A Powerhouse Performance: Greenwich Vietnam’s New Academic Year 🇻🇳🇬🇧.
On September 16th, I participated in the Greenwich University Vietnam Opening Ceremony in Ho Chi Minh City. Almost a year into my journey as a lecturer from the Computing University, teaching Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Requirement Management, and Professional Project Management to nearly 200 dedicated students.
This event is a good reminder of the academic environment I get to be a part of—all while continuing to coach my clients through Coach-it and deliver value to Device-it customers.
A Four-Hour Masterclass in Seamless Execution
The ceremony itself was nothing short of breathtaking: What a ceremony !!! Forget standard academic formalities; this was a professional production on the scale of a major corporate launch. For four continuous hours, the event flowed with intense energy: non-stop loud music, a dedicated DJ, elaborate lighting, indoor pyrotechnics, live screenplay… and a seamless relay of impressive student group performances.
Still impressed by the flawless execution—the coordination of multiple student clubs, the perfect timing of the nine-camera live production, and the high-energy flow—it immediately brought to mind the principles of complex program synchronization.
The logistics required to orchestrate a four-hour continuous spectacle with such precision and a zero-downtime mentality demonstrate a high level of resource governance and planning. It really was a logistical excellence, executed with the rigor required for a major TV-Show event! I can say it was a privilege to stand on stage, alongside the Administration Team and my fellow lecturers, to personally welcome and shake hands with over 300 students.
Unity on Stage: The Strength of a Rising Nation
Actually, what struck me most was the strong cultural message embedded within every performance. In many European nations, diversity often results in a "melting pot" of cultural fragments—sometimes controversial, always complex, and also promoted as a unique advantage.
What I witnessed on the Greenwich stage was different. It wasn't about celebrating difference; it was about celebrating shared strength. The Vietnamese culture was undeniably prominent and united. The performances shared common cultural ground, calling to mind:
The strength of the nation
The fierce solidarity of the youth
The deep love of family
And the pride of hard-working people.
The atmosphere in the ballroom was emotionally charged—joyful, powerful, and utterly captivating. I could feel the shared emotion and the power of a nation that has fought through decades of war and is now rapidly rising. The excitement reached its absolute peak when every student was called onto the stage—they were literally uncontrollable!
This strong unity, these shared cultural messages from a generation focused on the future, are the true strength of Việt Nam that I felt radiating from the stage. I am truly happy I could witness this impactful message on how to drive unity.
#ProjectManagement #ProgramGovernance #GreenwichUniversity #VietNam #Leadership #Agile #HigherEducation
GenAI Open Innovation Event:
a structured ecosystem supporting a promising innovative local development!
A packed house gathered last week, on July 3rd, at the AWS Headquarters in the heart of the city, located in the famous Bitexco Financial Tower. The insightful GenAI-Fund Open Innovation event, a collaborative effort with AWS, was structured into two distinct, highly interactive parts.
An exclusive "By Invitation Only" segment facilitated one-on-one matchmaking sessions, carefully curating meetings between enterprises and promising AI startups based on their submitted use cases.
This was followed by a public session, open to all interested parties, which began with a vibrant networking opportunity for SMEs. I had the chance to unexpectedly reconnect with my former teammate Andre Nguyen and a few other people from my network.
This quickly led into the main conference, featuring two engaging panel discussions.
Eric Yeo, CEO Asia of AWS,opened the session with a very engaging tone. He shared his experience at AWS Vietnam, highlighting Vietnam's pioneering role in cloud adoption, even among traditional institutions like banks, specifically mentioning Techcombank's migration initiative, in contrast to many European companies.
He referenced the significant cloud migration project at Techcombank in 2021-23, an initiative I personally contributed to with my team, alongside Emily, who later joined AWS. The core of this involved thoroughly assessing TCB's IT environment to strategize what applications should migrate to AWS Cloud, what should remain on-premise, and what could be decommissioned.
Mr. Yeo then outlined AWS's key strategic priorities for the region:
Workforce Development: Investing in programs to equip students and professionals with the skills to maximize cloud technology and service development.
Infrastructure Expansion: Growing cloud infrastructure to meet local and regulatory requirements.
Customer Centricity & Innovation Funding: Highlighting Vietnam's pioneering spirit (exemplified by Techcombank's cloud strategy) and AWS's commitment to fully funding Proof of Concept (POC) initiatives for groundbreaking ideas.
Following this, the event transitioned to the panel discussions:
Panel Discussion 1: "Unlocking AI Potential – Opportunities & Challenges for Enterprises Scaling AI"
saw industry leaders explore the challenges, opportunities, and strategic approaches for leveraging AI in digital transformation.
Panel Discussion 2: "Structuring AI Adoption – How Enterprises Build and Scale AI Initiatives" featured insights from banking and financial enterprise leaders. They discussed effective strategies for developing and scaling AI solutions within their teams and fostering successful collaborations with AI startups to drive growth and innovation.
My Key Takeaways:
A substantial number of innovative, small startups are actively developing AI-powered products.
GenAI is keen to invest in and support companies that demonstrate the potential for creating a lasting market impact through AI.
GenAI provides a comprehensive ecosystem designed to help startups grow, offering support from Proof of Concept (POC) development to access to potential target markets for future expansion.
The event underscored a thriving, interconnected ecosystem, exemplified by former AWS employee Laura Nguyen investing in promising AI companies, while AWS itself supports their infrastructure needs.
Networking events are always excellent platforms to reconnect with former team members and ex-colleagues, meet future prospects, share professional memories, expand one's professional network, and learn about new trends.
