
Mastering Agility
Why is it that products are so hard to develop and deliver?
How can we truly deliver value with so many different variables that can affect the outcome?
We are Sander Dur and Jim Sammons, professional consultants and trainers who support organizations in their pursuit of creating valuable products. Passionate about helping the community and practitioners apply the theory many authors and thought leaders bring to the industry, we started this podcast to make these concepts more accessible.
This podcast will change your career and organization. You’ll be entertained while learning about the industry’s leaders and other practitioners, and you’ll feel familiar with the situations discussed as we invite guests over and discuss tools, concepts, models, metrics, leadership, frameworks, and many more elements that help you deliver amazing products.
Both of us understand the many struggles, challenges, antipatterns, and dysfunctions many of us face in our daily working lives. We are here to provide actionable advice and strategies for you to create continuous improvement. You will find things that actually work for many organizations, as we and our guests have tried and tested them.
You will find a goldmine of actionable information from many fields, including the space industry, Formula 1, psychology, and Silicon Valley’s top entrepreneurs. We break down these complex topics into easily digestible insights that you can start applying in your careers right away. The best part is that you can even join our live recordings to ask your most burning questions and get them answered based on your needs!
We dive deep into the world of business agility, product discovery, delivery, validation, product management, and product frameworks like Scrum, Kanban, LeSS, and many more. We’ll explore the benefits of decentralized decision-making, autonomous empowered teams, leadership, and much more. We empower you with the information you need to become the leaders your organization deserve.
Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
Latest episodes

Jan 31, 2022 • 41min
S03 E04 Accelerating your Scrum Formula 1 style with Laurens Bonnema and Laila Nouijeh
Formula 1 is one of Sander’s biggest passions, but also a topic that ties in together really well with business agility. Formula 1 teams need to do so much more than just being shown on tv. There is a whole process behind it, where hundreds of people work together to strive for a single goal; becoming the world champion.Laurens Bonnema and Laila Nouijeh saw the same overlap Sander does, and created an entire talk around it. They’ve been doing this at large conferences like Agile 2019 and the AgilityMasters.com Meetup. Find you what you can do to Accelerate your Scrum Formula 1 style!What you’ll discover in this show:- Formula 1 teams break goals down into small, granular level improvements - A race is like the Sprint Review; it is a display of all the work that has gone into it in the past time and now it’s time to elicit feedback - Hundreds of people CAN work together on a single product Speakers: Laurens BonnemaMentor to leaders creating resilient organizations. I make boring business notes fun!I am an Agile Trainer & Management Consultant and a mentor to leaders creating resilient organizations. I have a strong background in IT with experience in almost every role. I take great pride in my work, and it shows in the recommendations I have received over the years. I strive to merge classic and Agile management in the conviction that it is the future of professional management. As a Professional Scrum Trainer and SAFe Program Consultant, I help to improve the profession of software delivery as well as marketing, human resources, and finance. I bring my experience in enterprise IT since 1999 and on Scrum Teams since 2006 to my teaching, am a driving force in the Agile community, and am a sought-after speaker at conferences and events. Contact Laurens: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurensbonnema/ Laila NouijehLaïla is a Scrum Master with PGGM where she guides multiple IT teams. Her strong social skills, blistering honesty, and powerful drive enable her to motivate people and teams to max out their awesome. She is curious and inquisitive and continually looks for ways to improve herself and her teams.Contact Laila:https://www.linkedin.com/in/laila-nouijeh-a551579/Sander Dur (host)Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”Sander Dur is a business agility enthusiast, with a passion for people. Whether it’s healthy product development, agile leadership, measurement, or psychological safety, Sander has the drive to enable organizations to the best of their abilities. He is an avid article writer, working on a book about Scrum Mastery from the Trenches, and is connecting listeners with the most influential people in the industry. Masteringagility.org https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/ https://agilitymasters.com/en https://sander-dur.medium.com/ Additional resources: Discord community:https://Support the showContact us at:Masteringagility.orghttps://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-durhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Jan 24, 2022 • 56min
S03 E03 Empiricism and Science with James Coplien
