Future State Now: A Business Technology Podcast

Episodes

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  EP 05: Value Engineering vs AI Cost Cutting 20.10.2026 39m

  When AI spending lands in the operating budget, the first thing many companies cut is people. This episode explains why that happens and what to do instead. Show Notes Why AI costs end up as headcount cuts: AI token spend is an operating expense, usually charged to IT, and labor is the easiest line to cut once capital and SaaS commitments are locked in. Cost myopia: cost is right in front of you, and value is further away. Leaders focus on cost because it's easier to control and because cause and effect between investment and value is hard to prove. Value engineering, explained: a practice that began at GE in the 1940s. It breaks a capability down into what its parts cost and the value each part produces. Value is benefits minus cost per unit of time. What chargebacks hide: centralized infrastructure costs left IT spend understated by 40–60%, until a corporate split forced every dollar to land in someone's budget. Avoiding the wrong investment: a value engineering analysis prevented a $20M platform spend and found that the real problem was back orders. Measuring what seems unmeasurable: if you find the right indicator, you can measure things that look intangible. Where to start: change is driven by pain more often than by vision. Fix what's in your control first, then deliver value in 90-day vertical slices that fund the next step. Key Moments  0:00 Cold open: measuring the unmeasurable 1:00 Why does AI cost cutting lead to layoffs instead of smarter IT budget decisions? AI spend, especially tokens, is an operating expense, and it usually lands in IT. Capital spend and SaaS contracts are locked in, so labor is the easiest line left to cut. The real problem is cost myopia: leaders manage the cost in front of them because value is harder to see and harder to prove. 11:23 What is value engineering, and how does it measure business value? It's a discipline that began at GE in the 1940s. You break a capability, process or value stream into what each part costs and the value it contributes. The basic test is simple: value is benefits minus cost per unit of time. 14:02 How do IT chargebacks and cost-only budgeting hide the true cost of technology? Chargebacks move costs around without tying them to value, so nobody owns the real number. In one company, chargebacks hid enough infrastructure spend that IT costs were understated by 40–60%. In another, a value engineering analysis stopped a $20M platform investment and pointed the money at the real problem, which was order fulfillment. 22:27 Can internal teams run a value engineering analysis and measure intangible benefits? Yes. These skills already exist in finance and engineering teams. Almost anything can be measured once you find the right indicator. 26:26 Will value engineering prevent AI-driven layoffs and improve AI ROI? Not on its own, but better math is better than no math. Financial models keep you from making the wrong cuts and the wrong investments, and they keep productivity gains from disappearing without ever turning into value. 30:32 How do leaders move from cost cutting to value-based decision making? Not by starting with culture, because culture is an effect, not a cause. Start where the pain is and fix what's in your own control first. Then deliver value in 90-day slices, and let each one fund the next. Follow Us On Social LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/liminalarcgroup Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/liminalarcgroup Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/liminalarcgroup/ X: https://x.com/liminalarcgroup
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  EP 04: Increasing Decision Capacity Post AI 15.10.2026 29m

  In this podcast, Stacy Gordon sits down with John Greisner, a management consultant at LiminalArc, to explore why AI doesn't remove your software delivery bottleneck so much as move it. Drawing on Goldratt's theory of constraints from The Goal, John walks through what happens once engineering gets fast and cheap: the real slow point shifts to product management, funding cadence, and how much change your customers can actually absorb.   Stacy and John dig into why flooding your backlog with every new idea only makes that constraint worse, and why deciding better, smaller, and more often works instead. Watch so you can stop chasing engineering speed as the finish line, start treating decision capacity as your real constraint, and finally get the return on AI adoption that an operating model built for a slower era has been quietly blocking.   Follow Us On Social LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/liminalarcgroup Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/liminalarcgroup Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/liminalarcgroup/ X: https://x.com/liminalarcgroup
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  EP 03: Deliberate and Data-Driven App Modernization 14.10.2026 38m

