Hi folks, I am
Patrick Zahnd.

I rehumanise leadership,
believe in the power of Agile,
and trust in autonomous teams.

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why I strive

I rehumanise leadership, unleash the power of Agile and enable autonomous teams.

With my broad experience in implementing Agile transformations, leading autonomous Agile teams, managing high quality projects, and developing cutting edge products
— I help your business thrive.

Transform your company

You are at the beginning or in the middle of an Agile transformation? I help you unleash the power of Agile.

  • Agile transformation coaching
  • SAFe consulting
  • Release Train Engineer, Scrum Master
  • Training and certification (SAFe, Scrum, Kanban)

Rehumanise leadership

One main driver in Agile environments is the right leadership. New methodologies demand new leadership styles - it is time to rehumanise leadersip.

  • Agile leadership mentoring
  • Team building workshops
  • Retrospectives
  • Liberating structures

Make your software project fly

You have a great idea - I support you with

  • defining a prioritised backlog
  • building an engineering environment
  • staffing teams with skilled engineers
  • leading the (Agile) project for a successful delivery
  • What I Do

    14+ years of experience in IT and 10+ years of experience with Agile/Lean.

    My vision is to eable Agile leaders by coaching and mentoring them, so they can bring leverage into Agile transformations within their organisations.

    I have a background in software engineering and have spent my last ten years in coaching and training people to live the Agile principles. My strength is to combine human aspects with my technical skills. With my positive spirit I can motivate people to achieve their goals. Currently I am mainly working as an Agile Coach.

    Key Projects

    Jul 20 - now

    Agile Coach
    at Roche

    I work as an Agile Coach at Roche in an automation project. The goal is to transform the program of over 100 people working on this hardware project to a SAFe-like process. I implemented the program increment planning process, initiated the online program increment planning workshop using miro, started backlog prioritization workshops, combined the program plans in jira and trained and coached the Agile leaders in the project.

    Sep 19 - Jun 20

    Agile Coach
    at Novartis

    I supported Novartis in their Agile transformation. As an Agile Coach, I helped implementing SAFe in a big data project that brings together several divisions and functions. My focus was to coach Agile leaders. I helped them to define the vision and write a prioritized Product Backlog. Also, I was responsible for the training.

    Jul 17 - Jul 19

    Agile Coach / Scrum Master
    at Swisscom Mobile

    I worked as an Agile Coach and Scrum Master at Swisscom in the newly setup 5G ART. I coached and mentored the management and the Agile Leaders during the transformation process while holding the Scrum Master role for the 5G Mobile Core team. When the Mobile Broadband Services ART was formed in 2018, I took over a second ART as an Agile Coach.

    Jan 17 - Jun 17

    Teacher / Caregiver
    at Tumaini Orphanage, Kenya

    As part of my civil service I teached mathematics and informatics to secondary school kids at a school/orphanage in Kenya. Also I took care of kids during the day and helped out at the orphanage / school.

    Mar 15 - Jan 17

    Agile Coach / Scrum Master
    at Swisscom Banking

    I worked at Swisscom as a Scrum Master for a software engineering team that developed a backend API for banking frontends. I helped them switch their just-do-it method to an Agile process - namely Scrum. After some months I took over the role as an Agile Coach for the department. I coached several teams and their Agile Leaders.

    2014

    Consultant / DevOps Engineer
    at SBB

    During one year I consulted SBB’s internal IT to switch the software engineering department from svn to git. I concepted the switch and the automation using CI and CD, coached the internal operations team, developed the full-day workshop program for software engineers and held about 15 workshops myself.

    2013 - 2014

    Program Developer / Course Expert
    at ti&m hack'n'app

    The hack'n'app project week aims to show children and young people how exciting and diverse IT can be. In a project week of four days young kids learn to develop, design and program their own app. I had the opportunity to develop (rewrite) the whole course program from scratch. I held six courses across Switzerland (5 German, 1 French) as the course lead.

    Mar 10 - Aug 13

    Scrum Master / Software Engineer
    at Liip AG

    For three years I worked in a Scrum team at Liip on the project Migipedia for Migros. First as a Software Engineer and from 2012 as a Scrum Master. This is where I learned how a functioning Scrum team works, what challenges Scrum Masters face and how the Scrum Master role changes using Kanban.

    Aug 03 - Mar 10

    Mediamatiker / Software Engineer
    at BiCT AG / 3way AG

    During my Mediamatiker apprenticeship at BiCT AG I decided to become a Software Engineer. During two half-year internships I could improve my software engineering skills and had the opportunity to stay at 3way AG as a Software Engineer right after my apprenticeship.

    What Clients and Partners Are Saying.

