TL; DR: Estimating Complexity, Healthy Goals—Food for Agile Thought #284
Welcome to the 284th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 30,648 peers. This week, we learn how to excel in the dark art of ‘estimating’ in general and estimating complexity in particular. We enjoy a conversation on imposter syndrome, deciding under uncertainty, psychological safety, and the Dunning-Kruger effect, and we point at the disadvantages of group work, how to spot if those are taking hold of your group, and how to counter resulting anti-patterns.
We then suggest steps to improve stakeholder engagement with Sprint Reviews and overcome typical anti-patterns, and we dive into AirBnB’s product culture, ranging from storytelling and the Disney influence to experimentation guardrails to what makes a product manager thrive there. Moreover, we explore a product design process leading from ‘I have no clue what to do’ to ‘we should do this,’ using the Circles method to make final recommendations.
Lastly, we embrace the idea that no amount of RACI, SMART, INVEST, OKRs, OGSM, or any other framework designed to create meaningful goals could outweigh proper team support by the leadership. Speaking of OKRs, we also ask: Can OKRs and JTBD co-exist?
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🏆 The Tip of the Week
and : 🎙 The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know
In this podcast, Jordan Harbinger and Adam Grant touch on many issues relevant to the agile practitioner: from imposter syndrome to deciding under uncertainty to psychological safety to the Dunning-Kruger effect.
➿ Agile & Scrum
(via Mind The Product): 🎙 Estimating Complexity
In this podcast, Liz Keogh shares her insight into how to excel in the dark art of ‘estimating,’ who to estimate for, and how to deal with complexity.
(via Product by Design): Groupthink — Recognizing It In Teams and Organizations
Kyle Evans points at the disadvantages of group work, how to spot if those are taking hold of your group, and how to counter resulting anti-patterns.
(via InfoQ): Put the Feedback back into ‘Demo & Feedback’
Jenni Jepsen and Ole Jepsen suggest steps to improve stakeholder engagement with Sprint Reviews and overcome typical anti-patterns such as low attendance rates not to take customers’ thoughts seriously.
🎓 🖥 🇩🇪 Professional Scrum Product Owner Training w/ PSPO Certificate — Online: April 13-16, 2021
Discover Scrum’s four success principles in this guaranteed official Scrum.org Professional Scrum Product Owner training class, leading to and including the industry-recognized PSPO I certification. The training is designed as a live virtual class of 4 hours per day from 9 am to 1 pm CEST. The class will be offered in German.
Learn more: 📅 🖥 🇩🇪 Professional Scrum Product Owner Training w/ PSPO Certificate — Online: April 13-16, 2021.
🎯 Product
: Building Products at Airbnb: Snow White, storytelling, and a relentless focus on experiences
Ken Norton interviewed four current Airbnb employees to learn more about AirBnB’s product culture, ranging from storytelling and the Disney influence to experimentation guardrails to what makes a product manager thrive there.
(via Spotify News): Introducing the New Miniseries ‘Spotify: A Product Story’
Spotify introduced a new podcast miniseries, where Chief R&D Officer, Gustav Söderström, will share insider stories of product strategy and development at Spotify, pulling “back the curtain on some never-before-heard stories of Spotify’s product journey.”
(via Product Coalition): How Our Cross-Functional Teams Decide What to Build at Whispir
Brad Dunn shares his product design process from ‘I have no clue what to do’ to ‘we should do this,’ using the Circles method to get to final recommendations.
🛠 Tools & Measuring
: Healthy Goals
John Cutler believes that no amount of “RACI, SMART, INVEST, OKRs, ‘sprint commitments,’ OGSM,” or any other framework designed to create meaningful goals could outweigh proper team support by the leadership.
: Do OKRs work with Jobs to Be Done?
Jeff Gothelf delves into an integration challenge when your organization utilizes objectives and key results: how do OKRs work with JTBD, a framework centered on developing a ‘deep empathy for their customers through observation, research, interviews, and data?’
📅 🖥 Virtual Agile Camp Berlin 2021 — May 27-29, 2021
The Agile Camp Berlin 2021 will be a virtual event from May 27-29, 2021.
We will spend three energizing days from 1 pm to 7 pm CEST at a live virtual Barcamp using open space technology principles and practices. The general conference language is English; sessions in other languages are welcome!
Read on and learn about the organization of the virtual Agile Camp Berlin 2021, its preliminary schedule, from your session proposals to session planning to the essential technology to enjoy the best possible experience.
👉 Learn more: 📅 🖥 Virtual Agile Camp Berlin 2021 — May 27-29, 2021.
📅 Scrum Training & Event Schedule
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See all upcoming classes here.
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Join us on April 20, 2021, for a live virtual workshop on driving product innovation with the Zones of Value framework. (Participation is free.)
📺 Join 2,700-plus Agile Peers on Youtube
Now available on the Age-of-Product Youtube channel:
- 🆕 Scrum Guide 2020: Eight Remarkable Changes — Hands-on Agile #28.
- Remote Agile (1) Replay: Practices and Tools for Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, and Product Owners.
- Scrum Sprint Retrospective Anti-Patterns.
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