Food For Thought #56: Autonomous Teams, Agile Pirates, Product Borgs in Cuba, Holacracy, Fun at Work

Age of Product’s Food for Thought of August 28th, 2016—shared with 4,165 peers—checks in on the state of autonomous teams from Dublin to Africa, and how team membership is usually managed in organizations.

Arrrgh! We also learn that pirates were pretty agile, true examples of self-organization, the application of which nowadays needs to be explained by a Harvard Business School professor.

We then try to better understand the cultural habits of highly effective (cross-functional) product teams, that allow, for example, AirBnB to spearhead the assimilation process of Cuba into the international tourism industry. (Product borgs, so to speak.)

Last, but not least, we need to come to terms with the idea, that work can actually fulfilling and fun, and not just pain and misery, at least at Menlo Innovations. Enjoy a great Sunday!

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Food For Thought #55: 100% Scrum Master, Getting Hired, Product Squads, Unwanted Users, Jobs We Lose to AI

Age of Product’s Food for Thought of August 21st, 2016—shared with 4,036 peers—points to 15 simple phrases from great leaders that boost team engagement. Which might prove to be helpful, when Agile will break your organization.

We also learn why removing “Agile Coach” from your profile might make the resulting 100% Scrum master more authentic, and how to land your next Scrum master position in the first place. Or your dream product manager job.

We then try to weight the benefits and potential risks of Spotify’s product squad concept and finally have to admit that not every great product automatically creates great business. Speaking of which: What is also not creating a great business, is a bunch of 50% solution.

Last, but not least, we come back to the question if we will have a job in ten years from now, given the advances of machine learning, and hear from Mr. Facebook himself how to build a better tomorrow. Enjoy a great Sunday!

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Food For Thought #54: Scrum Sucks, Agile = Change?, Love Your Problem, Poker & PM, Zappos Revisited

Age of Product’s Food for Thought of August 14th, 2016—shared with 3,929 peers—finally explains why Scrum sucks, sort of, and whether agile is really about change. We learn to better understand Scrum aficionados, and that we have had so far a completely twisted understanding of technical debt.

We also learn how to build teams that can cope with today’s complexity, and that we should avoid falling for the innovator’s bias. The good news is, though, that poker is great training for product management. (I knew it…)

We then dive deep into product roadmap strategies, and that the senior leadership needs to embrace Steve Blank, too, and get out of the building to test new ideas.

Last, but not least, we revisit the state of holacracy at Zappos.com, and get a better understanding of what companies can learn from the human immune system to last at least a century. Enjoy a great Sunday!

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Lean User Tests – Equipment and Location (Part 4 of 7)

TL; DR: Lean User Tests – Equipment and Location

This fourth part of the Lean User Tests series focuses on equipment and location: What hard- and software do you need to run your user tests, and where to run them? (Spoiler alert: It’s preferably not your office.)

How are your preparations progressing? If anything is impeding you from reaching this goal, please do not hesitate to contact me by commenting on this post, and I will gladly help you.

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Food For Thought #53: Technical Debt, Agile at BMW, Joy@Work, CSM History, Empathy, Pricing Is Right

Age of Product’s Food for Thought of August 7th, 2016—shared with 3,817 peers—lets you steal agile insights from BMW, and encourages you to redefine your attitude towards technical debt.

We also learn why the CSM certification originally was created, why public roadmaps with release dates are bordering on being moronic, and why the art of product management requires empathy. (I know, you thought that A/B testing and Analytics would suffice—sorry for breaking the bad news…)

We then dive deep into creating happiness at work, and this even seems to work in the software industry, given the lastest DZone poll among developers on agile methods.

Last, but not least, we are getting the price of our product right, at least we could fix it now, and we have an in-depth look at a place where pair programming is the norm, and not an exception. Enjoy a great Sunday!

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