Colleen Johnson
“The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience”
is our Director of the Adaptive Agile Practice since March 2016. Colleen applies a systems thinking approach to aligning agile methodologies across the enterprise and works with clients to apply the right cultural and context-driven practices to create sustainable agility. She is an expert in Lean/ Kanban methods of software delivery and advocates for LeanStartup principles using scientific methods of customer-centered discovery. She has served as a board member for Agile Denver and as a chair for 2016 & 2017
Mile High Agile Conferences. She is an active board member for the Agile Uprising. Colleen is the CEO and cofounder of ScatterSpoke, a space for more effective team retrospectives. In her free time she loves to play in the woods, hiking and camping with her family.
How can women better enable each other instead of competing? What needs to change in your opinion?
Get to know each other outside of work, we are all balancing so much more than anyone can see. Grab lunch, hit
the gym together, get a glass of wine- take the time to connect and share your stories. It helps to hear from other
women that are struggling with the same things. We get more strength from each other than we realize.
What is one piece of advice to all women who are juggling between home and work?
Take care of yourself!! It’s so easy to let it fall last on your list but it’s so important that your health and wellbeing
are a priority. In this industry- traveling to client sites is a big part of our life and it can be hard to make time to
eat well and stay fit. We have to make sure we are taking care of our needs in order to bring our best selves to the
table!
What advice would you give women struggling in a male dominated industry?
Seek out advocates who will be champions of what you are doing and where you want to go. Beware
of those who take credit for your work or keep you at a distance from opportunities to interact with
leadership. Ask for experiences that push you outside your comfort zone and challenge you.
Is there a little girl that you inspire? If so, in what ways did you help her?
Hopefully my daughter! I try to set a great example for her at home and at work by showing her that
when we work hard we also get to play hard. I hope I’ve taught her that when things are difficult it’s
when we have to show the most tenacity. And sometimes we fail but what is important is that we always
try again.
