Claim OwnershipArguing Agile
Subscribed: 10Played: 380
Subscribe
© 2025 Arguing Agile
Description
We're arguing about agile so that you don't have to!
We seek to better prepare you to deal with real-life challenges by presenting both sides of the real arguments you will encounter in your professional career.
On this podcast, working professionals explore topics and learnings from their experiences and share the stories of Agilists at all stages of their careers. We seek to do so while maintaining an unbiased position from any financial interest.
226 Episodes
Reverse
The agile brand may have become toxic, but your skills haven't lost value. If you're struggling - listen or watch as we discuss the valuable skills you have and how you might apply them in future roles. Founder & CEO Alex Polyakov returns to the podcast, joining Product Manager Brian Orlando and Enterprise Business Agility Consultant Om Patel for a discussion about the market shift that has taken place and how people avoid being held back by outdated terminology! One immedi...
Your founding team delivered your first million-dollar quarter - but can they scale you to $10 million and beyond? Join Enterprise Business Agility Consultant Om Patel and Product Manager Brian Orlando as we talk through the challenging transition from startup scrappiness to operational excellence. Along the way, we ask about loyalty vs. performance, innovation vs. optimization, and how to manage team evolution without destroying trust and culture. Watch or listen if you're interested...
Is your QA team really slowing down delivery, or are they just revealing the cracks in your development process? In this episode of Arguing Agile, we're talking about one of the most persistent myths in software development and reveal why QA teams are often unfairly blamed for systemic issues. We explore: The shift-left movement and why QA belongs in customer conversationsHow collaboration breakdowns create false bottlenecks Why treating QA as a cost center backfiresReal strategies for ...
People don't quit jobs - they quit bad bosses... OR DO THEY?!? We had so many untouched debate points from our first episode that it would have been a crime - A CRIME - to throw it all away. So we decided to do a part 2! That's right, we're back and Brian tries to make his argument with all new points - are we blaming individual managers for systemic failures? Listen or watch as we (Product Manager Brian Orlando and Enterprise Business Agility Coach Om Patel) debate all new poin...
We're challenging the most accepted wisdom in workplace culture - do people really quit bad bosses, or are they really fleeing broken systems? Join Product Manager Brian Orlando and Enterprise Business Agility Coach Om Patel as they engage in this heated debate and explore whether blaming individual managers lets dysfunctional organizations off the hook. 🔥 Listen or watch as we also cover: Why good managers turn "bad" under systemic pressureThe broken promotion pipeline from individual cont...
Steve Jobs once said he'd rather fire someone than force them to buy into a decision they disagreed with. This flies in the face of popular leadership advice like Amazon's "disagree and commit" philosophy. In this episode, we dive deep into Jobs' consensus-driven approach at NeXT and explore why expert-driven decision making might be superior to top-down mandates. We examine how Jobs' 8-person policy team made only 25 major decisions per year, the importance of psychological safety in decisi...
Last episode, we talked about Instant Pot's failure via financial engineering that most product teams may never see coming. In this episode, we explore why financial literacy should be a core competency for product teams, not something left to the "adults in the room." We break down why reading basic financial statements, understanding customer lifetime value, and making data-driven decisions that actually consider the cost of building features are essential and how you can start moving to...
Instant Pot had $300M+ revenue, passionate users, and $100M cash on hand. So why did they file for bankruptcy? The answer lies in the pattern of how private equity systematically destroys beloved products through financial engineering! In this podcast, Product Manager Brian Orlando and Enterprise Business Agility Coach Om Patel examine the acquisition of Instant Brands and discuss how leveraged buyouts, special dividends, and debt loading likely turned a kitchen innovation...
Today we're examining Palantir's "Forward Deployed Software Engineers" - and separating fact from the hype! Everything old is new again! Move over companies that have been doing this for decades such as SAP, IBM, and countless consulting firms! https://blog.palantir.com/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-palantir-forward-deployed-software-engineer-45ef2de257b1 Listen as we break down Palantir's 2020 blog post about their Forward Deployed Software Engineers (FDSEs) and discover what these engineers actua...
Today, we're delivering a not-your-typical-leadership-book review: "Extreme Ownership" by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin! Ed Martin joins hosts Product Manager Brian Orlando and Enterprise Business Agility Coach Om Patel for a chapter-by-chapter review of how military leadership principles directly translate to product management, agile coaching, and team development. The core message? True leadership isn't about barking orders - it's about taking complete ownership, empowering o...
