Ideas & Insights

Three Lean TECHniques consultants – Scott Sauber, Alec Harrison, and Daniel Ward – have been renewed as Microsoft MVPs. This recognition gives our teams direct access to the engineers and product teams shaping the tools our clients rely on, a channel to provide feedback that influences those tools, and deeper insight to help clients navigate modern technology challenges.

Lean TECHniques was proud to once again support Tech Journey during its annual Tech Camp last week – a hands-on summer program that helps underrepresented and underserved students explore careers in technology.

Real-time sentiment analysis for voice uses AI to detect emotional cues – like tone, pitch, and pace – as conversations unfold. Unlike post-call analysis, this technology helps teams respond to emotion in the moment. In a recent proof of concept with a financial services organization, recognizing live sentiment enabled more empathetic, effective interactions. While the tech runs on AI models like STT and NLP, the impact is deeply human: better conversations, stronger connections, and smarter decisions.

Technical debt is often talked about in abstract terms, but what happens when it actually starts draining your bottom line? This blog uses a general ledger lens to evaluate whether your software is a business asset or a financial liability. You’ll learn how to identify when technical debt tips into technical bankruptcy, how to evaluate legacy systems, and what steps you can take to prevent long-term value loss.

It’s been nearly 25 years since the Agile Manifesto. While “Agile” now draws mixed reactions, its principles still shape how organizations work. AI has the potential to drive even greater change, but the sheer number of possibilities makes it hard to know where to focus. Enter our take on an AI Manifesto: a practical, people-first framework grounded in the same values we bring to every conversation about technology and business.

Lean TECHniques is excited to announce the return of the Tech Journey Open — now in its fifth year – on Thursday, Sept. 4.

As AI accelerates and software delivery gets faster, the value of a developer isn’t just in what they can build, but in whether they build the right thing. Full Product Developers go beyond technical scope to understand product goals, user needs, and the why behind every decision. It’s time to evolve our definition of developer excellence.

Technical debt isn’t just an engineering concern—it’s a product leadership issue. When roadmaps ignore the health of the codebase, teams slow down, quality slips, and morale erodes. Great product leaders treat technical debt as a strategic lever—not a backlog afterthought. This post explores why managing internal investment is essential to long-term product success, and how to make tech debt visible, intentional, and actionable in your roadmap.

Change is tough. If you’ve been through a major transformation – whether it’s a shift in strategy, process, or technology – you know that resistance is part of the deal. Although it’s hard, over the years I’ve noticed a little something that improves your chance of success: the companies that succeed don’t just have the right strategy. They create the right conditions to generate lasting change. Let’s break down a few core attributes that tend to bear fruit on successful transformation initiatives.

Influence isn’t about authority – it’s about impact. Whether you’re working with peers, managing up, or guiding those who report to you, influence is about how others perceive and trust your input. The good news? You don’t need a leadership title to be influential. What you need is trust, expertise, humility, and the ability to set the right example.