TL; DR: Engineering Culture, Little Scrum Islands — Food for Agile Thought #349
Welcome to the 349th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 35,462 peers. This week, we share the impact of a 2014 change in engineering culture at Uber by ‘creating cross-functional program teams and introducing platform teams.’ Moreover, we reflect on why your little, happy Scrum island isn’t enough to achieve business agility, and we combine two powerful coaching tools for agile practitioners to learn from each other. Also, Adam Grant interviews Jenny Chatman on the effects of toxicity, mediocracy, bureaucracy, and anarchy.
Then, we detail how to address the leadership’s need for more predictability by ‘right-sizing’ work items to one- or two-day stories; we delve into the details of product-centric companies, and we listen to Lenny Rachitsky interviewing Teresa Torres on ‘automating continuous discovery, the opportunity solution tree framework, making a case for user research, [and] common interviewing mistakes.’
Finally, we refer to the many advantages of using our own products internally, pointing to examples from Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft. Also, we explain how the ‘5 Whys’ practice works and its benefits, and we enjoy a hearty laugh when Yuri Malishenko applies the IKEA metaphor to Scrum.
Did you miss the previous Food for Agile Thought’s issue 348?
🗞 Shall I notify you about articles like this one? Awesome! You can sign up here for the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter and join 35,000-plus subscribers.
🎓 Join Stefan in one of his upcoming Professional Scrum training classes!
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training w/ PSM II Certificate — September 6-9, 2022.
🏆 The Tip of the Week: Engineering Culture at Uber
: The Platform and Program Split at Uber
Gergely Orosz shares the impact of a 2014 change in engineering culture at Uber by ‘creating cross-functional program teams and introducing platform teams.’
➿ Agile & Scrum
(via Leading Agile): Why an Agile Delivery Model Isn’t Always Enough
Leading Agile reflects on why your little, happy Scrum island isn’t enough to achieve business agility.
(via Agile Alliance): Uncover the unknown with Gemba Troika Consulting
Jakob Schmidt Soerensen, Bo Bjerregaard, and Maryanne Kmit share lessons learned on how to help Scrum Masters learn from each other by combining two powerful coaching tools.
(via TED Talks): 🎙 The 4 Deadly Sins of Work Culture
Adam Grant interviews Jenny Chatman on the effects of toxicity, mediocracy, bureaucracy, and anarchy.
🎓 🖥 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training w/ PSM II Certificate — September 6-9, 2022
Discover Scrum’s four success principles in this official Scrum.org Advanced Scrum Master training class including the industry-recognized PSM II certification. The PSM II training class is designed as a live virtual class and will be offered in English.
Enjoy the benefits of an immersive class of four sessions with like-minded agile peers in the morning hours from 09:00 – 13:00 o’clock CEST.
Learn more: 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training w/ PSM II Certificate — September 6-9, 2022.
“Very hands-on class with lots of concrete takeaways to help in real world scenarios. Reinforced practices and highlighted things that helped in passing the PSM II exam but that was merely a bonus as the content of the class is so useful – certifications or not. Stefan Wolpers is an excellent trainer with broad practical and theoretical knowledge on the subject and his classes seem to have very good working atmosphere (this was a second class by him that I have taken).”(Link.)
👉 From time to time, we can offer last-minute seats for training classes at cost to individuals who do not have access to a corporate training budget. If you like to be notified about these opportunities, please register here.
🎯 Product
: How to Right-Size Your Stories for Better Predictability
Johanna Rothman details how to address the leadership’s need for more predictability by ‘right-sizing’ work items to one- or two-day stories.
and : 🎙 Teresa Torres on how to interview customers […]
Lenny Rachitsky interviews Teresa Torres on ‘automating continuous discovery, the opportunity solution tree framework, making a case for user research, [and] common interviewing mistakes.’
(via Medium): 📺 What Product-Led Companies Look Like
Ant Murphy delves into the details of product-centric companies.
📈 Join the Product Owner and Product Manager Salary Report 2022 — Let Us Create Transparency
The purpose of this anonymous Product Owner and Product Manager salary report is to create a clear, data-backed benchmark that allows everyone in the agile community to understand whether their compensation is adequate. (And yes, the report will cover Product Owners as well as Product Managers, both employed and freelancing. Obviously, a successful Product Owner is an agile Product Manager at heart.)
The goal is to have a sufficient number of replies – that would be at least 500 – by the end of September 2022 to create the report in time for November 2022. Of course, the report will be available for free.
Join now: Join the Anonymous Poll for the Upcoming Free ‘Product Owner and Product Manager Salary Report 2022’.
🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring
(via DZone): Why You Should Be Obsessed With Dogfooding
Zevi Reinitz refers to the many advantages of using your own products internally, pointing to examples from Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft.
(via Medium): Some thoughts on ‘5 Whys’
Jason Yip explains how the practice works and what its benefits are.
✂️ Cutting Room Floor
: 😂 If Scrum framework was a piece of furniture that an organization attempted
Yuri Malishenko applies the IKEA metaphor to Scrum.
📅 Scrum Training & Event Schedule
You can secure your seat for Scrum training classes, workshops, and meetups directly by following the corresponding link in the table below:
See all upcoming classes here.
You can book your seat for the training directly by following the corresponding links to the ticket shop. If the procurement process of your organization requires a different purchasing process, please contact Berlin Product People GmbH directly.
📺 Join 3,900-plus Agile Peers on Youtube
Now available on the Age-of-Product Youtube channel to improve learning:
- 🆕 Hands-on Agile 42: Lean Roadmapping and OKRs with Janna Bastow.
- 🆕 Hands-on Agile 40: The Best Team Ever with David Burkus.
- Hands-on Agile 38: The Product Owner with Roman Pichler.
- Agile Camp Berlin 2021: The Power and Pains of Autonomy with Jimmy Janlén.
- Hands-on Agile 31: The Zones of Value Framework with Valerio Zanini & Zeina Zeitouni.
- Hands-on Agile 35: Designing Powerful Questions to help you Coach & Create with Daniel Stillman.
- Hands-on Agile 34: Core Protocols for Psychological Safety with Richard Kasperowski.
✋ Do Not Miss Out and Learn more about Engineering Culture — Join the 11,000-plus Strong ‘Hands-on Agile’ Slack Community
I invite you to join the “Hands-on Agile” Slack Community and enjoy the benefits of a fast-growing, vibrant community of agile practitioners from around the world.
If you like to join all you have to do now is provide your credentials via this Google form, and I will sign you up. By the way, it’s free.
