Max Heiliger’s Post

I can't help it. Even on a Podcast about nerdy fantasy literature, I keep talking about Agile. Big shoutouts to the amazing Gunnar Fischer, who probably doesn't even know he had such a big impact on my life! :) My guest in this episode was Andrea Parsneau, by the way. She's been nothing but the greatest, and having her on the show was stupefyingly funny!

Over the last couple of weeks, a couple of friends and I have been developing a new tool that will hopefully solve a choice few problems we ourselves encountered as authors. Running this mini startup has been a lot of fun, but I often found myself baffled by how easy it is to generate a continuous improvement cycle in a small team of three motivated people. One of us does media, outreach, market research, and funding, while the other two pass each other work as needed. To do that, they meet every two days (we are all doing this part-time) to discuss how to solve problems. Speaking of solving problems, our entire backlog is just a couple of Trello cards listing things that we either suspect, or know we ourselves, or our customers need solved. Simple stuff like "Let people create accounts so their data isn't lost when they refresh the page. But we should make sure not just anyone can create an account, so let's only invite people and give them a password," which gets shortened to "Account creation!" We come up with these ideas together, on Sundays, as we chat about what worked and what didn't work last sprint, and show a couple of friends our product to get an outside perspective. That's Scrum. It's that simple. Or is it? Thinking about trying something like this in some of the organizations I previously worked at would be a monumental task. There is legacy code that doesn't play nice with newer frameworks, there's jealously guarded deployment rights, there's a sales team that sells features before they have been built and a CTO that regularly inspects the work of his employees and tells people how much he expects of them while they're still down from not having caught the mistake themselves. There's fear, and a sense of lost passion, because the workload is suffocating, and every time you try something to get ahead of (or just catch up to) the timeline, either you get punished when it fails, or people will beg you not to try it, because they will get punished, or fear they will become redundant. There has to be a better way of running companies. People deserve better. If you're a Scrum Master, I encourage you to try and build a small product yourself, with a team, sometime. It's eye-opening.

Oh yeah, and I have been doing this, too! I'm a Podcast Host at critRPG! :) https://lnkd.in/eHNNtNJ8

I forgot to add this to my profile, really. If you're interested in what I do creatively to stimulate myself for my main job, feel free to check out https://linktr.ee/madix3

Hey everyone :) GIVEN Scrum Masters are "True leaders who Serve" AND Leadership involves clarifying a vision and setting goals Have you set goals for your Scrum Teams before, as a Scrum Master? How? Was it successful?

I've had some great job interviews so far, but nothing seemed to be the right fit, so I am excited to announce that I am still open for a new position ;) I'm looking for a position where my Systems Thinking skills, my Coaching capabilities, and my deep understanding of Lean, Scrum, and Scaled Agility can truly come to life. Why? Because I'm passionate about helping organizations shape themselves to a point where a customer-driven success culture is inevitable! :D

All Poodles are Dogs. Not all Dogs are Poodles. All Scrum Masters are Agile Coaches. An Agile Coach isn't always a Scrum Master.

Imagine you're an Agile Coach, and you limit yourself to only two meetings a day. (Besides the Daily Scrum if you are in your first 6 months and your team still needs you to be present.) What would you do with the time you have freed up? What's stopping you from doing that, now? No really, I want to know. Please leave a comment :)

"Forget Sodium Chloride and cook with Salt instead!"

Hi Everyone! :) I'm an Agile Leader, Scrum Master, and Agile Coach, and open to a new challenge as of 1.10.2023, preferably in Berlin, Germany, but also remotely anywhere else in Europe! My main skills lie in my deep knowledge of how Scrum and all other Agile Frameworks can only work within the correct environment, how to create that environment, and how to make people believe in themselves. I'm also decent at all the major skills a good Agile Leader wants to have, such as Systems Thinking, Coaching, Training from the back of the Room, Nonviolent Communication, and Improv Comedy, just to name the most important ones. ;) I also have lots of paper slips that prove I went to one course or another if that is important to you. Ideally, your company would be serious about becoming truly agile, meaning your leadership is committed to driving the change by being the first to change. I will respectfully decline all offers that want me to implement or drive SAFe(r)(c)(tm), or positions where a Scrum Master is a "dedicated team-only role." Feel free to DM me to find out why! :) If you're looking for a passionate Agile Coach, Scrum Master, or Agile Leader who believes that the most important leadership quality is empathy, please reach out! Looking forward to seeing you in my inbox! -Max #OpenToWork #scrum #agile #change #leadership #team #coaching #people #scrummaster #agilecoach #agiletransformation #empathy