Agile Mentors Podcast from Mountain Goat Software

Lance Dacy, a Certified Scrum trainer and coach who helps teams build practical habits for continuous improvement, joins to explore what separates teams that learn from those that stall. He discusses psychological safety and truth-telling. He explains short learning cycles, limiting work in progress, and structuring reviews to change systems. Leadership choices that help or hinder learning are highlighted.

Jason Knight, product consultant and host of One Knight in Product, helps teams move beyond feature factories. He talks about runaway backlogs, using strategy as a filter, why teams must learn to say no, barriers to talking with customers, and how to link product work to revenue with predictive metrics.

Hunter Hillegas, CTO at Mountain Goat Software with 20+ years in development and team leadership, discusses how AI can harm agile teams. He covers erosion of developer judgment, risks to junior developer growth, accountability gaps when blaming AI, communication silos from private AI use, and the illusion of productivity from inflated metrics.

Mike Cohn, agile practitioner and CEO of Mountain Goat Software, shares his take on estimating and planning. He explains why estimates provoke strong reactions. He contrasts story points and hours, discusses the no-estimates movement, and recommends estimating only when it informs decisions. He also covers flow metrics, responsible ranges, and ways to keep planning from harming trust.

Cort Sharp, an experienced Agile coach, trainer, and Scrum Master, discusses hiring for Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and Developers. He explores traits to look for beyond certifications. The conversation covers interview techniques, role-fit pitfalls, using teams in hiring, and which skills are teachable versus innate.

Mike Cohn, veteran agile coach and CEO of Mountain Goat Software, shares a practical Five Pillars framework for lasting change. He discusses using an improvement backlog, distinguishing mindset from practices, redefining roles and teamwork, and engaging stakeholders. Practical tactics for diagnosing gaps and sustaining momentum are highlighted in short, actionable conversation.

Colin Fisher, organizational behavior expert and author of The Collective Edge, blends research and real practice to rethink team performance. He explores why teams fail due to group systems, the ideal team size (about 4.5), how to launch teams with clear roles and goals, keeping communication consistent in hybrid work, and turning conflict into productive debate.

Tanner Wortham, former Marine and leadership coach who’s helped teams at LinkedIn and Salesforce. He compares Marine leadership to agile practices. He discusses frontline authority, the rule-of-three for priorities, experimenting with small tests, navigating conflict with curiosity, and getting ego out of the way to focus on the mission.

Hunter Hillegas, CTO at Mountain Goat Software with 20+ years building developer tools, outlines building the Agile AI Toolkit. He discusses coaching assistants, story splitting and backlog generation. They cover handling hallucinations, context management, testing and integrating agents with real data. The conversation highlights how AI changes dev workflows while keeping humans in the loop.

Brian Milner takes a heartfelt pause to share what gratitude means to him this year, emphasizing a human-centered approach to agility. He reflects on the evolving roles of leaders in the community and the importance of psychological safety in the workplace. Milner expresses appreciation for his team and behind-the-scenes contributors, highlighting the need for professional evolution and experimentation. To wrap up, he encourages listeners to take a moment to acknowledge three things they are thankful for, fostering a spirit of reflection before the year's end.