Podcast – Episode 37:
Healthy feedback loops improving cancer intelligence 

Denali’s story of turning the ship around. The resounding success of Agile

In this episode, we talk to a tech leader who has turned a technical ship around. Her leadership resides in an organization that works hard to improve palliative care.

Denali Lumma, the VP of engineering at Project Ronin, shares her story and her leadership. Particularly on how she, her peers, and team pivoted a troubling technical situation and created a state of technical flow in the organization. The best part is the improvements in care for patients. Feedback loops of care went from a month to days, allowing carers to be agile in improving the conditions of patients and enhancing their quality of life. Maybe even saving lives.

“If I can do it, you can do it. Anyone can do it. It’s just a matter of perseverance. And, and knowing that failure and defeat is part of the human experience. But that it is eventually worth it. I guess. I’m not sure if that’s very inspiring or not, but that’s the truth.”

The key takeaways from the conversation with Denali are:  

• The concept of technical–debt–event–horizon (the point of no return) 
• How Agile can absolutely work. It can be a success if you keep going, learn from the mistakes, and don’t see it as some magic formula out of the box. You have to be agile about Agile. Let it guide you, rather than dictate 
• The huge power of healthy feedback loops–find the important ones and enhance them
• How systems and industries create incentives that really aren’t helpful, even damaging 

TLDR: Straight to the point
(Quick Links)

We all live busy lives, and sometimes a long podcast is too much of a time-footprint for our busy schedules. So, to help you get to the bit you’re more interested in, use our table of contents below. Quick links to help you get straight to the point.