How M:M Bio used Scrum, Kanban and Agile practices for R&D Projects in the Oncology & Immuno-oncology Space

In this episode of the Scrum.org Community podcast, host Dave West is joined by Kirsty McCarthy - CEO of M:M Bio, Andrea Nisbet - Head of People at M:M Bio and Yuval Yeret - Professional Scrum Trainer. They talked about how M:M Bio uses Agile in drug discovery and R&D in the oncology and immuno-oncology spaces. They discuss how Agile principles were applied in a bio-manufacturing context, while combining Scrum and Kanban practices. They also talk about their transition to an agile approach and the necessary mindset shift to be agile.

About Our Guests

Kirsty McCarthy founded M:M Bio, along with her husband Tom, in 2016 with a vision to build an ecosystem of biotech companies that could learn from each other, leverage resources and be a great place to work. Before M:M, Kirsty spent about fifteen years working in the commercialization space building and growing companies focused on new technologies. Kirsty has an MBA from Melbourne Business School.

Andrea Nisbet has worked at M:M Bio Limited for 4 years and has supported the wider ecosystem growth from 3 companies to 4 and from 8 core team members to over 70.   Andrea is passionate about building and supporting a culture where everyone is able to perform to their full potential and where they feel a sense of inclusion and belonging. 

Yuval Yeret is a Professional Scrum Trainer and an agility coach working with startups, scaleups and enterprises such as Gillette, Dyno Therapeutics, MightyBuildings, Siemens, Intel, and CyberArk. Yuval is passionate about leveraging the Scrum principles of Empiricism, Self-Management and Continuous Improvement to tackle a variety of Products ranging from classic software products, through IT systems, all the way to cyber-physical systems and Business Processes such as Marketing and Sales/Revenue.