Agility is more than just product development. It’s the whole mindset, a paradigm shift in the way your organization works. Examples are abundant where empiricism is practiced, for instance in the way the world has to deal with a pandemic like the one that is going on right now.Speaker, author, trainer, consultant, and legend James Coplien joins Sander Dur in this episode of the Mastering Agility podcast to have a great discussion on where he sees business agility has evolved to, how science has taken a few big hits, and the influence of large players on the market. What you’ll discover in this show:- Agility didn’t start as agility - Large players in the market don’t necessarily have a good impact on the overall state of business - Science has taken a big hit during the last couple of years Speakers: James CoplienLean/Agile Process and Architecture CoachExecutive consultant in the areas of organizational development and software architecture with more than 40 years of experience. Extensive foundations, experience, and industry leadership in software patterns, organizational patterns, software architecture, and electronic design automation. Innovative integration of deep technical insights and concern for the human side of your business. Specialties: Software architecture, organizational transformation, software patterns, EDA software, object-oriented design, Agile software development. Certified Scrum Trainer®, Certified ScrumMaster, Certified Scrum Practitioner, Certified Scrum Product Owner. Contact James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coplien/ jcoplien@gmail.com Sander Dur (host)Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”Sander Dur is a business agility enthusiast, with a passion for people. Whether it’s healthy product development, agile leadership, measurement, or psychological safety, Sander has the drive to enable organizations to the best of their abilities. He is an avid article writer, working on a book about Scrum Mastery from the Trenches, and is connecting listeners with the most influential people in the industry. Masteringagility.org https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/ https://agilitymasters.com/en https://sander-dur.medium.com/ Additional resources: Discord community:https://discord.gg/6YJamBJxUV Support the showContact us at:Masteringagility.orghttps://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-durhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Jan 12, 2022 • 48min
S03 E02 Psychological safety and Human Debt with Duena Blomstrom
Who likes working in an environment where there’s a constant fear of repercussions when voicing an unpopular opinion? Or where someone else steals your glory? No one, right? It’s way more important to feel safe and comfortable speaking up when something is not right. An environment where it’s okay to fail and learn.CEO, serial entrepreneur, Forbes contributor, and public speaker Duena Blomstrom joins Sander Dur to discuss psychological safety and a term that she calls Human Debt and what the impact is on the workspace. What you’ll discover in this show:- Psychological safety goes beyond Scrum Teams - For people to step up and create great teamwork, empowerment is required - Too often discussions on psychological safety are skipped within organizations Speakers: Duena Blomstrom Author, Keynote Speaker, Founder, CPO Duena is the author of the book “Emotional Banking: Fixing Culture, Leveraging FinTech and Transforming Retail Banks into Brands”. She is a serial entrepreneur and intrapreneur, a mentor for start-ups, a LinkedIn Top Voice, named an industry influencer in most lists, a Forbes contributor, a blogger with cutting-edge, unconventional and unapologetic opinion style, an international keynote speaker at industry events, the inventor of the EmotionalBanking™ and MoneyMoments concepts and the Co-Founder and CEO of PeopleNotTech Ltd – a software solution provider revolutionizing the organizations of companies that need to use technology and new ways of work focused on the concept of Psychological Safety in high performing teams.Contact Duena:www.duenablomstrom.comwww.peoplenottech.com Sander Dur (host)Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”Sander Dur is a business agility enthusiast, with a passion for people. Whether it’s healthy product development, agile leadership, measurement, or psychological safety, Sander has the drive to enable organizations to the best of their abilities. He is an avid article writer, working on a book about Scrum Mastery from the Trenches, and is connecting listeners with the most influential people in the industry. Masteringagility.org https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/ https://agilitymasters.com/en https://sander-dur.medium.com/ Additional resources: Support the showContact us at:Masteringagility.orghttps://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-durhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Jan 5, 2022 • 52min
S03 E01 The Empowered Organization with Marty Cagan