The Scrum community is buzzing about a new 55-page expansion to the Scrum Guide. Is this the depth practitioners have been asking for, or is it turning the lightweight framework into bloatware? In this episode, Enterprise Business Agility Coach Om Patel and Product Manager Brian Orlando critically examine the "DLC" that claims the original guide was "deliberately oversimplified." We explore new concepts like outcome vs output definitions of done, the "supporters" role, and the inc...
Jensen Huang has 60 direct reports and does no 1:1s, so neither should you - right?!? Product Manager Brian Orlando and Enterprise Business Agility Coach Om Patel examine NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang's claim that he champions "radical transparency" and his policy of no one-on-ones. Join us as we explore what this means for the rest and listen or watch as we agree that one-on-ones should be employee-driven, focused on growth over status updates, and designed to build the trust that actu...
We're talking about either the terrifying or totally mundane new world of "vibe coding" - using AI to generate code without deep technical expertise. Joining Product Manager Brian Orlando and Enterprise Business Agility Coach Om Patel for this podcast, we're happy to welcome back to the podcast Lenar Mukhamadiev, CEO of iDelsoft (https://idelsoft.com)! Listen as we discuss how this trend is changing product development, software engineering careers, and business innovation. Stick aroun...
Do you want to hear a story about stifling growth and creativity through the lens of one developer's personal story? You're in luck! Join Product Manager Brian Orlando and Enterprise Business Agility Coach Om Patel as they watch and react to Theo's YouTube video: "Being a good engineer kinda sucks," April 28, 2025. It's a tale about the tension between excelling at your craft versus navigating organizational politics and dysfunction. That's right, today, we're talking about them...
Who coaches PMs if Directors or CPOs don't understand how features get built? ...or don't understand how to build a strategy? Join Product Manager Brian Orlando and Enterprise Business Agility Coach Om Patel as we analyze Ravi Mehta's PM competency framework and debate which skills actually matter at each level of product management! #ProductManagement #Leadership #ProductStrategy REFERENCES "How to Become a Peak Product Manager" by Ravi Mehta: https://www.ravi-mehta.com/product-manager...
Listen or watch as Enterprise Business Agility Coach Om Patel and Product Manager Brian Orlando debate whether communication is the primary function of product managers. We explore how and if PMs can balance effective communication across stakeholder groups while still delivering results, in addition to other topics, such as: What percentage really is communicationThe power-interest matrix for stakeholder managementBalancing narrative leadership vs technical excellenceCreating vis...
Ever been in a meeting where an executive decrees: "Engineering needs to go faster!" without any nuance or understanding of the underlying issues? What a coincidence - so have we!!! Listen or watch as Product Manager Brian Orlando and Enterprise Business Agility Coach Om Patel discuss this common yet problematic demand. Join us as we unmask deeper organizational issues, explore how to respond to this request, and discuss the potential causes, constraints, and solutions. Whether you're in engi...
Discover why the ability to ask for what you need is a critical skill that separates high performers from average ones. Join Enterprise Business Agility Coach Om Patel and Product Manager Brian Orlando as we explore the "how and why" of the skill that is: making more explicit requests for support! We dive into the dangers of hustle culture, the limitations of traditional hierarchies, and practical ways to improve your communication skills. Listen or watch to better understand how to nav...
We're listening to each and every painful, cringeworthy word from Jamie Dimon's recent rant about remote work. Join Enterprise Business Agility Coach Om Patel and Product Manager Brian Orlando as they explore the tension between command-and-control management and outcome-based leadership. Stick around as they argue (against and on behalf of) CEO of JP Morgan Chase, Dimon's frustration with work-from-home culture and clear issues with his leadership, trust, and organizational effec...
Should innovation be outsourced to specialized teams, or integrated into your existing product teams? That's what Enterprise Business Agility Coach Om Patel and Product Manager Brian Orlando are debating today! Listen as we debate the pros and cons of separating innovation from implementation, exploring why "if you build it, you own it" should extend to innovation as well. Join us to learn about the pitfalls of innovation theater, the challenges of knowledge transfer, and ho...
Comments
Download from Google Play
Download from App Store
United States