    Patrick hat einen grossen Beitrag in der Large Solution und in den ARTs erbracht, wo er mit seiner offenen, direkten und praxisorienterten Ansatz, neue Ideen platziert hat und die Weiterentwicklung auf Team und Program Stufe vorangetrieben hat. Dank seinem reichen Erfahrungsschatz und seiner Flexibil- ität ist er je nach Situation als Scrum Master oder als Agile Coach aufgetreten. Besonders hervorzuheben seine Initiative, Release Train Engineers und Scrum Masters innerhalb der Large Solution weiterzuentwickeln.

    Christian Hofstetter Agile Coach, Swisscom

    Patricks Scrum Master Mentoring hat mir als Scrum Master folgenden Mehrwert erbracht:

    • Aufbau der Scrum Methodenkompetenz in kurzer Zeit.
    • Die Verbesserung des Scrum Teams durch effizient gestaltete Retrospektiven
    • Die Sicht von aussen zur weiteren Gestaltung der Transformation in unserer Squad.

    Martin Hostettler Scrum Master, Swisscom

    Dank Patrick weiss ich überhaupt, was Agile und Scrum ist, und wie man das prozessual in den agilen Szenarien lebt.
    Patrick ist motivierend, unterstützend und kreativ.

    Klaus Liechti SAFe Release Train Engineer, Swisscom

    Für die Entwicklung von Aloha zum agilen Team war Patricks Coaching / Mentoring entscheidend und ich habe ihn als hartnäckigen Nachfrager kennengelernt und geschätzt. Er hat uns gezeigt, wo und wie das Team ihre Verantwortung übernehmen kann und auch soll. Dass das Herbeiführen von Teamentscheidungen zentral ist und ein ehrliches Feedback sehr wichtig ist und es dazu manchmal auch Mut braucht. Ich bin mir sicher, durch sein Coaching / Mentoring haben wir uns schneller und effektiver von den alten Vorgehensweisen gelöst und uns die agilen Werte und Prinzipien verinnerlicht.

    Ernst von Büren Product Owner, Swisscom

    As a Scrum Master, Patrick patiently helped us a lot with Jira tool which was new to all of us, and led us to organize ourselves as team and help all individually with advices and examples to be more agile. During team meetings, he maintained order and timeline of meetings so we don’t stuck in long discussions that needed probably dedicated slot. Also he helped us in PI planning preparations and planning itself to be more focused and efficient. Patrick is very proactive and imaginative person, and as a Scrum Master he brought us always fresh views and ideas, it was very pleasant to work with him. Patrick brings fun even to sometimes dull and boring tasks.

    Ivan Simunic Solution Architect, Ericsson

    Zum Start unserers Release Trains hatten wir Patrick Zahnd als einzigen Scrum Master mit Erfahrung an Bord. Er hat sein Wissen offen und selbstlos den anderen 4 Scrum Master weitergegeben. Er wurde auch nicht müde, uns allen immer wieder aufzuzeigen, wohin wir uns entwickeln sollen: Relentless Improvement ist Teil seiner DNA. Zusätzlich hat er uns in Werkzeugen wie JIRA dank seiner Tool-Affinität viel beigebracht. Sein Drive und Enthusiasmus hat unserem Train einen tollen Start-Boost gegeben.

    André Brand SAFe Release Train Engineer, Swisscom

    Patrick hat frischen Wind ins Team gebracht und verkrustete Strukturen aufgebrochen.
    Sein Blick von aussen hat uns geholfen, kritische Punkte zu finden und neue Ansätze auszuprobieren.

    Michael Bürki Product Owner, Swisscom

    Als ich kompetente Hilfe brauchte, ein Projekt in die agile Welt zu transformieren, kam mir Patrick als erstes in den Sinn. Seine Art, das Team und den PO in ihrer Rolle zu ermächtigen, zeigen seine grossen empathischen Fähigkeiten; ohne welche man manche Transformation gar nicht starten braucht.

    Bastian Feder Test Manager, Migros

    who I am

    This is Patrick Zahnd.

    traveling

    I visited more than 50 countries

    hiking

    I love hiking

    hiking

    I hiked up mount kenya
    (4985m asl)

    web technologies expert

    I am an expert at the WorldSkills competitions in the trade web technologies

    music

    I like dancing lindy hop, listening to music and going to live concerts

    Kenya

    I used to live in Kenya for six months and explored a lot of places like Hells Gate National Park in the picture

    5
    Awards Received
    263
    Cups of Coffee / year
    200
    Volunteering days
    4985
    Highest altitude hiked

    Contact me

    Get in touch and let's start a great journey.

    Where to find me

    lemurlabs gmbh
    Museggstrasse 8
    6004 Luzern
    Switzerland
    www.lemurlabs.ch

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