Michael spent time working with large enterprises, such as JP Morgan and Standard Chartered Bank, startups and charities. Originally from Austria, he has over 20 years of experience in the IT sector. He has advised numerous early (and some not-so-early) stage startups and helped large behemoth companies change their mindset from traditional waterfall to Lean and Agile thinking. With a background in coaching (he is a certified coach), he strongly believes in the human aspect of technology. Besides all things Lean and Agile, he is also passionate about solving complex problems while having fun using LEGO and building sustainable communities.
Mikey (as he likes being called) has had a passion for all things digital since he got his first Amstrad CPC 464 at the age of 8. He started freelancing as a web developer at the age of 14 – building websites for local companies in Western Austria. Michael strongly believes that most problems organisations face are human and not technology related.
He coaches teams and organisations in Lean and Agile thinking. Michael sets himself apart from other coaches by specialising in Enterprise Service Planning (ESP), Lean Kanban, Lean Startup (for both startups and enterprises), Lean UX and scaled agile using both LeSS (Large Scale Scrum) and SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework). He has successfully coached teams in various locations across Europe, North America and Asia.
In practice, this means that he supports organisational transformation from waterfall to lean and agile mindsets, helps teams and programmes increase their efficiency using lean thinking. He guides companies in adopting a product and customer-centric focus to help businesses achieve agility and successfully navigate today’s constantly changing environments. A big part of his job is to coach product managers/owners and senior management to help them understand the rapid changes happening in today’s markets and how to react to them.
Besides traditional software environments, Michael occasionally also works with embedded products (both on the software and hardware side), helps distributed teams get the most out of agile, and helps non-IT related programmes such as sales or HR to adapt processes that embrace change.
Michael is an Accredited Kanban Trainer and a licensed Management 3.0 Facilitator. He also regularly conducts Scrum Trainings with PSM1 Certification and runs various trainings on anything Lean Startup related
Clients he worked for in the past include high-profile clients across a variety of industries, such as ThoughtWorks, Cognizant, Disney, JP Morgan, Standard Chartered Bank, Ben & Jerry’s, Cathay Pacific Airways, Unilever, Cyberonics, Tate & Lyle, Pizza Express, Glenlivet, Plymouth Gin, Macmillan Cancer Support, Amnesty International and Plan International.
Michael strongly believes in the importance of building communities and supporting each other. He organised the London Scrum User Group for 2 years, co-organised Agile Singapore, founded Lean Kanban Singapore and is currently co-organiser of Agile Hong Kong. He is also in the process of organising one of the first agile conferences in Hong Kong – Agile Hong Kong 2016.
Michael recently moved to Hong Kong and speaks English, German, Swiss German, Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese.