take5IRL Podcast

agilityIRL
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Our product vision for take5IRL is to provide members of the Agile community with an idea that they can incorporate into their daily lives to make them more effective. In every episode, Jeff Lee and Mike Stuedemann share Scrum wisdom that will enhance your Scrum Team, overall organization, and most importantly- your leadership skills. Tune in every week for Agile insights in 5 minutes and gain applicable tips to improve your organizations, teams, and life.

  1. Sep 29

    Your Team Doesn’t Need a Hero | What Servant Leadership Really Means: Episode 116

    What does servant leadership look like when you’re responsible for more than one team?In this episode of Take Five IRL, Jeff Lee and Mike Studeman explore why servant leadership becomes even more important at the senior director level. The job isn’t to attend every meeting or solve every problem yourself. It’s to address the conflicting priorities, delayed decisions, outdated policies, and cross-functional bottlenecks that make good work harder than it needs to be.They discuss how leaders can create clarity, hold people accountable without creating a culture of blame, and build an organization that doesn’t depend on a hero to keep things moving.Subscribe for more practical conversations about leadership, agility, and improving how work gets done.Learn more about agilityIRL: https://agilityirl.com#ServantLeadership #Leadership #AgileLeadership #TakeFiveIRL

  2. Sep 22

    You're Not Done. You're Just Creating Inventory.

    When your team says a feature is “done,” what still has to happen before it can actually be released? Documentation?Testing?Traceability updates?Quality review?Risk assessment? Every “yes” represents unfinished work—and unfinished work is inventory that slows flow, extends cycle times, and creates the end-of-release scramble regulated teams know too well. In the newest episode of Take Five IRL, Pat Campbell and Mike Studeman explain why a Definition of Done is more than a checklist. It’s a promise of quality, transparency, and release readiness. Because “done” shouldn’t mean finishing your part. It should mean finishing the work. If you like what you hear, download our free "Definition of Done" checklist here: https://lnkd.in/gUuPbydj Listen to the latest episode and take this week’s five-minute challenge: review your Definition of Done and identify everything your team is still leaving until later. #MedicalDevices #MedTech #RegulatedProductDevelopment #Agile #QualityManagement #ProductDevelopment #DefinitionOfDone

  3. Sep 16

    Why AI Readiness Starts With Leadership: Episode 114

    AI isn’t going to fix your organization’s problems. In fact, it might help you create them faster.In this episode of Take Five IRL, Mike Studeman and Pat Campbell explore why true AI readiness doesn’t start with choosing the right technology, it starts with leadership.AI is a multiplier. Strong priorities, effective decision-making, and healthy product development systems can become even better with AI. But unclear priorities, overloaded teams, and broken processes? AI can accelerate those too.Mike and Pat discuss why leaders need to define the business outcomes they actually want AI to improve, establish clear governance and guardrails, and determine where human judgment still matters. They also explain why the question shouldn’t be “Which AI tools should we buy?” but rather “What business problem are we trying to solve?”And this episode’s Take Five Challenge gives leadership teams a simple exercise: identify the three biggest challenges you want AI to help solve, then ask whether you’ve actually addressed the underlying processes first.In this episode:Why AI readiness begins in the executive suiteHow AI can amplify both good and broken systemsWhy business outcomes should come before technologyThe role of leadership in AI governanceWhy competitive advantage comes from your ability to learn and adapt, not simply the AI tools you purchaseHow to avoid automating chaosLearn more about how agilityIRL helps organizations improve product development and prepare for AI at agilityirl.com.👍 Like the episode and subscribe for more practical conversations about leadership, product development, AI, and ways of working that actually work in real life.#AI #ArtificialIntelligence #AIReadiness #Leadership #AIGovernance #ProductDevelopment #BusinessTransformation #Agile #TakeFiveIRL #agilityIRL

  4. Sep 9

    Stop Funding Projects. Start Funding Flow. | How Leaders Can Improve Delivery - Episode 113

