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Jul 21, 2021
Great Teacher makes Scrum Concepts easy to learn!
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the PSPO class. Gary was great! He has a passion for Scrum and encouraged everyone to participate. That made it more enjoyable for everyone. He makes the concepts easy to understand and apply to our current work situation. I appreciate his wealth of knowledge of Scrum and his easy-going approach. Thank you Gary!!
Peggy Harlan
Jul 16, 2021
Excellent
Gary is highly knowledgeable and great at engaging the group. Simply put: this is an excellent class.
Josh L
Jul 5, 2021
Great class by an extremely knowledgeable Instructor
The Instructor, Gary Pedretti, was extremely helpful in explaining and demonstrating the concept of the Scrum Framework. This is not a class where you learn by reading the Scrum Guide. Gary provides examples that you and your team need to work through. Lots of activities and breakout and then time spent on discussing nuances of answers (both right and wrong) and how it relates back to Scrum.
I appreciate his teaching style. He is very positive. Even if you give a wrong answer, he talks through how it may or may not apply, so you never feel like you are giving a wrong answer but instead, expanding your understanding so that your answer changes.
The only challenge with this class that I experienced is a few students taking us way out in the weeds to their own particular work experience, which I didn't find helpful for the group.
But Gary is definitely very experienced in Scrum and does a wonderful job as an Instructor
Tanya Erdos Robinson
Jun 25, 2021
Professional Scrum Master
The structure of the course was well thought about and covers all aspects of Scrum master as a role.
Yousuff Mohammed Lappe
Apr 21, 2021
Lots of good tips & tricks learned to enhance day-to-day...
Thanks Gary for your great instruction and ability to answer questions and act as a SME on this topic.
JC
Apr 21, 2021
Great class!
Informative yet engaging. Looking forward to more!
Ophera Razack
Mar 19, 2021
Perfect mix of theory and practice
Perfect mix of theory and practice, and the cadence helped draw very clear lines between the two. I recommend this course for any UX leader or IC, and for any Product Owner involved with user-impacting products (hint: all products).
Ryan G.
Mar 18, 2021
Great class from Ty Crockett and Gary…
Great class from Ty Crockett and Gary Pedretti, clear and accurate, always answering any doubt and welling to take time after to continue helping you with any question.
Josue Aguilar
Mar 17, 2021
Strongly recommend
I collected really great practical tools and strong conversation starters to add to my coaching toolkit. Valuable discussions were had with both the trainers and skilled session participants.
Sara Porter
Mar 17, 2021
I thought the class was excellent
I thought the class was excellent. UX allows us to be up front and more collaborative with the customer/user and not just merely creating mock-ups for UI creation. And I had great instructors... Gary Pedretti & Ty Crockett
JW Washington
Feb 24, 2021
Exceptionally Engaging
Gary was an exceptionally engaging and knowledgeable instructor who was able to effectively connect with our group over the course of our multi-day virtual training session
Bill Schutten
Jan 17, 2021
Great content and great class environment
Great content and great way to manage my knowledge tools and resources inside platform.
Leonardo Spolador Ribeiros
Dec 18, 2020
I completed a virtual PSPO course with…
I completed a virtual PSPO course with Gary Pedretti over 3 days from Dec 14-16 and successfully completed the PSPO online exam on Dec 17th. Gary is an excellent trainer. I was happy with his engaging teaching style and content .
The use of mural boards and zoom allowed us to break off into small groups to complete group exercises. Gary makes sure to engage frequently with his audience, has a good sense of humour (always helps on a course) and encouraged discussions between delegates. Thank you for a great course.
Mark Jessop
Dec 10, 2020
A course with huge value for UX designers!
I was part of many other trainings in the past, but the experience with Gary Pedretti and Joshua Seiden was something different! They shared so much compressed knowledge and experience in just 3 days, which was very valuable to get firsthand. Thanks for the dedication on the course and all the feedback! Very recommended!
Elena Andreeva
Nov 13, 2020
Gary is a fantastic trainer
Gary is a fantastic trainer! I am new to Product Management and he did a great job breaking down the process and helping it relate to my role. I enjoyed the training session.
