Looking for something edifying to listen to while you’re tanning on the beach, cruising on a long road trip, or mid-air on a flight on your way to finally reunite with some friends and family that you haven’t seen in a while? Look no further as we serve up some of our favorite bits from the Mik + One podcast this summer, featuring the very latest insights on how to leverage software and adapt in the digital-first world.
Since its inception in January 2020, the Mik + One podcast has hosted some of the industry’s most recognized thought leaders, reaching thousands of listeners across the globe. In each episode, Dr. Mik Kersten—Tasktop’s founder and CEO and author of the bestselling Project to Product—sits down with a host of inspiring individuals to discuss and dissect what “digital transformation” really means through candid real-life stories and learnings.
As the podcast takes a break for the summer, now is the perfect time to take a look back on some of the best thought leadership on technology and business modernization. With over 35 episodes to choose from, Mik has handpicked a smorgasbord of insights to delight and inspire you.
Episode 15: Adrian Cockcroft, VP of Cloud Architecture Strategy, Amazon Web Services
After Adrian Cockcroft shared his experience of leading transformations at both Netflix and Amazon, hoards of people reached out to us to let us know that they wished the conversation had kept going. In this episode, Mik and Adrian provide concrete advice on moving ahead in the digital world, covering many key discussion points including product-centred innovation, feedback loops and Flow Time. Listen now.
Episode 8: Dean Leffingwell, Co-founder and chief Methodologist, Scaled Agile
Dean Leffingwell’s contributions to the industry on building and managing enterprise software delivery, as well as effectively scaling the principles of agility to the business, are invaluable. In this episode, Mik and Dean discuss the importance of marrying technical agility with business agility, abandoning organizational hierarchies, focusing on outcome-based metrics, and more. Listen now.
Episode 20: Justin Watts, Director of Agile Change, Lloyds Banking Group
Justin Watt’s expertise in agile and lean and applying the concepts to Lloyds Banking Group is an inspiration for many. In this episode, Mik and Justin discuss redesigning software systems around flow, leading indicators to track and improve lagging measures, economies of flow, and respecting the laws of physics when accelerating flow across value streams. Listen now.
Episode 14: Heather Munoz, SVP of Development for Personal Investing Mobile & Web, Fidelity
With more than 25 years of experience in leading software development practices for financial technology organizations, Heather’s passion for helping teams deliver successful Agile and DevOps transformations is an important skill that today’s leadership teams can learn from. In this episode, Mik and Heather chat about the importance of an effective tool network, using visualization and data to deliver customer value, the characteristics of a good leader and more. Listen now.
Episode 28: Pieter Jordaan, Group Chief Technology Officer, TUI
It’s no surprise that this episode with Pieter Jordaan is the most popular one to date, providing incredible insight into TUI’s successful digital transformation to cloud and product value streams (during a pandemic!). Sharing fundamental and ground-breaking results and learnings, this episode is packed with inspirational discussions around leadership thinking, product and flow mindset. Listen now.
Episode 12: Don Reinertsen, President of Reinertsen & Associates and Author of three best-selling books on product development
Not only is Don Reinertsen one of Mik’s biggest inspirations, his profound learnings on product development has helped and inspired so many of the DevOps community and beyond. This conversation between Mik and Don went into significant depth, outlining some key concepts and sharing learnings since the publication of one of Don’s best-selling books, The Principles of Product Development Flow. Listen now.
Episode 16: Dr. Nicole Forsgren, Partner, Microsoft Research and Dr. Denae Ford Robinson, Senior Researcher, Microsoft Research
Both Nicole Forsgren and Denae Ford Robinson are brilliant researchers, inspirational thinkers and technologists who are pushing the boundaries of how we think about both the technological and cultural aspects of how software is built. In this episode, Mik, Nicole and Denae had an energetic and insightful conversation focusing on creating more diverse, inclusive and equitable teams and value streams. Listen now.
Episode 31: Gene Kim, best-selling author of The Phoenix Project and The Unicorn Project, as well as co-author of The DevOps Handbook
Of course, this list would not be complete without mentioning Gene Kim, who has appeared on three episodes of the Mik + One podcast. Gene continues to share key learnings in a consumable and impactful format, and each episode is filled with some incredible insights and stories. In this episode, Mik and Gene dive deeper into the importance of Psychological safety, the properties and prerequisites of high-performing learning organizations, effective patterns that leadership can adopt to maximize flow, and more. Listen now.
Episode 34: Courtney Kissler, Chief Technology Officer, Zulily
With experience in driving technological transformations at large enterprises including Nordstrom, Starbucks, Nike and Zulily, Courtney Kissler has an incredible approach and passion for learning, and for sharing her journeys. This episode offers amazing food for thought for those struggling to make the economic, business and customer-centric cases for why investing in platforms, technologies and transformation is so key. Listen now.
Episode 35, Christian Idiodi, Partner, Silicon Valley Product Group
Ending on a high, Christian Idiodi has a way with words and in this episode of Mik + One, Christian shares some fascinating insights into establishing product management disciplines at multiple levels of the organization, and why it is an important catalyst to successful transformations. Christian’s story of how he got into product management is fascinating and his experience with helping today’s executives understand how to measure value and set up organizational structures for innovation is invaluable. Listen now.
What Do You Want from the New Season?
Your feedback fuels this podcast. As we prepare for a new season of Mik + One, we love to hear from thoughts on Mik + One so far. What works, what doesn’t, what topics you want Mik and guests to tackle; anything that helps us maintain and continuously improve a valuable listening experience. By completing this short survey, you can also do good: you will be entered into a raffle to win $1000 (USD) to a food bank of your choice. Share your feedback.
Vote for Mik + One in the 2021 People’s Choice Podcast Awards
Mik + One has been nominated under the Business Category within the 2021 People’s Choice Podcast Awards. If you’ve enjoyed the podcast as much as I have, we ask that you take two minutes and vote for Mik + One to win. Note: Voting closes July 31st 2021. Vote here.
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