Hi! I’m JM Roxas
I’m passionate about a few things. Agile ways of working, leadership and coffee.
Written Media
I’ve been featured in the compilation of the Best Agile Articles of 2018 and have written my own book called the Agilist Field Guide. Both these books are free to download!
“The world needs more good managers, people who’s main concern is to take care of those in their charge”
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The Art of Saying No: Setting Boundaries Without Burning Bridges
Alright, let’s get real for a second. Saying “no” at work can feel like a high-stakes game of Jenga—one wrong move and the whole tower could come crashing down. Especially in software engineering, where the requests come flying at you faster than you can type. But let me drop a truth bomb: saying “no” isn’t…
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The Power of Feedback: How to Build a Culture Without Freaking People Out
Let’s be honest—feedback has a bit of a PR problem. For some reason, the word “feedback” makes people nervous. Say, “Can I give you some feedback?” and you’ll see a wave of dread wash over their face. Why? Because we’ve turned feedback into this big, scary thing when really, it’s supposed to be a tool…
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Building Chemistry from Afar
Building team chemistry in a remote work environment can feel like trying to find your way through a maze without a map. Those spontaneous watercooler chats? Gone. Casual elevator conversations? See ya! Suddenly, your colleagues transform from familiar faces to just names on a screen, making it harder to reach out and engage. As the…
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Performance rating season is not easy.
It’s performance rating season and let me tell you, it’s one of the toughest times in the year for me. The balance between recognizing and celebrating the efforts people have put it in throughout the year versus upholding a consistent standard across the whole population is a dance I’ve done many times but never got…
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Cats will teach you so much about being a good manager.
My cat will do cat things and I can’t blame him for being a cat. It’s my job to manage his environment and observe how he acts. Want to make sure he doesn’t make a mess and pee where he isn’t supposed to? Then I make sure the litter box is always clean. Don’t want…
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Stop it with refreshers
In my years of taking on a coaching role the most common request I’ve gotten was “can we get a refresher on Scrum?” coming from people who have been doing the work for months if not years. I then ask why which leads to the real conversation about what’s really bugging them. You get into…
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Three rules to make hybrid work suck less
Maybe I’m being a little bit provocative here but let me make my position clear. I think hybrid ways of working where you’re neither fully in the office or fully remote makes a lot of sense in theory, I actually think it has the potential to be the ideal way to work if its done…