Speaking

I am incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to speak at leading industry conferences as well as to various different client and internal groups on different topics related to Agile. For my talks, I like to combine humour, demonstrate fallibility (i.e. sharing things I got wrong!) and always providing real examples of application in the topic I'm speaking about. My hope is that by sharing my own experiences you come away with some new learnings and ideas for application within your own organisation.

Keynote: Real World Agility

Agile promised effectiveness, but has it delivered? Drawing from my book, Real World Agility, I share my experiences over the last 12+ years across numerous large organisations where agility worked in being more effective, but also where it didn’t and how I got it wrong.

Framework Agnostic Capacity Planning At Scale

In this talk, I share how I led an organisation in adopting an approach that allows them to do this at scale (over 100 teams), all in a way that is framework-agnostic and allowed the teams the freedom in choosing their own way of working.

I share the practices and techniques to adopt, (free) tools to use, as well as the learning along the way.

How (Agile) Charts Lie

In recent years, measurement has increasingly gained more traction in our industry with many folks wanting to "measure" or even "measure what matters" when adopting new ways of working. This session demonstrates just how prevalent lying with (agile) charts is, particularly with what will be some of your favourite metrics.

The Importance Of Being Blocked

Despite our best attempts at creating small, cross-functional and autonomous teams, being “blocked” is unfortunately still a common occurrence with many teams. This talk demonstrates just how important being blocked is, the insights you may be missing out on and what data/metrics you can track for blocked work in order to quantify their impact.

Coaching In A Data-Driven World

39% of executives say their companies are highly data-driven, but mentioning data can often result in concerned faces. This session showcases how you can bring to life empiricism into your coaching toolkit, enabling more open, transparent conversations and informed decision making.

One of the best talks of the conference, really interesting! Clear messages, really thought through, and has gone to the next level.Session attendee, AgileByExample 2022
This talk was the best! I was only sad that it was too short - I want more :) A very good and engaging presentation!Session attendee, AgileByExample 2022
Coaching in a data driven world. Great talk from @nbrown02 at #LKCE18. lots of great examples and practical advice.Gaetano Mazzanti, November 5th, 2018
Really interesting and entertaining presentation on Data-Driven Coaching with a great message: use metrics not as a target, but to gain information, have safe conversations and model curiosity.Lean Kanban Central Europe attendee
Thanks for a great presentation on data visualization! Some great ideas for us to extend our metrics for greater interpretability and ease of use/application.Mahesh Singh, November 5th, 2018
Inspiring speech by @NBrown02! Metrics as coaching aid instead of metrics as targets.Martin Bäcklund, March 15th, 2018

Session: Flow, value, culture, delivery: How we measure team agility across ASOS.com
Scale: 1 = Low, 5 = High

Session: Framework agnostic capacity planning at scale
Scale: 1 = Low, 5 = High

Session: How (agile) charts lie
Scale: 1 = Low, 5 = High

Upcoming Talks

Contact Me For A Talk

Podcasts

Everyday Agile Podcast

How Agile Coaches Can Prove Their Value

Topics include:

  • The Importance of Data in Agile Coaching
  • Challenges in Agile Implementation
  • Technical Aspects of Agile
  • Drawing Inspiration from Other Fields
  • Football Analogies and Agile Methodologies
  • Writing the Book: Flow, Value, Culture, Delivery
  • Effective Retrospectives and Agile Practices
Everyday Agile podcast

LeanPub Podcast

Book launch: Real World Agility

Topics include my career history, what agility is all about, mistakes made along the journey, and what it is like self-publishing.

LeanPub podcast

Better Tech Leadership Podcast

How can you enable teams to thrive?

Topics include a framework agnostic approach to agile coaching, working at scale with few coaches and many teams, using data to guide improvement efforts, probabilistic forecasts, team health metrics and OKRs/KPIs.

Better Tech Leadership podcast