1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,840 Chris Williams: I tell you a little bit about what agile has done for me? That's this 2 00:00:03,840 --> 00:00:05,940 Chris Williams: week on the Badass Agile podcast. 3 00:00:13,759 --> 00:00:17,515 Chris Williams: Greetings, team. Welcome to the Badass Ass Agile podcast. I'm 4 00:00:17,515 --> 00:00:19,055 Chris Williams: your host, Chris Williams. 5 00:00:27,275 --> 00:00:30,650 Chris Williams: Welcome back, my friend. Good to see you. A few years ago, I did an 6 00:00:30,650 --> 00:00:34,170 Chris Williams: episode called what agile has done for me, and I wanna 7 00:00:34,170 --> 00:00:37,790 Chris Williams: revisit it because I think it's changed. Over the past few years, 8 00:00:38,570 --> 00:00:42,410 Chris Williams: the gift of being agile and doing agile stuff out there in the 9 00:00:42,410 --> 00:00:46,255 Chris Williams: industry has completely changed my career, and I wanna share it with you. But first, 10 00:00:46,255 --> 00:00:49,935 Chris Williams: let's take a moment to remember why we're here. To create an elite 11 00:00:49,935 --> 00:00:53,535 Chris Williams: tribe of leaders who truly serve their clients and communities by 12 00:00:53,535 --> 00:00:57,300 Chris Williams: doing what matters and what works, relentlessly chasing 13 00:00:57,300 --> 00:01:00,740 Chris Williams: value and excellence like a badass. There's so many 14 00:01:00,740 --> 00:01:04,580 Chris Williams: resources out there about what you need to do to be agile, but 15 00:01:04,580 --> 00:01:08,340 Chris Williams: we focus on who you need to become in order to 16 00:01:08,340 --> 00:01:11,945 Chris Williams: lead teams. So let's hammer down those fundamentals to create a 17 00:01:11,945 --> 00:01:15,465 Chris Williams: truly unique and powerful force in this industry. And 18 00:01:15,465 --> 00:01:19,145 Chris Williams: remember, if this helps you, share this episode with your 19 00:01:19,145 --> 00:01:22,890 Chris Williams: friends. When I think about what agile has taught me, now that I 20 00:01:22,890 --> 00:01:26,730 Chris Williams: don't do real development team stuff anymore, I think 21 00:01:26,730 --> 00:01:30,570 Chris Williams: about all the things that it's allowed me to bring into my personal 22 00:01:30,570 --> 00:01:34,330 Chris Williams: life in development, but also equally important to the business 23 00:01:34,330 --> 00:01:37,950 Chris Williams: that I run. So it's worth showcasing. What did it create for me? 24 00:01:38,155 --> 00:01:41,995 Chris Williams: What did it do? What did I learn? Why does that matter? Did it open 25 00:01:41,995 --> 00:01:45,835 Chris Williams: doors for me? What was this whole apprenticeship for over 26 00:01:45,835 --> 00:01:49,515 Chris Williams: the past almost 20 years? What did I walk away with? Those are great 27 00:01:49,515 --> 00:01:53,229 Chris Williams: questions to ask because I think in a time where you're wondering where did my 28 00:01:53,229 --> 00:01:56,990 Chris Williams: agile career go? What are we supposed to do next? This could be 29 00:01:56,990 --> 00:02:00,770 Chris Williams: valuable for you too if you're willing to look at it in a similar way. 30 00:02:01,390 --> 00:02:04,850 Chris Williams: So first, it taught me what a business does 31 00:02:05,265 --> 00:02:08,945 Chris Williams: and some of the best ways for a business to make money. Most 32 00:02:08,945 --> 00:02:12,485 Chris Williams: importantly, I learned that no matter what a business does, 33 00:02:13,025 --> 00:02:16,705 Chris Williams: there are 2 primary objectives in mind. One is to make money, where the 34 00:02:16,705 --> 00:02:20,530 Chris Williams: business that doesn't make money is called a charity, and you have to decide whether 35 00:02:20,530 --> 00:02:24,290 Chris Williams: you're working for a business or whether you're creating