The discussions consistently highlighted the immense potential of AI in enabling better services and new capabilities, such as the "All-in-One 24/7 customer support" provided by CX Genie.
I've recently embarked on an exciting AI initiative, and I look forward to sharing more about this opportunity as my team makes significant progress.
FrenchTech Summit HCMC: A Journey of Reconnection and Inspiration
For anyone French in APAC, last week was notable: the French President visited Vietnam and Singapore, and concurrently, Clara Chappaz, Minister Delegate for AI and Digital Technologies, attended the FrenchTech Summit in Ho Chi Minh City (27/05/2025 | La FrenchTech Viet).
More than just a set of french company exhibition, it was a true occasion to reconnect with individuals I first met during my early days in Vietnam, between 2010 and 2015.
It is fascinating to see how many have navigated their careers since then. Some have successfully transitioned between companies, building solid and sustained careers here in Vietnam. Others have bravely chosen the entrepreneurial path – a bold move, but one that, in my experience and opinion, often feels more accessible in Vietnam compared to Western countries.
I am genuinely fascinated by these small and medium-sized companies; their ability to remain competitive, continue being disruptive and original, sustain operations even through the challenging COVID period, and still effectively run their businesses and exhibit at a summit like this is truly admirable. It's a realm far different from the large organisations I've worked for over the past 15 years, and my sincere admiration goes out to their unwavering spirit!
Joining the FrenchTech Summit also gave me the opportunity to reconnect with these fantastic individuals
– former colleagues and friends. I certainly noted significant evolutions and even career switches among them, which provided far enough topics for engaging discussions.
In a less formal format, the after-party in was the perfect occasion to deepen these existing connections, and even meet others from my network whom I hadn't had the chance to meet before.
I had fun connecting with this community; one I would love to collaborate with. Each individual is a true source of inspiration, demonstrating relentless originality!
This is motivating! Cheers to all!
———
How can I help?
I manage project teams and deliver products.
I build high performing teams.
I help companies to build business Agility mindset.
Beyond the Usual: A Dive into Well-being and Purpose
As part of my Professional Coaching journey, I decided to attend the first event of Saigon Well Being, a non-profit movement brilliantly led by my friend Anaïs VICTOR 🇻🇳.
In the heart of the city, at a vibrant Toong co-working space, the organizers introduced how Saigon Well-being plans to support individuals by leading specific workshops – some for women, others focused on youth development.
The event itself revolved mainly around a panel discussion, featuring a diverse group of thought leaders: Entrepreneurs, a Life Coach, a CFO, and a Business Entrepreneurship Coach.
Beyond quickly connecting the attendees, a short icebreaker helped us operate a deep dive into one of the central topics everyone attempted to answer:
"How would you introduce yourself using only one word?"
Quite challenging, indeed! The panelists offered their perspectives on this thought-provoking question, prompting reflections such as:
Who we are is defined by what we do?
What happens when we have no job? How do we define ourselves then?
Each of the four panelists bravely shared their professional and personal experiences of failure and challenges, and moments of not feeling fulfilled.
They posed powerful self-reflection questions to the attendees:
What do I want to contribute to the world?
Who am I truly when I'm not the professional I present to the world?
What is the purpose of my work?
What's my ultimate purpose?
Is my country of origin and my ethnicity sufficient to define me?
These questions sparked a deep dive into concepts like defining one's identity (e.g., as a French Guianan), and grappling with ego and vanity.
The discussion then shifted to a second intriguing topic from the panelists:
"Despite different contexts, companies, and people, it often appears that we face the same challenges. How is this possible, and why?"
This led to crucial takeaways when navigating challenging situations:
Perhaps I am the problem. Start by questioning yourself and accepting responsibility for what happens to you. Life will present you with the same lessons until you truly understand them.
There are critical life lessons we don't learn in school, such as how to understand and recognize paternal guidance.
The conclusions drawn from the 45-minutes discussion were profound:
It's difficult to change until the pain of staying the same becomes unbearable.
We can easily grow accustomed to our own discomfort, often without realizing it.
There is frequently a misalignment between our actions and our core beliefs (e.g., a CFO cutting costs versus personal values, or prioritizing share price above all else).
One proposed solution is the profound act of self-acceptance: truly looking in the mirror and accepting oneself.
Yet, there can be a high price to pay for doing so, particularly the impact of consistently engaging in activities that don't genuinely align with our values and true selves.
Given that the solution of self-acceptance is not an easy one to implement, I propose that being open to personal and professional coaching can serve as a key enabler to tackle these complex issues.
If you have ever found yourself in situations similar to those described by the panelists, I am happy to help through my Professional Coaching program.
I still have a few free program slots available; please don't hesitate to reach out if you are interested.
A huge thank you to Saigon Well Being and all the insightful panelists for a truly thought-provoking evening!
On 7th of May, the Term Review Spring 2025 brought together faculty from across academic departments – IT, Business Academy, English Academy, and Design Academy – for a day of internal reflection and collaborative strategizing.
As an IT Lecturer, I first participated in the Computing Department meeting for Spring 2025, which covered key updates and addressed our department's transition towards AI, including discussions on curriculum adjustments and new course offerings. During this session, I realized that each lecturer has the opportunity to become a NVIDIA University Ambassador.
This program provides access to NVIDIA's Deep Learning Institute (DLI) resources, including workshops and certifications in high-demand areas like Generative AI and Accelerated Computing.
The NVIDIA Ambassador Program enables faculty to become certified instructors
potentially bringing free, world-class AI training to the university and fostering stronger ties with NVIDIA – a promising avenue for future development.
