Mar 12, 2026·3 min readRedesign, Then AI: Why AI Transformation Requires a Multi-Learning OrganizationAI tools alone don't transform organizations — they amplify existing silos.
Apr 28, 2025·2 min readAI-Augmented Multi-Team PBRsMulti-team Product Backlog Refinement is where teams learn together.
Apr 10, 2025·4 min readAI-Supported Org DesignAI OD applies AI to continuously inform, accelerate and personalize how an organization is structured and how its people learn.
Dec 13, 2024·4 min readMatrix, Functional, Project, and Product Structures vs. Scrum and LeSSFunctional, project, matrix, and product structures all break Scrum in different ways.
Nov 17, 2024·2 min readNo. Not Everything Is A ProductProduct thinking is useful, but treating value streams, internal components, and platforms as standalone products inflates complexity and kills agility.
Nov 17, 2024·1 min readMicroservices are Technical DebtMicroservices are technical debt — a conscious trade that buys short-term delivery speed for long-term complexity, fragmented ownership, and lower org adaptivity.
Oct 16, 2024·1 min readIndividuals and Interactions = Relationship (the Blah-Blah-Blah Manifesto)Relationships are the roots of any process improvement and any change.Don't do change on someone — do it with someone.
Oct 16, 2024·1 min readFads Do Not LastManagement fads tend to rise and fall on a 5–7 year cycle unless they change underlying organizational dynamics.
Apr 5, 2024·19 min readHow Adaptive are Team Topologies?Team Topologies promises fast flow at the component level — but narrow code ownership can reinforce Conway's Law and slow down customer feature flow.
Apr 3, 2024·1 min read75% of those using Scrum will not succeedKen Schwaber predicted only 25% of Scrum adoptions would deliver the promised benefits.
Mar 23, 2024·2 min readA missing team type in Team Topologies?Team Topologies names four team types — but skips the broad, cross-product team that can work on any feature end-to-end.
Mar 23, 2024·6 min readExtract Team LeadsWhy the Team Lead role corrodes teams over time, and how Engineering Managers across several teams create healthier dynamics — leadership without the bottleneck.
Feb 10, 2024·2 min readThree Contagious Organizational DiseasesThree contagious organizational syndromes — Silosis Multiplicatum, Scrum Shrinkingitis and Autonomitis Blockadus — mapped onto Org Topologies archetypes.
Mar 10, 2023·7 min readDon't Scale Agile. Descale Your Org.Scaling agile to fit a complex org is the opposite of agile thinking.
Feb 16, 2023·4 min readCat Paw Management (Meets Recession)Why feature teams that polish low-priority 'cat paws' get cut first in a downturn — and what to do as a company and as an employee to stay relevant.
Feb 8, 2023·3 min readHuman Framework Dependency SyndromeFrameworks are not the problem — framework thinking is.
Dec 19, 2022·2 min readOrg Design Defines Managers' ScopeWhy coaching product management without proper org design fails — the org you have dictates whether your managers can do macro-management or get stuck in micromanagement.
Dec 17, 2022·5 min readTry Impact-Driven Product BacklogWhy epic-driven backlogs lock you into fixed-scope projects, and how to derive product backlog items from impact mapping and requirement bubbles instead.
Dec 16, 2022·3 min readAvoid Epic-Driven DevelopmentEpic-driven product backlogs trigger three failure modes: coarse-grained prioritization, implicit sub-backlogs, and the law of diminishing returns.
Nov 10, 2022·1 min readSAFe Delusion?A community-driven resource collecting case studies of failed SAFe adoptions — US Air Force, ThoughtWorks, FitBit and more — to help decision-makers think twice.
Nov 10, 2022·1 min readOrg Topologies at Agile Prague 2022Together with Roland Flemm, I spoke at Agile Prague 2022 about Org Topologies — a map of recognizable organizational archetypes that helps make better org-design decisions.
Sep 30, 2022·3 min readOrganizational Topologies Are Here to Guide Your TransformationA context-driven thinking tool for agile transformation.
Apr 30, 2021·4 min readAgile Transformation Will Not Be TelevisedAgile transformations don't exist in foresight — only in retrospect.
Jan 17, 2021·6 min readOrg Design Models, Part 2: Component & ProjectPart 2 of the field guide to six org-design paradigms for software product development — Component Development and Overcomplicated Project Development, and the second management crisis.
Jan 16, 2021·7 min readOrg Design Models, Part 1: Startup & ITA field guide to six organizational design paradigms for software product development — Part 1 covers Startup and Centralized IT Development, and the first management crisis on the way.
Mar 21, 2020·7 min readAgile Product Roadmapping in Practice — How We Ran It at IPLANDA two-day product roadmapping workshop, end to end.
Mar 21, 2020·5 min readAgile Teams Working From Home, WTF?Remote work doesn't kill agile collaboration — but bad virtual habits do.
Apr 19, 2018·5 min readRequirements are like bubblesWhy 'epics' are black holes that swallow effort, and how bubble diagrams let teams visualise uncertainty and size so refinement actually delivers learning.
Aug 27, 2016·6 min readLive Up to Your Coaching VisionsScrum Masters get lost in routines and forget the dreams that brought them to the job.
Jun 22, 2016·4 min readScaling Scrum Meetings to 50+ PeopleScaling isn't growth — it's mastering complexity by minimizing it.
Jun 19, 2016·5 min readScrumMaster is Not (Just) a Team FacilitatorSplitting agile coaches into team facilitators and enterprise gods is a false dichotomy.
Apr 27, 2016·3 min readWhy Scrum Is Silent on Team LeadsThe Scrum Guide doesn't mention Team Leads — and that silence is the point.
