PODCAST · education
take5IRL Podcast
by agilityIRL
Our product vision for take5IRL is to provide members of the Agile community with an idea that they can incorporate into their daily lives to make them more effective. In every episode, Jeff Lee and Mike Stuedemann share Scrum wisdom that will enhance your Scrum Team, overall organization, and most importantly- your leadership skills. Tune in every week for Agile insights in 5 minutes and gain applicable tips to improve your organizations, teams, and life.
Episodes
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Your Team is Busy, but is Your Business Winning?
Your bathroom scale gives you a number, But does it tell you how healthy you are? Your business dashboard might have the same problem.Tickets closed. Hours worked. Features delivered. Those numbers show activity, but are they telling you whether you’re creating value?In our newest Take 5 IRL...
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Your Team Doesn’t Need a Hero | What Servant Leadership Really Means: Episode 116
What does servant leadership look like when you’re responsible for more than one team?In this episode of Take Five IRL, Jeff Lee and Mike Studeman explore why servant leadership becomes even more important at the senior director level. The job isn’t to attend every meeting or solve every problem...
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You're Not Done. You're Just Creating Inventory.
When your team says a feature is “done,” what still has to happen before it can actually be released? Documentation? Testing? Traceability updates? Quality review? Risk assessment? Every “yes” represents unfinished work—and unfinished work is inventory that slows flow, extends cycle times, and...
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Why AI Readiness Starts With Leadership: Episode 114
AI isn’t going to fix your organization’s problems. In fact, it might help you create them faster.In this episode of Take Five IRL, Mike Studeman and Pat Campbell explore why true AI readiness doesn’t start with choosing the right technology, it starts with leadership.AI is a multiplier. Strong...
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Stop Funding Projects. Start Funding Flow. | How Leaders Can Improve Delivery - Episode 113
What if the way your organization funds work is actually slowing delivery down?In this episode of Take Five IRL, Mike Studeman and Pat Campbell tackle a potentially controversial idea: Stop funding projects. Start funding flow.They’re not arguing that projects should disappear. Instead, they...
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Compliance Isn't Slowing You Down. This Is.
Does compliance really slow down innovation in medical device product development?It can certainly feel that way. But the real problem often isn't compliance itself—it's when and how quality and regulatory work gets done.In this episode of Take 5 IRL, agilityIRL partners Pat Campbell and Mike...
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Want To Get More Done? Start Doing Less. Episode 111
Sometimes the best thing a leader can say is: “No, not right now.” It sounds simple. In practice, not so much. Leaders want to support their teams, satisfy stakeholders, and deliver more value. So when someone asks, “Can we just squeeze this one thing in?”, the instinct is often to say yes. Every...
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If AI Doubled Your Capacity Tomorrow, What Else Would It Double?Episode 110
What if AI doubled your organization's capacity tomorrow?Would you create twice as much customer value, or twice as much waste, rework, technical debt, and inconsistency?In this episode of Take 5 IRL, agilityIRL partners Jeff Lee and Pat Campbell explore a critical idea for organizations adopting...
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Scrum Masters: Back To The Future. Episode 109
Is the Scrum Master role dying, or is it evolving back into what it was always intended to be?Over the years, the Scrum Master accountability has sometimes drifted far from its original purpose. In some organizations, Scrum Masters have become meeting schedulers, note-takers, status reporters, or...
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When Platform Teams Become The Bottleneck: Episode 108
Platform teams are designed to help other teams deliver faster. But what happens when the platform team becomes the bottleneck everyone is waiting on? In this episode of Take Five IRL, agilityIRL partners Jeff Lee, Mike Studeman, and Pat Campbell explore the role of platform teams and the...
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Can Agile Be Used Outside of Software?
Can Agile Work Outside of Software? Absolutely. Here's Why.When most people hear the word Agile, they immediately think of software development. But Agile isn't about software, it's about better ways of working.In this episode of Take 5 IRL, Mike Studeman is joined by Agility IRL partners Jeff…
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AI Won't Fix Bad Product Decisions
Can AI really improve product development, or will it just help you build the wrong thing faster?In this episode of Take Five IRL, Mike Studeman, Jeff Lee, and Pat Campbell explore one of the biggest misconceptions surrounding AI in product development.While AI can dramatically accelerate coding,...
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Agile and Medical Device Can Work Together!
