Aurelien Beraud

Agile Coach, Xero

The fundamentals

Continuous improvement: beyond retros

We seem to try to foster a mindset of continuously and relentlessly striving for improvement with mainly one practice: retrospectives. For years, retros have been our default – and often our only – continuous improvement tool. Aurelien Beraud certainly used to think that retros were the most important ceremony. As a coach, he previously considered them his main tool to drive improvement.

In this talk, Aurelien Beraud prompts us look beyond retros and explore what other tools (Toyota Kata, improvement boards, etc.) and concepts we can explore to foster a continuous improvement mindset. Drawing on his own journey, Aurelien will share experiments he has conducted and is planning to carry out— discussing what worked for him and, more importantly, what hasn’t and where he failed.

After a career as a Software Developer in Norway, Aurelien Beraud swapped the fjords up north for the glittering city of Auckland down under to do what he knows best. He now spends his days as an Agile Coach, empowering teams to push their own limits and deliver products that change the lives of their users. When he’s not at work, he can be found geeking out in front of a game or exploring the intricacies of cognitive science.