Certified Agile Leader 1 (CAL1)

Learned a lot and very well delivered training

Grow-Lean instructors provides training with visual presentations, real world examples and group activities which enables hands-on learning experience. I have taken my CSM series courses via Grow-Lean and just completed my CSP-SM yesterday. Arlen is great instructor and mentor. He provided answers to all questions and guided the whole class to ensure we understand each concept throughly. I would recommend Grow-Lean to everyone who is looking to expand their knowledge base via Scrum Alliance Framework.

Arlen is a great communicator and a great teacher! I feel encouraged and challenged to lead!

Arlen Bankston made a great course on Certified Agile Scaling, with a lot of practice exercises

Arlen was very knowledgeable about agile at scale and had many practical examples of organizational scenarios to illustrate his points. I appreciated his assessment of agile scaling frameworks and their pros and cons

The material presented was so well laid out and informative. I learned many new acronyms as well as new concepts. My instructor Arlen Bankston was one of the absolute best I have ever had if not the best. He has a great persona and presents extremely well. Arlen offers many real-world examples and welcomes feedback on what's happening in everyone else's organization. I plan to review the material over and over to pull valuable nuggets for future use. I would highly recommend Grow-Lean and especially Arlen as the instructor.

Very great classes and material!

Great instructor and format of the learning

A great two days with instructor Arlen. Very insightful materials presented at a good pace with well timed breaks to avoid that inevitable drifting your mind does when you are in these type of sessions for too long! I will definitely be looking to Grow Learn for future educational opportunities.

Arlen brought so much personal experience to the training which really helped anchor the materials we learned about. I loved all the collaborative breakout sessions as I was grouped with fellow SMs from a variety of industries with relatable stories. Highly recommend!

I thoroughly enjoyed the Advanced Certified ScrumMaster course taught by Arlen Bankston. His extensive expertise and deep knowledge truly stood out. The course delves into the fundamentals of Scrum and engaging discussions, making it a valuable learning opportunity. Having a wonderful group of classmates was an additional highlight. I highly recommend it this or any course with Arlen.

Arlen was an excellent instructor -- amazing depth of knowledge and skilled teacher who took us through concepts in a way anyone could understand. Highly recommend.

Fantastic course led by Arlen. One of the nicest boards I’ve been able to follow as a student across many scrum classes and a wealth of resources to continue my agile growth journey with! Glad I attended this course as it is a value-add to my organization: would recommend.

Before taking the CSPO course I was pretty skeptical with regards to the value that I would get from this specific course. I came to understand from other people who had taken the course that the trainer can make all the difference. I read multiple reviews online and therefore decided to do the course with Arlen - it was the best decision. The course was really well structured, very informative and Arlen was really good at making the course really interactive. I would definitely recommend!

Arlen has great depth of experience and ties the course content into practical real-world application. I look forward to taking more classes with Arlen.

In two days, Arlen could share more than 20 years of experience in Agile, giving me new ideas and different points of view in the role of Scrum Master.

Overall great course. I liked the interactive activities. Arlen did a great job of explaining concepts.

Best experience so far in a Class/Certification. Arlen is a great communicator and goes into detail to help you understand tools and concepts.

Arlen was great. The training really highlighted the items that you should be doing as a good Product Owner. The instructor was sure to take time to ensure everyone knew the skills, and assignments given. Took time to allow for open discussion, that helped foster a safe emotional space. You could ask and give answers without feeling like you would be judged. 10 / 10 would recommend this class to anyone.

I appreciate very much the tips, and the sharings during the sessions. It was a great time of learning in a relaxed way.

Vastly experience faculty and amazing content

Excellent, clear, concise instruction that kept my full attention. A difficult feat when learning via video conference these days.

I really enjoyed the session with Arlen for the advanced certified scrum product owner class.

Arlen was an engaging instructor! Use of a collaboration tool made the entire course feel hands-on, with useful exercises and breakouts to get deep into the concepts. I walked away with more tools in my toolkit and plan to sign up for more courses in the future.

Arlen was an excellent instructor and provided extras and visuals that helped to solidify understanding the concepts.

The class was exactly as advertised! The class was informative, engaging, and timely. Arlen did a great job of keeping the entire class engaged. He answered questions, listened to ideas and shared so much good information.

One reason I selected this course is it was completed without one PowerPoint slide. The instructor, Arlen Bankston, would facilitate the lesson and move the participants into break outs using a Mural board. It was beneficial to be hands on and partnering with others while learning.

I took the A-CSPO certification..It was a amazing class and had excellent takeaways to build great products!! Arlen is an amazing instructor made the learning very much fun. Thanks to Grow Lean and Arlen for such a terrific class!!

