Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they chat with Joanna Rothman about agile project management. We critique fake corporate agile and discuss the drawbacks of offshoring your development work. We talk about the importance of continuous feedback, continuous delivery and cross-functional teams and we discuss project charters, budgets, scaling, …

And so, the sun sets on another international campaign. Ireland had some highs and some REAL lows. To see us out, Ireland were beaten 5-0 by colonial rivals England in Wembley after 20 minutes of madness which manager Heimir Halgrimsson described as 'giving up'. But for 45 glorious minutes we were right in that game! We were right in that game unti…

4 losses in a row Pep? 4? That's insane! Things have gone from bad to historically bad as Pep Guardiola loses 4 games in a row for the first time in his managerial career as Man City lose 2-1 to Brighton. Too many injuries at once? Or is a certain looming legal issue effecting the club? We've all been there, sitting beside a stranger at 4am in thei…

All eyes were on Ireland it seemed this week as Damien Duff led Shelbourne to a historic League of Ireland win, just three seasons after promotion in a campaign which captured hearts around the world. Fresh off of ignoring Duffers facetime post league win, Jose Mourinho was letting loose with an 8+ minute rant on VAR, the Turkish league, the stink …

Let it be known that nobody goes a full year with just one win in Europe and gets away with it at Manchester United! Erik Ten Hag tenure as United manager finally came to an end after a 3 years of poor league results and great domestic success. We take a look back at where it all went wrong and ask how bad was he really? It's a dark day for footbal…

The most successful international break in pod history as Ireland actually WON a game of football, and it wasn't even against Gibraltar this time! Just as things looked up after beating Finland, Ireland were halted by an impassioned Greece team, honoring their late teammate George Baldock. Lee Carsley's England also lost to the Greeks, prompting Ca…

We are rapidly leaving the 'too early to tell' timezone and starting to see how the Premier League is really shaping up this year. Erik Ten Hag was given the dreaded 2 games to turn it around and managed a a draw against Porto and a draw against Aston Villa, so what happens now? Man United fans nostalgia haas reached sad new levels as they long for…

Is it that time of the year already? It feels like a game that decides the Man United manager's tenure is over comes around earlier every season. Man United suffered an embarassing 3-0 home loss to Tottenham. Another in a long line of poor results which see's the pressure really piled on Erik Ten Hag. After their 'spicy' game last week and the subs…

Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they chat with Jurgen Appelo about the crisis in the agile community. We explore how the agile job market has changed with diminishing roles for agile coaches and scrum masters. And we discuss what people can do now that the agile consulting and training gold rush is over. We talk about the poor quality of a…

A rare one game review of the Premier League this week as Arsenal and Man City played out an absolute classic, but not the type of classic you'd usually expect. Arsenal are insistent on becoming the bad boys of the league, and they could not have picked a worse time in history to decide this. We have a real rivalry on our hands with angry post matc…

One nil to the Arsenal in the North London Derby as Ange Postecoglou's Ultra attacking Tottenham came up short against Mikel Arteta's defensively air tight (yes that's right) Arsenal. Despite it not being the only problem for Tottenham, losing by one goal from another set piece mad Postecoglou look at best naive and at worst stubborn. Despite all t…

One of the worst international breaks in Ireland history comes to a close with yet another 2-0 loss to Greece. Not a great start from Heimir Hallgrimmson, and the knives are already out in the media from former players and pundits. John O'Shea has his work cut out for him to turn this one around. The #Barclaysmen trend has taken social media by sto…

Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they chat with William Malek about the Haier operating model. Haier, a Chinese appliance giant, transitioned from a failing state-owned enterprise to a highly profitable publicly owned organisation with over 5,700 micro enterprises and $50 billion in revenue. We explain how Haier uses an internal marketplace…

A dark day for Irish football as Declan Rice and Jack Grealish come back to haunt us duing an incredibly bleak game in Dublin. What's next for the Irish mens football team we ask, as we seem to look worse every game. We also cast an eye over the rest of the esteemed Nations League. The news never stops at Chelsea, and this week was no different as …

What year is it? Haven't we been here before? A groundhog day episode of the pod as Man United suffer an embarrassing loss to Liverpool where they are totally out managed in a big game as Arne Slot put the pressure on Erik Ten Hag. Arsenal dropped some points thanks to THE LETTER OF THE LAW as Declan Rice tips his way to a red card against Brighton…

Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they chat with Steve Spear, author of a High Velocity Edge, Wiring the Winning Organization and Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System. We discuss how good leaders create a system that makes it easy for people to do quality work when and where it's needed by continually asking, what's the problem a…

Gameweek 2 and the Premier League has already ramped up the madness as only it can. Noni Madueke had a whirlwind 24 hours as he accidentally posts his genuine thoughts on social media about Wolverhampton, then goes and proves it as Chelsea show that maybe they're not so crazy after all by winning 6-2 against Wolves Man United head loss counter is n…

