Will McNelis

I've come into agile from a slightly different perspective than most. I was originally a graphic designer and owned a web design and development company for many years. Then, about ten years ago, I moved into program and project management for larger organisations.

When my company started to scale, it became harder to see how each piece of work was tracking. That's when I found agile. I began my agile journey as a way to get better visibility of the work we had on the go, and I quickly became obsessed.

I regularly experimented with the frameworks, but my favourite aspect of agile is the simplicity principle. Maximising the amount of work not done is how you save time, money, and resources. I am passionate about delivering maximum value for the time spent.

About seven years ago, I became an agile trainer and coach. One of my strengths is my curious nature. Each team is different, and I've never found a cookie-cutter approach that works for everyone. So, I love learning about the pain points that different teams have in their unique context and helping them uncover the solutions that work for them. I also love meeting new people, both at work and in life. Everyone has an exciting story to tell.

Outside work, I spend a lot of time surfing and playing the guitar. But I also find a lot of situations where my agile training comes in handy. We just bought a house and needed extensive prioritisation to find the right one. We're now completing some renovations, and I'm not sure how I would have done it without Kanban!

My education:

• Bachelor of Digital Media in Media Arts and Recording Engineering, Full Sail University