
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

Nov 13, 2023 • 44min
S06 E03 Public Speaking with Artur Margonari part 2
For questions or requests that you would like us to check on, please drop a message on LinkedIn or join the Mastering Agility Discord community!Participate as an audience memberMastering Agility MuralMastering Agility merchSander DurSander Dur is a Professional Scrum Trainer at Scrum.org, podcast host of Mastering Agility, Professional Scrum Master and Lead Agile Consultant, and trainer at Xebia. Besides this, he's an avid writer for predominantly Serious Scrum on Medium.com. Sander has a major passion for the human side in complex domains. Ensuring a high level of psychological safety, therefore, is a critical part of his work. Organizations in complex domains can only survive when innovating. Innovation can only take place with the right balance between low social friction and high intellectual friction. While most organizations now understand how to apply Agile frameworks, they struggle with the delivery of value. Psychological safety is the next step in this evolution and Sander has a huge drive to help organizations reach that step. Sander is enthusiastic, open-minded, and ambitious. He finds interpersonal relationships and intrinsic motivations very important in team dynamics. Besides his work, Sander loves to spend time with his family, enjoys sports and eating healthy, barbecuing, riding his motorcycle, and traveling.Jim SammonsMy passion is helping people to:Do more of the right work (and less of the wrong work).Create more actual teams than just groups of people who work together.Learning how to improve themselves, their team, and their organization incrementally.Understand that less, not more, is usually part of the answer to some of the hardest questions we all face.See their workplaces, teams, and their sphere of influence as something that is evolving, which requires an evolution of all of its parts to adapt.Throughout my career, I have worked with clients of all sizes, industries, and technologies. Whether it’s leading a transformative strategy at a Fortune 100 or helping a new startup understand its unique value proposition the common focus I bring to each role is “making people better.”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 9, 2023 • 48min
S06 E03 Public Speaking with Artur Margonari part I
For questions or requests that you would like us to check on, please drop a message on LinkedIn or join the Mastering Agility Discord community!Participate as an audience memberMastering Agility MuralMastering Agility merchSander DurSander Dur is a Professional Scrum Trainer at Scrum.org, podcast host of Mastering Agility, Professional Scrum Master and Lead Agile Consultant, and trainer at Xebia. Besides this, he's an avid writer for predominantly Serious Scrum on Medium.com. Sander has a major passion for the human side in complex domains. Ensuring a high level of psychological safety, therefore, is a critical part of his work. Organizations in complex domains can only survive when innovating. Innovation can only take place with the right balance between low social friction and high intellectual friction. While most organizations now understand how to apply Agile frameworks, they struggle with the delivery of value. Psychological safety is the next step in this evolution and Sander has a huge drive to help organizations reach that step. Sander is enthusiastic, open-minded, and ambitious. He finds interpersonal relationships and intrinsic motivations very important in team dynamics. Besides his work, Sander loves to spend time with his family, enjoys sports and eating healthy, barbecuing, riding his motorcycle, and traveling.Jim SammonsMy passion is helping people to:Do more of the right work (and less of the wrong work).Create more actual teams than just groups of people who work together.Learning how to improve themselves, their team, and their organization incrementally.Understand that less, not more, is usually part of the answer to some of the hardest questions we all face.See their workplaces, teams, and their sphere of influence as something that is evolving, which requires an evolution of all of its parts to adapt.Throughout my career, I have worked with clients of all sizes, industries, and technologies. Whether it’s leading a transformative strategy at a Fortune 100 or helping a new startup understand its unique value proposition the common focus I bring to each role is “making people better.”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 6, 2023 • 1h 27min
S06 E02 Hot takes with Gillie and Sabrina
For questions or requests that you would like us to check on, please drop a message on LinkedIn or join the Mastering Agility Discord community!Participate as an audience memberMastering Agility MuralMastering Agility merchSander DurSander Dur is a Professional Scrum Trainer at Scrum.org, podcast host of Mastering Agility, Professional Scrum Master and Lead Agile Consultant, and trainer at Xebia. Besides this, he's an avid writer for predominantly Serious Scrum on Medium.com. Sander has a major passion for the human side in complex domains. Ensuring a high level of psychological safety, therefore, is a critical part of his work. Organizations in complex domains can only survive when innovating. Innovation can only take place with the right balance between low social friction and high intellectual friction. While most organizations now understand how to apply Agile frameworks, they struggle with the delivery of value. Psychological safety is the next step in this evolution and Sander has a huge drive to help organizations reach that step. Sander is enthusiastic, open-minded, and ambitious. He finds interpersonal relationships and intrinsic motivations very important in team dynamics. Besides his work, Sander loves to spend time with his family, enjoys sports and eating healthy, barbecuing, riding his motorcycle, and traveling.Jim SammonsMy passion is helping people to:Do more of the right work (and less of the wrong work).Create more actual teams than just groups of people who work together.Learning how to improve themselves, their team, and their organization incrementally.Understand that less, not more, is usually part of the answer to some of the hardest questions we all face.See their workplaces, teams, and their sphere of influence as something that is evolving, which requires an evolution of all of its parts to adapt.Throughout my career, I have worked with clients of all sizes, industries, and technologies. Whether it’s leading a transformative strategy at a Fortune 100 or helping a new startup understand its unique value proposition the common focus I bring to each role is “making people better.”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 2, 2023 • 52min
S06 E01 Forever Employable with Jeff Gothelf
For questions or requests that you would like us to check on, please drop a message on LinkedIn or join the Mastering Agility Discord community!Participate as an audience memberMastering Agility MuralMastering Agility merchSander DurSander Dur is a Professional Scrum Trainer at Scrum.org, podcast host of Mastering Agility, Professional Scrum Master and Lead Agile Consultant, and trainer at Xebia. Besides this, he's an avid writer for predominantly Serious Scrum on Medium.com. Sander has a major passion for the human side in complex domains. Ensuring a high level of psychological safety, therefore, is a critical part of his work. Organizations in complex domains can only survive when innovating. Innovation can only take place with the right balance between low social friction and high intellectual friction. While most organizations now understand how to apply Agile frameworks, they struggle with the delivery of value. Psychological safety is the next step in this evolution and Sander has a huge drive to help organizations reach that step. Sander is enthusiastic, open-minded, and ambitious. He finds interpersonal relationships and intrinsic motivations very important in team dynamics. Besides his work, Sander loves to spend time with his family, enjoys sports and eating healthy, barbecuing, riding his motorcycle, and traveling.Jim SammonsMy passion is helping people to:Do more of the right work (and less of the wrong work).Create more actual teams than just groups of people who work together.Learning how to improve themselves, their team, and their organization incrementally.Understand that less, not more, is usually part of the answer to some of the hardest questions we all face.See their workplaces, teams, and their sphere of influence as something that is evolving, which requires an evolution of all of its parts to adapt.Throughout my career, I have worked with clients of all sizes, industries, and technologies. Whether it’s leading a transformative strategy at a Fortune 100 or helping a new startup understand its unique value proposition the common focus I bring to each role is “making people better.”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.

