Food for Agile Thought #110: Roles of Change, Systems Thinking, Estimation Nightmares, Ideation Channels

Food for Agile Thought’s issue #110—shared with 11,602 peers—dives into the roles of change that are critical to its success, we look at fundamental concepts of systems thinking and how to apply them to today’s product management.

We also advocate self-selection of teams, we go back to the estimation debate, and we learn to understand better how design thinking, lean, and agile were supposed to work together —before rituals and certifications.

Lastly, we feature another Scrum myth-busting moment: That Scrum is meeting-heavy.

Have a great week!

Food for Agile Thought 110: Roles of Change

🏆 The Tip of the Week: Roles of Change

(via Stanford Social Innovation): Should You Agitate, Innovate, or Orchestrate?

Julie Battilana and Marissa Kimsey present a framework for understanding the roles of change you can play in a movement for (social) change.

Agile & Scrum

Hiten Shah (via Product Habits): My nightmares with engineering estimates

Hiten Shah looks back at what happened to his projects — Kissmetrics and CrazyEgg — when he used story points or #noestimates.

Sandy Mamoli (via Agile Alliance): Creating Great Teams – How Self-Selection Lets People Excel

Sandy Mamoli suggests a radical idea: trust people to know best and let them decide which team they should work in.

Jason Knight: Myth: Scrum Events Take Too Much Time

Jason Knight busts the myth that Scrum events take too much time — in an engineer-friendly manner.

Leyla Acaroglu (via Medium): Tools for Systems Thinkers: The 6 Fundamental Concepts of Systems Thinking

Leyla Acaroglu shares the key insights and tools needed to develop and advance a systems mindset for dealing with complex problem-solving.

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From the Blog: The Scrum Master Theses

The following 70 scrum master theses describe the role of the scrum master from a holistic product creation perspective.

The scrum master theses cover the role of the scrum master from product discovery to product delivery in a hands-on practical manner. On the one side, they address typical scrum ceremonies such as sprint planning, sprint review, and the retrospective. On the other hand, the scrum master theses also cover, for example, the relationship with the product owner, they deal with agile metrics, and how to kick-off an agile transition, thus moving beyond the original scrum guide.

Scrum Master Theses – Age of Product

Read more: 70 Scrum Master Theses

Product & Lean

Jonny Schneider (via Mind The Product): Understanding how Design Thinking, Lean and Agile Work Together

Jonny Schneider believes that the way Agile has been codified into rituals and certifications and rolled out mindlessly is what misses the point.

Johanna Kollmann (via Mind The Product): System Thinking for Product Managers

Johanna Kollmann reviews established system thinking concepts and applies them to the world of today’s product management.

Keary Crawford (via InnovationExcellence): “Faux Innovation” and Other Discontents

Keary Crawford points at typical innovation anti-patterns at large organizations: from personal agendas to merely ‘doing’ innovation.

George Krasadakis (via Startup Grind): Principles of a great "Ideation Channel"

George Krasadakis reflects on what makes a good ideation platform: What are the fundamental principles and components that need to be there?

Adam Henshall (via Process Street): How to Build an MVP App Without Writing Code

Adam Henshall presents four tools that take ideas beyond the prototyping stage — without coding.

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