Arguing Agile: Product Management, Business Leadership, & Org Design
...arguing about agile software development so that you don't have to!
We're arguing about agile software development so that you don't have to!
The Arguing Agile Podcast is where a Product Manager (Brian Orlando) and an Enterprise Agile Coach (Om Patel) sit down with other professionals in and around the agile software development space to have real, unscripted, and authentic conversations.
AA263 - "Nothing" Is The Most Expensive Word In Your Career
Your boss asks what you need. You blank and say "nothing." You just turned down free money. Product Manager Brian Orlando and Enterprise Business Agility Leader Om Patel discuss and debate why that reflex costs you promotions, sponsorship, and credibility, and how to rewire it before your boss stops asking e...
AA262 - HBR Says Consensus Is Dead (And Proved It With Consensus)
A PE bankruptcy specialist and BCG partner walk into a bar... Just kidding, they walked into HBR... and they're trying to sell you a framework! Product Manager Brian Orlando and Enterprise Business Agility Leader Om Patel dissect the April HBR piece arguing that "consensus decision-making doesn't work in the...
AA261 - The Business Was Dying While Every Dashboard Was Green
The damage from your Q1 goal doesn't show up until Q3, on someone else's dashboard, after the person who flagged it got fired. Part 2 of the Outcome Trap series. Brian and Om argue why you can't see the trap from inside it: second-order effects land too late to trace, the people who spot trouble get removed,...
AA260 - How Outcome-Based Goals Become a Permission Slip for Evil
The thing everyone agrees is the right way to work has quietly produced some of the worst corporate ethics violations in modern history. Product Manager Brian Orlando and Enterprise Business Agility Leader Om Patel discuss and debate how outcome-based goals can and often do go catastrophically wrong - from F...
AA259 - The Memo IS the Strategy (And How You MIGHT Be Running It Too)
Six companies, seven days, same playbook. Welcome to the modern age where the excuses are interchangeable, the points don't matter, and ALL the strategies are not-so-secretly the same! Listen or watch as Product Manager Brian Orlando and Enterprise Business Agility Leader Om Patel talk through this month's r...
AA258 - AI Is Supercharging the Feature Factory (New 2026 Report)
Is AI actually helping us escape the build trap, or just helping us build the wrong things faster? In this episode of Arguing Agile, hosts Brian Orlando and Om Patel discuss the new AI4Agile Practitioners Report 2026 from Scrum.org. The data reveals a startling trend: while 83% of practitioners have access t...
AA257 - State of Agile Report 2026: Is the Industry a 'Market for Lemons'?
Is the State of Agile Report a clear-eyed snapshot of the industry - or a sales brochure? In this episode of Arguing Agile, hosts Product Manager Brian Orlando and Enterprise Business Agility Consultant Om Patel are joined by returning guest Ed Martin to dissect the 18th State of Agile Report from Digital.ai...
AA256 - The AI PM Competency Trap: Why AI Tools Won't Save Your Product Career
Every PM is scrambling to learn AI tools - but is that a trap? In this episode of Arguing Agile, hosts Brian Orlando and Om Patel summarize Shreyas Doshi's provocative article "Why Product Sense Is the Only Product Skill That Will Matter in the AI Age." Using the article as background for our discussion, we ...
AA255 - What is Business Agility? The 5 Core Capabilities to Master
Stop burning time and money on agile theater! In this podcast, Product Manager Brian Orlando and Enterprise Business Agility Consultant Om Patel strip business agility back to its absolute basics: no buzzwords, no frameworks - just the organizational muscles you need to survive. Listen or watch as we introdu...
AA254 - QA Is Dead!?! Why a MASSIVE QA Boom Is Coming
Businesses killed QA with bad org design, but with AI, is there potential for a near-term QA boom? Join Product Manager Brian Orlando and Enterprise Business Agility Consultant Om Patel as we discuss the systematic elimination of QA roles over the past decade and discuss why that decision is now backfiring. ...
AA253 - The Delayering Disaster: Why Cutting Middle Management Is Blowing Up
Meta and Amazon are cutting managers, but is it efficiency or chaos? Is de-layering, or flattening your org chart, good for a company, or is it a recipe for destruction? Join Product Manager Brian Orlando and Enterprise Business Agility Coach Om Patel as we wade into the murky pool that is the latest of corp...
AA252 - The IKEA Effect: Why You Love Your Bad Product Ideas
Stop building products nobody wants by discovering the psychological bias killing your strategy! Today, Product Manager Brian Orlando and Enterprise Business Agility Coach Om Patel are taking on the "IKEA Effect." The IKEA effect is the cognitive bias that causes product managers and leaders to overvalue the...
AA251 - AI Product Managers Are Just Product Managers
AI product manager jobs are everywhere - but are they really different from regular PM roles? In this episode of Arguing Agile, Product Manager Brian Orlando and Enterprise Business Agility Consultant Om Patel wade deep into the muck-filled pool of hype vs. reality around AI-specific product management roles...
AA250 - CEOs Admit There's No AI ROI (But Keep Buying It Anyway)
AI had little to no impact on productivity in the past 3 years. This was according to a National Bureau of Economic Research survey released in February 2006 of 6,000 CEOs and executives across the US, UK, Germany, and Australia. Instead of throwing fruit at us, watch or listen as Enterprise Business Agility...
AA249 - Disagree & Commit: Corporate Gaslighting? (And What To Do About It)
Is Amazon's famous leadership principle being weaponized against you? Join Product Manager Brian Orlando and Enterprise Business Agility Consultant Om Patel as we talk about how "disagree and commit" becomes "shut up and obey" in most companies. Watch or listen as we discuss one of tech's most misunderstood ...