  Discover how organizations use business capability heatmaps and domain alignment to make deliberate, data-driven, and defensible modernization decisions that deliver business value at every step of the journey. Follow Us On Social LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/liminalarcgroup Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/liminalarcgroup Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/liminalarcgroup/ X: https://x.com/liminalarcgroup
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  EP 02: The Real Reason 79% of App Modernizations Fail 13.10.2026 24m

  Nearly 80% of enterprise application modernization efforts fail, and the reason has nothing to do with choosing the wrong technology. In this conversation, Melissa Roberts, business architect and value engineer at LiminalArc, explains why modernization programs are designed to produce technology outcomes rather than business results, and why that design flaw kills them. Melissa Roberts and Stacy Gordon walk through the four primary drivers forcing enterprises to modernize, the IT/business alignment problem that stalls most programs before they start, and how a capabilities-driven strategy changes what a modernization program is designed to deliver. If you're leading or influencing a legacy modernization initiative, this is the diagnostic you've been missing. Wanting More?Why Most App Modernization Efforts Fail, and How a Capabilities-Driven Strategy Can Stop the Billion-Dollar Bleed: https://go.liminalarc.co/75j Follow Us On Social LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/liminalarcgroup Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/liminalarcgroup Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/liminalarcgroup/ X: https://x.com/liminalarcgroup
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  EP 01: A Working AI Pilot Proves Nothing 23.09.2026 46m

  A working AI pilot proves less than most executives assume. This episode digs into why AI initiatives clear a demo and then stall in production, and the constraint is rarely the model. It's whether the organization's data, applications, and ownership structure are actually ready to run on it. That readiness gap shows up two ways: AI use turning into the next shadow IT, and teams mistaking individual productivity wins for organizational proof. The conversation also breaks down a framework for sorting what AI can already do inside a business from what it can't do yet, and why context, not model quality, is becoming the real differentiator. Host Stacy Gordon talks with LiminalArc CEO Mike Cottmeyer in the relaunch episode of Future State Now, formerly SoundNotes, tracing the company's shift from LeadingAgile to LiminalArc and what AI transformation means as the next chapter of enterprise change.   Why AI Fails and What You Can Do About It  Get the eBook > https://go.liminalarc.co/jtu   Follow Us On Social LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/liminalarcgroup Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/liminalarcgroup Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/liminalarcgroup/ X: https://x.com/liminalarcgroup   Visit Our Website https://www.liminalarc.co  
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  How Cloud Rescue Enables Enterprise Transformation 13.06.2024 1h 6m

  Many companies are moving to the cloud only to realize that they aren’t getting the cloud benefits. Not only are they not able to improve performance and scalability, but they’re also paying more than they were before. The reality is that the economic drivers pushing these companies into the cloud, inevitably lead to large lift and shifts where monolithic, legacy applications get moved to the cloud without the necessary modernization required to reap the rewards of cloud migration. Today, those same companies that moved to the cloud are looking to move back on-prem or toward a hybrid environment to cut costs, but what if there’s another way? What if you could strategically refactor your applications after they’ve been moved to the cloud and rescue your cloud initiative? Learn how cloud rescue can get you the benefits of the cloud while reducing costs.
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  How to Economically Justify Transformation by Cutting Down on Cloud Costs 06.06.2024 1h 21m

  For many organizations, cloud costs are spiraling out of control, causing them to rethink their cloud commitment. Some are exiting the cloud altogether and moving back on-prem. But what if there was a different way? An iterative and incremental way to start reaping the benefits of the cloud today without disrupting innovation or performance. In this panel discussion, we explore how LeadingAgile helps our clients reduce their cloud spend and economically justify transformation without disrupting things like innovation and performance. Contacting Mike Cottmeyer If you’d like to contact Mike, you can reach him at: LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/mike-cottmeyerLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/cottmeyer/X: x.com/mcottmeyerEmail: [email protected] Contacting Len Greski If you'd like to contact Len, you can reach him at: Email: [email protected]: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonardgreski/ Contacting Matt Van Vleet If you'd like to contact Matt, you can reach him at: Email: [email protected] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-van-vleet-8788342/ Contacting Rick McMichael  If you'd like to contact Rick, you can reach him at: Email: [email protected]: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickmcmichael/
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  How the Need for Security is Driving the Need for Transformation 23.05.2024 1h 23m

