Co-Creators

Michaele Gardner

Personal Philosophy: Connector, Catalyst, Coach

Michaele Gardner started out as a counselor at an emergency crisis line. Clients were too messy: defined inputs did not lead to predetermined outputs. So she moved into the world of IT and has not looked back, but has always stayed closed to her roots in counseling. As a COBOL developer, Michaele loved diving into the clean logic and flow of well written code as well as working with other developers. Her next iteration was to move the problem space closer to the solution space which led her to Object Oriented coding. Landing as a Java developer on an XP team brought together her interests in psychology, flow, teamwork and problem solving. Her next step was to help engineers and organizations understand business value at a micro and macro level. Currently she can be found applying neuroscience concepts to technical teams and students. She has successfully applied agile concepts and principles in multiple non-software focused spaces – from teaching undergraduate and graduate classes to building a real estate rental portfolio. She is an executive coach who co-creates new and exciting career paths with clients. Michaele is addicted to Post-it Super Sticky notes and is a fanatic about helping teams and people create a psychologically safe, innovate space where motivation, trust and support exist. One of her personal mantras is shamelessly taken from Kent Beck who says: “Turn up the good.”

Brian Hackerson

Personal Philosophy: Be a Light

Brian is a reformed functional manager, turned agile coach. Since that personal transformation, he has become curious about neuroscience with a keen interest in understanding flow state, the greatest place to be.  At his core, he is a data enthusiast, having background in healthcare data analytics before it became cool.  Using common agile metrics applied in uncommon ways, he has shaped his personal agile journey.

Brian enjoys teaching Scrum, coaching teams and individuals to foster growth mindset, with an eye on creating positive outcomes for teams and individuals.  Right now he is volunteering his time to teach Scrum in Community Education in Apple Valley, Minnesota, as well as sharing Scrum basics with students at local universities.

When Brian isn’t working or caring for his family, he can be found at Target Field cheering on the Minnesota Twins every chance he gets.