i come to praise agile, not to bury it

The Agile Heretic

Agile is now a mature set of ideas, sometimes maybe a little too mature.

It has become set in its ways. It's lost its youthful fervor for growth. 

In these videos, I review many central practices of agile teams and provide alternatives for how Agile could break its self imposed shackles and truly run free.

A System of Professional Problem Solving

What is Agile Really?

We have come to know Agile as processes and tools. We are taught from day one to have a format for standups, estimate in certain ways, create user stories, and more. But these are not agile. They are ideas, nothing more, that we can use, extend, or discard.

What is Agile...Not?

When we have an Agile mindset and care about or work, our colleagues, and our customer, we know that Agile is about doing the right thing at the right time, and that might be something no one has ever thought of before.

What Do We Do Now?

As Agile professionals we must seek to find out what our work requires, learn from how we have been working, and truly, truly, inspect and adapt.

Agile should be flexible | Agile should be inventive | Agile should be creative

Don't Hide from Problems

Don't let schedule or other fears stop you from dealing with real work head on.

Collaborate and Solve

Gather your team, solve problems quickly, avoid the crises before they start.

Improvement is Always a Solution

Every improvement is a problem to solve.

Have Real Retrospectives

Your Retro is only as useful as your ability to find ways to improve, together.

What's included?

  • 2 Chapters
  • 1 Class For Zero Dollars
  • 17 Retrospectives
  • 15 Videos
  • 1 Mindset Bending Experience

Be Agile

Being Agile, by definition, is being flexible. We need to structure our work the way our work requires. Sometimes iterations, sometimes flow, sometimes swarming, sometimes singular focus.

Question Your Processes

We are following 25 year old assumptions and treating them like gospel. It is time to use those ideas when they fit, and come up with new ideas as the situation demand.
Meet the instructorS

Jim and Tonianne

Jim and Toni wrote the Shingo-award winning book Personal Kanban and have traveled to every continent (except Antarctica) teaching Personal Kanban and helping individuals and teams see their work, choose the right amount to do at a time, and complete with confidence.

For 15 years, they have worked with individuals, startups, agencies, all the way up to Fortune 10 companies and the United Nations... helping people who want to calm bureaucracy, focus on the right work, and collaborate meet their goals.


Patrick Jones - Course author