Hilda
Nov 10, 2020
Gary was a fantastic teacher and…
Gary was a fantastic teacher and everything I have learned has stuck with me in my day to day habits
Daniel Fragoso
Oct 29, 2020
Highly recommend this class
I've been a product owner for 2 years. This class was a great overview of the framework and situations you will run into as a product owner. There are many different resources that I have newly learned of, thanks to this class, that I will be leveraging going forward to make me a better product owner. Special thanks to Gary for being a great instructor and keeping it as interactive as he could. Highly recommend the class.
Alisha Holcomb
Sep 28, 2020
The class was very helpful
The class was very helpful. I am new to the product owner role and agile-scrum in general but I have been doing program and product management for many years now.
The format was very easy, I liked the break out options and canvas to do team work. The content flow was also very natural and worked to spur discussion.
I did have some low bandwidth issues a few times and it made the slides unreadable, it may be helpful to have the slide deck linked early so you could download a separate instance to view locally.
Michael M
Aug 28, 2020
Great trainer, great training!
With his a deep understanding of both Scrum and UX, Gary showed us how to make the impossible happen: handle UX and development work inside Scrum, within the same sprint.
StephanD
Aug 28, 2020
Engaging and Inspiring
Gary's PSU1 class was engaging, inspiring and followed a good pace. It had enough interaction to solidify concepts and went through a lot of material without feeling overwhelming at any point.
Andrew Nuttall
Jul 22, 2020
Gary is Great!
You are a master of the topic, have great anecdotes, and I appreciate that you don't just read from slides!
Tim D.
Mar 17, 2020
Great Class
Really enjoyed Gary's insights, his real world examples and practical application of Scrum, and the way he engaged the class.
Christopher Jensen
Mar 11, 2020
Great real world examples!
Great real world examples!
Gary did a great job relating real world issues and how scrum can help deal with those issues.
Shawn Caswell
Mar 3, 2020
Best Agile Trainer by Far
Gary helped clear many of the blockers and gray areas that my company is still struggling with in our Agile-Scrum Transformation. His class was mostly group work, which allowed for the devs and business to actually walk through real life product team scenarios. Gary tested us and challenged us, which made my team as whole question the way to run our scrum ceremonies and implement new techniques to make us better. He was a wonderful resource in breaking down my questions about Scrum and how my company can better utilize the framework and tool set of scrum. I walked out of class feeling so much better about scrum and ready to take on the SM Test!
Maura Durkin
Feb 29, 2020
Gary and the course were outstanding--I…
Gary and the course were outstanding--I highly recommend it for anyone interested in learning more about scrum regardless if you plan on becoming a 'scrum master'.
I do have one piece of feedback that is more specific to my course that may not apply to others. We had a few individuals in this course who were by no means beginners/novices at scrum. As great as it may seem to have someone like that in your course or group, I felt they took over parts of the learning sessions. This made it difficult for me to feel comfortable contributing and problem solving certain group activities. Regardless, the course was a great learning experience and I highly recommend Gary's teaching methods--the guy is knowledgable, funny and can translate complex material into digestible explanations for all members to understand.
CT
Feb 28, 2020
Gary is an excellent instructor
Gary is an excellent instructor. I really appreciated his pragmatism to real world scenarios like "how can I follow an agile framework in a fixed bid engagement?" His blended class format kept the class dynamic and engaging. Also, Gary is able to engage both introverts and extroverts in equal fashion. Bonus points for an awesome sense of humor.
Elizabeth Matias
Feb 27, 2020
Great Experience!
This is an excellent course. Scrum is a unique and exciting new way to get work organized.
Geoffrey Zoeller
Feb 23, 2020
Great class and a great instructor.
Great breakdown of concepts with a strong foundation of interpersonal dialogue and respect.
Karl Castaneda
Feb 21, 2020
Good balance
I really liked the class. It was informative and had some good exercises and case studies to help drive home the various points of the class. Gary P. was a very engaging instructor. He had a good balance of slides and exercises as well as a good wealth of real-world experience.
Gary Alioto
Feb 21, 2020
Great interactive class exercises!
I really enjoyed the interactive nature of the class with examples of real-world application.
Kimberly Tate
Feb 21, 2020
The class was very helpful and engaging.
The class was very helpful and engaging.