    What if the way your organization funds work is actually slowing delivery down?In this episode of Take Five IRL, Mike Studeman and Pat Campbell tackle a potentially controversial idea: Stop funding projects. Start funding flow.They’re not arguing that projects should disappear. Instead, they explore what happens when organizations continually launch and fund new projects without increasing capacity. More work enters the system, WIP increases, teams context-switch, dependencies grow—and delivery gets slower.Mike and Pat discuss why leaders should shift the conversation from “Who can we put on this project?” to “What’s the most valuable thing this team should deliver next?” They also explore the value of long-lived, stable teams with deep customer knowledge and why leadership—not individual Agile teams—ultimately owns the funding model and the flow of work through the organization.In this episode, you’ll learn about project funding vs. flow, the impact of too much work in progress, why being busy doesn’t necessarily mean delivering value, how stable teams can improve customer outcomes, and the flow metrics leaders should pay attention to—including cycle time and throughput.The Take Five Challenge: At your next leadership meeting, list every project currently underway and ask: Which are continuously delivering value? Which are consuming capacity? And if you paused one tomorrow, would something else get delivered faster?Because sometimes the bottleneck isn’t your people. It’s your portfolio.Learn more about agilityIRL at agilityirl.com.#Agile #ProductDevelopment #Leadership #ProductManagement #PortfolioManagement #Flow #AgileLeadership #BusinessAgility #TakeFiveIRL

  5. Sep 1

    Compliance Isn't Slowing You Down. This Is.

    Does compliance really slow down innovation in medical device product development?It can certainly feel that way. But the real problem often isn't compliance itself—it's when and how quality and regulatory work gets done.In this episode of Take 5 IRL, agilityIRL partners Pat Campbell and Mike Studeman challenge the common belief that regulated product development forces organizations to choose between speed and compliance.When documentation, traceability, verification, risk controls, Quality, and Regulatory are pushed toward the end of development, teams can find themselves caught in the dreaded pre-release scramble—reconstructing decisions, finding evidence, repeating tests, completing documentation, and discovering gaps just when everyone thought the product was ready.Pat and Mike discuss a different approach: build quality and compliance into product development from the beginning.In this episode, you'll learn:Why late compliance work creates delays and unnecessary reworkHow to make Quality and Regulatory part of iterative product developmentWhy your Definition of Done should include technical, quality, documentation, and regulatory expectationsHow outdated Quality Management Systems (QMS) can unintentionally create bottlenecksWhy Engineering, Quality, Regulatory, Product, and leadership need shared accountabilityHow moving compliance activities earlier can make delivery more predictableA simple Take 5 Challenge your team can try immediatelyPat and Mike also share a real-world example in which a company's submission-documentation effort dropped from 27 weeks to just 8 weeks after changes were made to its process and workflow—a 19-week improvement with implications not just for the business, but for how quickly therapies can reach patients.The takeaway?Compliance doesn't have to slow innovation. Late and disconnected compliance does.When quality and regulatory expectations are built into the delivery system, teams can reduce rework, eliminate surprises, improve visibility, and create a smoother path to release.If your organization is trying to make Agile work in a regulated medical device environment, agilityIRL helps teams align iterative product development with quality systems and regulatory expectations.Learn more at agilityIRL.com👍 Like this episode if you found it helpful🔔 Subscribe for more practical conversations about leadership, product development, Agile, AI, and regulated medical device development💬 Tell us in the comments: At what point in your development process do Quality and Regulatory get involved?#MedicalDevice #MedTech #FDACompliance #Agile #ProductDevelopment #QualityManagement #RegulatoryAffairs #QMS #AgileMedicalDevice #Take5IRL

  6. Aug 25

    Want To Get More Done? Start Doing Less. Episode 111

    Sometimes the best thing a leader can say is: “No, not right now.” It sounds simple. In practice, not so much. Leaders want to support their teams, satisfy stakeholders, and deliver more value. So when someone asks, “Can we just squeeze this one thing in?”, the instinct is often to say yes. Every additional priority has a cost. More work in progress can mean: → Work piles up → Deadlines slip → Teams slow down → Morale suffers → Your highest-priority work takes even longer to finish. In the newest episode of Take Five IRL, Mike Studeman and Jeff Lee talk about one of the most overlooked leadership skills: knowing when to say “no, not right now.” They dig into WIP limits, prioritization, Little's Law, and why keeping everyone at maximum capacity can actually make the entire system slower. The big takeaway? Organizations don't get better by starting more work. They get better by finishing the work that matters most. 🎧 Watch the newest episode of Take Five IRL and ask yourself: What could your organization finish faster if you were willing to put something else on pause?#Leadership #Agile #ProductDevelopment #Prioritization #WorkInProgress #TakeFiveIRL