# CARS™ for Teams: Bringing Agile to Medical Device Development Without Compromising Compliance | Take 5 IRL PodcastCan Agile and medical device regulations actually work together?In this episode of Take 5 IRL, agilityIRL partners Mike Studeman and Jeff Lee tackle one of the biggest…
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Too Many Stakeholders, Not Enough Decisions | Take Five IRL Podcast Episode 104
Everyone wants stakeholder input. But what happens when everyone becomes the decision-maker? In this episode of Take Five IRL, Jeff Lee, Mike Studeman, and Pat Campbell discuss one of the most common causes of slow product development: too many competing priorities and unclear decision ownership....
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Episode 103: Estimates Are Wrong!
Is estimation actually helping your team, or just creating the illusion of predictability? In this episode of Take Five IRL, Mike Studeman and Pat Campbell challenge one of the most common assumptions in Agile and product development: that better estimates lead to better outcomes. The reality?...
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Putting Lipstick on a Pig Isn't Transformation
💄🐷 You can't put lipstick on a pig and call it transformation.That's the hard truth behind most agile transformations.Organizations invest in training, rename roles, and add new ceremonies—but if leadership doesn't change the underlying system, nothing really changes.In this week's Take 5 IRL...
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Your Agile Transformation Isn't Failing. Your Funding Model Is.
Most Agile transformations focus on teams, ceremonies, frameworks, and tools. Yet one of the biggest barriers to agility often sits somewhere else entirely: the way work gets funded.Organizations spend years trying to improve delivery while still operating under project funding models that reward...
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Your Agile Problem Isn't Agile. Its Your Pipeline.
You don't have a Scrum problem. You have a pipeline problem.Many organizations struggling with delivery assume they need more Agile process, more planning, or more ceremonies. But what if the real bottleneck isn't Agile at all?In this episode of Take Five IRL, Mike Studeman, Jeff Lee, and Pat...
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Agile + FDA?
Can Agile really work in FDA-regulated medical device environments? In this episode of Take Five IRL, Mike Stuedemann and Jeff Lee reflect on their experience at DeviceTalks Boston—one of the largest medical device conferences in the U.S.—and unpack what they heard from medtech leaders about...
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Why Enterprise Teams Keep Building the Wrong Thing (Even with Agile)
🚨 Your teams are delivering faster… but are they building the *right* thing?Too many enterprise organizations treat product discovery like a phase — something completed at the beginning before teams disappear for months building solutions based on assumptions.That’s a problem.In this episode of...
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Flow Metrics Won't Save Your Product
🚨 Flow metrics won’t save your product.Cycle time is improving. Throughput is up. Your dashboards are green.But what if your team is just getting better at building the wrong thing?In this episode of the Take5IRL Podcast, agilityIRL partners Mike Stuedemann and Jeff Lee unpack one of the biggest...
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Episode 96: Why Agile Fails
🎙️ On this episode of the Take5IRL Podcast, all three co-hosts—@Mike, @Jeff, and @Pat—tackle a big one: Agile Failure. Why does it happen… and more importantly, how do you fix it? The conversation gets real fast. Most Agile transformations don’t fail at the team level—they fail at the executive...
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Episode 95: Getting to "Done"- Micro Case Study
🎙️ On this episode of the Take5IRL Podcast, @Mike and @Jeff dive into a real-world case from the medical device space where a traditionally hardware-focused organization began shifting toward software-driven product development. With teams coming from different backgrounds, they needed a new way...
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Episode 94: S*** We Hate About Agile Pt 3: Velocity
🎙️ On this episode of the Take5IRL Podcast, all three co-hosts—@Mike, @Jeff, and @Pat—continue the series S*** We Hate About Agile: Velocity! Pat brings this one to the table as they come full circle in the series. He shares how he started his career loving velocity… but after years of…
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Episode 93: S*** We Hate About Agile Pt 2: Story Points
🎙️ On this episode of the Take5IRL Podcast, all three co-hosts—@Mike, @Jeff, and @Pat continuing the series of S*** We Hate About Agile: Story Point Edition! Mike opens with a hot take: while he appreciates the theory behind story points, the real-world application often falls apart. In his…
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Episode 92: S*** We Hate About Agile
🎙️ On the first episode of Take5IRL Podcast, all three of our co-hosts, @Mike, @Jeff, and @Pat start a new series, S*** We Hate About Agile. Jeff Lee kicks things off by calling out one of his biggest frustrations—those all-too-familiar “Agile is dead” posts flooding LinkedIn. Sparked by the...