Betsy Vimalnath
Feb 20, 2020
Gary was excellent and engaging…
Gary was an excellent and engaging instructor, and presented a good mix of theory, practical examples, and exercises to provide an introduction to scrum methodologies.
Michael Tomczak
Feb 1, 2020
Good balance between group participation and lecture and between thoery and lived workplace experience.
The class had the right number of Students who were appropriately diverse in background and work experience and who were engaged in the process.Gary certainly fostered an atmosphere conducive to the process. The technique of printing appropriate presentation slides on stickers that could affixed to notebook pages and annotated was both clever and effective.
There was a nice balance of lecture and participation. There was a good balance of theory and real world application.
Mark Kollar
Oct 25, 2019
The class was really good
The class was really good. The instructor was really good about starting discussions by presenting scenarios and letting the class talk it over. T
Guillermo Palomino
Sep 20, 2019
This was an excellent class and Gary…
This was an excellent class and Gary was a great teacher.
Brian Durkin
Jul 22, 2019
PSU -- Gary Pedretti is a top facilitator
Gary Pedretti did an outstanding job of connecting Scrum and User Experience via visual and hands on learning. He presented the content in an engaging and insightful fashion. Learning from a course steward is incredible as information comes from the collaboration source. I would highly recommend taking this training from Gary and any training presented by Smooth Apps.
Tim Dickey
Jul 22, 2019
Gary was legitimately one of the best…
Gary was legitimately one of the best teachers of anything I've ever worked with. This class was a joy to take and I would recommend it to anyone who is even slightly considering it.
John Morrison
Jul 17, 2019
Gary covered the materials in an open…
Gary covered the materials in an open and collaborative fashion. I found value in the class and would recommend it anyone pursuing a life of Scrum.
Warren Rutledge
Jul 3, 2019
Review of Scrum Class 6/12-13
I very much enjoyed the class. Good balance between presentation and activities.
The only reason I didn't give 5 starts is that we could have used a little more time to discuss challenges of scaling Scrum at our organization.
Marlene Mrakovcic
Jun 6, 2019
Excellent topic
Excellent topic. Great scrum guide review. Live the Lean UX canvas and related exercises
mark howes
May 15, 2019
Gary was great with his explanation and…
Gary was great with his explanation and very engaging!
Brian
May 2, 2019
The PSD I class was very helpful
The PSD I class was very helpful, even though I already have a ScrumMaster certification. It reinforced the ideas that I had already learned and got my team ready to practice them.
No
Apr 5, 2019
PSU training
It was a fun but most of all a good training that gave me new insights and new ideas to pass by in my teams.
Thanks a lot Garry and Wilbert!
Danny
Mar 29, 2019
Great class for anyone who wants to…
Great class for anyone who wants to learn how to use/apply UX principles inside scrum. A little light on addressing the problems that occur in real life project scenarios.
Anne Stahl
Mar 29, 2019
Excellent PSU training!
Two days on proper Professional Scrum with UX training well spend!
Thanks to Gary Pedretti and Wilbert Seele, which combined theory, practice and some good entertainment I enjoyed it alot.
Sharing and solving real life scenario’s while getting the latest insights on how to work together as one team.
Tom Diepenhorst
Gary's Certifications
Gary's Bio
I am an agile software development trainer, coach, and practitioner, as well as a curriculum developer, application architect, and software craftsman. With over twenty years of experience, I work closely with companies worldwide to help them achieve their goals in delivering business value through software. Industries I have worked in include building automation, print and finishing, logistics, health care, pharmaceutical, beverage, health insurance, building remodeling, and office equipment – ranging in size from small volunteer organizations to Fortune 100 corporations.
In 2006, I took my first class on Scrum with Ken Schwaber, the co-creator of the Scrum framework. Since then I have worked to evangelize Scrum and other agile frameworks, deepen my personal knowledge, and continuously improve my ability to help others understand agility. I see agile software development as a natural outgrowth of the lessons learned in the software industry, including lessons I have personally learned.
I am a strong believer in the “see one, do one, teach one” road to craft and mastery, which led me to become a Professional Scrum Trainer for Scrum.org. Over the past nine years I have trained thousands of students on Scrum - coders, testers, UX specialists, BAs, DBAs, PMs, managers, and C-suite executives - using experiential, immersive courses. I have also mentored and trained four other Scrum.org trainers, who went on to teach hundreds of additional students over the past three years.
