Start The Year With a Clean Backlog - Mike Cohn

Think outside the box.
Do you hate that phrase as much as I do?
It’s become another overused business cliché, and it bothers me for another reason: Creativity often comes from thinking inside the box.
This is especially true in agile story-writing workshops.

The difference between a successful story-writing workshop and one that fails to deliver often comes down to a single factor:
Whether or not the product owner defines a clear, significant objective: a “box” within which the team can think.
Workshops without boundaries often roam across the entire product. Teams may generate a long list of user stories but those stories lack cohesion or purpose. They’re hard to prioritize, and even harder to act on.

The most productive workshops start with a simple framing statement from the product owner, like:

“We’re here to think about this specific subset of the product.”
That’s it. One well-chosen boundary and suddenly the team is aligned, focused, and generating better, more valuable ideas.
Early in the product’s life, that boundary might be about identifying what’s needed to deliver an MVP.
Later on, it might center around a Minimum Marketable Feature (MMF), something small enough to ship but valuable enough to matter.

When workshops are focused around a meaningful objective, you don’t need to hold them every sprint. I typically run them about once a quarter because one well-run session generates a steady flow of high-value stories.
As this year closes and a new one begins, it’s a great time to schedule a story-writing session. You might even want to bring our trainers in for a Story-Writing Workshop, where we’ll work with you to:

• Set powerful, objective-based boundaries
• Write stories that are right-sized and ready to build
• Build a focused backlog that everyone can align around

Discover how to kick off the new year with a backlog that’s ready to go.
Whether you hold your own story-writing workshop or bring us in to help, remember that thinking inside the box is a powerful way to take teams from good to great,

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The OKR Illusion, Why Structure Without Direction Is Just Noise

OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) have gained significant traction over the past decade, especially after being widely adopted and championed by companies like Google. Originally developed at Intel, OKRs are a simple yet powerful framework for setting and tracking goals. At their core, OKRs are about defining what you want to achieve (Objectives) and how you’ll measure progress (Key Results). While the concept is simple, the impact lies in how OKRs align teams, create focus, and connect everyday work to meaningful, measurable outcomes.

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Celebrating Dr Martin Luther King Jr

Understanding Civil Rights Day and what we can do today to make a difference.

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Celebrating Episode 1500 - Special Edition With Bob Hartman

Join us for this once in a lifetime ONE HOUR edition of The Agile Daily Standup Podcast as we celebrate episode 1500 together!

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Agile in 2026 Looks Nothing Like Scrum

That delay cost us 42,000 failed checkout attempts and a week of executive explanations. Nothing was broken in the code. The failure was procedural. The fix was ready. The sprint boundary said no.

That was the moment we stopped pretending Scrum was helping us ship.

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AI Doesn’t Eliminate Agile Teams — It Increases the Need for Great Ones - Mike Cohn

Everyone today seems eager to talk about how AI is accelerating software development. Teams are shipping faster. Individuals are more productive. Entire backlogs can be written in minutes. Estimates are a click away. Code that once took days now materializes in minutes. With all this newfound speed, it’s understandable that teams and leaders start asking whether they still need the same kinds of collaboration—or even the same kinds of teams.

Yet hidden underneath all that enthusiasm is a risk that hasn’t received enough attention. In fact, I would argue it is the risk that agile leaders should be paying the closest attention to.

https://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/blog/ai-doesnt-eliminate-agile-teams-it-increases-the-need-for-great-ones

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Scrum Is NOT Dead... It’s Obsolete?

(Did someone actually Go here?) AAAAAAAhhhhhhhh!

Stand-ups are still happening. Sprint planning still blocks calendars every few weeks. Retrospectives still end with “we should communicate better.” Jira boards are still very busy.

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I made a VERY controversial Podcast Episode on January 1st and I think people may have completely missed it! There will be 3 CRAZY-BIG changes happening on the Agile Landscape in 2026:

🚀 Prediction One: The Shift from Product Ownership to Product Management

• Broader Lifecycle Focus: Product managers will oversee the entire product lifecycle, from ideation to release.
• AI Integration: AI tools will streamline tasks, allowing product managers to focus on delivering value and happy customers.
• Expanded Roles: Expect more product manager roles and fewer traditional product owner positions.

🛠️ Prediction Two: The Evolution of the Scrum Master into the Agile Project Manager

• Holistic View: Agile Project Managers will support product managers and ensure teams focus on building the right product efficiently.
• Organizational Change Management: This will become a critical responsibility, guiding change within organizations.
• Certifications: Scrum Master certifications will still hold value but will need to adapt to this evolving role.

💻 Prediction Three: Developers Will Spend Less Time Coding and More Time on Quality and Integration

• AI-Generated Code: AI tools like ChatGPT will generate code faster, requiring developers to focus on integration and quality assurance.
• New Roles: Developers will become integrators and quality managers, ensuring seamless code assembly and high-quality releases.

🤖 Bonus Prediction: 2026 Will Be the Year AI Explodes in Agile

• AI Revolution: AI will revolutionize how we work, and those who leverage it will have a significant advantage.
• New Courses: We’re launching AI courses for Agile Project Managers, Product Managers, and Leaders to help you thrive in an AI-augmented environment.

I’m genuinely excited about what 2026 holds for the agile community. These shifts, combined with the transformative power of AI, will redefine how we deliver value. If you’re curious to learn more, join my AI classes or attend agile leadership summits where we dive deep into these topics.

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