Insightful collaboration workshop
Following these individual departmental reviews, all departments convened for a dynamic workshop focused on collectively enhancing the learning experience and student success. This session quickly transformed into a highly interactive event where each department formed a dedicated group, tackling key areas for improvement.
These included strategies for elevating students':
Within the student performance group, our discussions were particularly insightful. I collaborated closely with Chi Duong, who leads the Professional Project Management Course. She shared a very effective methodology emphasizing early and consistent engagement with coursework, which is the main focus for students starting as early as week 5 of our 11-to-13-week modules.
Building on this, I was invited to contribute my own findings on fostering greater student involvement within the classroom. My tips include:
Leveraging weekly assignments
as a valuable platform for students to practice both subject matter knowledge and presentation skills, alongside improving their English literacy.
Promoting teamwork through group assignments
which helps to alleviate the pressure of solo presentations and better prepares students for future teamwork in a professional environment.
Incorporating active learning games and relevant short videos when the topic allows, to diversify content delivery and maintain engagement in the classroom.
Allocating targeted support
to actively participating students with strong attendance, offering focused review and assistance on the coursework of students who deserve more.
While it obviously won't work with every students, I believe these tips are good ways to explore in order to maximize both lecturer and students experience.
By the end of the day, I realized that it had evolved into a truly professional & learning experience
Honestly, I was not sure what to expect from participating in my first Term Review. By the end of the day, I realized that it had evolved into a truly interactive workshop aimed at identifying both quick wins and longer-term investments necessary to improve teaching efficiency and, ultimately, drive greater student achievement. While exploring the NVIDIA University Ambassador Program is a promising avenue for immediate action, the overall experience was surprisingly engaging and incredibly valuable!
I certainly gained new knowledge and learned impactful tips from my peers. I am eager to see the positive impact of such a collaborative workshop on the ground in the upcoming term!
The Reality Check: Unpacking Student Entrepreneurial Dreams
My role in the business academy, alongside my IT teaching, led me to a one-day student entrepreneurship project review.
The main deliverable for Entrepreneurship ten-week course was a comprehensive business plan, presented visually on a poster (approximately 100x65cm). Ideally, these posters would clearly showcase: the business idea, mission, vision, market research (primary and secondary), SWOT analysis, marketing mix (4Ps), target segmentation, financial plan, competitor analysis, business strategy, brand positioning, key resources and activities, and a detailed financial plan.
My Key Takeaways & Feedback:
Presentation Skills Need Sharpening: I was struck by the need for more emphasis on presentation skills. Setting the right tone with appropriate energy, body language, professional attire, clear articulation, effective interaction with the panelists, and, crucially, avoiding reading from their phones – these are vital for success. Only three or four students truly stood out in this area. There’s a significant opportunity to improve overall presentation delivery.
The Value of Peer Feedback: It seemed many students worked in isolation, neglecting to seek peer feedback before finalizing their posters. This resulted in major graphical concerns, misleading color choices (e.g., overuse of red or pink, making the content difficult to read), and generally poor visual design. Again, just a few students excelled. I strongly believe that encouraging peer feedback would help them identify and address these shortcomings.
Selling the Vision, Not Just Presenting Data: Beyond basic presentation skills, these 15-minute pitches were the students' chance to sell their business ideas – to demonstrate a solid concept and their readiness to invest time and resources. Only one or two students managed to craft a compelling narrative, conveying genuine emotion and enthusiasm. These presentations were truly refreshing and engaging.
The Reality Check: Interestingly, some students already had real-world business experience, often through family businesses or owning their own ventures like shops or nightclubs. This highlighted Vietnam’s vibrant entrepreneurial spirit, which is impressive. However, Mrs. Thao and I noticed significant gaps in their business plans. They struggled to identify their unique selling proposition or even articulate their core business idea. While there are numerous factors, these oversights could explain why many businesses in Vietnam open and close within their first year – a common challenge.
Overall, it was a valuable experience collaborating with a skilled lecturer. She provided detailed, financially focused feedback, while I concentrated on the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of the students’ presentations.
As someone who experienced business setbacks myself, it my duty to help these students avoid similar pitfalls if they choose to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams!
Embracing the Professional Coaching learning journey
On Christmas Day (2024), I received a heartfelt note from one of my very first clients after a few coaching sessions only.
What made it even more special was that it accompanied a thoughtful gift for my family. This unexpected gesture was instantly rewarding, especially on Christmas Day!
It served as a deep confirmation that I made the right decision embarking on my professional coaching journey.
Achieving the Associate Certified Coach (ACC) level with the International Coaching Federation (ICF) requires 100 hours of coaching with real clients, in addition to a rigorous theoretical examination. The entire ICF certification process is designed to ensure candidates possess a strong coaching foundation and demonstrate a deep commitment to the practice.
I'm happy to share that I am coaching five committed clients and am actively engaging with several promising prospects.
Why do I emphasize 'committed'? because they understand that personal and professional growth is a dedicated process.
While initial shifts can appear within three months, a six-month program allows for the most impactful transformation. This dedication, as evidenced by their commitment to a longer-term program, is what truly drives results.
One thing I would like to clarify about coaching:
Coaching is not about simply presenting your problems and expecting the coach to provide ready-made solutions. Instead, coaching is about fostering self-reflection on your choices, goals, and the path leading to them. It's about empowering you to generate your own options and take ownership of your decisions. Partnering with a professional coach is about giving yourself the tools to design an achievable path toward your aspirations.