  What are some of the challenges of securing a legacy monolith in the midst of a technology modernization project? What's the impact of AI on infrastructure and security? And why are we partnering with Rampart AI to ensure our clients can become cloud-ready safely and securely? We answer all this and more in our latest podcast. Contacting Mike Cottmeyer If you’d like to contact Mike, you can reach him at: LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/mike-cottmeyerLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/cottmeyer/X: x.com/mcottmeyerEmail: [email protected] Contacting Lee Krause If you'd like to contact Lee, you can reach him at: Rampart AI: https://www.rampart-ai.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lee-krause-512763/
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  How to Align Your Product-Driven Organization to the Customer Experience 04.04.2024 30m

  A big part of becoming a truly product-driven organization is getting better at understanding the needs of your customers, and improving your products to meet their needs. In this video, Mary, Dave, and Lance take on the topic of customer journey mapping and show you how this tool can help you align around the needs of your customer. They’ll explain how this technique can identify the customer experience and put specific actions in place to court correct and wee out any of the negative experiences customers are having with your product. Contacting Mary Lloyd If you’d like to contact Mary, you can reach her at: LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/mary-lloyd/LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mary-lawson-lloyd/Email: [email protected] Contacting Lance Kind If you'd like to contact Lance, you can reach him at: LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/lance-kind/LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lancer-kind/X: x.com/LancerKindEmail: [email protected] Contacting Dave Prior If you’d like to contact Dave, you can reach him at: LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungoX: x.com/mrsungoEmail: [email protected] If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to [email protected] Interested in CSM or CSPO Training? You can find all the details at www.leadingagile.com/scrum-training/
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  Product Development: Using Systems Thinking to Achieve Better Business Outcomes 02.04.2024 49m

  We’re back with an all-new episode of SoundNotes where we discuss the nature of products. What are they? How are they different from services and experiences? And does it really even matter? Watch this week’s spirited conversation to see how we’re thinking about and defining products, and discover how your organization might be spinning its wheels by even having the debate. Contacting Mary Lloyd If you’d like to contact Mary, you can reach her at: LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/mary-lloyd/LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mary-lawson-lloyd/Email: [email protected] Contacting Andrew Young If you'd like to contact Andrew, you can reach him at: LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/andrew-young/LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/atyoung/Twitter: x.com/exclamation101Email: [email protected] Contacting Dave Prior If you’d like to contact Dave, you can reach him at: LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungoX: x.com/mrsungoEmail: [email protected] If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to [email protected] Interested in CSM or CSPO Training? You can find all the details at www.leadingagile.com/scrum-training/
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  Using Value Stream Maps to Identify Improvement Opportunities 28.03.2024 32m

  In this third installment of our value stream mapping series, Mary shows Lance and Dave how to apply the technique of value stream mapping to your business architecture and capabilities so that you can make more informed, intentional, data-driven decisions to improve your business. Contacting Mary Lloyd If you’d like to contact Mary, you can reach her at: LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/mary-lloyd/LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mary-lawson-lloyd/Email: [email protected] Contacting Lance Kind If you'd like to contact Lance, you can reach him at: LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/lance-kind/LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lancer-kind/X: x.com/LancerKindEmail: [email protected] Contacting Dave Prior If you’d like to contact Dave, you can reach him at: LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungoX: x.com/mrsungoEmail: [email protected] If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to [email protected] Interested in CSM or CSPO Training? You can find all the details at www.leadingagile.com/scrum-training/
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  Quantifying Waste Reduction Using Value Stream Maps 21.03.2024 30m

