Agile Mentors Podcast from Mountain Goat Software

They talk about how teams often load up on process instead of seeing problems clearly. The conversation highlights starting with transparency, short feedback loops, and clear priorities. Listeners hear practical minimums like a visible backlog, short iterations, and a strict definition of done. They also cover common slowdowns such as coordination complexity and false confidence.

Scott Dunn, a Certified Enterprise Coach with 20+ years helping organizations like NASA and eBay, joins to challenge using velocity as a leadership score. They unpack why leaders cling to a single number, how velocity hides strategic uncertainty, and ways to pair metrics with outcomes. AI’s speed-up makes outcome-focused experiments and quick feedback even more urgent.

Mike Cohn, agile practitioner and CEO of Mountain Goat Software, co-founder of Agile Alliance and Scrum Alliance. He explores leadership choices that quietly undermine agile. Short takes on treating agile as process vs mindset, scaling too soon, weak product ownership, and leaders creating distractions. Practical pointers on where leaders should change first.

Hunter Hillegas, CTO at Mountain Goat Software with 20+ years in software development, discusses how AI is changing software teams. He covers where AI already speeds work, how coding roles are shifting toward review, and tools that lower barriers to product building. He also examines adoption pitfalls and how AI may reshape team dynamics.

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.