Joel Bancroft-Connors

Back in 2009, Joel Bancroft-Connors was one of the most adamant anti-Agile project managers in the business. After being laid off from his job, he found himself in a colleague’s ScrumMaster certification class and was quickly hooked on the power of Agile. Now, Joel is well-known as ”The Gorilla Coach” for his ability to tackle the toughest challenges and to address the culture and change management problems that other coaches avoid — the 800-pound gorillas.

“I’ve worked with teams in every industry from data warehouses to legal software, and I have yet to find a place where agile doesn’t work. The focus on transparency and adaptation leads to more success, more of the time.

Joel has over 25 years of experience coaching teams and managing products at top companies like BMW, Salesforce, Dell, Symantec, AOL, Hitachi, VMWare, Mass Mutual, and Costco. His approach to training ScrumMasters, “See One, Lead One, Do One” removes the fear from the process, guiding trainees in an immersive manner through the Scrum Events so that they can feel confident in their facilitation skills, knowing they have the support of an expert coach.

Since becoming certified as a Scrum Trainer, Team Coach and Consultant, Joel has been eager to share his experience and knowledge with a wider audience, not only as an instructor, but also as a regular writer for the Scrum Alliance site and as a member of the core team for the Agile Coaching Growth Wheel, an open-source initiative with the goal of “Professionalizing the world of Agile coaching”. You can also find his video series on YouTube, where he answers tough questions in Agile and Scrum.

Joel wanted to be a superhero when he grew up so that he could change the world. Now, he’s living his dream by helping learners find and harness their agile superpowers. Develop yours in a CSM or CSPO class with The Gorilla Coach.