  Dave Prior is back again with Lance Kind and Mary Lloyd to talk about value stream mapping. In the last installment of this miniseries, the team gave a high-level introduction into what a value stream map is and why they’re important. On today’s episode of SoundNotes, they discuss how use value stream mapping to demonstrate the economic benefit of reducing waste in the system. Contacting Mary Lloyd If you’d like to contact Mary, you can reach her at: LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/mary-lloyd/LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mary-lawson-lloyd/Email: [email protected] Contacting Lance Kind If you'd like to contact Lance, you can reach him at: LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/lance-kind/LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lancer-kind/X: x.com/LancerKindEmail: [email protected] Contacting Dave Prior If you’d like to contact Dave, you can reach him at: LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungoX: x.com/mrsungoEmail: [email protected] If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to [email protected] Interested in CSM or CSPO Training? You can find all the details at www.leadingagile.com/scrum-training/
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  An Introduction to Value Stream Mapping 14.03.2024 28m

  Dave Prior sits down with LeadingAgile consultants Mary Lloyd and Lance Kind to discuss value stream mapping. What is it?  Why use it at all? And when should you use this technique? Together, they answer these questions, dig into an example of value stream mapping, and explore some use cases for the technique. Contacting Mary Lloyd  If you’d like to contact Mary, you can reach her at: LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/mary-lloyd/LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mary-lawson-lloyd/Email: [email protected] Contacting Lance Kind If you'd like to contact Lance, you can reach him at:  LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/lance-kind/LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lancer-kind/X: x.com/LancerKindEmail: [email protected] Contacting Dave Prior If you’d like to contact Dave, you can reach him at: LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungoX: x.com/mrsungoEmail: [email protected] If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to [email protected] Interested in CSM or CSPO Training? You can find all the details at www.leadingagile.com/scrum-training/
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  Avoid These Common Cloud Transformation Mistakes 29.02.2024 43m

  In this episode of SoundNotes, Dave sits down with Dennis Stevens to discuss cloud transformation and why you might want to step back, take a deep breath, and come up with a more strategic and planful approach to moving to the cloud. Over the course of the conversation, they dig into some of the anti-patterns Dennis sees in the market that cause cloud transformations to fail, and they explore the benefits of having a strong cloud readiness plan and how you can begin to ensure that your plan is integrated with your business strategy. Video Mentions Dennis’ Blog: Navigating the Challenges of Cloud Migration Contacting Dennis Stevens If you’d like to contact Dennis, you can reach him at: LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/dennis-stevensLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dennisstevens/Email: [email protected] Contacting Dave Prior If you’d like to contact Dave, you can reach him at: LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungoX: x.com/mrsungoEmail: [email protected] If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to [email protected] Interested in CSM or CSPO Training? You can find all the details at www.leadingagile.com/scrum-training/
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  Empathy, Trust, and Alignment: Stakeholder Management Tactics for Agile Leaders 22.02.2024 52m

  In the face of change, many people inside large organizations are often left with more questions than answers. Do I have the ability to lead my team through this? Do I possess the necessary skills? Will my role become obsolete? Is my job safe? A good change management strategy accounts for these questions and tries to reduce the angst surrounding the change by deploying solid stakeholder management practices. Today, Mike and Dave sit down to discuss how we approach stakeholder management and reveal some of the tactics we deploy during a transformation to create safe, win-win situations for all those participating in the change effort. Contacting Mike Cottmeyer If you’d like to contact Mike, you can reach him at: LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/mike-cottmeyerLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/cottmeyer/X: x.com/mcottmeyerEmail: [email protected] Contacting Dave Prior If you’d like to contact Dave, you can reach him at: LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungoX: x.com/mrsungoEmail: [email protected] If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to [email protected] Interested in CSM or CSPO Training? You can find all the details at www.leadingagile.com/scrum-training/
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  4 Truths You Need to Know to Make Agile Work 25.01.2024 53m

  A couple years ago, Mike Cottmeyer did a webinar series on the fundamental building blocks of agility. These days, we’re calling these building blocks the physics of agile. Today, Mike and Dave get together to discuss the four laws that make up the physics of agile and why these laws must be taken into account to make agile work inside large organizations. Contacting Mike Cottmeyer If you’d like to contact Mike, you can reach him at: LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/mike-cottmeyerLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/cottmeyer/X: x.com/mcottmeyerEmail: [email protected] Contacting Dave Prior If you’d like to contact Dave, you can reach him at: LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungoX: x.com/mrsungoEmail: [email protected] If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to [email protected] Interested in CSM or CSPO Training? You can find all the details at www.leadingagile.com/scrum-training/
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  A Systems Approach to Organizational Change 18.01.2024 1h 5m