  7. Aug 18

    If AI Doubled Your Capacity Tomorrow, What Else Would It Double?Episode 110

    What if AI doubled your organization's capacity tomorrow?Would you create twice as much customer value, or twice as much waste, rework, technical debt, and inconsistency?In this episode of Take 5 IRL, agilityIRL partners Jeff Lee and Pat Campbell explore a critical idea for organizations adopting AI:They are referencing AI as a multiplier, not a solution.Strong systems combined with AI can create tremendous value. But when AI is layered onto weak workflows, unclear priorities, poor data, or ineffective decision-making, it can simply help those problems scale faster.Jeff and Pat discuss why successful AI adoption requires organizations to look beyond the technology itself and examine the system AI is being asked to amplify.In this episode:• Why AI amplifies both organizational strengths and weaknesses• What happens when AI increases capacity without increasing customer value• Why leadership and governance are critical to successful AI adoption• The additional considerations for AI in regulated industries• Why organizations should understand their workflows before applying AI• How data quality and decision-making affect AI effectiveness• Why business outcomes should come before technology decisions• How to experiment with AI before scaling it across the enterprise• Why becoming a learning organization matters more than simply adopting new toolsTake the Take 5 IRL Challenge:At your next team or leadership meeting, ask everyone this question:"If AI doubled our capacity tomorrow, what organizational problems would it also double?”Have everyone write down their answers independently. Then compare the lists.If the same issues appear repeatedly, you've identified some of the areas worth addressing before AI amplifies them.Rather than applying AI everywhere at once, choose a focused experiment. Observe how AI changes the system, learn from the results, and adjust before scaling.How AI-ready is your organization?AI effectiveness isn't just about having access to the latest tools. Your workflows, leadership, governance, quality practices, data, and ability to learn all influence the value AI can create.Take the **agilityIRL AI Effectiveness Assessment** found in our resources tab on our website to better understand where your organization stands and identify areas to focus on as you expand your use of AI.👉 Visit **agilityirl.com** to learn more about this assessment and also check out our AI Effectiveness White Paper.---**About Take 5 IRL**Take 5 IRL from agilityIRL delivers practical perspectives on product development, organizational agility, leadership, AI, and creating better business outcomes—all in conversations designed to get you thinking differently about how work actually gets done.If this episode gave you something to think about, **like the video, subscribe to the channel, and share it with someone who's helping lead AI adoption in their organization.**#ArtificialIntelligence #AI #AITransformation #ProductDevelopment #Leadership #BusinessTransformation #OrganizationalAgility #Agile #DigitalTransformation #agilityIRL

  8. Aug 11

    Scrum Masters: Back To The Future. Episode 109

    Is the Scrum Master role dying, or is it evolving back into what it was always intended to be?Over the years, the Scrum Master accountability has sometimes drifted far from its original purpose. In some organizations, Scrum Masters have become meeting schedulers, note-takers, status reporters, or even a way for leadership to keep tabs on the team.But great Scrum Mastery was never supposed to be about simply coordinating meetings and reporting on the work.In this episode of Take Five IRL, agilityIRL partners Mike Stuedemann and Jeff Lee jump in the DeLorean and go back to the future of Scrum Mastery. They discuss why the Scrum Master isn't disappearing, what organizations have gotten wrong about the accountability, and why the future may require Scrum Masters to get back to the original intent of the role.Mike and Jeff explore what separates a great Scrum Master from a meeting facilitator, including the ability to coach teams, identify organizational impediments, empower others, facilitate meaningful change, and improve the system around the team.They also challenge Scrum Masters to think beyond the team level.Where can you help leaders improve? Where can you facilitate conversations across teams? What organizational obstacles are getting in the way? And most importantly: How are you creating—and demonstrating—real value?In this episode, you'll hear about:⚡ Why the Scrum Master accountability isn't dying⚡ How organizations have unintentionally diminished the role⚡ Why meeting facilitation alone isn't Scrum Mastery⚡ What great Scrum Masters were originally intended to do⚡ How Scrum Masters can demonstrate their value⚡ Why Scrum Masters should look beyond their individual teams⚡ The relationship between Scrum Masters and Agile coaches⚡ How Scrum Masters can help teams, leaders, and entire organizations improveAs Jeff says in the episode:“Your future is whatever you make it. So make it a good one.”Maybe the future of Scrum Mastery isn't about inventing an entirely new role.Maybe it's about going back to what made the Scrum Master valuable in the first place.🚗⚡ Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads.

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About

Our product vision for take5IRL is to provide members of the Agile community with an idea that they can incorporate into their daily lives to make them more effective. In every episode, Jeff Lee and Mike Stuedemann share Scrum wisdom that will enhance your Scrum Team, overall organization, and most importantly- your leadership skills. Tune in every week for Agile insights in 5 minutes and gain applicable tips to improve your organizations, teams, and life.

Information

  • Creator
    agilityIRL
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    116
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © agilityIRL
  • Show Website
    take5IRL Podcast