This conference was unfortunately held online, as were many of the great conferences we attended during this new, Covid 19 reality.
Fortunately, this conference was not another online conference. It was different, because of the organizers, the choice of speakers, but also the carefully self-organized visitors. Not much more could be pulled out of the Zoom platform, everything went smoothly and spontaneously.
The conference began with a short address by the organizer, CorpoHub from Ljubljana. This was followed by a brief review of previous conferences and what we can expect from this one online.
The first speaker was Roman Pichler, with the always interesting topic “Agile product roadmap”.
The topic of how to define a roadmap, what are the benefits of using it on specific examples, warmed up the visitors, and made a great introduction to this “agile” day that was promised.
The next speaker, Gitte Klitgaard, talked about the current topic, the “safe learning” environment, how to form it, maintain it, and what is the role of a leader in this new setup. The conclusion is that a safe environment is not a comfort zone but a safe space in which we are allowed to make mistakes through which we learn and grow.
The third speaker was Jeff Gothem, with the topic „Outcome-based product planning“.
Many things have changed in recent decades. From the way, production is organized, to management styles and access to education. The only thing that hasn’t changed (at least not yet) is that there are always some human needs or problems that require a solution. Creating products that solve a problem has never been more complex and requires speed and agility. Otherwise, it may happen that at the time of promoting your product, the need no longer exists or is crucially changed.
After the lunch break, we continue with the great speakers. It’s Johanna Rothman’s turn with a topic in which she deals with business agility.
Another authentic story was that agile transformation cannot succeed without the full support of top management. Johanna spoke about the fears of managers, about redefining the bonus scheme and motivating employees to present it all in the right way.
Matej Filipović spoke about the real problems of the implementation of the Scrum framework in companies. No matter how well you prepare the whole process, Matej claims that there will always be a “but”. He made an entire collection of “buts”, what could possibly go wrong, but he also gave his vision and alternatives of how we can get the whole process back on track.
The last speaker, who captured the most attention of comments and emotions was Marcin Floryan, manager of Spotify. He had enough courage to deal with a topic that is currently “tormenting” a large number of companies that are in the phase of transformation. The presentation also tried to address some issues for companies that are considering entering the process.
Marcin referred to the leadership characteristics that need to be “reformulated” to be more modern and, as he says, more humane. Thus, instead of predicting, it is necessary to make a forecast, instead of occupation, to force presence within the team. You don’t always have to be professional, be authentic and lead your people with true love, not fear. A great lecture that kept the participants interactive, there were so many questions in the chat.
At the end of the conference, Matej Golub promised that the next Agile Slovenia conference would be held in person. The reaction of all participants was more than positive, and we are all eagerly awaiting the next conference.
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