I hope this provides clarity on the power of coaching.
What about you ?
Have you ever considered partnering with a professional coach to support your professional development?
Feel free to contact me if you'd like to learn more about my coaching program and perhaps begin your own transformative journey!
After a period of administrative work in 2024, let me announce that I've been appointed as a Lecturer at Greenwich University of Vietnam!
I'm currently teaching courses on Professional Project Management, Requirement Management, and soon Human-Computer Interaction & Design, equipping students with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed.
While the job complements my existing work with Device-it and Coach-it, it presents a unique set of challenges: teaching university students requires a different approach compared to working with experienced professionals.
This role is already a valuable learning experience: I'm discovering that I possess a deeper understanding of these subjects than I initially realized, drawing upon years of practical experience in the field.
This is bringing back vivid memories of my own Master's studies at the University of Cergy-Pontoise. It's fascinating to now be on the other side of the equation, sharing my knowledge with a new generation of students. Let the journey begin!
Time to embark on the second part of the Coaching Program I started earlier this year with the International Coaching Federation. It's been a rewarding journey so far, thanks to the guidance of our fantastic mentors, Gary Malcolm and Wayne Bannon from LHH.
Over the next four days, our cohort will delve deeper into Coaching Ethics, refine our core competencies, practice challenging coaching scenarios, and explore effective marketing strategies.
Actually this program's emphasis on practical experience has already allowed me to start coaching few clients and expand my practice.
The road to becoming an Associate Certified Coach (ACC) is demanding, it's a project driven by passion to improve human relationship and behavior.
Let's continue this journey of personal and professional growth. Let's get equipped to make a positive impact on the lives of others!
A journey through Design Thinking Practices uncovering "How to improve teamwork".
Sparking moment during Collaboration Camp 2024 in Saigon (30th of November 2024).
Last week, I had the pleasure of leading one of the 16 workshops at Collaboration Camp 2024, a vibrant event focused on fostering teamwork and innovation which happened in Saigon. In this article I won't discuss the detail of the event, although the organizers did fantastic job, from the sponsors to the impressive venue (TymeX), the preparation with the facilitators, the T-shirt, the food & beverages... I am still impressed (Kudos to Chris, Hoang & Carsten).
I considered to be lucky to hold my session right after the opening ceremony, which saw a fantastic turnout with over 50 participants eager to dive into the world of Design Thinking and team collaboration.
After a very quick introduction of my self & design thinking principles, we immediately deep dived into a serie of practical exercises during 1h and 30 minutes.
Actually, the workshop was designed to be an immersive experience, giving participants the opportunity to not only learn about various design thinking techniques but also put them into practice.
Putting Collaboration into Action
Divided into five engaged groups, everyone actively participated in the exercises designed to hone their collaborative skills. The workshop was all about experimenting each technique, brainstorming and discussing solutions to improve teamwork within their own work environments. Together, we covered a range of methodologies.
I. Leveraging Impact Mapping to answer the question “Why are we here today?”
Asking each groups the questions “Why / Who / How / What" was a foundational activity to ensure the participants dive quickly into hands-on and meaning-full activities. Defining the desired outcomes and the actions needed to achieve them is the tangible result of this first exercice. I have discovered and practiced this technique when I delivered my first Product Owner training back in 2019 with my colleagues Harsha & Leah who were wonderful guides and training partners (during my time at Standard Chartered Bank 2018-2021).
II. Tackling "What are the reasons for inefficient team works?" with Abstraction Laddering
Exploring the "Why" behind problems and the “How” by starting to think about solutions was the next step of the workshop. Each group reflected on the reasons of poor team work, which is the abstract part, then moved to the practical part of the ladder, answering “How to solve the issue" by proposing potential concretes solutions to tackle the identified problems.
While some of the these techniques are directly borrowed from LUMA Institute, other are simple and popular practices that can be applied any time for any random working session: there is no necessity to conduct a full focused workshop to have the chance to put this into practice. One thing to mention is that it would have been difficult for me to conduct such workshop if I hadn't onrolled the fantastic beginner and advanced Design Thinking classes led by Chris (from DOODLE) at Techcombank in 2021 and 2023.
III. Deep dive into the "Reasons of inefficient team works" with Affinity Clustering
With affinity Clustering, the groups deep dived into “The Reasons of inefficient team works”. It is all about organising ideas, identifying patterns and summarize them properly. This technique is critical to master when having such a big number of participants in a single workshop, it is designed to identify and gather a significant amount of topics with similar views. The main intent being able to organize the surfacing ideas by cluster and quickly select to which emerging cluster the idea is belonging.
IV. Identify the most / the least important solution with Visualise the Vote
This practices guided the participants to prioritise the identified solutions. This collaborative voting process helped to quickly prioritise the large number of ideas or options. It also ensure everyone's voice is heard and to reach a consensus. Each participant is given a number of votes (e.g., 5 votes), they next allocate their votes to the ideas they consider most important. In case of large number of solutions, what I like to do is to constraint the vote to 2 most important choices and the 2 least important choices, which will definitely help to surface what really matters and what does less.
V. Prioritise the potential solutions with Difficulty Matrix
Each group have now a clear view on what would be the most impactful things to do to improve teamwork and what would be less relevant (in their own context). However I am still not sure if they realise what it takes to implement each of the solution they were currently prioritising. It was now time to introduce the Difficulty Matrix, which I mixed with the MoSCoW practice.