your own, how you're gonna help 36 00:02:24,290 --> 00:02:27,730 Chris Williams: the business do that. And the second thing you need to realize is that all 37 00:02:27,730 --> 00:02:31,410 Chris Williams: money is generated when you create value, when you solve a valuable 38 00:02:31,410 --> 00:02:35,225 Chris Williams: problem for some kind of customer. And that leads me to the second 39 00:02:35,225 --> 00:02:39,065 Chris Williams: thing that it taught me. It showed me the human side of business 40 00:02:39,065 --> 00:02:42,665 Chris Williams: and product, and taught me to put the user's need, whether that's a 41 00:02:42,665 --> 00:02:46,265 Chris Williams: pain or whether it's a desire. Ahead of all the other 42 00:02:46,265 --> 00:02:49,959 Chris Williams: smart people in an organization who think they know what the product 43 00:02:49,959 --> 00:02:53,799 Chris Williams: should be or do. Here's a problem we face as Agilist. Tell me 44 00:02:53,799 --> 00:02:57,319 Chris Williams: if this is true for you. If you work for a company, but you're not 45 00:02:57,319 --> 00:03:01,159 Chris Williams: working on their core product, just something ancillary that 46 00:03:01,159 --> 00:03:04,975 Chris Williams: supports the product, so think of a bank, The core product is probably not 47 00:03:04,975 --> 00:03:08,655 Chris Williams: the software that you make, but even if you make the software that drives the 48 00:03:08,655 --> 00:03:12,335 Chris Williams: online banking app, that is secondary to their 49 00:03:12,335 --> 00:03:16,095 Chris Williams: core business. Whether that's collecting funds on deposit, or making 50 00:03:16,095 --> 00:03:19,690 Chris Williams: money on the interest on loans, whatever it may be, what you 51 00:03:19,989 --> 00:03:23,670 Chris Williams: do is not the core product. So oftentimes when we 52 00:03:23,670 --> 00:03:27,510 Chris Williams: make product, we fail to ask the question, what does this need to be 53 00:03:27,510 --> 00:03:31,190 Chris Williams: for you? How can we solve an important problem for you? How could this 54 00:03:31,190 --> 00:03:34,945 Chris Williams: make your life easier? And we spend more time working on the features that 55 00:03:34,945 --> 00:03:38,625 Chris Williams: we internally think that the customer might want or might 56 00:03:38,625 --> 00:03:41,985 Chris Williams: value with little or no proof that they actually 57 00:03:41,985 --> 00:03:45,825 Chris Williams: do. Problem gets worse when the customer never directly pays for 58 00:03:45,825 --> 00:03:49,570 Chris Williams: this product. So by being agile and working in all different kinds of 59 00:03:49,570 --> 00:03:53,010 Chris Williams: projects and conditions, you learn that unless you have 60 00:03:53,010 --> 00:03:56,770 Chris Williams: that core customer value, the thing that they most desire, the 61 00:03:56,770 --> 00:03:59,830 Chris Williams: pain that they most desperately want to make go away, 62 00:04:00,530 --> 00:04:04,245 Chris Williams: that needs to be your focus. And how you research and how you talk to 63 00:04:04,245 --> 00:04:07,864 Chris Williams: the customer and how you make decisions will be forever changed 64 00:04:07,925 --> 00:04:11,605 Chris Williams: if you take that knowledge to heart. Again, related to this, it taught me that 65 00:04:11,605 --> 00:04:15,300 Chris Williams: a lot of the things that we build are not valuable. And 66 00:04:15,300 --> 00:04:18,980 Chris Williams: so we can always improve the value that we bring to the people 67 00:04:18,980 --> 00:04:22,580 Chris Williams: who hire us or the customers that we chase and attract by, once 68 00:04:22,580 --> 00:04:26,340 Chris Williams: again, focusing on those things. And the final thing 69 00:04:26,340 --> 00:04:30,135 Chris Williams: that Agile taught me that's so so important is not to play by the rule 70 