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Episode 91: Little's Law
🎙️ In this episode of the Take5IRL podcast, hosts @Pat and @Mike wrap up their series on flow metrics with a deep dive into Little’s Law—a foundational concept for understanding how work really flows through a system. Little’s Law—Work in Progress = Throughput × Cycle Time—shows why delivery…
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Episode 90: Wait Time is Waste Time
🎙️ In this episode of the Take5IRL podcast, hosts @Pat and @Mike dig into another critical flow metric: wait time—often overlooked, but deeply impactful. Wait time is waste time. Whether it's handoffs, approvals, or stalled work, every pause in your process delays value delivery. And since wait...
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Episode 89: Master Throughput
🎙️ In this episode of the Take5IRL podcast, hosts @Pat and @Mike explore another essential flow metric: throughput—the number of work items completed over a given period of time. They break down how throughput differs from velocity, emphasizing that throughput is an empirical, outcome-based...
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Episode 88: What is Cycle Time?
🎙️ In this episode of the Take5IRL podcast, hosts @Pat and @Mike explore another key flow metric: cycle time. Cycle time measures the duration from one point in your workflow to another—making it one of the most honest and revealing Agile metrics for productivity. While it needs consistency to…
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Episode 87: Conquer WIP
🎙️ In this episode of the Take5IRL podcast, hosts @Pat and @Mike dive into one of the most critical—and misunderstood—flow metrics in Agile: Work in Process (WIP). WIP can be a powerful indicator of a team’s progress, but it’s also one of the toughest metrics to define and manage. Without…
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Episode 86: What are Flow Metrics?
🎙️ In this episode of the Take5IRL podcast, hosts @Pat and @Mike dig into common fallacies around work processes that often get in the way of effective delivery. Their discussion leads to a deeper look at flow metrics—what they are, why they matter, and how they help organizations move value...
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Episode 85: What is an ASPC?
🎙️In this episode of the take5IRL podcast, hosts @Pat and @Mike dive into what it truly means to be an Advanced SAFe Practice Consultant (ASPC)—one of the highest distinctions in the SAFe community. Pat, one of the original 30 trainers worldwide to earn this certification, shares his perspective...
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Episode 84: The SAFe Summit
In this episode of Take5IRL, hosts @Pat and @Mike unpack insights from the recent SAFe Agile Summit. Pat shares his key takeaways from the event, including updates to the SAFe “Big Picture” and a growing emphasis on customizing SAFe to fit an organization’s unique needs. This shift aligns…
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Episode 83: CARS for Teams
🎙️ In this episode of Take5IRL, hosts @Jeff and @Mike introduce agilityIRL’s newest course offering: the Certified Agile Regulatory Specialist (CARS) for Teams. This one-day course is a streamlined, developer-focused version of the original CARS training we’ve offered to product leadership…
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Episode 82: A TAIL of Woe - Improving Medical Device Development
🎙️ In this episode of the Take5IRL podcast, hosts @Jeff and @Pat continue their deep dive into Agile in the medical device industry—this time exploring a new engagement with Client C. After conducting an initial assessment, the team uncovered a familiar challenge: a long tail of QMS (Quality...
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Episode 81: Getting to Done in Medical Devices
In this episode of the Take5IRL podcast, hosts @Jeff and @Mike share their experiences working with two different medical device companies—each navigating agile transformation in its own way. They reflect on the key differences between the two clients, including how they approached sprint...
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Episode 80: ING Case Study -Pt3
🎙️ In this episode of the Take5IRL podcast, host @Mike sits down with @Gijs Valbracht, Agile coach and former global leader at ING Bank. This episode dives into the organizational shifts that followed ING’s successful Agile pilot. Gijs shares how leadership addressed challenges across the...