1) First step: MoSCoW prioritisation technique
At this point everyone start picture what each group is prioritising. However in real situation, there will always be budget, technical or human constraint. So I asked the groups to apply the MoSCoW prioritisation practice. This is a very popular techniques, yet to be know by everyone, so I asked the group to consider their 2 most important votes into Must-Have & Should-Have, then use the the least important into Could-Have / Won’t-Have. This technique is fundamental to focus on the most critical tasks and avoid scope creep.
Fun fact: It turned out that for most of the groups, the most human centred solutions were marked as “Won’t have”…
2) Second step: Complexity & Feasibility
Final stage of our workshop! It is time to evaluate the complexity and feasibility of the solutions: hence I asked everyone to define their importance (most impactful) and feasibility (how complex it is to set). This quickly helped the teams to balance high-impact tasks with feasible ones.
Solutions are plotted on a matrix with two axes: difficulty & impact (this time I used MoSCoW):
Solutions in the high-impact, low-difficulty quadrant are prioritized.
Solutions in the low-impact, high-difficulty quadrant may be deferred or reprioritized.
By effectively using these techniques, teams can make informed decisions, allocate resources efficiently, quickly identify what will go, what won’t, what would be the “Quick win” and eventually paint a highly visible view on the prioritised and feasible actions. This was actually the last exercice I had for the groups, which also led to logical closure.
Hitting Two Birds with One Stone (Closure)
The workshop wasn't just about learning abstract concepts. By applying design thinking tools, participants were able to:
Reflect: Analyze their current collaborative practices and identify areas for improvement.
Define: Articulate their ideal collaborative scenario and the solutions needed to achieve it.
Prioritize: Utilize the "Difficulty Matrix" to identify the most impactful and feasible solutions.
In short, this 1.5-hour session aimed to "hit two birds with one stone." Not only did participants receive a solid foundation in design thinking methods, but the intent was to make sure they also actively applied these tools to craft solutions for their own teams. This approach definitely helped to ensure a high level of engagement and allowed participants to walk away with actionable insights!
The enthusiasm and collaboration in the room were truly inspiring!
This workshop served as a testament to the power of design thinking in fostering effective collaboration. These practices are highly beneficial for any Delivery Manager / Programme Manager and Agile Coaches who have the responsibility to drive the dynamic of large projects.
If you're interested in learning more about these techniques or want to explore how they can be applied to your own projects, feel free to reach out or download the full deck here.
Meeting Saigon's professional community & friends at AI Meetup.
Networking is always a great way to meet people from different horizons, especially in the vibrant community of foreigners living #Saigon.
What's more it always feels special to me to meet my ex-teammates Christophe Lam, Tran Anh, Mauro Figueiredo (and now friends) outside of the environment I used to meet them... ! Not to forget recent friendships who also came to enjoy the crowded event, thinking about Carsten and Chris !
Cherry on the cake, everyone got the chance enjoy a drink at #TheHive and discovered practical strategies to thrive in the AI-driven workplace. We discussed the implications, opportunities, and how to leverage AI to stay ahead of the curve... This is a burning topic to me, which needs deeper investigation time to understand this entire booming industry!
Mauro you did great!
Thanks for the smooth knowledge sharing, well done buddy!
[HCM] Workshop Alert: Career Opportunities & Future Success
The recently concluded workshop "Career Opportunities & Future Success" for Greenwich Vietnam students was a resounding success. This hands-on event offered invaluable insights and practical skills, empowering attendees to navigate and excel in their future careers.
Our featured guest speaker, Mr. Raphael Moutot, previously Director of Agile Transformation in the Corporate Strategy Division, shared his extensive experience in guiding organizations through strategic growth and transformation initiatives. Students gained deep knowledge on:
🚀 Exploring emerging career paths and industry trends
💼 Developing a strategic career plan and roadmap
🧠 Enhancing leadership capabilities for future success
💡 Navigating the evolving job market and achieving your goals
This event was a must-attend for students looking to thrive in today's dynamic business landscape. The workshop provided essential tools and knowledge to help students build successful careers."
Unveiling the Power of LESS: 3-Day training with Bas Vodde and former teammates in Bangkok
End of May 2024, I flew in from Saigon to Bangkok for a 3-day intensive training on the LESS Agile Framework, led by none other than Bas Vodde, the creator of LESS himself! The journey offered a chance to rediscover the legendary Thailand traffic jams – a (slightly hair-raising) tuktuk ride providing a nostalgic reminder.
More importantly, it was the perfect opportunity to reconnect with my former teammates, as we'd planned to attend the training together for a while already.
The hustle and bustle of Bangkok recently served as the backdrop for a smooth learning experience!
For those unfamiliar, LESS (Large Scale Scrum) is a powerful scaling framework designed to empower multiple teams working on a single product to deliver value iteratively and collaboratively. Here's where LESS shines: it tackles complex projects by advocating for a broader product definition. Unlike traditional, single-team Scrum, LESS encourages defining the product in a more holistic way. This considers not just the immediate features, but also the overall vision, user needs, and potential future iterations. This broader definition empowers teams to see the bigger picture and prioritize work accordingly.
But a broader product definition requires a special kind of team. LESS thrives with its focus on highly collaborative, cross-functional teams. Bas Vodde emphasized that these teams need to be 100% dedicated to the Scrum process for the duration of the sprint. More importantly, team members need to embrace a learning mindset and be willing to step outside their original roles. Delivering a complex product in LESS requires everyone to contribute beyond their siloed expertise. Team members might need to learn new skills, participate in activities outside their comfort zone, and ultimately, become well-rounded contributors to the entire product development process.
