Kevin Thiels

The real breakthrough in AI isn't talking to a machine, but delegating to a proactive partner. Moving beyond chat-based bottlenecks allows for a shift from reactive steering to high-level outcome management.

Spec drift is the quiet divergence between stakeholder expectations, documentation, and actual system behavior. This systemic problem creates a hidden tax on delivery that documentation alone cannot solve.

Agentic AI represents a fundamental evolution from chatbots to autonomous systems that can reason, plan, and act independently. Organizations are rapidly moving beyond experimental tools to strategic deployments that reshape business operations.

Cloud solutions deliver computing resources through the internet rather than on-premise infrastructure, encompassing SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS across public, private, and hybrid deployment models. They're transforming businesses by reducing costs, enabling scalability, and fostering innovation while democratizing access to powerful technology.

Modern sustainable IT architecture focuses on minimizing environmental impact throughout the technology lifecycle, from energy-efficient data centers to green software development. The shift toward eco-friendly IT practices is driven by global awareness, regulatory requirements, cost savings, and the recognition that sustainability is no longer optional but necessary.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator separates people into 16 personality types, helping individuals and teams understand their strengths, weaknesses, and interaction patterns. In the workplace, MBTI provides managers and employees clarity on how to collaborate effectively and unlock everyone's full potential.

Summer vacations slow down development velocity as team members and Product Owners take time off, often leading to more blockers. Rather than stopping iterations, plan accordingly and measure velocity to understand seasonal patterns without judging the team.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced teams into remote work, challenging the work-life balance as parents juggled kids at home while building MVP applications in days. While digital tools enabled the transition, the question remains whether companies will embrace remote work permanently or return to requiring face-to-face collaboration.

Treasure Hunters is a retrospective theme where teams map their sprint goal as treasure on an island, plotting positive events above and negative events below a dotted path. This visual, engaging format helps teams reflect on what helped or hindered their journey toward the goal.

Being a Product Owner is a full-time job, requiring constant engagement with backlog grooming, story writing, stakeholder discussions, and team support. The best Product Owners are fully committed and actively engaged with their teams to build the best possible product.

Team members who feel comfortable speak freely, revealing critical insights like the cause of delays or personal struggles affecting performance. Creating psychological safety doesn't require authority—every team member contributes to the environment where colleagues feel at home.

Emotional retrospecting uses an Event Box where participants share thoughts, feelings, and events from the iteration, encouraging teams to discuss personal and emotional impacts. This approach strengthens group bonds and helps team members understand how events truly affected each other.

Working in a team is like a relationship that requires building fundaments together through more than just work. Playing games together serves as a powerful tool for exploring each other and strengthening team bonds beyond eating pizza.

Scrum's strict framework appeals to process-driven companies, but when organizations modify every aspect and see poor results, they blame Scrum rather than their implementation. Hybrid models can work, but doing Scrum wrong might actually kill its credibility in your organization.

Every team has that one person who can solve any problem and save the day, but over-reliance on a superhero prevents other team members from growing. Like Iron Man, brilliant individuals who hog all the work create unhealthy team dynamics where others don't develop their skills.

A summer vacation near Saint-Tropez in Le Muy offered relaxation in 32-38°C heat with pools and nature, accessible to the coastal town via speedboat from Sainte-Maxime. Sometimes the best work stories come from taking time to rest.

When you spend most of your waking hours at work, your workplace should feel like a second home where barbecues and cocktails bring the team together. Great work comes with a great portion of fun attached to it.

Instead of a traditional Drupal User Group presentation, the team experimented with a live YouTube stream where people could ask Drupal 8 questions in advance. Despite nerves about the new format, they went live and answered community questions on video.

A typical Friday flows from morning coffee and car wash through daily scrum and retrospective prep, wrapping up at 6 PM. Simple moments that make up the rhythm of agile work.

A team member created an incredible Star Wars-themed retrospective with planets representing different levels of feedback, complete with the theme song playing in the background. Death Star for critical issues, Tatooine for problems to fix, Endor for good things to improve, and Alderaan for what's working perfectly.

A company-wide brainstorming session focused on setting realistic future goals with everyone's voice at the table. When the entire team is committed to making the workplace better, every person speaks up and contributes meaningful ideas.

The inaugural post launching a blog dedicated to sharing experiences and lessons learned in agile, development, and team leadership. A simple welcome to what would become a collection of insights and stories.