  Large organizations that want to stick around and maintain their competitive edge have to stop treating everything in their business like a distinct set of processes. How your technology is architected, your organization is designed, and your teaming strategies, resource management, governance, OKRs, and KPIs are all part of the same system. And you need to start treating them that way. In this podcast, Mike Cottmeyer and Dave Prior talk about the current state of Agile, how a lack of systems thinking is tanking the market, and the role of systems thinking as the transformation industry moves forward. Contacting Mike Cottmeyer If you’d like to contact Mike, you can reach him at: LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/mike-cottmeyerLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/cottmeyer/X: x.com/mcottmeyerEmail: [email protected] Contacting Dave Prior If you’d like to contact Dave, you can reach him at: LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungoX: x.com/mrsungoEmail: [email protected] If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to [email protected] Interested in CSM or CSPO Training? You can find all the details at www.leadingagile.com/scrum-training/
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  What Do You Do with Underperforming Team Members? 16.01.2024 9m

  Carrying work over from one sprint to the next is a thorn in the side of many scrum teams. And often, it’s due to one or two team members who aren’t quite carrying their fair share of the weight. We recently covered this topic in a previous podcast but got some other cool ideas from our listeners that we wanted to discuss. So, in this quick podcast, we explore even more possible solutions for scrum teams dealing with an underperforming team member. Podcast Mentions What Do You Do When One Dev is Slowing You Down?  Contacting Vic Bonacci If you’d like to contact Vic you can reach him at: LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/victor-bonacciLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vbonacci/Email: [email protected] Contacting Dave Prior If you’d like to contact Dave, you can reach him at: LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungoX: x.com/mrsungoEmail: [email protected] If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to [email protected] Interested in CSM or CSPO Training? You can find all the details at www.leadingagile.com/scrum-training/
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  A Better Way to Approach Culture Change 11.01.2024 1h 17m

  Mike and Dave sit down to reflect on 2023 and discuss some of the biggest revelations we had as a company. Together, Mike and Dave explore how LeadingAgile is already applying our latest learnings to our client engagements and the impact of them on the future of the company. Additionally, in this sprawling conversation, the guys chat about whether personal agility plays a role inside your organization, the history of Agile, Mike’s beef with estimation, and the disconnect between Agile and “the business.” Contacting Mike Cottmeyer If you’d like to contact Mike, you can reach him at: LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/mike-cottmeyerLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/cottmeyer/X: x.com/mcottmeyerEmail: [email protected] Contacting Dave Prior If you’d like to contact Dave, you can reach him at: LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungoX: x.com/mrsungoEmail: [email protected] If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to [email protected] Interested in CSM or CSPO Training? You can find all the details at www.leadingagile.com/scrum-training/
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  What Do ScrumMasters Do All Day? 04.01.2024 7m

  Thinking about becoming a ScrumMaster? Or maybe you recently got your CSM Certification, and you’re still trying to get your footing. Check out this quick podcast to learn what ScrumMasters do all day and gain some insights into the softer skills required of a ScrumMaster. Links From the Podcast ScrumMaster Checklist https://scrummasterchecklist.org/ 42 Tasks for a ScrumMaster’s Job https://agiletrail.com/2011/11/14/42-tasks-for-a-scrum-masters-job/ Contacting Vic Bonacci If you’d like to contact Vic you can reach him at: LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/victor-bonacciLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vbonacci/Email: [email protected] Contacting Dave Prior If you’d like to contact Dave, you can reach him at: LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungoX: x.com/mrsungoEmail: [email protected] If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to [email protected] Interested in CSM or CSPO Training? You can find all the details at www.leadingagile.com/scrum-training/