Having the privilege of learning directly from Bas Vodde, the architect of LESS, provided invaluable insights into these core principles. The training equipped me with the tools and knowledge to confidently navigate complex projects with a broader product definition and foster a collaborative environment where cross-functional teams can thrive. This Bangkok adventure, filled with learning and reconnection, was a truly rewarding experience.
In May, my former colleague and now friend, Mauro, had the opportunity to co-host the monthly event of the PMI Institute, Vietnam Chapter.
The event's format was quite unique, it was divided into two parts:
The first part, led by organizers Phil and Tran Anh, introduced agile concepts.
The second part was an open discussion between Mauro and me titled "How Marketing Can Leverage Agility" (based on our experience merging the two domains).
Phil aimed to spark creativity with an engaging activity:
"Draw, draw, draw! A shape in 6 steps. Keep drawing!"
Phil instructed participants to draw a spaceship, ice cream cone, house, hedgehog, fox, cat, coffee cup, and bear – all within 15-20 seconds each! It was definitely a fast-paced challenge.
While participants were expected to draw on paper and share their creations at the end, some discovered a way to utilize Zoom's drawing feature, allowing them to draw directly on the main screen! Unexpected, to say the least! ^^
While humorous and surprisingly creative, this unexpected turn of events caused some stress for the organizers.
Look at these artworks! Colorful, aren't they?
The biggest challenge? No one could figure out how to remove the drawings!
Thankfully, with a smile and the participants' help, we managed to adapt to this unforeseen situation – a testament to the importance of being prepared for the unknown! :)
We then moved on to the second part, where we addressed the following questions for the PMI VNC audience:
Context, concepts, and the evolution from traditional project management and marketing to this stage.
Successes and challenges of combining Agile and Marketing.
Case studies or use cases for overcoming challenging situations in Agile.
Predictions and changes in Agile and MarTech for the next decade.
The top 3 takeaways for the audience.
In order to discover more, please let me invite you to access the full recording of the event (clic on the link bellow ):
When Agility Meets marketing: PMI Vietnam Chapter
Webinar Passcode: 0*1yseBK
Although you could already listen to this part in the recording, I still would like to share with your my 3 key takeaways from our webinar to conclude this short article:
1. A Fantastic Learning Community:
Everyone involved in making this event a success is fortunate. Presenters have the opportunity to share their expertise, participants gain insights into a potentially unfamiliar field, and everyone benefits from exposure and the chance to connect with new people. This exemplifies a community driven by curiosity, openness, and professionalism.
2. Embrace Change: Things Don't Always Go According to Plan.
While staying true to the original objective is important, everyone should be prepared for deviations. Establish mechanisms to handle and anticipate unexpected situations, such as implementing shorter release cycles, adjusting marketing campaigns, or even being prepared for technical difficulties during webinars.
3. Reinvent Your Role: Change is the Only Constant.
Equip yourself to adapt to change, continuously learn more. We already leverage various forms of AI to boost productivity. Marketing, Agile, and AI are not separate entities. It's time to get creative and leverage the best aspects of all three (and potentially even more) to excel.
Once again, thanks to Mauro, Phil, Tran Anh and the 41 souls who join this webinar!
Don't get left behind: AI Tools for the modern agile professional.
Dear all, I would like to recommend the following course AI & Agility: Comprehensive Introduction as a good and soft introduction to understand what it means to leverage on AI Tools to boost your professional journey and the context behind it. Thanks for Nathaniel from my network who shared this last week, hence appeared on my feed and definitely Snehal Talati & Scrum Alliance for the content of the course. This only request 2,5/3 hours of your time (2,5 SEUs), however it is for me such an interesting discovery.
As we've all encountered AI in some form – chatbots, recommended choices, or customized feeds based on cookies, browsing history, and profiles. But this course opened my eyes to AI as a tool to supercharge our work. Being a Change Agent myself, I believe every digital specialist, agilist, and professional navigating the VUCA world has a responsibility to explore these readily available tools.
More than tooling, I believe it is actually a new mindset that need to be enabled: I am myself yet convinced about the few examples given in the course which allow to look at AI generated solutions based on how would you feed your AI Tool..
Guess what? This is the a part every discovery journey, being uncomfortable about a new solution, trying to figure out new vocabulary and context as long as how to leverage on it...
To make the best use of it, the course introduce how to leverage on the CARE framework (Collaborative goals, Adding context, Real-World Application, Expected-Outcome).
Basically you will learn how to formulate your request properly to your AI tool (or AI copilot), to be able to evaluate an AI generated solution on your given problem. We are dealing here with team management issues, team performance, asking to spot what would be the best backlog item to focus on knowing the past and current data, asking your tool some tips or alternatives to facilitate meetings that are not reaching the outcome expected.. this is a total new world to me!
What is in for me? (in this course)
Here is what you can expect in this short course:
Reminder / introduction about Agile evolution
and the groundwork for AI integration, including Manifesto history and AI brief history.
Practices leveraging on AI.
Trends of AI in Agile.
List of AI tools.
AI & Agility Glossary.
As I am not sure how many of you will enrol the course, I still would like everyone to leverage on the tools introduced along the learning. While I am also processing all the vocabulary and how to build my own "How to leverage on AI generated tool" mindset, would like to ensure I keep this knowledge accessible for my own and for all, hence this article.
Please note that the following links and descriptions are a direct extract from the course, all credits going to Snehal Talati & Scrum Alliance. Again I encourage everyone to go through the course to understand why the following tools have been recommended and the context.
