This document discusses the top 5 problems with distributed agile teams and how to solve them. The top 5 problems are: 1) Teams are in the dark without proper communication. 2) Cultural differences create misunderstandings. 3) Priorities can differ between global and local teams. 4) Communication breaks down over long distances. 5) It's difficult to understand what other teams are working on without transparency. The document recommends giving teams more autonomy through self-organization, promoting empathy, providing engaged product owners, using tools like asynchronous chat and video, and allocating budgets for travel and training to facilitate collaboration across sites.

1. The top 5 problems with
distributed agile
& how to solve them
By
Hugo Messer

2. What is distributed?

4. 1. About Hugo
2. Top 5 problems
3. Bullet for leadership?
4. Magic bullets
5. What else?

5. About
Hugo

9. 2004: TRIP TO INDIA

10. bridge-global.com

11. 2008
INDIA

12. Ekipa.co

13. Ekipa.co/ebooks

14. Ekipa.co/academy

15. The European
Market
The 5
problems

16. US versus THEM
# 1

17. Teams are in the dark
# 2

19. Culture is a mystery
# 3

20. Global vs Local
Collaborative vs Competitive
Consultative vs Decisive
Task-oriented vs Relationship-oriented
Keeping opinions to yourself vs Voicing your opinion
Agreeable vs Willing to disagree
Question authority vs Do as you’re told
Culture affects teamwork

22. 43% of teams with 16+
locations report they never
have issues because of culture!
Survey

23. We stop communicating
# 4

24. #5: The black box

25. The European
Market
The
leadership
bullet?

26. 1. Self organisation

27. Fewer rules

28. Less hierarchy

29. More freedom

30. Let teams figure out stuff

31. 2. Empathy

32. Stimulate empathy on 4 levels

33. 3. Engaged product
owners with time

34. Magic
bullets

35. Agile collaboration: distributed team canvas

36. How do we take a project from A to Z?
process
scrum Proxy
PO

37. culture
How to manage cultural differences?
Culture
canvas
Travel
budget

38. The culture Canvas

39. Roles & responsibilities
Who does what & where?
Meddlers
game
Process
manager

40. tools
A-sync
chatvideo!
What tools do we use and how?

41. Knowledge transfer
How do we make everyone familiar with our product?
Online
wiki
User
talks

42. Wrap up
1. Move power to the teams
2. Make Product Owners available
3. Give budget for travel & training
4. Hand over the right tools

43. get in touch
www.hugomesser.com
hugo@ekipa.co
@hugomesser