And just like that the Premier League is back. But really, what can actually be taken from the opening gameweek fixtures apart from a certain relegation and how doomed a certain London club are. As the players keep coming in the doors of the Chelsea gym, Raheem Sterling's camp took to social media right before their opening game against Man City as…

Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they chat with Gene Kim, leader of the Enterprise Technology Leadership Conference and author of the Phoenix and Unicorn Projects. Gene describes how DevOps research shows that excellent socio-technical leadership is critical to team success and failure. He explains how technical leaders can dramatically inc…

The time is almost upon us, who will rise above the trials and tribulations this season in the heated battle for second place behind Man City? On the full Ultra's only episode, we go through the contenders and give each of them their reasoning behind why they could finish anywhere from 2nd to 7th. To hear the full bumper 1.5 hour episode head to th…

Dread it, run from it, but a new Premier League season is upon us. But not before the traditional curtain raiser as Man United tried valiantly to stop Man Citys march to a quintuple. Are we set for yet another season of Man City dominance? As the signings keep flooding in to Chelsea, we contrast the amount of signings they've made since the Todd to…

Just 9 more days folks, stick with us! The pre season grinds to a close with possibly the quietest week in pod history. Conor Gallagher's move to Atletico Madrid is confirmed as he is officially kicked out of Chelsea. That'll teach ye for spending your young adult life being thought everything you know by the club! Man United maverick André Onana g…

Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they chat with Arnold Stroobach about the Buurtzorg organization, which decentralized its management and administration to small cross-functional self-managed teams that deliver in-home medical care. Buurtzorg is the Netherlands largest provider of home care with 16,000 clinical staff in more than 1500 local…

We're calmly floating in a metaphorical tire down the river of pre season football. To kick us off we cast an eye at the Olympics and report on all of the scandal and none of the games as it all kicked off between Argentina and Morocco. We brush over the pre season and bring you all of the punches, tugs of war, injuries and bad defending from Chels…

The summer pod is here and while there is no football to talk, off the pitch, ironically, it has been kicking off. After Enzo Fernandes filmed his Argentinian teammates singing an insulting chant about the French national team, there has been severe fallout from Chelsea teammates and even at a presidential level. Gareth Southgate hung his metaphori…

Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they chat with Chris Jones from the Silicon Valley Product Group about the product operating model, emphasising the importance of cross-functional agile product teams. He shares insights on transitioning to a product model. The value of rapid experimentation, product leadership and common pitfalls. And he di…

The Euro 2024 final has passed, a record 4 European championship in the bag for Spain, the years of hurt continue for England. Could Southgate have loosened the shackles a little more? Was there too much focus on Bellingham ball? Did anyone give Spain less of a chance than us? We answer all these questions and more in our final euros episode This e…

The 2024 Euros final is upon us as England will be facing Spain in a battle of two teams who've had very different paths to this game during the tournament. England are through, and its all down to the genius that is Gareth Southgate..or at least that's probably how it will be remembered. You have to feel for the Netherlands after a controversial r…

The Euro's quarter final stage is wrapped up, and could it get any more exciting!? (yes) Here's a little preview of a taster of our quarter final coverage. Toni Kross wrapped up his career as he lived out a lifelong dream of being 'that kind of player' and leaving the boot in on some Spanish wonderkids. Spain got through Germany and into the semi f…

The Euro 2024 last 16 is in the books and we've got a full recap of the whole bloody thing for you. England got past Slovakia by the skin of their teeth thanks to a last minute "bicycle kick" from who else but Jude Bellingham. In one of the most incredible displays from a player of all time (for the wrong reasons), Cristiano Ronaldo seemed to final…

tIn today's preview of this week's BONUS episode, we're taking a look back at the last set of games from during the week. Turkey and Czechia played out a high tension (possibly political?) battle for the ages as Turkey managed to get the win and go through, but not before the most cards shown in a single Euros game in history. A historic win for Ge…

Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they chat with Woody Zuill about mob programming. Woody explains the concept of mob programming where a cross-functional software development team focuses on completing one feature at a time. Woody describes how mobbing has increased the effectiveness of development teams he's worked with by 10 times while r…

As the Euros group stage comes to a conclusion some teams are out and some are still fighting for survival. Scotland are officially out as their bad start turned into a bad run. That makes it 12 tournaments without escaping the group stage for the Scots, 13th times the charm lads! Cristiano Ronaldo entered his giving era as he opted for an easy ass…

It's games games games as the Euro's group stage rolls on, and we've done our best to recap all of the biggest and best stories so far. Our mortal enemy Romelu Lukaku had a bit of a disaster class as Belgium lost their first game to Slovakia, and even though luck was not on Big Rom's side, there were some hints that he still could have done more. A…

