Toby: I am Toby Russell. I am the co-CEO of Shift. We run a company that essentially sells cars online and we are the first, truly omnichannel, e-commerce player, for used auto, which allows customers to buy a car right there on the website or have a car driven to their home to test drive and buy it right there
Scrum for Hardware

I am often asked the question: “How can we use Scrum for hardware projects?” The Scrum framework was created out of software projects as a way to improve productivity, deliver higher quality, and reduce time to market. In software, where things can be easily put together, tested, and if needed changed rapidly, everyone understands the benefits of Scrum in delivering
What’s new in the Scrum Guide 2020

The new Scrum Guide is here. It’s been three years since the last update to the venerable guide was last published, and finally the new 2020 version has been released. Scrum is still Scrum, in all its simplicity. We are going to look at what’s new in this latest release. Scrum is a framework to build complex products using an
Velocity, capacity, or load?

We were half-way in Sprint Planning and suddenly it hit me. Like a light bulb turning on. I had been listening to the discussion between the Developers and the Product Owner and all seemed normal… until this very moment. I just realized that the team was planning their sprint with absolute no idea of velocity or capacity. How did I
User Stories are not requirements

I always struggle with the word “requirements”. This is how specifications and functionalities are normally called when working on a project. Requirements create a blanket of necessity and limit the empowerment of product managers to be effective at solving problems. The word requirement, and its verb counterpart to require, in their essence define something that is “required”, “needed”, “expected”. The
The Scrum Master’s dark side

The main goal of the Scrum Master is to create a highly productive team that is self-organizing and continuously improving. They do this by acting as a servant leader, coaching the team when needed, and creating the space for team members to own their work, their decisions, and the opportunities for self-improvement. Many Scrum Masters act in the dark side.
The Scrum Master’s reading list

Books This is a short list of great books on Agile, Scrum, and practices to become an effective Scrum Master. Scrum and Agile foundations “Essential Scrum: A Practical Guide to the Most Popular Agile Process“, by Kenneth Rubin “Your Scrum Playbook“, Fabian Schwarts, CST “Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time“, by Jeff and JJ
The Product Manager’s reading list

We have compiled a list of books and articles on Agile, Product, Design Thinking, and Innovation. These books and articles offer perspectives, frameworks, and real stories for the successful application of product management practices to the ideation and development of new products. If you are a Product Owner, a Product Manager, or a Product Leader, these books and articles are
The Scrum Master is a servant leader

The Scrum Master role in Scrum is one of the most important and often misunderstood. The creators of Scrum, Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber, recognized that change is hard and in order for teams to be able to effectively transition to a new way of working (adopting Scrum) help was required in terms of coaching and support. So the Scrum
Engineering practices
Building quality-in and keeping technical debt in check are two of the most important goals to support long-term sustainable product development. Adopting the right engineering practices allows teams to focus on innovation and value delivery, rather than wasting time on fixing problems or avoiding quality issues. BookingBug faced a near-death situation when it had accumulated too much technical debt due