Ever since Agile started, different frameworks have emerged. There has been an abundance of training and hyped certificates to get people up to speed. After a few days of following a course, they are now the experts of agility. But does that really support you and your organization in creating the right value? True power comes from empowerment. Having teams and people in the right place, empowered to make the decisions, instead of blindly following the traditional hierarchy is where a lot of organizations could benefit from. Marty Cagan, author and responsible for building products for organizations like HP and eBay, joins us to talk about how empowering organizations. What you’ll discover in this show:- Just implementing any framework won’t help you solve your problems - It takes a whole lot of courage to give power to whoever should have it - Product Discovery is tough but incredibly valuable Speakers: Marty CaganPartner, Silicon Valley Product Group Marty Cagan founded the Silicon Valley Product Group in 2003 to pursue his interests in helping others create successful products through his writing, speaking, advising, and coaching. Previously, Marty served as an executive responsible for defining and building products for some of the most successful companies in the world, including HP Labs, Netscape Communications, and eBay.Marty is the author of INSPIRED: How To Create Tech Products Customers Love, and the recently released EMPOWERED: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products. Marty is an invited speaker at conferences and companies worldwide and is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Cruz and of the Stanford University Executive Institute. Contact Marty:www.svpg.com Twitter: @cagan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cagan Sander Dur (host)Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”Sander Dur is a business agility enthusiast, with a passion for people. Whether it’s healthy product development, agile leadership, measurement, or psychological safety, Sander has the drive to enable organizations to the best of their abilities. He is an avid article writer, working on a book about Scrum Mastery from the Trenches, and is connecting listeners with the most influential people in the industry. Masteringagility.org https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/ https://agilitymasters.com/en https://sander-dur.medium.com/ Additional resources: Support the showContact us at:Masteringagility.orghttps://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-durhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Dec 26, 2021 • 55min
S02 E17 Tom and Mary Poppendieck on the Agile in Action podcast with Bill Raymond
Support the showContact us at:Masteringagility.orghttps://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-durhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Dec 19, 2021 • 53min
S02 E16 Scaling with Nexus with Patricia Kong and Jesse Houwing
Implementing Scrum is hard. It’s easy to understand, yet hard to implement. It’s a fundamental shift in the way products are being built. And that’s just a single team. Now imagine when multiple teams are going to work together. That provides a new array of challenges to work with.Friend of the show Patricia Kong and Jesse Houwing join Sander Dur to discuss Scrum.org’s scaling model called Nexus. Where do we start? And what things do we needs to consider if we even need to scale at all? Find out right here!What you’ll discover in this show:- Doing Scrum right is the first thing that you want to do - Alignment is key for a smooth flow - Throwing any scaling framework across an entire department at once has big potential threats that could lead to a diminished delivery of value Speakers: Patricia KongSpeaker * Author * Coach * InstructorPatricia Kong is co-author of "The Nexus Framework for Scaling Scrum" published by Pearson and a well-known public speaker and mentor. She is a co-developer of the Evidence-Based Management Framework for Business Agility and Nexus Framework for Scaling Scrum. Patricia helps organizations thrive in a complex world by focusing on enterprise innovation and leadership and teams. She is a people advocate and fascinated by organizational behavior and misbehaviors. Patricia is experienced working with 1$B+ clients focusing on business development and delivery engagements. Patricia lived in France and now lives in her hometown of Boston. Patricia is fluent in 4 languages.Contact Patricia: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patricia-kong-2238232/ https://twitter.com/pmoonk88?lang=en Jesse Houwing Trainer, coach and tinkerer My source of inspiration My grandfather had a unique will to understand things and to be able to take them apart and put them back together, either in their original shape, or combine things to turn them into something new. He had been solving little life’s problems using automation long before it became a common thing. The doorbell that signaled the start a vacation full of wonderful experiments and learning now hangs in our little hallway. My ultimate Epic Shit momentTraining people in Scrum, the agile mindset in general, quite often leads people to new insights, epiphanies and sometimes to life changing inspiration. When people contribute that specific training to be a career changing event, that’s epic.Contact Jesse:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessehouwing/Sander Dur (host)Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”Sander Dur is a business agility enthusiast, with a passion for people. Whether it’s healthy product development, agile leadership, measurement, or psychological safety, Sander has the drive to enable organizations to the best of their abilities. He is an avid article writer, working on a book about Scrum Mastery from the Trenches, and is connecting listeners with the most influential people in the industry. Masteringagility.org Support the showContact us at:Masteringagility.orghttps://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-durhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Dec 12, 2021 • 55min
S02 E15 State of the Agile Manifesto with Arie van Bennekum