Jul 19, 2023 • 40min
S05 E12 You Are Enough
For questions or requests that you would like us to check on, please drop a message on LinkedIn or join the Mastering Agility Discord community!Participate as an audience memberMastering Agility MuralSander DurSander Dur is a Professional Scrum Trainer at Scrum.org, podcast host of Mastering Agility, Professional Scrum Master and Lead Agile Consultant, and trainer at Xebia. Besides this, he's an avid writer for predominantly Serious Scrum on Medium.com. Sander has a major passion for the human side in complex domains. Ensuring a high level of psychological safety, therefore, is a critical part of his work. Organizations in complex domains can only survive when innovating. Innovation can only take place with the right balance between low social friction and high intellectual friction. While most organizations now understand how to apply Agile frameworks, they struggle with the delivery of value. Psychological safety is the next step in this evolution and Sander has a huge drive to help organizations reach that step. Sander is enthusiastic, open-minded, and ambitious. He finds interpersonal relationships and intrinsic motivations very important in team dynamics. Besides his work, Sander loves to spend time with his family, enjoys sports and eating healthy, barbecuing, riding his motorcycle, and traveling.Jim SammonsMy passion is helping people to:Do more of the right work (and less of the wrong work).Create more actual teams than just groups of people who work together.Learning how to improve themselves, their team, and their organization incrementally.Understand that less, not more, is usually part of the answer to some of the hardest questions we all face.See their workplaces, teams, and their sphere of influence as something that is evolving, which requires an evolution of all of its parts to adapt.Throughout my career, I have worked with clients of all sizes, industries, and technologies. Whether it’s leading a transformative strategy at a Fortune 100 or helping a new startup understand its unique value proposition the common focus I bring to each role is “making people better.”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.