I have supplemented the courses I teach from Scrum.org by authoring custom curriculum and workshop material for many related concepts such as evolutionary/emergent/agile architecture, test automation, DevOps, unit testing, Test-Driven Development (TDD), estimation, advanced techniques for Scrum Masters, modern Product Ownership, Continuous Integration, agile database techniques, and Application Lifecycle Management (ALM).
I blog at http://www.GaryPedretti.com, and my company website is found at http://www.SodotoSolutions.com
Languages
- English
Courses taught by Gary
See What My Students Say
Jul 21, 2021
Great Teacher makes Scrum Concepts easy to learn!
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the PSPO class. Gary was great! He has a passion for Scrum and encouraged everyone to participate. That made it more enjoyable for everyone. He makes the concepts easy to understand and apply to our current work situation. I appreciate his wealth of knowledge of Scrum and his easy-going approach. Thank you Gary!!
Peggy Harlan
Jul 16, 2021
Excellent
Gary is highly knowledgeable and great at engaging the group. Simply put: this is an excellent class.
Josh L
Jul 5, 2021
Great class by an extremely knowledgeable Instructor
The Instructor, Gary Pedretti, was extremely helpful in explaining and demonstrating the concept of the Scrum Framework. This is not a class where you learn by reading the Scrum Guide. Gary provides examples that you and your team need to work through. Lots of activities and breakout and then time spent on discussing nuances of answers (both right and wrong) and how it relates back to Scrum.
I appreciate his teaching style. He is very positive. Even if you give a wrong answer, he talks through how it may or may not apply, so you never feel like you are giving a wrong answer but instead, expanding your understanding so that your answer changes.
The only challenge with this class that I experienced is a few students taking us way out in the weeds to their own particular work experience, which I didn't find helpful for the group.
But Gary is definitely very experienced in Scrum and does a wonderful job as an Instructor
Tanya Erdos Robinson
Jun 25, 2021
Professional Scrum Master
The structure of the course was well thought about and covers all aspects of Scrum master as a role.
Yousuff Mohammed Lappe
Apr 21, 2021
Lots of good tips & tricks learned to enhance day-to-day...
Thanks Gary for your great instruction and ability to answer questions and act as a SME on this topic.
JC
Apr 21, 2021
Great class!
Informative yet engaging. Looking forward to more!
Ophera Razack
Mar 19, 2021
Perfect mix of theory and practice
Perfect mix of theory and practice, and the cadence helped draw very clear lines between the two. I recommend this course for any UX leader or IC, and for any Product Owner involved with user-impacting products (hint: all products).
Ryan G.
Mar 18, 2021
Great class from Ty Crockett and Gary…
Great class from Ty Crockett and Gary Pedretti, clear and accurate, always answering any doubt and welling to take time after to continue helping you with any question.
Josue Aguilar
Mar 17, 2021
Strongly recommend
I collected really great practical tools and strong conversation starters to add to my coaching toolkit. Valuable discussions were had with both the trainers and skilled session participants.
Sara Porter
Mar 17, 2021
I thought the class was excellent
I thought the class was excellent. UX allows us to be up front and more collaborative with the customer/user and not just merely creating mock-ups for UI creation. And I had great instructors... Gary Pedretti & Ty Crockett
JW Washington
Feb 24, 2021
Exceptionally Engaging
Gary was an exceptionally engaging and knowledgeable instructor who was able to effectively connect with our group over the course of our multi-day virtual training session
Bill Schutten
Jan 17, 2021
Great content and great class environment
Great content and great way to manage my knowledge tools and resources inside platform.
Leonardo Spolador Ribeiros
Dec 18, 2020
I completed a virtual PSPO course with…
I completed a virtual PSPO course with Gary Pedretti over 3 days from Dec 14-16 and successfully completed the PSPO online exam on Dec 17th. Gary is an excellent trainer. I was happy with his engaging teaching style and content .
The use of mural boards and zoom allowed us to break off into small groups to complete group exercises. Gary makes sure to engage frequently with his audience, has a good sense of humour (always helps on a course) and encouraged discussions between delegates. Thank you for a great course.