In 2001, a group of people with all different styles of developing software came together in a cabin in Utah to find commonalities in all their individual styles. They already knew that traditional, waterfall approached project couldn’t cut it anymore, but what would? The Agile Manifesto was written in that cabin. A manifesto that would have a massive impact on the way we develop products. Arie van Bennekum, part of that group. joins us today to discuss how they got to their agreement in the first place, what he feels is the state of it after 20 years, and how to move forward. What you’ll discover in this show:- The manifesto is a fundamental set of principles when working with business agility - Agility has no end state. But we’re also nowhere near where we could be. - Pushing the status quo helps to make an agile transformation stick Speakers: Arie van BennekumThought leader at Wemanity Group and IFAAIArie is a pragmatist who accommodates his pragmatism in structure, discipline and common sense. He is not afraid to enter untrained paths and take risks. He has done this since his first days in health care, later in the armed forces, and he continues to do so today. This has led to his special position as co-author of the Agile Manifesto. In the course of his Agile years Arie has become an expert in the field of business transformations towards Agile on the basis of strategic objectives and link this to very concrete objectives. He focuses on delivering value, bringing efficiency and creating support among stakeholders, through role and chain clarity based on the business model and the work packages.The intellectual property IATM is basis for this. Arie strongly believes in leading on thebasis of exemplary behavior and from that perspective is also constantlyworking on creating/strengthening an Agile (customer-oriented) culture withinWemanity. Moreover, within Wemanity's culture, there is a strong focus oncontinuous development of professionals and organization, optimal performancebased on knowledge sharing and feedback and clear task and division of roles,for an optimal value delivery to Wemanity's customers. Contact Arie:Www.arievanbennekum.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/ariev3/ https://twitter.com/arievanbennekum Sander Dur (host)Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”Sander Dur is a business agility enthusiast, with a passion for people. Whether it’s healthy product development, agile leadership, measurement, or psychological safety, Sander has the drive to enable organizations to the best of their abilities. He is an avid article writer, working on a book about Scrum Mastery from the Trenches, and is connecting listeners with the most influential people in the industry. Masteringagility.org https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/ https://agilitymasters.com/en Support the showContact us at:Masteringagility.orghttps://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-durhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Dec 6, 2021 • 1h 12min
S02 E14 Performance Engineering in Formula 1 with Ernesto Desiderio
Long-time listeners know that I am a massive Formula 1 fan. In previous episodes, former F1 driver Giedo van der Garde and author Jurriaan Kamer were guests to discuss this topic. Being able to learn and adapt between races, continuously innovate, and learn to outperform the competition requires a high-level ability to respond to changing circumstances.In today’s episode, Ernesto Desiderio, Performance Engineer, takes the driver seat in our talk on performance engineering, his experience during the dramatic crash of Romain Grosjean at the end of the 2020 season, he gives away a signed copy of his book AND gives tips on how to get into F1. How’s that for a packed episode?! What you’ll discover in this show:- Formula 1 goes hand in hand with continuous learning - Performance Engineers collaborate with a lot of people at once - Tips on how to get into F1 Speakers: Ernesto “Ernie” DesiderioPerformance Engineer in Formula 1Ernesto Desiderio is a Performance Engineer and the creator of the P-D-R® (Perception-Decision[1]Reaction) Process. He has been working with the Haas F1 team since 2018, engineering every setup direction with the aim of preparing the best possible car, as well as helping drivers overcome their physical and mental barriers and optimize the speed and consistency of their performances. Before his stint in F1, Ernesto has worked on the LMP1-H project competing in the World Endurance Championship for Toyota in Germany, and before that he had experience working with NASCAR and IndyCar teams through Dallara both in Italy and in USA. Contact Ernesto:linkedin.com/in/ernestodesiderioSander Dur (host)Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”Sander Dur is a business agility enthusiast, with a passion for people. Whether it’s healthy product development, agile leadership, measurement, or psychological safety, Sander has the drive to enable organizations to the best of their abilities. He is an avid article writer, working on a book about Scrum Mastery from the Trenches, and is connecting listeners with the most influential people in the industry. Masteringagility.org https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/ https://agilitymasters.com/en https://sander-dur.medium.com/ Additional resources: The book: https://www.amazon.com/Formula-One-Race-Engineering-Performance-ebook/dp/B09K7QWXWH The crash:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ7_En2xEm4The giveaway link:https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sanderdur_give-away-formula-one-race-engineering-optimizing-activity-6872253646332035072-NAysLeave us a review on Podchaser:Support the showContact us at:Masteringagility.orghttps://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-durhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Nov 29, 2021 • 47min
