

Mastering Agility
Sander Dur and Jim Sammons
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.
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.
Episodes
Mentioned books

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.

Nov 14, 2021 • 52min
S02 E11 Serious Scrum with Willem-Jan Ageling and Sjoerd Nyland
Agility and Scrum are topics that people love to talk about and write about. If you just scroll through a random LinkedIn feed, something about Scrum is likely to pop up. Yet the ability to post anything makes it prone to deliver articles with little value or low quality.Today’s guests created a great platform that does not only publish quality articles, it is also a wonderful learning experience for people who like to grow their Scrum knowledge as well as their writing skills. Sjoerd Nyland and Willem-Jan Ageling join us to talk about Serious Scrum.What you’ll discover in this show:- Serious Scrum has a thriving community - You don't have to be a prolific writer to start - Serious Scrum provides a great learning experience Speakers:Willem-Jan AgelingFounder at Serious Scrum👋 My name is Willem-Jan Ageling. I coach teams to create high-value products in complex environments. I am the co-owner of and writer for Serious Scrum. I currently work as a Senior Agile Coach at Worldline.✔️Together with Sjoerd Nijland, I founded the independent community Serious Scrum. With Sjoerd and Maarten Dalmijn, I saw the need to be free from constraints of the latest version of the Scrum Guide. This is why we created the Serious Scrum Playbook, which is our baseline to discuss Scrum.🌊 Founder and owner of Serious Scrum, the largest independent publication and Slack community on Scrum with more than 4000 members.✉️ You can reach out to me by connecting on LinkedIn, or dropping me a message on the Contact Willem-Jan:https://www.linkedin.com/in/willemjanageling/https://medium.com/@WJAgeling Sjoerd NylandFounder at Serious ScrumProfessional Agile Leader (PAL), Scrum Trainer (R2M), Distinguished Scrum Master (PSMIII), Scaled Scrum Professional (SPS), Advanced Professional Product Owner (PSPOII). Kanban Master (PK & PSK), Lean UX facilitator (PSU), Service Design facilitator, Coaching High-Performance Teams. Certified Neuro-Linguistic Programming Business Practitioner, Authentic Leadership, Evidence-Based Management, E-Commerce Professional. Contact Sjoerd: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sjoerd-nijland-9323376/ 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.orghttps://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.

Nov 8, 2021 • 51min
S02 E10 Dynamic Reteaming at Redgate with Chris Smith
In last week’s episode, Heidi Helfand talked to us about her book “Dynamic Reteaming”. Dynamic Reteaming has great potential to provide when treated correctly. We took the Tuckman model and stable teams for granted for decades. Now Dynamic Reteaming is taking over in complex domains.The thing with theory is, though, that theory does not always map well in practice. Theory is picture-perfect, while practice almost never is. Chris Smith, Head of Product Delivery at Redgate Software, provides a great case study of how this can work in practice! What you’ll discover in this show:- What format Redgate uses to do Dynamic Reteaming- How softskills come to play when working with trust- What benefits were uncovered at Redgate Speakers:Chris SmithHead of Product Delivery at Redgate SoftwareChris is Head of Product Delivery at Redgate. His job is to lead the software development teams that work on Redgate's ingeniously simple database software, building teams with clarity of purpose, freedom to act, and a drive to learn. For the last three years, Chris has led Redgate's annual reteaming process which gives people a strong influence over which team they are part of, encouraging them to move towards the work they find most engagingContact Chris: Blog: https://leadingagileteams.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissmithagile/Twitter: https://twitter.com/cj_smithy Email: chris.smith@red-gate.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.orghttps://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/ https://agilitymasters.com/en https://sander-dur.medium.com/ Additional resources: Leave a review: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/mastering-agility-1727952/reviews Find the book:https://www.heidihelfand.com/dynamic-reteaming-book/https://leadingagileteams.com/category/teams/reteaming/ 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 1, 2021 • 51min
S02 E09 Dynamic Reteaming with Heidi Helfand
Do you know how most organizations and frameworks advocate for keeping stable teams? Where there is little change in team composition? Today we’re talking about doing the exact opposite. Where a change in team structure is welcome.Heidi Helfand, the author of the book Dynamic Reteaming, sits down with us to discuss the benefits that could be achieved by having more occurring change, rather than keeping things the way they are. What you’ll discover in this show:- How Dynamic Reteaming relates to the Tuckman model- What the effect is on the delivery of value- What potential could be missed when keeping teams the way they are Speakers:Heidi HelfandAuthor of Dynamic ReteamingHeidi Helfand is the author of the book Dynamic Reteaming. She coaches software development teams using practical, people-focused techniques, with the goal of building resilient organizations as they double and triple in size.Heidi is currently VP of Engineering Growth at Kin Insurance, which offers affordable coverage to homeowners in catastrophe-prone regions. Her 20+ year career in SAAS launched Procore Technologies and AppFolio to IPO and Expertcity to acquisition by Citrix. She was on the original development team that built GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar. Heidi is based in Southern California. Contact Heidihttps://www.heidihelfand.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.orghttps://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderdur/ https://agilitymasters.com/en https://sander-dur.medium.com/ Additional resources: Find the book:https://www.heidihelfand.com/dynamic-reteaming-book/ 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.

25 snips
Oct 25, 2021 • 44min
S02 E08 Professional Agile Leadership with Evidence Based Management with Magdalena Firlit
Magdalena Firlit, an Agile Transformation Consultant and Professional Scrum Trainer, delves into the interplay between Agile leadership and Evidence-Based Management. She emphasizes the importance of meaningful metrics, fostering dialogue between management and teams, and engaging in cultural shifts for successful goal-setting. Firlit discusses the significance of OKRs and KPIs in enhancing customer satisfaction and driving innovation. With practical insights, she advocates for prioritizing value and collaboration in Agile transformations to achieve strategic organizational goals.