Hi there. I’m Daisy.
I’m an Agile Coach, currently working with development and infrastructure teams at Spotify. I’ve been here for a little over 3 years.
I teach and coach development teams and leadership teams in the use of agile and lean methodologies. I also work with individuals to help them achieve their personal and professional goals. Facilitation of both small and large events is a key aspect of my role. I’m passionate about many aspects of organizational improvement, but especially recruitment, onboarding, communication, and transparency.
Hmm, the long version? Ok, you asked for it…
I began out my journey towards agile coaching in the wonderful world of television. Starting as a lowly product assistant, I worked my way through various reality shows (Wife Swap, The Al Franken Show, etc.) and special events (The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony). After a few years finally ended up in a small production house in NYC where I dabbled in video editing, producing, and writing. Working in television taught me that the life of a freelancer is definitely not for me. I like to know where my next pay check is coming from, I like to have health insurance, I don’t like to work 14 hour days. More importantly I like to build lasting relationships with the people I work with. I like to think about processes and systems and how to improve them. Television, especially as a freelancer, didn’t provide much opportunity for that kind of thinking.
A quarter life crisis led me to start doing volunteer work in the game industry. I have a great love for games of all kinds – they are truly my greatest passion. I’m a big believer in the power of interaction fiction as an art form and gravitate towards experiences with strong character development and story telling. I found myself a job at a small but ambitious game development company in NYC where I wore various hats (Producer, Designer, Scrum Master, etc.) on a number of different titles for mobile and web platforms. Those were some great years and I was privileged to work with an extremely passionate and fun group of people. The game industry taught me a lot about the importance of transparency in a company and the power of trusting and empowering your employees.
I wasn’t actually planning to leave the game industry when I got the call from Spotify in 2011. But I had recently started using the product and was intrigued by it and by them as a company. I was also (and I continue to be) pretty disappointed by the atmosphere in the game industry, specifically the lack of respect for employees that seems all too pervasive there (long hours, low pay, frequents layoffs, etc.).
So I decided to take the leap and become the first agile coach in Spotify’s new development office in New York. I quickly realized that my first action had to be finding someone to explain to me what an Agile Coach was… Needless to say, it’s been an interesting few years.
The Agile Daisy 