Mark Jessop
Dec 10, 2020
A course with huge value for UX designers!
I was part of many other trainings in the past, but the experience with Gary Pedretti and Joshua Seiden was something different! They shared so much compressed knowledge and experience in just 3 days, which was very valuable to get firsthand. Thanks for the dedication on the course and all the feedback! Very recommended!
Elena Andreeva
Nov 13, 2020
Gary is a fantastic trainer
Gary is a fantastic trainer! I am new to Product Management and he did a great job breaking down the process and helping it relate to my role. I enjoyed the training session.
Hilda
Nov 10, 2020
Gary was a fantastic teacher and…
Gary was a fantastic teacher and everything I have learned has stuck with me in my day to day habits
Daniel Fragoso
Oct 29, 2020
Highly recommend this class
I've been a product owner for 2 years. This class was a great overview of the framework and situations you will run into as a product owner. There are many different resources that I have newly learned of, thanks to this class, that I will be leveraging going forward to make me a better product owner. Special thanks to Gary for being a great instructor and keeping it as interactive as he could. Highly recommend the class.
Alisha Holcomb
Sep 28, 2020
The class was very helpful
The class was very helpful. I am new to the product owner role and agile-scrum in general but I have been doing program and product management for many years now.
The format was very easy, I liked the break out options and canvas to do team work. The content flow was also very natural and worked to spur discussion.
I did have some low bandwidth issues a few times and it made the slides unreadable, it may be helpful to have the slide deck linked early so you could download a separate instance to view locally.
Michael M
Aug 28, 2020
Great trainer, great training!
With his a deep understanding of both Scrum and UX, Gary showed us how to make the impossible happen: handle UX and development work inside Scrum, within the same sprint.
StephanD
Aug 28, 2020
Engaging and Inspiring
Gary's PSU1 class was engaging, inspiring and followed a good pace. It had enough interaction to solidify concepts and went through a lot of material without feeling overwhelming at any point.
Andrew Nuttall
Jul 22, 2020
Gary is Great!
You are a master of the topic, have great anecdotes, and I appreciate that you don't just read from slides!
Tim D.
Mar 17, 2020
Great Class
Really enjoyed Gary's insights, his real world examples and practical application of Scrum, and the way he engaged the class.
Christopher Jensen
Mar 11, 2020
Great real world examples!
Great real world examples!
Gary did a great job relating real world issues and how scrum can help deal with those issues.
Shawn Caswell
Mar 3, 2020
Best Agile Trainer by Far
Gary helped clear many of the blockers and gray areas that my company is still struggling with in our Agile-Scrum Transformation. His class was mostly group work, which allowed for the devs and business to actually walk through real life product team scenarios. Gary tested us and challenged us, which made my team as whole question the way to run our scrum ceremonies and implement new techniques to make us better. He was a wonderful resource in breaking down my questions about Scrum and how my company can better utilize the framework and tool set of scrum. I walked out of class feeling so much better about scrum and ready to take on the SM Test!
Maura Durkin
Feb 29, 2020
Gary and the course were outstanding--I…
Gary and the course were outstanding--I highly recommend it for anyone interested in learning more about scrum regardless if you plan on becoming a 'scrum master'.
I do have one piece of feedback that is more specific to my course that may not apply to others. We had a few individuals in this course who were by no means beginners/novices at scrum. As great as it may seem to have someone like that in your course or group, I felt they took over parts of the learning sessions. This made it difficult for me to feel comfortable contributing and problem solving certain group activities. Regardless, the course was a great learning experience and I highly recommend Gary's teaching methods--the guy is knowledgable, funny and can translate complex material into digestible explanations for all members to understand.
CT
Feb 28, 2020
Gary is an excellent instructor
Gary is an excellent instructor. I really appreciated his pragmatism to real world scenarios like "how can I follow an agile framework in a fixed bid engagement?" His blended class format kept the class dynamic and engaging. Also, Gary is able to engage both introverts and extroverts in equal fashion. Bonus points for an awesome sense of humor.
Elizabeth Matias
Feb 27, 2020
Great Experience!
This is an excellent course. Scrum is a unique and exciting new way to get work organized.
Geoffrey Zoeller
Feb 23, 2020
Great class and a great instructor.