The Euros are well and truly underway and we've done our best to round up the group stage so far! In probably the most anticipated debut of the tournament for our listeners, England had their first game against Serbia, and apart from a brief few moments of brilliance from Jude Bellingham, it was a shakey game that England were lucky to win in the e…

Euro 2024 start off with a 5-1 victory for hosts Germany. Scotland brought some 200,000 fans to Munich which only made it uncomfortably reminiscent of Ireland's disastrous 2012 European championships. Toni Kroos, returned to the international side since March, completed 99 percent of his passes as we ask is there any way to stop the metronome behin…

Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they chat with Joel Tosi and Dion Stewart about Dojo's. Dojo's are a six week immersive learning experience where teams learn and practice new ways of working on real work with skilled coaches. We discuss the structure and implementation of Dojos, chartering, coaching dynamics, and frequent feedback loops. W…

The 2024 Euro's is upon us! Join us as we take a look at all of the contenders, the starboys and the just happy to be there's! Will Deschamps solidify his legacy with another French tournament win? Are England doomed to disappoint? What is the latest fall out behind the scenes in the Belgium camp? Are Turkey the dark horses once again despite never…

As part of our latest ULTRAS ONLY bonus episode on Patreon, before we enter in to Euros 2024, we had some international friendlies and a potential international incident to ease us in. John O'Shea is still managing Ireland, and they are somehow winning games now as they beat Hungary 2-1 in a quarter full Aviva stadium, but does it really matter? So…

The last Champions League as we know it came to an end in familiar fashion, with Real Madrid lifting the trophy as a heartbroken Marco Reus, Mats Hummels and Borussia Dortmund looked on. We go through the game Füllkrug chance by agonising Füllkrug chance, as Dortmund fought valiently until it was time for Madrid to do what they do. The new Zidane, …

On the latest No Nonsense Ultra's Only Preview.. Olympiacos FC had one of the greatest nights in their 100 year history as they became the first Greek team to win a European trophy after beating Fiorentina in extra time to win the Conference League. Further solidifying the Conference League as one of the best things going in football, giving clubs …

Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they discuss product management with John Cutler, famous for his newsletter The Beautiful Mess. We dive into the purpose of product management as a driver of profitable growth. And we discuss how to use the north star framework to align your organisation around common goals. We examine how to use product roa…

An all time great dramatic FA Cup run came to a pretty shocking end as Man United in one of their worst seasons in recent history managed to beat Man City comfortably in the final. With rumours before the game that Erik Ten Hag would be getting sacked regardless of the result, it seems now that everything has changed thanks to his starboys Mainoo a…

On the latest No Nonsense Ultra's preview, the impossible Leverkeusen dream proved impossible as their unbeaten run came to an end with Atalanta winning the Europa League, thanks to an incredible hattrick from former pod favourite, Ademola Lookman. The managerial merry-go-round is in full effect as Pochettino leaves Chelsea by "mutual" consent just…

As the curtain falls on another Premier League season, things wrapped up pretty much as expected. Arsenal are the latest victims of the Man City machine, as a near perfect Premier League run in was over 2 minutes in to the final day thanks to a brace from player of the season Phil Foden. 4 in a row now for Manchester City, and 6 of the last 7 leagu…

In a jam packed Ultra's only epiosde we discuss how it took just under a full season for Ange Postecoglou to be hit full force by the Spurs mentality, after one of the stangest potential deciding games of all time as Tottenham faced Man City. Aston Villa however, were much more familiar with the history of the Tottenham and celebrated in style as t…

Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they discuss UX research with Dr. Nick Fine. Nick explains what to expect from a UX researcher, how to do user research well, and the challenges that researchers have to overcome to obtain valid results. Whether you're a product manager, designer, or developer this episode is packed with actionable insights,…

In yet another summing up of the season, Old Trafford literally caved in around Ten Hag's Man United as Arsenal saw off their last "top 6" challenge of the season. In a title race that's tighter than ever, it's never felt so hopeless. As Arsenal's near perfect record doesn't look like it will be enough to stop the Man City machine. But you can't sa…

After missing our chance to record earlier in the week we briefly catch up on the Casemiro character assasination by Jamie Carragher after Man United's 4-0 loss to Crystal Palace. We then get into the meat of the episode, our little glimpse into this weeks Ultra's only European episode. We cover the Bayern downfall which may have been spurred on by…

The greatest Champion's League of all time continues with some more top notch knockout games. Real Madrid looked as unstoppable as ever while Bayern also looked pretty damn good in a 2-2 draw, if only it weren't for that darn Kim Min-jae says Tuchel. Dortmund won the home leg against PSG thanks to a goal from the young as ever Füllkrug and a star p…