Joel Bancroft-Connors

Olympia, WA

My certifications

Certified Scrum Trainer® badge
Certified Scrum Trainer®
Certified Team Coach™ badge
Certified Team Coach™
Certified Scrum Professional® - ScrumMaster badge
Certified Scrum Professional® - ScrumMaster
Certified Scrum Professional® - Product Owner badge
Certified Scrum Professional® - Product Owner
Advanced Certified ScrumMaster® badge
Advanced Certified ScrumMaster®
Advanced Certified Scrum Product Owner® badge
Advanced Certified Scrum Product Owner®
Certified Agile Leader® 1 badge
Certified Agile Leader® 1
Certified ScrumMaster® badge
Certified ScrumMaster®
Certified Scrum Product Owner® badge
Certified Scrum Product Owner®

About

Title: Agile/Scrum Trainer

Joel is a highly experienced and respected agile practitioner specializing in product management and agile methodologies. With over 25 years of coaching teams and managing products at top companies such as BMW, Salesforce, Dell, Symantec, AOL, Hitachi, VMWare, Mass Mutual, and Costco, Joel has established a reputation for successfully tackling the toughest challenges and addressing cultural and change management issues that others may shy away from.

With an initial skepticism towards Agile, Joel underwent a transformative journey after attending a colleague's ScrumMaster certification class. This experience ignited a passion for Agile, leading Joel to become known as "The Gorilla Coach" for fearlessly confronting the 800-pound gorillas in organizations.

Joel firmly believes that Agile can be applied to any industry, citing its focus on transparency and adaptation as key drivers of success. As an agile coach, trainer, and consultant, he has developed a unique approach to training Scrum Masters, emphasizing hands-on experience and immersive learning. Through the mantra of "See One, Lead One, Do One," Joel empowers trainees to confidently facilitate Scrum Events, knowing they have the support of an expert coach.

Passionate about sharing knowledge and contributing to the agile community, Joel actively writes for the Scrum Alliance and is a core team member of the Agile Coaching Growth Wheel, an open-source initiative aimed at professionalizing the world of Agile coaching. Joel's expertise can also be found in his video series on YouTube, where he provides insightful answers to challenging questions in Agile and Scrum.

 Driven by a childhood dream to be a superhero and change the world, Joel is living that dream by helping learners discover and harness their agile superpowers. With a strong focus on agile methodologies and product management, Joel is dedicated to guiding organizational success through the power of Agile.

Please email Joel to talk about how he can help you and your company: [email protected]

Experience and services

  • Career history

    • 2009-12-30 - present - The Gorilla Coach, LLC (Principal)
    • 2010-02-01 - 2011-04-30 - Hitachi GST (acquired by Western Digital) ( PMO Leader - Senior Agile Program Manager)
    • 2011-05-02 - 2015-02-06 - EMC (Principal Agile Program Manager)
    • 2015-07-27 - 2016-12-01 - AOL (Agile Coach)
    • 2017-01-09 - 2017-08-25 - SolutionsIQ (An Accenture Company) (Agile Coach)
    • 2017-12-18 - 2023-04-28 - Applied Frameworks (Pricincipal Consultant)