I actually quit a competitor's A-CSPO course cause it was an awful experience. Had a great time in Arlen's class. Very likable guy with tons of real world experience. Will definitely recommend him to others.

I thought the training was fabulous! It was super helpful to stay up to date on where things are going in the world of agile. I plan to review the material and figure out how to use it to keep agile strong in my organization. I thought Arlen Bankston was one of the best instructors ever! He is full of personal insights, industry knowledge & trends, and he has an easygoing style that made it enjoyable to listen to. I would attend another course by Arlen any time!

This comprehensive training program exceeded my expectations in terms of content, delivery, and value. The course content was well-structured and covered a wide range of topics essential for an advanced Scrum Product Owner role. One aspect that truly stood out was the quality of the instructor, Arlen Bankston. Not only does he possess extensive practical experience as a Product Owner, but he was able to present complex concepts in a clear and engaging manner. He encouraged active participation, fostered discussions, and shared valuable real-life examples that enriched the learning experience. Grow-Lean's online training for the Scrum Alliance Advanced Scrum Product Owner Certification (A-CSPO) exceeded my expectations in terms of content quality, expert instructors, interactive learning materials, and overall value. I highly recommend this company and training program to anyone seeking to enhance their skills as a Scrum Product Owner and achieve advanced certification.

Great training experience. Arlen is a knowledgeable trainer with vast experience in consulting. He brings various tools and exercises to help get the point across. It is a rich learning journey through his training sessions.

I had the privilege of attending Arlen's A-CSPO training, and I must say it was an exceptional learning journey that far surpassed my expectations! Arlen's shared invaluable insights and tips on the Product Owner role. I highly endorse Arlen to anyone seeking to elevate their Product Owner knowledge to new heights.

Arlen Bankston absolutely MADE my CSP-SM Certification an absolute joy. He facilitated and guided our cohort to be the best versions of ourselves as we grew into our coveted new certifications. It was more than a learning experience, but rather a learning, networking, sharing, growth experience all in one.

I recently attended a CSP-SM class from Grow-Lean. I particularly appreciated all of the information that was shared leading up to the class in the class prep email and how friendly and responsive they were when I reached out with a few questions prior to my class. During the class Arlen was an awesome instructor and I appreciated how he was able to share form his wide variety of experience. I would definitely take another class from them again!

The entire course was well structured and started with asking attendees what they wanted from the course. Arlen made sure to check in multiple to make sure we were covering the topics we asked for from the beginning. I found the exercises to be very well thought out and beneficial to applying the techniques and topics reviewed.

Arlen is a wonderful instructor and comes prepared to coach up and down. He brings a wide variety of domain knowledge, practical shared experience, and remains open to ideas from students. A class is only as good as the instructor leading it. Thank you!

David Bulkin and Arlen (Grow-Lean) are great instructors! I've already taken part on three certifications provided by them, and am every time grateful that I took the time to do it. They have a lot of experience and thrive on teaching us how to use Scrum on an real-life Agile Environment! Would recommend to anyone!

Arlen Bankson is a fantastic instructor with a massive amount of experience. It made learning new tools and techniques easier because he could recall real examples to make the content more relatable. I will use Grow Lean and Arlen for my CSP-PO and SM.

The instructor was very knowledgeable and the curriculum was current and relevant. Great course. Would recommend to anyone.

Our trainer, Arlen, gave me an incredible experience. I appreciated the way he translated industry-specific terms into broader vocabulary so that people from different professional backgrounds could really connect with the content. He paced the curriculum perfectly to fit our needs and was mindful of creating space for us to interact. The session was a perfectly sized learning environment - intimate enough to have meaningful interactions, but enough variety to make every activity feel fresh.

Arlen is very knowledgeable and provides real world examples from his experience. The course is light weight, but provides robust insight into advancing scrum and agility.

Mr. Arlen Bankston was an outstanding instructor. He is very knowledgeable of the topic and speaks from his own experience and not from a slide. The class was very interactive and fun. I enjoyed the Mural presentation because they were a lot of fun and easy to understand. I also liked the assignments that required us to get in teams. Sometimes articles aside from the reading book gave me a better idea and understanding of the subject for the course. I never expected to learn so much from an online class; I now see Scrum in a whole new way. I will reach out to him for future classes or some advice.

Arlen was a wonderful class leader. He kept the class interesting by including historical stories about where concepts came from, productive breakout sessions and timely coffee/lunch breaks. He was also very nimble and adjusted content on the fly as questions came up. I would definitely recommend this class to any leaders interested in learning more about Agile methodologies and how best to support their teams.