00:04:30,135 --> 00:04:33,495 Chris Williams: book. A lot of people in my industry, a lot of people that I work 71 00:04:33,495 --> 00:04:37,255 Chris Williams: with are super concerned with meeting the expectations of the 72 00:04:37,255 --> 00:04:40,775 Chris Williams: agile bible or the employee handbook. And that was probably the 73 00:04:40,775 --> 00:04:44,440 Chris Williams: biggest breakthrough for me Because the truth is that 74 00:04:44,440 --> 00:04:48,280 Chris Williams: what spoiled agile is mediocrity. Those who 75 00:04:48,280 --> 00:04:51,580 Chris Williams: tempt us with a steady paycheck in a process 76 00:04:51,720 --> 00:04:55,560 Chris Williams: controlled scaled environment, when really the most important 77 00:04:55,560 --> 00:04:58,905 Chris Williams: lesson that agile should be teaching us is to take controlled 78 00:04:58,965 --> 00:05:02,805 Chris Williams: risk, flop on your belly, fail. Don't let 79 00:05:02,805 --> 00:05:06,265 Chris Williams: certainty and the desire for safety spoil 80 00:05:06,325 --> 00:05:09,685 Chris Williams: this excitement, this excellent skill that you now 81 00:05:09,685 --> 00:05:13,400 Chris Williams: have. I've said it before, I'll say it again. Agile works best in 82 00:05:13,400 --> 00:05:17,240 Chris Williams: environments where we have never done this thing before. We don't know 83 00:05:17,240 --> 00:05:20,860 Chris Williams: how to get to an outcome because we've never gotten it in the past. 84 00:05:20,920 --> 00:05:24,760 Chris Williams: We're gonna experiment our way to greater knowledge, more learning, and 85 00:05:24,760 --> 00:05:28,585 Chris Williams: more certainty. But if we use agile as a process 86 00:05:28,585 --> 00:05:31,945 Chris Williams: control, as a way to manage projects and deliver more 87 00:05:31,945 --> 00:05:35,465 Chris Williams: certainty, we're gonna struggle. If certainty were 88 00:05:35,465 --> 00:05:39,310 Chris Williams: available in those kinds of projects, you wouldn't need agile. What 89 00:05:39,310 --> 00:05:43,090 Chris Williams: we're after is not delivery certainty, but something completely 90 00:05:43,150 --> 00:05:46,770 Chris Williams: different. And you could make a difference. 91 00:05:47,390 --> 00:05:50,910 Chris Williams: You could go boldly. You could stop giving your time to people who 92 00:05:50,910 --> 00:05:54,615 Chris Williams: don't understand or want agile or your agile 93 00:05:54,615 --> 00:05:58,375 Chris Williams: skill, all they really want is your labor, your time by the 94 00:05:58,375 --> 00:06:01,975 Chris Williams: hour, your conformity, your compliance to 95 00:06:01,975 --> 00:06:05,514 Chris Williams: process. And for me, this knowledge, this observation 96 00:06:06,520 --> 00:06:10,120 Chris Williams: changed my life. Because I was able to start a business and interact with 97 00:06:10,120 --> 00:06:13,580 Chris Williams: customers and deliver a service that is not about 98 00:06:13,719 --> 00:06:17,400 Chris Williams: glorified project management or budget management, but 99 00:06:17,400 --> 00:06:20,945 Chris Williams: instead to truly help people innovate and to delight and 100 00:06:20,945 --> 00:06:24,785 Chris Williams: impact customers as directly as possible. So what did I do 101 00:06:24,785 --> 00:06:28,625 Chris Williams: and what could you do with all of this learning? Number 1, I've said 102 00:06:28,625 --> 00:06:32,405 Chris Williams: this before. You could use these skills to create your own side hustle. 103 00:06:32,625 --> 00:06:36,100 Chris Williams: Build something. A lot of people who graduated the forge took this 104 00:06:36,100 --> 00:06:39,860 Chris Williams: knowledge to go and build a business for themselves. Now 105 00:06:39,860 --> 00:06:43,620 Chris Williams: if entrepreneurship doesn't appeal to you, then make your side hustle 106 00:06:43,620 --> 00:06:47,319 Chris Williams: something inside the organization. Be an intrepreneur. 