Jul 11, 2023 • 51min
S05 E11 Dealing with scattered SDLC processes
For questions or requests that you would like us to check on, please drop a message on LinkedIn or join the Mastering Agility Discord community!Participate as an audience memberMastering Agility MuralSander DurSander Dur is a Professional Scrum Trainer at Scrum.org, podcast host of Mastering Agility, Professional Scrum Master and Lead Agile Consultant, and trainer at Xebia. Besides this, he's an avid writer for predominantly Serious Scrum on Medium.com. Sander has a major passion for the human side in complex domains. Ensuring a high level of psychological safety, therefore, is a critical part of his work. Organizations in complex domains can only survive when innovating. Innovation can only take place with the right balance between low social friction and high intellectual friction. While most organizations now understand how to apply Agile frameworks, they struggle with the delivery of value. Psychological safety is the next step in this evolution and Sander has a huge drive to help organizations reach that step. Sander is enthusiastic, open-minded, and ambitious. He finds interpersonal relationships and intrinsic motivations very important in team dynamics. Besides his work, Sander loves to spend time with his family, enjoys sports and eating healthy, barbecuing, riding his motorcycle, and traveling.Jim SammonsMy passion is helping people to:Do more of the right work (and less of the wrong work).Create more actual teams than just groups of people who work together.Learning how to improve themselves, their team, and their organization incrementally.Understand that less, not more, is usually part of the answer to some of the hardest questions we all face.See their workplaces, teams, and their sphere of influence as something that is evolving, which requires an evolution of all of its parts to adapt.Throughout my career, I have worked with clients of all sizes, industries, and technologies. Whether it’s leading a transformative strategy at a Fortune 100 or helping a new startup understand its unique value proposition the common focus I bring to each role is “making people better.”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.

Jun 27, 2023 • 51min
S05 E10 A Mystery Koala guest and the R Word
For questions or requests that you would like us to check on, please drop a message on LinkedIn or join the Mastering Agility Discord community!Participate as an audience memberMastering Agility MuralSander DurSander Dur is a Professional Scrum Trainer at Scrum.org, podcast host of Mastering Agility, Professional Scrum Master and Lead Agile Consultant, and trainer at Xebia. Besides this, he's an avid writer for predominantly Serious Scrum on Medium.com. Sander has a major passion for the human side in complex domains. Ensuring a high level of psychological safety, therefore, is a critical part of his work. Organizations in complex domains can only survive when innovating. Innovation can only take place with the right balance between low social friction and high intellectual friction. While most organizations now understand how to apply Agile frameworks, they struggle with the delivery of value. Psychological safety is the next step in this evolution and Sander has a huge drive to help organizations reach that step. Sander is enthusiastic, open-minded, and ambitious. He finds interpersonal relationships and intrinsic motivations very important in team dynamics. Besides his work, Sander loves to spend time with his family, enjoys sports and eating healthy, barbecuing, riding his motorcycle, and traveling.Jim SammonsMy passion is helping people to:Do more of the right work (and less of the wrong work).Create more actual teams than just groups of people who work together.Learning how to improve themselves, their team, and their organization incrementally.Understand that less, not more, is usually part of the answer to some of the hardest questions we all face.See their workplaces, teams, and their sphere of influence as something that is evolving, which requires an evolution of all of its parts to adapt.Throughout my career, I have worked with clients of all sizes, industries, and technologies. Whether it’s leading a transformative strategy at a Fortune 100 or helping a new startup understand its unique value proposition the common focus I bring to each role is “making people better.”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.

Jun 20, 2023 • 48min
S05 E09 Ron Eringa, Tony Hinkley, Stas Pavlov, and Jim Sammons live at Scrum.org's Face2Face in London
For questions or requests that you would like us to check on, please drop a message on LinkedIn or join the Mastering Agility Discord community!Participate as an audience memberMastering Agility MuralSander DurSander Dur is a Professional Scrum Trainer at Scrum.org, podcast host of Mastering Agility, Professional Scrum Master and Lead Agile Consultant, and trainer at Xebia. Besides this, he's an avid writer for predominantly Serious Scrum on Medium.com. Sander has a major passion for the human side in complex domains. Ensuring a high level of psychological safety, therefore, is a critical part of his work. Organizations in complex domains can only survive when innovating. Innovation can only take place with the right balance between low social friction and high intellectual friction. While most organizations now understand how to apply Agile frameworks, they struggle with the delivery of value. Psychological safety is the next step in this evolution and Sander has a huge drive to help organizations reach that step. Sander is enthusiastic, open-minded, and ambitious. He finds interpersonal relationships and intrinsic motivations very important in team dynamics. Besides his work, Sander loves to spend time with his family, enjoys sports and eating healthy, barbecuing, riding his motorcycle, and traveling.Jim SammonsMy passion is helping people to:Do more of the right work (and less of the wrong work).Create more actual teams than just groups of people who work together.Learning how to improve themselves, their team, and their organization incrementally.Understand that less, not more, is usually part of the answer to some of the hardest questions we all face.See their workplaces, teams, and their sphere of influence as something that is evolving, which requires an evolution of all of its parts to adapt.Throughout my career, I have worked with clients of all sizes, industries, and technologies. Whether it’s leading a transformative strategy at a Fortune 100 or helping a new startup understand its unique value proposition the common focus I bring to each role is “making people better.”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.