My instructor, Arlen, was phenomenally knowledgeable and added a little bit of color to each section of the course. The way he connected each aspect of the material (by grounding the lessons in his past experience) made the class engaging and led me to seek out *more* courses he was leading.

The CSP-SM Training session from Arlen was engaging. He used an assortment of presentation tools and games that made for an interesting learning experience.He is really knowledgeable with a lot of experience that thus his real world examples help with understanding context. Lots of useful content and tools to use in real life.

The instructor Arlen did a great job in presenting the material and leading the discussions. For me, I have been in this role for a while, so I found the discussions very valuable.

Arlen Bankston took my A-CSPO course and this was the first Scrum course that I recommended to other people because I absolutely loved it. The way he conducted the exercises helped me understand concepts. We also had a small exercise with David Bulkin which was also worth it.

Of the scrum alliance classes I've taken thus far Arlen's CSP-PO class was by far the best. It was apparent that he knew/created the materials he taught from, he shared a great many personal insights, and he created an environment that encouraged the rest of the class to share their experiences and be heard. Would train with Arlen again.

The training offered by Grow-Lean for the Certified Scrum Professional - ScrumMaster was a master class on advanced scrum methodologies and theory. The material compiled and presented by Arlen Bankston was high quality and it was clear that we were in great and experienced hand for the subject matter. I highly recommend this course for all who have chosen Scrum mastery as their career choice.

One of the better Agile courses I have taken. The content was very well presented, interesting, and useful. The format was engaging and interactive, and it moved at a smart pace (I didn't doze off once). The instructor (Arlen) clearly put a lot of effort into preparing the course material/resources. I would definitely recommend.

Arlen was articulate, knowledgeable and engaging. He had a broad spectrum of content that allowed the class to think and relate!

The CSP-PO class was informative, thought provoking and the breakout sessions made it more transparent how different organizations view the Agile process. Thank you Arlen!

Arlen was excellent and brought some excitement to the course. Perfect blend of practical exercises, class discussion and instructor lead information.

Excellent A-CSPO course delivered by Arlen Bankston. Well presented, packed with useful information, high quality visuals, and interactive, engaging team exercises. Arlen brings solid industry experience with relevant stories and scenarios to support the course content. Highly recommend.

Great training with lots of additional, personalized material. Arlen was terrific.

Arlen is a skilled facilitator and brings a wealth of experience to the table. This enriches the experience significantly.

It was a great class and Arlen was an excellent instructor. He adapted and adjusted the focus of the course as we went to make sure that everyone in the class got the most they could out of it.

The A-CSPO course with instructor Arlen Bankston was everything I had hoped for. We learned new ways of approaching backlog prioritization, story refinement, sprint reviews and more. The class was dynamic and engaging. Arlen did a great job of tailoring content to the questions and interests of attendees.

Great course! The content was very relevant and the way it was presented made it immediately applicable. The collaborative nature of the course also enabled for more meaningful delivery of the concepts AND different perspectives on how to apply it. Arlen is great and I would definitely attend another session led by him in the future. Thanks!

Arlen was AWESOME in the CAL E & O course. I took away tons of stuff to try out with my organization. I will be back! I'll also send some colleges your way.

Arlen Bankston did a great job teaching this course. I highly recommend this course.

To be very honest, I thought this is going to be just like other certifications I attended: CSPO and A-CSPO where we'd sit and talk about the basics of PO role and learn about 5-10% of new stuff. This class completely exceeded my expectations. Arlen was an amazing mentor. I learned plenty of new stuff: different PO techniques and tools, how to think like a PO person from different angles I've never encountered in my career so far. This was definitely a course worth attending.

Arlen is awesome instructor and I would love to take another class from him and I learn a lot from this class and would recommend Scrum Master from my company to take this class.

ARLEN IS A GREAT INSTRUCTOR! Scrum is about people > process, and Arlen made everyone feel like they were a part of the training! GREAT TRAINER!

The training broadens horizons and helps to think out of the box. It was great teamwork during training. Thanks Arlen!

Arlen did a great job - thanks.

Arlen is knowledgeable and clearly explained all the concepts

Arlen was amazing, he took the time and effort to answer every question that I asked and others asked. I would definitely sign up for a course with him again.

Great course. Interactive and very interesting. Arlen Bankston was a great instructor.

This was an excellent class. There are several educational options out there, and I am glad I chose this one because Arlen's real-life experience and skill in designing this course made it valuable and fun. It was two days, and Arlen made it so relevant and interesting, I would be happy to spend many more days learning from him! Thank you!

Amazing two day course led by Arlen for my CSP-PO certification. Great content, great use cases, and so much more.