Applying Agile in a Digital Agency Model w/ Rachel Gertz and Brett Harned

For the last several months 30%-40% the folks attending LeadingAgile’s CSM and CSPO courses have come from Digital Agencies. Nearly all the attendees have questions about how to implement Agile practices in a Digital Agency Model. In this episode of Sound Notes, Brett Harned, who runs the Digital PM Summit, and Rachel Gertz from LouderThanTen, took some time to share what they’ve seen work, and not work, with Agencies who are trying to apply Agile. Show Notes: Interview Start and introductions 1:48 What makes Digital Project Management a complicated fit with Agile 3:44 What is a Digital Agency 6:17 How the historical relationship between Client’s and Agencies complicates integrating Agile in Digital 7:56 The importance of building strong relationships with your client 11:22 What practices from Agile have you seen implemented that work? 13:12 Do typical contracts between Agencies and Clients allow for backlog grooming throughout the project… is that possible ? 14:24 Adapting Digital contracts for Agile18:12 What work does Digital agency do for free when bringing Agile to a client that a consulting company would be getting paid to do 21:32 Using Agile practices effectively in different areas of the project 23:40 When your Product Owner doesn’t have final say 25:39 Should we have “approval debt” (like technical debt) for POs’ who aren’t empowered to give approval 27:55 Is it really about developing an Agile way of interacting with the client 30:22 What Agile practices just don’t work in Digital 31:14 Can you actually have stable teams in Digital? Have you seen an Agency do that? 33:14 Do we need a new type of Agile that is better suited to Digital work 38:46 A MOTORCYCLE! 40:52 Advice for those trying to use Agile in Digital 42:16 Getting in touch with Rachel and Brett 46:55 You can reach Rachel Gertz here Twitter - https://twitter.com/louderthanten Website - https://louderthanten.com COAX (the magazine) https://louderthanten.com/coax You can reach Brett Harned here Twitter - https://twitter.com/brettharned Website - http://brettharned.com For information on the Digital PM Summit Twitter - https://twitter.com/digitalPMsummit Website - http://bureauofdigital.com/summits/digital-pm/