ChatGPT by OpenAI
ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, is a state-of-the-art language processing AI tool. It's built on the GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) architecture, enabling it to generate human-like text based on the input it receives. This technology is significant for its wide range of applications, from composing emails to coding assistance, and it has been pivotal in advancing natural language understanding and generation. It serves as an exemplary resource for those interested in AI language models and their practical applications in various sectors.
Claude AI by Anthropic
Claude AI, created by Anthropic, is an advanced conversational AI designed to assist in a variety of text-based interactions. It's part of a new wave of AI technologies focusing on natural language understanding and generation. While specific capabilities and applications might vary, Claude AI likely offers solutions for content creation, data analysis, and enhanced user interaction. Anthropic's approach to AI development emphasizes safety and interpretability, making Claude a significant player in the field of responsible AI.
HuggingFace
Hugging Face is an open-source company devoted to developing machine-learning-focused collaboration. They have models, datasets, services, and more that help people integrate AI responsibly into products and workflows. Their mission says that they are working “to democratize good machine learning, one commit at a time.”
Drawify
Drawify is an online platform that provides users with a unique and interactive way to create visual content. It's particularly useful for those looking to enhance their presentations, educational materials, or digital storytelling with engaging visuals. The website offers a range of tools and resources to help users easily create custom illustrations and diagrams, making it a valuable resource for educators, business professionals, and creative individuals. Another visual content creation AI tool includes Midjourney.
Spinach
Save time on repetitive tasks! Spinach is your AI project manager. Spinach joins meetings, takes notes and captures actions in your existing tools to help you ship faster. Spinach is free for unlimited meetings and users (yes, really!). It takes instant meeting notes so you can stay more engaged, turns any action item into a ticket, remembers what was decided and integrates into your existing tools: "We take notes so you can listen."
LucidSpark
Get inspired with Collaborative AI! Don’t wait for inspiration to strike. Be more proactive, innovative, and productive by using AI to generate ideas, uncover key themes, and rapidly summarize your working sessions. Need a prompt to spark your team’s creativity? Kick off a brainstorming session or project with Collaborative AI. Enter relevant keywords or phrases into the text box, click generate, and watch as AI automatically populates related ideas on your Lucidspark canvas as sticky notes. Go a step further by using AI to uncover key themes. When you click to sort ideas, Lucid’s Collaborative AI moves sticky notes into categories within Containers. That’s where you’ll start to see the big picture as your ideas take shape. Give it a try!
Rewind
Rewind is a personalized AI powered by everything you've seen, said, or heard. Install it and it will run in the background capturing your screen and audio. Rewind stores your data locally so only you have access. You can rewind meetings to be sure you've taken in key points, draft emails, and overcome your mind's limitations by saving hours each week.
DALL-E 3
Built on ChatGPT, DALL-E3 brings your words to visual life, creating images based on your prompts. If you like a particular image, but it's not quite right, you can ask ChatGPT to make tweaks with just a few words. From a simple sentence to a detailed paragraph, watch your words come to life.
NotebookLM
Created by Google, NotebookLM is a large language personalized AI that works as a virtual research assistant to bring your research together. When you upload the documents that are central to your projects, it instantly becomes an expert in the information that matters most to you; it's grounded in the information you trust. It moves you more quickly from information to insight, from reading, to asking questions, to writing. You're in control, with no personal data used to train NotebookLM, and any private or sensitive information will stay protected.
Janitor AI
Janitor AI is a groundbreaking role-playing chatbot website. The platform offers a wide range of character options to give users the freedom to engage in conversations with virtual personas of their choice. It's invaluable for business owners seeking to streamline client interactions and deliver prompt replies. Key features include multi-age interaction, rapid responses, character options, clean API, and automated assistance.
Character AI
Character AI is in beta testing (1/2024); it lets you create characters and talk to them. Characters can be anything--the breakthrough AI lets your imagination run free and bring all your ideas to life. Users can save and share their characters in the community so that everyone can talk to Socrates, Steve Jobs, or engage with alternate timelines.
CapCut
CapCut is a free, all-in-one video editor with flexible editing, magical AI tools, team collaboration, and stock assets. Their smart tools make your video creation easier, from removing the background to AI color correction or colorizer to resizing your video. Also included are tools to automatically recognize different language and generate high-accuracy captions.
Building, designing, refining and training the Agile delivery framework of the Bank!
By the end of December 2023, I am rewarded and listed among the few Agilists whom delivered more than a dozen of the immersive 1 day Agile foundational training within a year.
Actually it has been 3 years that the Agile center of excellence has been building, experimenting, improving, updating and eventually released the official Techcombank Agile way of working: the Techcomway.
One thing which particularly helps while delivering the trainings or implementing the new way of working with new teams, is the deep and strong connection between the Agile Manifesto and the Techcombank’s core values :
Customer Centricity
Innovation and creativeness
Collaboration for common objectives
Self-development
Work efficiency
Leveraging on core the values of the bank is a really strong message to each Techcomer in my opinion. This is re-enforcing the importance of the transformation teams by continuously reminding the need to embrace the bank's beliefs.
I need to precise that the adoption of Agile frameworks (during execution) has been officially embedded as a part of the Project life cycle of the bank since early 2021 already, under the initiative of our previous Head of Transformation Timothy Kyle; which was a significant step!
It has drastically evolved since then.
