The Agile Daily Standup - AgileDad

Can teams pull in more work during a sprint? - Mike Cohn“Can we bring in more work if we’re ahead in a sprint?"It’s one of the most common questions I get from Scrum teams — and honestly, for a long time, I couldn’t understand why. The answer felt obvious.Of course you can bring in more work if you're ahead and clearly going to finish everything you committed to do. Just like you can drop work if you're behind.A sprint plan is a forecast — a best guess at what the team thinks it can get done. It's not a contract. No one gets it perfect every time, and that’s OK.But I kept hearing this question over and over, so I started asking why. Why does adding work spark so much hesitation — even fear? Here's what I learned: Teams are afraid that starting something they can’t fully complete within the sprint is somehow breaking the rules, or even worse, a failure.That fear leads teams to hesitate to pick up something new unless they’re 100 percent sure they can finish it before the sprint ends.Let me reassure you. Being halfway done with one or two things at the end of a sprint isn’t a problem. Sometimes, it’s even desirable.It only becomes a problem if a team is consistently halfway done with several things or worse, everything.If the team is genuinely ahead, and they’ve completed what they committed to, they can absolutely pull in something new — even if they might not finish it.Good agile teams always try to finish everything, just like good sports teams try to make every attempt on goal or get a hit at every at bat.And when given the opportunity, great agile teams don’t hesitate to make progress on something new even if they might not finish.What’s the real issue underneath the question?How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠- [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠- [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

Explore the idea that backlog management often leads to organized procrastination rather than effective control. Dive into the concept of backlog rot and its impact on team focus. Discover how prioritization can become a misleading theater, cluttered with irrelevant items. Learn about signal decay as old tasks lose their importance, creating clutter. The discussion offers fresh insights into treating backlogs as options, not obligations, urging teams to prioritize actionable items and cut down on cognitive load.

What Makes a Great Product Manager?When I first stepped into product management, I had no idea what I was signing up for. I thought it was about building cool features, running a few sprints, and celebrating launch days with cake and confetti. What I didn’t expect? The emotional rollercoaster of stakeholder battles, last-minute pivots, and the constant juggling between what’s ideal and what’s possible.How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠- [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠- [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

A Home That Rebuilt a Life” — the story of Army veteran Sean KarpfAfter stepping on an IED in Afghanistan, Army Sergeant Sean Karpf faced years of surgeries, rehab, and the long, slow work of rebuilding a life altered by injury. What changed everything was not a single miracle but a community-backed act of care: Homes For Our Troops (HFOT) built and donated a specially adapted, mortgage-free home designed around Sean’s needs — roll-in shower, widened doorways, lowered counters, a 360° outdoor walkway and dozens of other adaptations. The day Sean turned the key and walked into that home with his family, he described it as more than a house: “Homes For Our Troops helped me rebuild my environment. Together, they’ve given me the foundation to move forward, not just as a veteran, but as a husband, father, and business owner.” WWP News & MediaHFOT’s mission is exactly this: build and donate specially adapted, mortgage-free homes to severely injured post-9/11 veterans so they can regain independence and focus on recovery and family. Since 2004 HFOT has delivered hundreds of homes and continues to partner with organizations (like Wounded Warrior Project) and local communities to make these long-term, tangible commitments to veterans and their families. For recipients like Sean, the gratitude is palpable — not just for shelter, but for restored dignity, daily independence, and the practical ability to be present for their loved ones. How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠- [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠- [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

5 Essential Skills Every Scrum Master NeedsBeing a Scrum Master isn’t just about booking meetings and quoting the Scrum Guide. It’s about showing up every day as a change agent — the one who helps people work better together, face complexity with courage, and actually deliver value.It’s easy to forget that Scrum is fundamentally about people.Your job as a Scrum Master is to unlock that potential — not by managing them, but by enabling them.How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠- [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠- [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

10 Mistakes Enterprises Make When Scaling Agile — and How to Avoid ThemWhen I walk into a Fortune 500 boardroom and hear, “We’ve adopted Agile,” I brace myself. Usually, what follows is a whirlwind of rebranded status meetings, overwhelmed middle managers, and teams confused about whether they’re sprinting or slowly marching in circles.Enterprise Agile transformations are rarely short on ambition. But too often, the reality is a mismatched combination of frameworks, tool obsession, and unclear intent. Over the past decade, I’ve led Agile rollouts in healthcare, finance, and tech. These are the ten recurring mistakes I see — paired with practical remedies rooted in experience.How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠- [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠- [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

If You Want Better Stories, Stop Writing Them All YourselfI’ve talked to a lot of product owners who are drowning in tickets, trying to “get ahead” by writing every single user story themselves.I used to be one of them. And every sprint, we’d slip. Morale tanked. The team blamed the process, and I blamed myself.But after one conversation — and one uncomfortable realization — I found a single thread running through every success story I’ve seen since.How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠- [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠- [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

Velocity = The Most Abused Agile Metric EverWelcome to the dark side of velocity — the number that started as a planning aid and ended up as a weaponized performance metric, often wielded by people who’ve never touched a user story in their lives.In this episode, we’ll break down:What velocity is supposed to doHow it gets misunderstood and misusedWhy chasing it kills team healthAnd how to bring it back from the deadLet’s sprint into it. (Pun 100% intended.)How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠- [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠- [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

A Make-A-Wish That Turned Into a Gift for OthersWhen Karina’s Make-A-Wish moment arrived, she didn’t ask for a trip or a celebrity meet-and-greet. Instead she asked to create a day for other sick kids — a place where they could forget hospitals and treatments for a while. Make-A-Wish marked Karina’s request as their historic 500,000th wish and worked with partners to turn it into a virtual “camp” experience so many children could participate and feel seen. Karina’s wish became a gift that multiplied: she received her wish, and countless other kids received joy, connection, and a break from illness — a powerful example of gratitude that gives back.How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠- [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠- [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

The Heart of New Leadership is CuriosityMost of us are drawn to rules and limits. They give us a sense of safety. Structure and predictability offer comfort: we know what to expect, and what’s expected of us. For a while, this feels like stability. But in truth, it often leads to stagnation.The artist doesn’t value safety and smallness. The artist values discovery. To create something new, you have to step beyond the known.The same is true for leaders.How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠- [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠- [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/