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Episode 79: ING Case Study - Pt 2
🎙️ In Part 2 of this Take5IRL series, host @Mike continues the conversation with @Gijs Valbracht—Agile coach and former global leader at ING Bank—to explore the real-world challenges behind ING’s transformation. This episode dives into the practical barriers that emerged as the organization…
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Episode 78: ING Case Study - Pt 1
🚀 What does it take to lead a true Agile transformation in a global enterprise? 🎙️ In this episode of Take5IRL, host @Mike sits down with @Gijs Valbracht, Agile coach and former global leader at ING Bank, to explore how ING embraced Lean principles to deliver one of the world’s top-rated…
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Episode 77: AI Foundations Course
🎙️ New Episode: The AI Advantage for Scrum Masters In this episode of our AI Lightning Talks series, host @Mike sits down with @Ben Floyd—Certified Scrum Trainer turned AI expert—to unpack how AI can elevate your role as a Scrum Master and beyond. Learn what AI actually means, how to…
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Episode 76: AI Impact on Scrum Master
In this episode of our AI Lightning Talks series, host @Mike sits down with @Ben Floyd—Certified Scrum Trainer turned AI expert—to explore how AI is becoming an invaluable ally for Scrum Masters. From boosting creativity in retrospectives to generating fresh coaching strategies, Ben shares...
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Episode 75: AI Impact on Product Owner
🎙️ In this episode of our AI Lightning Talks series, host @Mike sits down with @Ben Floyd—Certified Scrum Trainer turned AI expert—to explore what every Product Owner needs to know about working with artificial intelligence. Ben dives into how Product Owners can use AI not just as a buzzword…
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Episode 74: AI Impact on Developers
🎙️ In this episode of our AI Lightning Talks series on the Take5IRL podcast, host @Mike chats with @Ben Floyd—Certified Scrum Trainer and AI innovator—about the growing impact of artificial intelligence on developers. With nearly 40% of developers now being told they need AI skills to stay...
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Episode 73: AI Impact on Product Development
🎙️In this episode of our AI Lightning Talks series of the Take5IRL podcast, host @Mike chats with @Ben Floyd—Certified Scrum Trainer and AI innovator—about how artificial intelligence is transforming agile practices. Ben shares how AI is helping teams build MVPs faster than ever, shrinking...
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Episode 72: Company AI Policy Tips
🎙️ In this episode of our AI Lightning Talks series, host @Mike sits down with @Ben Floyd—Certified Scrum Trainer turned AI expert—to tackle a pressing topic: How can professionals learn and use AI tools when company policies are still unclear? Ben breaks down how to safely explore AI without...
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Episode 71: Medical Alley - MA Summit Recap
🎙️ In this episode of the Take5IRL podcast, our hosts @Mike and @Pat explore agilityIRL’s new partnership with Medical Alley, the nation’s leading network at the intersection of healthcare and innovation. Together, they break down what this collaboration means for agilityIRL clients, how it...
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Episode 70: How to Get Started with AI
🎙️ In this kickoff episode of our new AI series, host @Mike sits down with @Ben Floyd—Certified Scrum Trainer turned AI expert—to explore how innovators are navigating the world of artificial intelligence. Ben shares his 3 unique tips to working with AI tools. Whether you're new to AI or looking...
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Episode 69: Agile for Hardware - case study
🎙️ How Agile Transformed a Hardware Company’s Competitive Edge In this episode of the Take5IRL podcast, our host Jeff Lee is joined by Peter Borsella, co-founder of Big Orange Square, and a leading expert in Agile for hardware. Together, they uncover the fascinating story of a company struggling...
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Episode 68: Agile for Hardware - It's About the Principles
🎙️ In this episode of the Take5IRL podcast, our host @Jeff is joined by @Peter Borsella, co-founder of Big Orange Square with Hubert Smits and a leading expert in Agile for hardware. Together, they dive into the unique challenges of applying Agile in hardware development—a world where…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Our product vision for take5IRL is to provide members of the Agile community with an idea that they can incorporate into their daily lives to make them more effective. In every episode, Jeff Lee and Mike Stuedemann share Scrum wisdom that will enhance your Scrum Team, overall organization, and most importantly- your leadership skills. Tune in every week for Agile insights in 5 minutes and gain applicable tips to improve your organizations, teams, and life.
HOSTED BY
agilityIRL
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does take5IRL Podcast have?
take5IRL Podcast currently has 117 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is take5IRL Podcast about?
Our product vision for take5IRL is to provide members of the Agile community with an idea that they can incorporate into their daily lives to make them more effective. In every episode, Jeff Lee and Mike Stuedemann share Scrum wisdom that will enhance your Scrum Team, overall organization, and most...
How often does take5IRL Podcast release new episodes?
take5IRL Podcast publishes regularly with 117 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to take5IRL Podcast?
You can listen to take5IRL Podcast on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts take5IRL Podcast?
take5IRL Podcast is created and hosted by agilityIRL.
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