| Agile Coaching
Most teams I work with are working hard, but delivery is slower than it should be, the same problems keep coming back, and leadership is frustrated. That's usually not just a people problem, or just a process problem, or just a technical problem. It's all three at once, compounded over time.
What is Agile Coaching?
What is generally called "Agile Coaching" is a large bucket of skills including actual coaching, mentoring, training, facilitation, systems and workflow design, and Agile expertise. Many different approaches toward the common goal of improving how we deliver better value to our customers sooner, and with less risk.
Agile started in the software development field and is still dominant there, although it's expanded to many other domains today.
Who am I?
I'm Mike Bowler, an experienced coach and trainer who helps teams, and their management, improve the way they deliver value. I've been working with agile for over twenty-five years, and had been writing software for almost twenty years before that. This is the experience I bring to your organization.
What makes my approach different is in the range of skills that I bring to your organization:
- Human behaviour, psychology, and applied neuroscience, to improve how people work, both individually and in groups. This includes a focus on growing psychological safety.
- Workflow design and implementation, to improve how the work flows through the system and how value is created. A focus on metrics, more data-informed decision making, and probabilistic forecasting to more accurately answer the question “when will we be done?”
- Product skills to ensure we're building the right thing, when the customer needs it.
- Technical skills to ensure that we're building that product right, improving how the value is actually implemented and maintained. Development, architecture, DevOps.
- Coaching skills to help us, help others. Utilizing unconscious behaviour to get the best out of everyone.
- 25 years of experience with Agile methods to put it all together. Kanban, Scrum, Extreme Programming (XP)
I'm based in Canada and have traveled around the world, providing training classes, coaching and facilitation services to my clients. Today, preference is being given to coaching that can be done remotely and I work in your timezone, wherever you are located.
You can either start with a free consultation to learn more about how I can help your company, or you can jump into your first paid appointment to answer an immediate question.
What do other people say?
"Mike consulted at The Weather Network, and in a very short time, he completely changed our Agile practices. He made us better at Agile, closer as teams, and far more productive. Mike is a rare combination of smart, competent and pragmatic."
— Fernando Toro, Manager, Apps & Web, Pelmorex (Weather Network)
"His depth of technical acumen is balanced with an exceptional appreciation and understanding of human interaction."
— Jeff Kosciejew, Management Consultant and Agile Coach
Who do I work with in your organization?
While I primarily still work with software development teams and their management, I've worked with teams as diverse as statistical model creators, HR professionals, and geologists.
I also work at all levels of the organization. While I tend to work with teams doing the actual work, I've also worked with all levels of management right up to the executive leadership of billion dollar companies.
Frequently asked questions
- We've tried agile before and it didn't stick. Why would this be different?
Most of the time, that's a system problem, not a people problem. Even motivated, capable people will revert to old patterns if the system around them doesn't support the change. Most agile adoptions focus on process and ceremonies while leaving workflow design, technical practices, and team dynamics untouched. I work on all of those together, because that's what actually makes the change stick. - Do you work with Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, or something else?
All of them, and I'm not attached to any one. Most teams I work with already have a framework in place. The problem is rarely the framework itself. It's usually that people are not delivering despite being busy, or the work is moving and the results aren't what anyone expected. I draw on Kanban principles heavily because they give you concrete data to reason about, and I'll use whatever fits the team's context. I've been writing code for over forty years and teach technical practices like test-driven development, refactoring, and continuous delivery, which matters when the problem turns out to be in the engineering practices rather than the process. - What kind of companies do you work with?
Both ends of the spectrum on size: I've worked with teams inside billion-dollar companies and with companies of ten people. On industry, roughly half my career has been in financial services, including banks, pension funds, and brokerages. I've also worked with three different automotive companies, as well as insurance and retail. If you have IT teams delivering software, that's the right context. - How long does an engagement typically take?
It depends on how many teams I'm working with and what needs to change. A shorter engagement might involve three or four teams over a few weeks. A larger transformation can span fifty or sixty teams across an organization and run for a year or more. The free consultation is the right place to scope what makes sense for your situation. - Do you work remotely or on-site?
Both. My preference today is remote, and most coaching is done that way. On-site work is available and sometimes makes sense depending on the team and the problem. For day-long or longer engagements, I work in your timezone, adjusting my schedule to overlap with your team's working hours. For single-hour bookings, timezone fit is worth discussing in the consultation. - How do we know if it's working?
We measure. Not to manage people, but to understand the system. Before we start, we look at how work is actually flowing: how long things take, how much is in progress at once, where things get stuck. That gives us a baseline. As we make changes, we track whether the system is actually improving or just feels like it is, using quantitative data where we have it and qualitative signals where we don't. The goal is to know what's changing, not just hope it is. - What's the difference between the free consultation and a paid engagement?
The free consultation isn't a sales call. I'll ask about your situation, and by the end you'll have a clearer picture of where the problem actually is, whether that's workflow design, technical practices, team dynamics, or something else. A paid engagement is where we go deeper: dedicated working time, sustained focus, and enough room to make actual changes rather than just diagnose them.
If you are interested in agile coaching for your organization then book a call with Mike.
Single-hour sessions are billed at an ad-hoc rate. For longer engagements, get in touch, starting with a free consultation.
Not ready to book? Join the newsletter or connect on LinkedIn.
Mike Bowler
Agile Coach and Trainer
I've been in the Agile space for over 25 years, helping teams and their management improve how they work.
I also provide personal coaching for individuals, unrelated to my agile work if that's what you're looking for.
The trainer designations below are for programs that I used to teach but no longer do. In each case, I still endorse the classes that I taught, even though I am not teaching them at this time.
