate more effectively to build higher-quality products in a fast, human-friendly way. Many people think of BDD as a software testing approach. Richard’s book shows how BDD is really a whole-team collaboration practice, with automated tests as a nice side-effect.
The Three Jobs of Agile Management
Management doesn’t go away in an agile organization, but they do refocus. Learn about the three jobs of agile management, the two lenses on each job, and the focus areas for growth.
Resources by Topic
Product Ownership & Backlog Management
- The Humanizing Work Guide to Splitting User Stories
- Three Categories of Infrastructure Work (and why you don’t need it all right now)
- Growing DONE—How to Make the Definition of Done Work for Your Team
- MMFs: What they are and why they matter
- Prioritization Heuristics
Agile Fundamentals
- Why Scrum works when it works
- Effective Sprint Planning
- How To Have a More Effective Daily Scrum Tomorrow
- Effective Sprint Reviews
- Two Key Moves for Better Sprint Retrospectives
- How to Give a Great Sprint Demo
- Why Longer Sprints Probably Won’t Help
- What You Need to Know About Cynefin
- The Magic of 1-Day Sprints
- HW Show S2E5: How tools like XP & Scrum create effective teams
- Ask Humanizing Work: Long-running Stories
- Org Structure, Software Architecture, and Cross-functional Teams
- Functional Managers in Agile
- We’re agile, so what do managers even do now?
Leadership & Management
- Turn The Ship Around – A View Into Agile Leadership
- Functional Managers in Agile
- We’re agile, so what do managers even do now?
Teams
- The Magic of 1-Day Sprints
- HW Show S2E1: Most Great Work Happens in Teams
- HW Show S2E2: Jazz, Teams, and Work
- HW Show S2E3: What Kills Great Teams, and What Can You Do About It?
- HW Show S2E4: Adobe Audition Team Reunion – What makes a great team great?
- HW Show S2E5: How Tools Like Scrum and XP Help Create Real Teams
Facilitation
- Scrum Done Right
- Behind the Scenes of a 50-Person Remote Retro
- Facilitation Case-Study: Remembering the Future Together
- Our Favorite End-of-Year Retro Format
- Great Facilitators Accomplish These 6 Goals
- Framing a Meeting Right
- How to Get the Quiet Ones to Engage
- Review Agenda
- How to Give Clear Instructions When Facilitating
- Talking About Our Feelings—Potentially Awkward, Definitely Important
- Ask Humanizing Work: When the Observation Part of Focused Conversation Gets Boring
- 80/20 Facilitation (or, all the study on facilitation most people need)
Agile Outside Work
- Lessons from 14 Years of Agile Homeschooling for Families Suddenly in the Middle of It
- How We Use Agile at Home
- Agile Homeschool
- Agile Homeschool Update
Training, Coaching & Skill Development
- On the Value of Product Owner Training
- Why a Prerequisite Course?
- Coaching Surgeons, Cyclists, and Software Teams
- Why Simulations in Training?
- Coaching Stereotypes & Realities
Weekly Newsletters (Subscribe in footer!)
- 2 Ways We Support Internal Coaches (And Why Everyone Benefits)
- Agile, Documentation, and the Emerging Role of AI
- Scrum Done Right
- Avoiding Delegation Theater with the Team Empowerment Map
- Too many meetings?
- Reverse Your Thinking to Reveal Hidden Solutions
- Product Management for Internal Teams
- Make the Right Things Easy
- How to Get Useful Feedback on a Work-in-Progress
- 5 Ways to Get More Participation in Your Meetings
- Which One of Many Should You Start With?
- Can an Agile-Waterfall Hybrid Even Work?
View our Key Ideas of the Week archives here.
The Humanizing Work Show
- Using Breakouts In Team Meetings
- Tough Feedback Creates a Productivity Flywheel
- Wildcards Episode
- The Top 3 Traits of Successful Leaders
- How to Give Feedback That’s True, Useful, and Kind
- Team Empowerment Map
- Improvement Fatigue? Time for an Appreciation Retro
- Three Keys to Productive Backlog Refinement
- One Breakthrough Tip to Improve Each Scrum Meeting
- Great Strategy in a Complex World
- How to Split a User Story (HW Show Episode)
- How to Make Change Management Joyful and Collaborative
- Are You in a Split Product Owner Role? How to Make It Work
- CAPED Phases 3-4 Episode–Analytical Planning and Iterative Execution
- Caped Phase 2 Episode: Active Planning
- CAPED Phase 1–Complexity Aware Project Kickoffs
- CAPED: A Smarter Way to Plan Complex Work
- Should You Backfill That Leadership Role—or Rethink It?
- “But in the Real World…”
- Building Trust with Rachel Botsman
- Empowerment Breaks if Any of Three Things Are Missing
- How the Progress Principle Can Help Your Goals Stick This Year
- Five Ways to Get Fired Up for 2025
- Leadership Lessons from the Vineyard: A Conversation with Steven Thompson
- 4-Steps to Go From Resistance to Action
Check out all show episodes here.