It's true! Imagine a team of experienced, competent agilists. Now give them a poorly written, shoddy, unkept backlog. Will they prosper and thrive? Not without upgrading that backlog. On the other hand, if you take a team that is underperforming and provide them with a clear, thought out and well-written backlog you can bet they will start improving. The fact is that your backlog is a major component in your agile success and as a group, we don't pay enough attention to our backlogs.

What makes a great agile hire? 

The fact of the matter is that hiring decisions have an incredibly tremendous impact on the potential of your agile team. The right hire can be the catalyst that helps the team achieve undreamed-of heights, while a poor hire can mire the team in drama without them ever actually getting anything done. If your position involves making or influencing hiring decisions for your teams then this will be 90 minutes well-spent.