107 00:06:48,194 --> 00:06:52,034 Chris Williams: Find ways to create new value elsewhere in the organization, and I talk 108 00:06:52,034 --> 00:06:55,474 Chris Williams: an awful lot about how to do that for non 109 00:06:55,474 --> 00:06:59,314 Chris Williams: technical departments or divisions. Or you could go somewhere right straight 110 00:06:59,314 --> 00:07:02,949 Chris Williams: down the middle. Keep your day job while you work on something that you 111 00:07:02,949 --> 00:07:06,729 Chris Williams: have a hunch can make a difference in the world, can make a dent. 112 00:07:06,870 --> 00:07:09,830 Chris Williams: Maybe it wouldn't change the world, but it would just make the world a whole 113 00:07:09,830 --> 00:07:13,349 Chris Williams: lot more fun for a certain group of people. What group of 114 00:07:13,349 --> 00:07:17,035 Chris Williams: people? People just like you. People who 115 00:07:17,035 --> 00:07:20,155 Chris Williams: love what you love. People who like what you like. People who think the way 116 00:07:20,155 --> 00:07:23,995 Chris Williams: that you think. Never underestimate the power of 117 00:07:23,995 --> 00:07:27,690 Chris Williams: helping the person that you used to be. Tim 118 00:07:27,690 --> 00:07:31,289 Chris Williams: Ferris sometimes says scratch your own itch, which means build the 119 00:07:31,289 --> 00:07:34,810 Chris Williams: product that you yourself wish you had. You don't have to have a 120 00:07:34,810 --> 00:07:38,650 Chris Williams: 1000000 customers to create a super successful business, and you 121 00:07:38,650 --> 00:07:42,235 Chris Williams: don't have to quit your day job to run one either. Now whether you work 122 00:07:42,235 --> 00:07:45,695 Chris Williams: for yourself or you work for somebody else, you could use this knowledge 123 00:07:46,075 --> 00:07:49,675 Chris Williams: to make your own products or services better by focusing on the 124 00:07:49,675 --> 00:07:53,215 Chris Williams: customer and what they want. Now you have to start asking questions. 125 00:07:53,355 --> 00:07:57,170 Chris Williams: Now you have to do your research. Now you have to think about things that 126 00:07:57,170 --> 00:08:00,150 Chris Williams: product people have to think about, demographics, psychographics. 127 00:08:01,010 --> 00:08:04,770 Chris Williams: What causes people to buy? What language do they use? How do they 128 00:08:04,770 --> 00:08:08,210 Chris Williams: talk to each other? What do they wanna hear? If you do this, if nothing 129 00:08:08,210 --> 00:08:11,754 Chris Williams: else, you could help guide product owners to making better decisions 130 00:08:11,754 --> 00:08:15,455 Chris Williams: and better priorities based on real customer feedback 131 00:08:15,675 --> 00:08:19,514 Chris Williams: and real knowledge of the people that you serve. And look, at the very 132 00:08:19,514 --> 00:08:23,275 Chris Williams: least, you could use these skills to create a unique 133 00:08:23,275 --> 00:08:26,889 Chris Williams: perspective or voice. If you refuse to play by the 134 00:08:26,889 --> 00:08:30,350 Chris Williams: rule book, if you refuse to do corporate zombie 135 00:08:30,490 --> 00:08:34,090 Chris Williams: agile, you could start saying things that help other 136 00:08:34,090 --> 00:08:37,470 Chris Williams: teams do better and be better. A fresh perspective, 137 00:08:37,955 --> 00:08:41,395 Chris Williams: Some people have never heard of or thought about before. You'd be 138 00:08:41,395 --> 00:08:44,995 Chris Williams: surprised. The extent to which an outlier, somebody 139 00:08:44,995 --> 00:08:48,755 Chris Williams: who says something that doesn't normally get said, can create not 140 00:08:48,755 --> 00:08:52,410 Chris Williams: only attention and by the way, attention translates 141 00:08:52,550 --> 00:08:56,390 Chris Williams: directly to income, to revenue, but also to elevate the craft. 