Managing risks in commercial software product development is hard. Business risks—like shrinking sales, competitor pressure, budget constraints, and inefficient processes—threaten viability. Product risks—such as overly ambitious plans, shifting priorities, staffing shortages, and building the wrong thing—disrupt delivery. Process risks—like excessive context switching, too much work-in-progress, slow handoffs, and knowledge silos—undermine efficiency. Technical risks—ranging from poor design and quality issues to platform complexity and delivery pressure—erode adaptability. Yet these risks are typically managed haphazardly, as independent concerns, handled by executive, product or technical silos. Usually, the loudest or highest-paid voices determine priorities, while important risks go unaddressed. The result? Compounding problems that stifle agility. We can do better. Effective risk management requires business, product, and technical leaders to step beyond their individual domains and actively engage in the uncomfortable, shared space of collective risk management. It demands continuous collaboration, trade-offs, the courage and safety to speak up, and a shift from reactive firefighting to proactive balance. In this talk, I’ll share real-world lessons from software product development—both successes and failures—to explore how we can build a more integrated, adaptive approach to managing risk together.

Joshua began his career as a professional programmer on Wall Street while still in university. In 1996, he founded Industrial Logic (http://industriallogic.com) to share the “light and magic” of software development. During the late 1990s, Industrial Logic helped pioneer lightweight software methods and today is considered one of the oldest and most well-respected agile consultancies in the world. Joshua and his global team of experts love to help people and teams leverage wisdom in software engineering and product management. He and his colleagues have helped organizations including Google, GE, John Deere, Nielsen, and Ford grow high-performance teams that deliver better software sooner. Joshua is an international speaker, and author of the bestselling and award-winning book Refactoring to Patterns, as well as his newest book, Joy of Agility.