The Agile Mentors Podcast is taking a short summer break, but that does not mean the conversation is stopping. In this special update, Brian shares what is ahead for the show and introduces a new podcast exploring one of the biggest questions facing modern teams: what happens when AI becomes part of how work gets done?

Overview

As the Agile Mentors Podcast pauses new episodes for the summer, Brian takes a few minutes to reflect on what this community has explored together over the years. While Scrum, Agile, product ownership, leadership, and coaching have been recurring topics, the deeper theme has always been people: how teams learn, collaborate, make decisions, and improve over time.

Brian also shares details about his new podcast, People Over Prompts, which will focus on the changing relationship between humans and AI at work. As AI moves beyond being a simple tool and becomes a more active collaborator, organizations are being challenged to rethink team structures, workflows, accountability, and decision-making. What does a team look like when every person is supported by multiple AI agents? What responsibilities should remain firmly human? And how do we preserve judgment, creativity, and shared understanding in an AI-enabled workplace? This episode offers a preview of those conversations while looking ahead to what comes next for both podcasts.

References and resources mentioned in the show:

People Over Prompts podcast #82: The Intersection of AI and Agile with Emilia Breton #175: When AI Makes Agile Teams Worse with Hunter Hillegas AI Doesn’t Eliminate Agile Teams — It Increases the Need for Great Ones by Mike Cohn Subscribe to the Agile Mentors Podcast

Want to get involved?

This show is designed for you, and we’d love your input.

• Enjoyed what you heard today? Please leave a rating and a review. It really helps, and we read every single one.
• Got an Agile subject you’d like us to discuss or a question that needs an answer? Share your thoughts with us at podcast@mountaingoatsoftware.com

This episode’s presenters are:

Brian Milner is a Certified Scrum Trainer®, Certified Scrum Professional®, Certified ScrumMaster®, and Certified Scrum Product Owner®, and host of the Agile Mentors Podcast training at Mountain Goat Software. He's passionate about making a difference in people's day-to-day work, influenced by his own experience of transitioning to Scrum and seeing improvements in work/life balance, honesty, respect, and the quality of work.

Retrospectives are supposed to help teams improve, but for many teams they slowly become rushed, repetitive, or skipped altogether. In this episode, Brian Milner and Cort Sharp unpack why retrospectives lose their value and what Scrum Masters and leaders can do to make them useful again.

Overview

When a team stops engaging in retrospectives, it is usually a symptom of something deeper. Sometimes the format has become stale. Sometimes the team no longer feels safe being honest. And sometimes the biggest issue is that retrospectives create plenty of discussion but very little meaningful change.

In this conversation, Brian and Cort explore the most common reasons retrospectives begin to fail and how teams can rebuild trust in the process. They discuss the importance of psychological safety, why teams should focus on fewer actions instead of trying to fix everything at once, and how Scrum Masters can better tailor retrospectives to the personalities and working styles of their teams. They also share practical ideas for making retrospectives more engaging, more actionable, and more valuable over time.

References and resources mentioned in the show:

Cort Sharp Amy Edmonson, Psychological Safety #139: The Retrospective Reset with Cort Sharp #141: Cooking Up a Killer Retrospective with Brian Milner The Empirical Retrospective Approach by Mike Cohn Subscribe to the Agile Mentors Podcast

Want to get involved?

This show is designed for you, and we’d love your input.

• Enjoyed what you heard today? Please leave a rating and a review. It really helps, and we read every single one.
• Got an Agile subject you’d like us to discuss or a question that needs an answer? Share your thoughts with us at podcast@mountaingoatsoftware.com

This episode’s presenters are:

Brian Milner is a Certified Scrum Trainer®, Certified Scrum Professional®, Certified ScrumMaster®, and Certified Scrum Product Owner®, and host of the Agile Mentors Podcast training at Mountain Goat Software. He's passionate about making a difference in people's day-to-day work, influenced by his own experience of transitioning to Scrum and seeing improvements in work/life balance, honesty, respect, and the quality of work.

Cort Sharp is the Scrum Master of the producing team and the Agile Mentors Community Manager. In addition to his love for Agile, Cort is also a serious swimmer and has been coaching swimmers for five years.

A lot of organizations say they’ve “gone Agile,” but still struggle with missed deadlines, unclear priorities, and teams that feel busy without delivering better outcomes. In this episode, Scott Dunn joins Brian Milner to unpack why Agile ROI is so often misunderstood and what leaders should actually be measuring instead.

Overview

What does a successful Agile transformation actually look like? Too often, organizations adopt Scrum or Agile practices because everyone else is doing it, without first defining the business outcomes they hope to achieve. The result is predictable: teams follow the motions of Agile while leadership struggles to see measurable value.

In this conversation, Brian Milner and Scott Dunn explore why ROI conversations around Agile frequently go off track and how leaders can reconnect Agile practices to meaningful business goals like faster delivery, improved customer satisfaction, stronger collaboration, and better adaptability. They discuss the hidden cost of operationalizing Agile too early, why coaching and leadership alignment still matter, and how the rise of AI makes strong Agile fundamentals more important, not less.

References and resources mentioned in the show:

Scott Dunn #104: Mastering Product Ownership with Mike Cohn #132: Can Nice Guys Finish First? with Scott Dunn Do the Proven Benefits of Agile Training Justify the Costs? by Mike Cohn Subscribe to the Agile Mentors Podcast

Want to get involved?

This show is designed for you, and we’d love your input.

• Enjoyed what you heard today? Please leave a rating and a review. It really helps, and we read every single one.
• Got an Agile subject you’d like us to discuss or a question that needs an answer? Share your thoughts with us at podcast@mountaingoatsoftware.com

This episode’s presenters are:

Brian Milner is a Certified Scrum Trainer®, Certified Scrum Professional®, Certified ScrumMaster®, and Certified Scrum Product Owner®, and host of the Agile Mentors Podcast training at Mountain Goat Software. He's passionate about making a difference in people's day-to-day work, influenced by his own experience of transitioning to Scrum and seeing improvements in work/life balance, honesty, respect, and the quality of work.

Scott Dunn is a Certified Enterprise Coach and Scrum Trainer with over 20 years of experience coaching and training companies like NASA, EMC/Dell Technologies, Yahoo!, Technicolor, and eBay to transition to an agile approach using Scrum.