The Slides of Hands-On Agile 2025

If you weren’t at the virtual Hands-on Agile 2025 conference earlier this month, you missed an incredible opportunity to explore the shift from concept-based to context-based agility with nearly 800 fellow agilists. But don’t worry — I’m here to share some of the key takeaways and insights!

Check out the slides from the live-stream speakers below; I will keep you posted on the availability of the recordings.

The Slides from Cliff Berg to Jonathan Odo

As someone in the agile trenches for years, I've seen my fair share of organizations struggling to apply agile frameworks without considering their unique context. It's a common mistake and one that often leads to frustration, resistance, and even failure. That's why I was so excited to see this year's Hands-on Agile Barcamp focus on the importance of adapting agile principles to each organization's specific needs and challenges.

Throughout the three-day event, we had the chance to learn from a fantastic lineup of speakers who shared their experiences, strategies, and hard-won wisdom:

• Cliff Berg: Leadership Behaviors That Lead to Actual Agility
• Sandrine Olivencia: Lean Engineering Practices to Scaling Craftsmanship in the Digital World
• Fabrice Bernhard: The Lean Tech Manifesto: Scaling an Agile Culture
• Lynn Kelley: Change Questions: The Keys to Implementing Organizational Change That Sustains
• Johanna Rothman: Fake Agile is the Norm: How to Instill Agility, Not Agile Practices - Hands-on Agile
• Peter Merel: The Agile Way
• Maarten Dalmijn: The Five Obstacles to Empowered Teams
• David Pereira: How to Overcome Common Mistakes with Product Discovery
• Roman Pichler: Common Strategy Mistakes: The Top Reasons Why a Product Strategy Fails
• Jonathan Odo: AI Methodology and Operating Model Evolution

Hands-On Agile 2025: The Takeaways

So, what did I take away from this event? Three key things:

1. Context is king. There's no one-size-fits-all approach to agility — we need to adapt our practices to each organization's unique needs and goals.
2. Leadership buy-in is essential. Without the support and commitment of leaders at all levels, even the best-laid plans for context-based agility will struggle to take hold.
3. Continuous learning and experimentation are non-negotiable. As we navigate this shift, we need to cultivate a culture of curiosity, openness, and a willingness to try new things.

What's been your experience with context-based agility? What challenges have you faced, and how have you overcome them? What questions or concerns do you have as we move forward? 

Please share your thoughts in the comments below — let's keep this conversation going and learn from each other.