142 00:08:56,390 --> 00:09:00,150 Chris Williams: Hey. We're in need of that right now. I've said many times that agility is 143 00:09:00,150 --> 00:09:03,750 Chris Williams: struggling because we've broken trust. We don't add value the way that we were supposed 144 00:09:03,750 --> 00:09:07,265 Chris Williams: to, the way that we wanted to. So if you got something to say about 145 00:09:07,265 --> 00:09:11,105 Chris Williams: it, say it. Here's something else that I think these learnings can 146 00:09:11,105 --> 00:09:14,704 Chris Williams: do. Certainly did it for me. Teach yourself to challenge 147 00:09:14,704 --> 00:09:18,430 Chris Williams: yourself. Push your limits. Find out what you're 148 00:09:18,430 --> 00:09:21,390 Chris Williams: capable of. If you do any of these things, if you break the rules, if 149 00:09:21,390 --> 00:09:25,150 Chris Williams: you focus more on customers, if you're determined to add more value 150 00:09:25,150 --> 00:09:28,750 Chris Williams: to an organization or your own business, you're 151 00:09:28,750 --> 00:09:32,350 Chris Williams: learning to do something that's very important. How do you capitalize on 152 00:09:32,350 --> 00:09:35,935 Chris Williams: opportunities? If you have agile skill, 153 00:09:36,315 --> 00:09:39,834 Chris Williams: this is the next level stuff. We're supposed to be helping 154 00:09:39,834 --> 00:09:43,214 Chris Williams: companies innovate. We're supposed to be helping them pivot 155 00:09:43,435 --> 00:09:47,140 Chris Williams: and respond to market challenges as they come up. So show a 156 00:09:47,140 --> 00:09:50,580 Chris Williams: business that you know how to do that, that you know how to capitalize on 157 00:09:50,580 --> 00:09:53,940 Chris Williams: a market opportunity. Hit that need first and 158 00:09:53,940 --> 00:09:57,700 Chris Williams: fast, and you'll be helping your customers whether you're 159 00:09:57,700 --> 00:10:01,320 Chris Williams: consulting for a bank, working full time for an insurance company, 160 00:10:01,625 --> 00:10:05,385 Chris Williams: or creating products and services for your own market. If you do 161 00:10:05,385 --> 00:10:09,144 Chris Williams: that for them, they'll trust you. They'll learn to lean on 162 00:10:09,144 --> 00:10:12,745 Chris Williams: you, to rely on you. And if you do it well, they'll want you to 163 00:10:12,745 --> 00:10:16,160 Chris Williams: keep coming back. I think that making dev teams more 164 00:10:16,160 --> 00:10:20,000 Chris Williams: efficient is not a visionary job. And so if agile 165 00:10:20,000 --> 00:10:23,839 Chris Williams: has grabbed hold of you too, and you want more of the promise and 166 00:10:23,839 --> 00:10:27,519 Chris Williams: more of the passion, then these are the kinds of things you might wanna 167 00:10:27,519 --> 00:10:31,014 Chris Williams: know. Not only you can chase, but they can be profitable, 168 00:10:31,315 --> 00:10:35,074 Chris Williams: prosperous, and highly fulfilling. What I love most about this is that 169 00:10:35,074 --> 00:10:38,774 Chris Williams: when I was a kid, before being honest, I was never really pushed that hard. 170 00:10:38,915 --> 00:10:42,750 Chris Williams: And so I developed this bad habit of thinking that things would be okay, 171 00:10:42,750 --> 00:10:46,510 Chris Williams: opportunities would just come to me and I never learned how to stretch and 172 00:10:46,510 --> 00:10:50,350 Chris Williams: take whatever talent I had, whatever knowledge I had built and 173 00:10:50,350 --> 00:10:54,030 Chris Williams: try to create something bigger. And Agile gave me that. It 174 00:10:54,030 --> 00:10:57,330 Chris Williams: forced me to look at the behaviors and mindsets that I held 175 00:10:57,565 --> 00:11:01,165 Chris Williams: that caused me to doubt myself and to fight to 176 00:11:01,165 --> 00:11:04,605 Chris Williams: overcome them. And when you overcome something like 177 00:11:04,605 --> 00:11:07,985 Chris Williams: that and you become unstoppable, you become limitless. 