S02 E13 CoffeeCall with Tom Suter
Trust is built at the coffee machine. At the walk to our cars. At the lunch table. But it’s hard to create that foundation of teamwork when all of our precious time is being spent in continuous only-work-related meetings in the virtual world that the pandemic has created. But there are other options for that!Tom Suter, a co-founder of the CoffeeCall app, takes part in today’s discussion on how his idea can help bridge that gap that started to exist at the beginning of this challenge. What you’ll discover in this show:- Informal chats were, and are, highly missed - Network building is challenging in a virtual world - CoffeeCall is a great tool to have an informal chat while being timeboxed Speakers: Tom SuterCo-Founder CoffeCallI’m Tom Suter, co-founder of CoffeeCall and a huge fan of Agile and Lean methodologies preferring Scrum. I have a strong belief that every team can achieve astonishing results, become hyper-performing while having great fun. The key element for this is giving and getting trust. For the last 15 years, I’ve been fortunate to help a wide range of great teams and companies.Contact Tom:https://www.linkedin.com/in/tsuter/Sander Dur (host)Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”Sander Dur is a business agility enthusiast, with a passion for people. Whether it’s healthy product development, agile leadership, measurement, or psychological safety, Sander has the drive to enable organizations to the best of their abilities. He is an avid article writer, working on a book about Scrum Mastery from the Trenches, and is connecting listeners with the most influential people in the industry. Masteringagility.org https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/ https://agilitymasters.com/en https://sander-dur.medium.com/ Additional resources: https://www.coffeecall.com/Leave us a review on Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/mastering-agility-1727952 Support the showContact us at:Masteringagility.orghttps://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-durhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Nov 21, 2021 • 56min
S02 E12 Participatory budgetting with FirstRoot with Luke Hohmann
In a previous episode, Lyssa Adkins spoke highly of Luke Hohmann and FirstRoot. FirstRoot lets students work with an actual budget, to come up with ideas, and make those ideas a reality. What do they need to make that concept come to life? What happens when it’s created, who’s going to clean up?Luke Hohmann joins us today to talk about FirstRoot, and what the impact and potential are of participatory budgeting. But by giving away budget, does FirstRoot not impact its own business model? Listen to this week’s episode to hear Luke’s insights on business models, too!What you’ll discover in this show:- Participatory budgeting gives a whole new impulse to students and financials - FirstRoot is a generationally timely company, that would not have worked in the past - Designing business models could use a makeoverSpeakers: Luke HohmannFounder at FirstRootFounder and CEO of FirstRoot, Inc. Our mission is to create the next generation of impact investors. Our unique go-to-market strategy supports all stakeholders as youth use participatory budgeting to invest real money in their schools. Youth learn the 5 C's of modern education: creativity, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and civics as they experience true agency and stewardship over their futures, learning through their own experiences how money really works. The author of four books, numerous articles and cited as an inventor on more than a dozen patents, Luke is an internationally recognized expert in Agile Software Development. Luke co-organized the first Agile conference in 2003, has served on the Board of the Agile Alliance and in partnership with the Scrum Alliance produced the "Collaboration at Scale", the world's largest monthly webinar devoted to helping organizations with 10 or more Scrum teams in 2 or more locations scale agility. Luke is a highly sought after speaker has as keynoted such conferences as the Agile Alliance conference, Agile Australia, Lean-Agile Scotland, Agile New Zealand, the Austrian Innovation Forum, the CXPA and the SAFe Summit.Contact Luke:https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukehohmann/ Sander Dur (host)Scrum Master, Agile Coach, trainer, and podcast host for ‘Mastering Agility”Sander Dur is a business agility enthusiast, with a passion for people. Whether it’s healthy product development, agile leadership, measurement, or psychological safety, Sander has the drive to enable organizations to the best of their abilities. He is an avid article writer, working on a book about Scrum Mastery from the Trenches, and is connecting listeners with the most influential people in the industry. Masteringagility.org https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/ https://agilitymasters.com/en https://sander-dur.medium.com/ Additional resources: https://firstroot.co/ Luke’s book “Beyond Software Architecture”:Support the showContact us at:Masteringagility.orghttps://xebia.com/academy/nl/trainers/sander-durhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessammons/https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.