TL; DR: User Story Guide, Free Facilitation Resources — Food for Agile Thought #371
Welcome to the 371st edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 36,352 peers. This week, we share an extensive user story guide to create successful products, covering a lot of ground from 3Cs to INVEST to 3Ws. Also, we delve into the benefits of applying principles and patterns from the team topologies concept to remote and hybrid work environments. Moreover, John Cutler busts the myth that all planning is in some way helpful when he points to nine situations where planning might not be beneficial, from planning before the last responsible moment to planning to maximize output.
Also, we appreciate a Forrester Consulting study on the benefits of taking product management seriously, including “key recommendations on making product bets with greater impact.” (Download the study for free.) Then, we analyze different scenarios you may encounter when elevating a team from feature factory workers to problem solvers and dive into the advantages of a product design philosophy popularized by Amazon: Working backward. And Petra Wille shares how to best support your team as a product coach.
Finally, we share lessons learned on how ThoughtWorks helped Etsy create a new product culture, scaling discovery and delivery. The Institute of Cultural Affairs curated an extensive repository of free learning resources for facilitators, from group facilitation methods to virtual facilitation. Lastly, Russ Roberts interviews Annie Duke on the benefits of letting go and how to avoid confusing grit with character.
Did you miss the previous Food for Agile Thought’s issue 370?
🗞 Shall I notify you about articles like this one? Awesome! You can sign up here for the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter and join 36,000-plus subscribers.
🎓 Join Stefan in one of his upcoming Professional Scrum training classes!
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training w/ PSM II Certificate — December 12-13, 2022.
📈 Let Us Create Transparency—join 950-plus peers: Join the Anonymous Scrum Master Salary Report 2023.
🏆 The Tip of the Week
: Writing User Stories and building successful products
Paulo Caroli shares an extensive guide on how to best use user stories to create successful products, from 3Cs to INVEST to 3Ws.
➿ Agile & Scrum
and (via InfoQ): Enabling Effective Remote Working – Principles and Patterns from Team Topologies
Eduardo da Silva and Rich Allen delve into the benefits of applying principles and patterns from the team topologies concept to remote and hybrid work environments.
and : Introducing a product delivery culture at Etsy
Timothy Cochran shares lessons learned on how ThoughtWorks helped Etsy create a new product culture, scaling discovery and delivery.
: Plans are worthless, but planning is everything. We've all heard this. Common sense. But NO…not all planning is helpful.
John Cutler busts the myth that all planning is in some way helpful. Instead, he points to nine situations where planning might not be beneficial, from planning before the last responsible moment to planning to maximize output.
🎓 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training w/ PSM II Certificate — December 12-13, 2022
Discover Scrum’s four success principles in this guaranteed 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 a compact immersive class with like-minded agile peers from 09:00 – 17:30 o’clock CET.
Learn more: 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training w/ PSM II Certificate — December 12-13, 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
(via productboard): 📖 Study: How Investing in Product Management Pays
Forrester Consulting conducted a study on the benefits of taking product management seriously, including “key recommendations on making product bets with greater impact.” Download the study for free.
(via Medium): How to Turn a Feature Team into a Product Team?
Joca Torres analyzes different scenarios you may encounter when elevating a team from feature factory workers to problem solvers.
and : 🎙 How to be the best coach to product people
Lenny Rachitsky interviews Petra Wille on how to best support your team as a product coach.
📺 Engage the Agile Fluency® Model with Diana Larsen — Hands-on Agile #46
On October 12, 2022, agile innovator Diana Larsen delved into the Agile Fluency® Model. After a short introduction to the model, we shifted to an ask-me-anything-style discussion of the groundbreaking view of agile and teams.
📺 Watch the video now: Engage the Agile Fluency® Model with Diana Larsen — Hands-on Agile #46.
🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring
(via ICA:UK): 📖 Free Resources [on Facilitation and Participation]
The Institute of Cultural Affairs curated an extensive repository of free learning resources for facilitators, from group facilitation methods to virtual facilitation.
: Working backward: Why it is a must-have approach for product designers
Nick Babich dives into the advantages of a product design philosophy popularized by Amazon.
🎶 Encore
and (via Econlib): 🎙 Annie Duke on the Power of Quitting
Russ Roberts interviews Annie Duke on the benefits of letting go and how to avoid confusing grit with character.
📅 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 4,000-plus Agile Peers on Youtube
Now available on the Age-of-Product Youtube channel to improve learning, for example, about the user story concept:
- 🆕 Hands-on Agile 46: The Agile Fluency Model ® with Diana Larsen.
- 🆕 Hands-on Agile 45: FAST: An Innovative Way to Scale with James Shore.
- Hands-on Agile 44: Honey, I Shrunk the Backlog with Allan Kelly.
- Hands-on Agile 43: Outcome-Based Product Planning with Jeff Gothelf.
- Hands-on Agile 42: Lean Roadmapping and OKRs with Janna Bastow.
- Hands-on Agile 38: The Product Owner with Roman Pichler.
✋ Do Not Miss Out and Learn more about the User Story Concept — Join the 12,000-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.
Help your team with the user story guide by pointing them to the free Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide:
🗞️ Last Week’s Food for Agile Thought Edition
Read more: Food for Agile Thought #370: Calm Innovation, Delivery Dates, Participatory Decisions, Bad Bosses.