Jun 12, 2023 • 1h 1min
S05 E08 Graveyard Backlogs
For questions or requests that you would like us to check on, please drop a message on LinkedIn or join the Mastering Agility Discord community!Participate as an audience memberMastering Agility MuralSander DurSander Dur is a Professional Scrum Trainer at Scrum.org, podcast host of Mastering Agility, Professional Scrum Master and Lead Agile Consultant, and trainer at Xebia. Besides this, he's an avid writer for predominantly Serious Scrum on Medium.com. Sander has a major passion for the human side in complex domains. Ensuring a high level of psychological safety, therefore, is a critical part of his work. Organizations in complex domains can only survive when innovating. Innovation can only take place with the right balance between low social friction and high intellectual friction. While most organizations now understand how to apply Agile frameworks, they struggle with the delivery of value. Psychological safety is the next step in this evolution and Sander has a huge drive to help organizations reach that step. Sander is enthusiastic, open-minded, and ambitious. He finds interpersonal relationships and intrinsic motivations very important in team dynamics. Besides his work, Sander loves to spend time with his family, enjoys sports and eating healthy, barbecuing, riding his motorcycle, and traveling.Jim SammonsMy passion is helping people to:Do more of the right work (and less of the wrong work).Create more actual teams than just groups of people who work together.Learning how to improve themselves, their team, and their organization incrementally.Understand that less, not more, is usually part of the answer to some of the hardest questions we all face.See their workplaces, teams, and their sphere of influence as something that is evolving, which requires an evolution of all of its parts to adapt.Throughout my career, I have worked with clients of all sizes, industries, and technologies. Whether it’s leading a transformative strategy at a Fortune 100 or helping a new startup understand its unique value proposition the common focus I bring to each role is “making people better.”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.

Jun 5, 2023 • 48min
S05 E07 Lead without Blame with Tricia Broderick part 2
For questions or requests that you would like us to check on, please drop a message on LinkedIn or join the Mastering Agility Discord community!Participate as an audience memberMastering Agility MuralTricia BroderickAre you struggling to lead your teams toward success during these chaotic times?Tricia Broderick, co-author of Lead without Blame, focuses on this specific challenge. She is a leadership and organizational advisor. With over twenty-five years of experience, her transformational leadership ignites the growth of leaders and teams to deliver quality outcomes. Tricia boldly role models putting people first. Her aim is to create inclusive connections and collaborations that challenge and support people in an authentic, vulnerable, and engaging way. She is a highly-rated trainer, coach, facilitator, and motivational keynote speaker.In 2022, she co-authored with Diana Larsen, Lead without Blame. A detailed framework for leaders to move past outdated workplace blame and shame strategies to cultivate resilient teams capable of facing adversity and setbacks confidently.Sander DurSander Dur is a Professional Scrum Trainer at Scrum.org, podcast host of Mastering Agility, Professional Scrum Master and Lead Agile Consultant, and trainer at Xebia. Besides this, he's an avid writer for predominantly Serious Scrum on Medium.com. Sander has a major passion for the human side in complex domains. Ensuring a high level of psychological safety, therefore, is a critical part of his work. Organizations in complex domains can only survive when innovating. Innovation can only take place with the right balance between low social friction and high intellectual friction. While most organizations now understand how to apply Agile frameworks, they struggle with the delivery of value. Psychological safety is the next step in this evolution and Sander has a huge drive to help organizations reach that step. Sander is enthusiastic, open-minded, and ambitious. He finds interpersonal relationships and intrinsic motivations very important in team dynamics. Besides his work, Sander loves to spend time with his family, enjoys sports and eating healthy, barbecuing, riding his motorcycle, and traveling.Jim SammonsMy passion is helping people to:Do more of the right work (and less of the wrong work).Create more actual teams than just groups of people who work together.Learning how to improve themselves, their team, and their organization incrementally.Understand that less, not more, is usually part of the answer to some of the hardest questions we all face.See their workplaces, teams, and their sphere of influence as something that is evolving, which requires an evolution of all of its parts to adapt.Throughout my career, I have worked with clients of all sizes, industries, and technologies. Whether it’s leading a transformative strategy at a Fortune 100 or helping a new startup understand its unique value proposition the common focus I bring to each role is “making people better.”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.