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.

 

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. Whilst this enthusiasm is great, it often is channelled in the wrong way. This session demonstrates just how prevalent lying with (agile) charts is, particularly with what will be some of your favourite metrics, as well as providing practical tips to improve the visualisation/usage of data within your teams and organisation.

 

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. Teams often identify when work is blocked but then stop once unblocked, rarely investigating the reason(s) why the blockage happened. 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. Why is this? Is it the toxic nature that 'metrics' have become synonymous with or is it because we view using data as a dangerous flirtation with placing more value in tools and processes? This session showcases how you can bring to life empiricism into your coaching toolkit. Enabling you to have 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 (@mgaewsj), November 5th, 2018
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 (@maheshsingh), 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. I’d thoroughly encourage everyone to go to this session, great talk!
— Lean Kanban Central Europe (LKCE) conference attendee, November 5th, 2018
Inspiring speech by @NBrown02! Metrics as coaching aid instead of metrics as targets.
— Martin Bäcklund (@mgbacklund), March 15th, 2018

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

  • Your score for Content:      4.40

  • Your score for Usefulness:  4.40

  • Your score for Speaker:      4.60

  • Your score for Overall:       4.50

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

  • Your score for Content:      4.33

  • Your score for Usefulness:  4.33

  • Your score for Speaker:      4.33

  • Your score for Overall:        4.67

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

  • Your score for Content:      4.41

  • Your score for Usefulness:  4.35

  • Your score for Speaker:     4.53

  • Your score for Overall:       4.47


Upcoming Talks

2nd & 3rd April 2025

Agile Swarming
Krakow, Poland

Buy tickets here

29th & 30th May 2025

Craft Conference
Budapest, Hungary

Buy tickets here