About

Welcome to mansell.nl

I am Dennis Mansell, I help organisations ranging from enterprises to start-ups take 'Agility' from being just a word in their strategy and turn it into their dna. I really love sailing, my career started as a yacht skipper. I live in Amsterdam, the Netherlands with my wife and son.

I have always been obsessed about getting people to work together. I believe strongly in distributed leadership and commitment to performance as the keys to getting the most out of people. I lead from the back - if everyone in the team knows more about what they do than I do then I am in the right spot.

I know a little bit about a lot of things but those things definitely include what is going on in the digital world. Agile Scrum is something that I strongly believe in with the advantage that I can take the enterprise perspective but also that of start-ups and Open Source communities.

This website is my online CV.



Dennis Mansell
+31 6 28 838 432

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Finding your Product Goal

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In November 2020, the new Scrum Guide was released, mentioning for the first time a ‘Product Goal’. This block is designed to help you find your product goal.  Attribution to The Liberators , the Scrum Guide and Harvard Business Review .   Preparation (online): Make a Mural from this template You need a video conferencing meeting with 'rooms' of up to 4 people Preparation (physical):  Super Sticky notes in at least 4 colours Print Elements of Value Pyramid as handout Flip-over sheets Flip-over of empty Elements of Value Flip-over of Wicked Questions Flip-over of Integrated ~ Autonomy Flip-over for Actions/Steps 15% Solutions
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Why Scrum? Why Agile? My Sailing Friends

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 After a day's sailing, we've dropped anchor, cleaned the boat and poured ourselves a drink. “So - what is it you do again?” “I’m a Scrum Master.  It’s like the Master of Sail on tall ships.” “What - like the second-in-command?” “No, I don’t have a position in the hierarchy.  I just make sure the boat and crew are fit for purpose and help the sailors and staff understand what is going on.” “Why would an organisation need that?” “Many organisations approach products as if it were an industrial process like transport.  They load the cargo containers as full as they can get - calling it ‘scope’, then they plan very exactly how to drive from A to B to predict the costs and how long it will take to deliver. “For my clients, their product doesn’t actually match this industrial process very well.  I get them to think of it as if they were explorers trying to reach some distant shore. “They should pack very light and get great at teamwork so that they can travel
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