Today, the result is a solid way of working based on Scrum framework, using at scale components (Chapters, Scrum of Scrums, Joint events, Community of Practices…) which helps to drive the delivery and reach the expected business outcomes. The journey wasn’t easy at all to be honest, however it is now being recognized and endorsed by each foundational part of the bank as an absolutely enabler when it comes to implementation. Also meaning we have yet tackled Agile for discovery phase of a new business case, this should probably be the next big thing to tackle…
As a part of the Strategy & Transformation division, the dedicated Agile workforce have collaborated closely with Retail Detail Bank (+Digital Office & Marketing initiative), DNA (Data), IT (including Cloud Migration initiative), Business Banking... Each of them have embraced the Agile way of working, under Project Management Office and Agile Center of Excellence strong guidance.
Since early 2022 our agile playbook is mandatory framework measured by clear KPI when it comes to delivering a large initiative (successfully!!). Here are the major topics it is dealing with:
Agile Mindset
Agile Manifesto
Techcombank core value & Agile
People & Structure
Roadmap & Releases
Scrum & Kanban Framework
Backlog Structure & Workflow
Toolings & Practices
Performance measurement
By the end of 2023, a Kanban based version has also been developed for specific initiatives, equipping Business As Usual teams with proper agile mindset and tools.
We already leveraging on this and propagate the usage of it as we have we started the Agile Journey with several business department with no technology component involved: the technology part are just enablers to reach the outcome expected.
Longtime due, but for now we are focusing on building a deeper and more targeted training: a 3 days course, including, 1 full day Agile fundamental, 1 full day of simulation activities for Scrum and / or for Kanban; 1 day of “hands on” sessions with the internal tools and practices - absolutely needed for the current & future scrum masters.
The main intent is to equip carefully selected candidates with new skills (which are not in their initial set of skills and experience).
Although it is collective effort, I am in charge of the design of the Scrum simulation, designing the serious games, the scenarios, the way to facilitate and enable the learning. For this exercise I need to collaborate with the pillars of our team :
Jatinder Datt (Director, Agile Transformation)
Andre Nguyen (Director, Agile Transformation)
Quang Ba (Agile Coach)
Nguyen Duc Hieu (Agile Coach)
Duong (Agile Academy)
It is obviously supervised by the head of Agile and I mostly need to absorb my colleagues feedback as much as I need to get their help: they will be running the 3 days sessions by their own, hence we definitely need to engineer this together!!
A beautiful example of teamwork for a common objective! Can't wait to run it!
Note that this 3 days course is not an isolated training to equip seasonal scrum masters: these 3 days are just 1 component of the upskills program for existing teams member willing and qualified to become future scrum master, but let’s talk about this in another article!
Demonstrating cloud migration in an Agile manner for Techcombank's potential investor
May 26th 2022, Techcombank is welcoming UBS Bank's representatives to showcase the bank's cloud migration journey in partnership with AWS and demonstrate its competitiveness.
For the fact, Techcombank has established a multi-year, strategic partnership with AWS, choosing them as their preferred cloud provider.
On this day, the Agile Center of Excellence explained to our guests how TCB is leveraging the power of Agile, specifically employing the Scrum framework:
Iterative Development: Breaks down the migration into manageable sprints by quarter, enabling continuous learning and improvement.
Cross-functional Teams: Fosters collaboration between all product teams (IT, business, security) for faster decision-making.
Transparency and Visibility: Employs Kanban boards at program level and daily scrums to ensure clear communication and progress tracking.
Adaptability to Change: Allows for quick adjustments based on emerging challenges or opportunities during the migration.
We also demonstrated a live demo on how our teams are conducting daily scrums between distributed teams from Ha Noi's headquarters and TCB's Saigon IT hub.
This Agile approach at scale empowers Techcombank to navigate the complexities of cloud migration efficiently and effectively, positioning them for continued success in the Vietnamese market.
Actually the partnership between TCB leveraging on AWS's capability has already yielded significant results:
Reduced Operational Costs: Techcombank has optimized its cloud usage, leading to a 20% reduction in Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) spend.
Faster Provisioning: Time to provision new environments has dropped from over a month to just five days.
Improved Collaboration: A shared cloud environment has fostered better communication and collaboration across Techcombank's teams.
As we speak the partnership between TCB & AWS remains ongoing, with both parties committed to continued collaboration and innovation.
For more information you can read AWS case study:
https://aws.amazon.com/solutions/case-studies/techcombank-case-study/
Few words about Techcombank:
A Strong Contender in Vietnam's Banking Landscape.
Techcombank, Vietnam's leading private commercial bank, stands tall with a robust market position. Here's a quick snapshot:
Market Share: Holds the #2 position in terms of total assets and market capitalization in Vietnam's banking industry.
Financial Performance: Demonstrates consistent growth, boasting a net profit of over VND 12 trillion (USD 520 million) in 2023.
Digital Innovation: Recognized for its digital prowess, consistently ranking among the top digital banks in Vietnam.
Expansion Strategy: Actively expanding its branch network and digital footprint across the country.
Few words about UBS:
UBS Bank's Asian Footprint - A Powerhouse in the Region.
UBS, a globally renowned Swiss bank, holds a significant presence in Asia:
Global Assets: Over USD 3.7 trillion as of Q3 2023.
Asian Presence: Over USD 368 billion invested in Asia Pacific, with strong regional leadership.
Strong Network: Operates branches and offices in key Asian markets like Singapore, China, Japan, and India.
Regional Hub: Established its regional headquarters in Hong Kong, serving clients across Asia Pacific.
Investment Focus: Actively invests in technology, healthcare, and consumer sectors across the region.
Commitment to Innovation: Supports startups and fosters collaboration within the Asian technology ecosystem.
Technology Focus: 10% of annual revenue dedicated to technology-related investments.