178 00:11:08,925 --> 00:11:12,225 Chris Williams: World feels like a playground, and life's a lot more fun. 179 00:11:12,790 --> 00:11:16,630 Chris Williams: See in the beginning, Agile was in demand. So I had a healthy income, a 180 00:11:16,630 --> 00:11:20,390 Chris Williams: reliable career, and a decent amount of demand just 181 00:11:20,390 --> 00:11:24,230 Chris Williams: because Agile was in vogue. But later, it became obvious that I 182 00:11:24,230 --> 00:11:27,590 Chris Williams: had something to say, and I trusted myself to make this 183 00:11:27,590 --> 00:11:31,165 Chris Williams: show and to find you all so that we could talk about it 184 00:11:31,165 --> 00:11:34,225 Chris Williams: together, and if I've opened your eyes to some opportunities, 185 00:11:35,005 --> 00:11:38,845 Chris Williams: if I've given you insight into how to be more successful with the tools 186 00:11:38,845 --> 00:11:42,285 Chris Williams: and the knowledge that we've got, then damn. I've done a great 187 00:11:42,285 --> 00:11:45,740 Chris Williams: thing, and I built it myself. I learned to make it 188 00:11:45,740 --> 00:11:49,580 Chris Williams: profitable. I created my own economy, my own industry, and 189 00:11:49,580 --> 00:11:53,420 Chris Williams: the doubt by the way never fully goes away. Sometimes I 190 00:11:53,420 --> 00:11:56,795 Chris Williams: think, uh-oh. I'm sliding backwards because interest in 191 00:11:56,795 --> 00:12:00,635 Chris Williams: agile might be waning or it's all been said before. But I know it 192 00:12:00,635 --> 00:12:04,415 Chris Williams: in my heart that I can never go back to employee thinking. 193 00:12:04,555 --> 00:12:08,155 Chris Williams: I can never go back to people pleasing. Because when you do 194 00:12:08,155 --> 00:12:11,910 Chris Williams: that, you're taking that full time job or that contract, and you're 195 00:12:11,910 --> 00:12:15,750 Chris Williams: agreeing to a point to sell off your soul, to sell off your 196 00:12:15,750 --> 00:12:19,449 Chris Williams: passion, to co opt and borrow against your life blood, 197 00:12:19,670 --> 00:12:23,115 Chris Williams: to create something that's only good if it passes the 198 00:12:23,115 --> 00:12:26,715 Chris Williams: approval of some bigger authority. And I feel like most of the 199 00:12:26,715 --> 00:12:30,415 Chris Williams: people who listen to the show want something more. 200 00:12:30,555 --> 00:12:34,340 Chris Williams: So think about what Agile has done for you, and think about how can 201 00:12:34,340 --> 00:12:38,020 Chris Williams: we use that now to do something amazing, something 202 00:12:38,020 --> 00:12:41,000 Chris Williams: that's not in the playbook inside your company, 203 00:12:41,460 --> 00:12:44,840 Chris Williams: outside of any one company, with your own customers, 204 00:12:45,575 --> 00:12:49,255 Chris Williams: with your own products and services? What could it be? Well, the truth 205 00:12:49,255 --> 00:12:52,955 Chris Williams: is it could be anything, and that's what Agile gave me. 206 00:12:53,175 --> 00:12:57,015 Chris Williams: And I remember that forever, and I'm grateful forever. Hope 207 00:12:57,015 --> 00:12:59,949 Chris Williams: this one inspired you. You can find me as always at badassagile.com. 208 00:13:01,209 --> 00:13:05,050 Chris Williams: Don't forget to check out the forge and my other products and services. Links 209 00:13:05,050 --> 00:13:08,810 Chris Williams: are all in the show notes below. I appreciate you. I look forward to seeing 210 00:13:08,810 --> 00:13:11,925 Chris Williams: you next time, and until then, stay badass.