Great breakdown of concepts with a strong foundation of interpersonal dialogue and respect.
Karl Castaneda
Feb 21, 2020
Good balance
I really liked the class. It was informative and had some good exercises and case studies to help drive home the various points of the class. Gary P. was a very engaging instructor. He had a good balance of slides and exercises as well as a good wealth of real-world experience.
Gary Alioto
Feb 21, 2020
Great interactive class exercises!
I really enjoyed the interactive nature of the class with examples of real-world application.
Kimberly Tate
Feb 21, 2020
The class was very helpful and engaging.
The class was very helpful and engaging.
Betsy Vimalnath
Feb 20, 2020
Gary was excellent and engaging…
Gary was an excellent and engaging instructor, and presented a good mix of theory, practical examples, and exercises to provide an introduction to scrum methodologies.
Michael Tomczak
Feb 1, 2020
Good balance between group participation and lecture and between thoery and lived workplace experience.
The class had the right number of Students who were appropriately diverse in background and work experience and who were engaged in the process.Gary certainly fostered an atmosphere conducive to the process. The technique of printing appropriate presentation slides on stickers that could affixed to notebook pages and annotated was both clever and effective.
There was a nice balance of lecture and participation. There was a good balance of theory and real world application.
Mark Kollar
Oct 25, 2019
The class was really good
The class was really good. The instructor was really good about starting discussions by presenting scenarios and letting the class talk it over. T
Guillermo Palomino
Sep 20, 2019
This was an excellent class and Gary…
This was an excellent class and Gary was a great teacher.
Brian Durkin
Jul 22, 2019
PSU -- Gary Pedretti is a top facilitator
Gary Pedretti did an outstanding job of connecting Scrum and User Experience via visual and hands on learning. He presented the content in an engaging and insightful fashion. Learning from a course steward is incredible as information comes from the collaboration source. I would highly recommend taking this training from Gary and any training presented by Smooth Apps.
Tim Dickey
Jul 22, 2019
Gary was legitimately one of the best…
Gary was legitimately one of the best teachers of anything I've ever worked with. This class was a joy to take and I would recommend it to anyone who is even slightly considering it.
John Morrison
Jul 17, 2019
Gary covered the materials in an open…
Gary covered the materials in an open and collaborative fashion. I found value in the class and would recommend it anyone pursuing a life of Scrum.
Warren Rutledge
Jul 3, 2019
Review of Scrum Class 6/12-13
I very much enjoyed the class. Good balance between presentation and activities.
The only reason I didn't give 5 starts is that we could have used a little more time to discuss challenges of scaling Scrum at our organization.
Marlene Mrakovcic
Jun 6, 2019
Excellent topic
Excellent topic. Great scrum guide review. Live the Lean UX canvas and related exercises
mark howes
May 15, 2019
Gary was great with his explanation and…
Gary was great with his explanation and very engaging!
Brian
May 2, 2019
The PSD I class was very helpful
The PSD I class was very helpful, even though I already have a ScrumMaster certification. It reinforced the ideas that I had already learned and got my team ready to practice them.
No
Apr 5, 2019
PSU training
It was a fun but most of all a good training that gave me new insights and new ideas to pass by in my teams.
Thanks a lot Garry and Wilbert!
Danny
Mar 29, 2019
Great class for anyone who wants to…
Great class for anyone who wants to learn how to use/apply UX principles inside scrum. A little light on addressing the problems that occur in real life project scenarios.
Anne Stahl
Mar 29, 2019
Excellent PSU training!
Two days on proper Professional Scrum with UX training well spend!
Thanks to Gary Pedretti and Wilbert Seele, which combined theory, practice and some good entertainment I enjoyed it alot.
Sharing and solving real life scenario’s while getting the latest insights on how to work together as one team.
Tom Diepenhorst
Upcoming Classes by Gary
See all upcoming classes-
Professional Scrum with User ExperienceDetails Register
Live VirtualNov 11-12, 2021
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
America/Chicago
English
Classes Attended by Gary
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Latest Blogs by Gary
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Gary Pedretti
Struggling to integrate UX Designers into Scrum? Use these actions to make Scrum teams more user-centric and UX Designers full-time members of the Scrum Team!
Feb 26, 2019
Read blog