Stefan Wolpers

Food for Agile Thought #367: The Power of Working Together, Product Leadership, No Learning w/o Closing Loops, Decisions under Complexity

by Stefan Wolpers | 2022-11-04 News

TL; DR: The Power of Working Together — Food for Agile Thought #367

Welcome to the 367th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 36,223 peers. This week, we enjoy an interview with Alan Mulally, former President and CEO of the Ford Motor Company, on working together. Also, we point at a critical element of the seemingly dull Deming cycle: incomplete execution loops result in zero learning. Moreover, we explore our need for certainty and how this influences decisions in complex systems, reflect on what it takes to create successful (engineering) teams, and close with a simple thought: When is it time to stop using Scrum?

Then, we describe a Product Owner’s startup journey from an enthusiastic start in a new position to figuring out that he was oversold to fixing the whole thing and how he did so. Also, we point to common backlog issues preventing you from reaping the benefits of the artifact and reflect on product leadership from leadership styles—are you a fixer or an artist?—to necessary traits.

Finally, we revisit Melvin Conway’s epochal discovery, delve into a list of metrics by product type that can inspire you to design your dashboards for discovery, and appreciate the first list of product conferences in 2023.

Food for Agile Thought #367: The Power of Working Together, Product Leadership, No Learning w/o Closing Loops, Decisions under Complexity — Age-of-Product.com

Download the Product Owner Salary & Product Manager Report for Free

by Stefan Wolpers | 2022-11-03 Downloads

Welcome to the Download Page of the Product Owner & Product Manager Salary Report

How do you compare? The Product Owner Salary Report 2022 is based on 500-plus replies from practitioners gathered globally during the 3rd and 4th quarter of 2022. Learn more about your Product Owner or Product Manager career opportunities for free.

Product Owner & Product Manager Salary Report 2022 — Age-of-Product.com

The Background of the Product Owner & Product Manager Salary Report

The Product Owner & Product Manager Salary Report 2022 is the first edition of the industry survey. This free report is based on the answers of 510 participants globally. If you are considering a career decision this year, maybe, whether you should join the industry as a junior Product Owner or Product Manager or move to a new organization or go independent, you will find the report’s information beneficial.

But see for yourself by downloading your copy of the Product Owner & Product Manager Salary Report 2022. The download is a ZIP file also containing eleven high-resolution files of graphics included in the report:

Cannot see the subscription form?
Please click here

Please note that downloading this content will also subscribe you to our popular, professionally-curated weekly ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter if you aren’t already subscribed. You may, of course, unsubscribe at any time.

Please note that you will not be able to download the PDF without having JavaScript enabled.

Product Owner Salary Report — Related Posts

Hiring: 82 Scrum Product Owner Interview Questions to Avoid Agile Imposters

Peer Recruiting: How to Hire a Scrum Master in Agile Times

Download the ’Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide’ for Free

When Is It Time to Stop Using Scrum?

by Stefan Wolpers | 2022-10-30 Agile and ScrumAgile Transition

TL; DR: When Should a Team Stop Using Scrum?

When is the time to look beyond Scrum? After all, many things—ideas, practices, mantras, etc.—outlive their utility sooner or later; why would Scrum be an exception? Moreover, we are not getting paid to practice Scrum but solve our customers’ problems within the given constraints while contributing to the sustainability of our organization. Scrum is a tool, a helpful practice but neither a religion nor a philosophy. Which brings us back to the original question: Is there a moment when a Scrum team should stop using Scrum?

When Is It Time to Stop Using Scrum? Age-of-Product.com

Food for Agile Thought #366: Taming Complexity, Agile Bureaucracy, Mapping Innovation at Scale, Good Activation Rates

by Stefan Wolpers | 2022-10-28 News

TL; DR: Taming Complexity — Food for Agile Thought #366

Welcome to the 366th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 36,188 peers. This week, we identify five practical ways of taming complexity to avoid feature creep and pushing away users and share “examples of organizations that operate beyond the traditional set of agile practices and have been able to break down the bureaucratic hierarchy by adopting radical forms of consent, participation, and self-management.” Also, we have a look at building high-trust teams at Shopify in a remote working world, and suggest shifting “from leading with goals to leading with questions,” referring to Nobel laureate Richard Feynman.

Then, we point out that many companies may run experiments to test product ideas with users and customers; however, they fail to follow up with meaningful action. Following this example of failing innovation, we share lessons learned from a 100-plus-year-old company that is still a market leader, trying to innovate itself out of decline. Moreover, we appreciate a global benchmarking survey on activation rates with participants from Expedia, Grammarly, Canva, Duolingo, and others and examine the Lean UX Canvas in detail, pointing to shortcomings such as the need for a root cause analysis or mapping dependencies.

Finally, we share a primer on why “interviewing stakeholders provides helpful information about their context, [allowing] us to identify business goals they are concerned with, and increases their support.” And we close this edition of the newsletter with a video that explains what it takes to successfully use OKRs and points to common anti-patterns in their application, from tying them to compensation to excessive use.

Food for Agile Thought #366: Taming Complexity, Agile Bureaucracy, Mapping Innovation at Scale, Good Activation Rates — Age-of-Product.com

FAST Scaling: An Innovative Way to Scale Agile with James Shore — Hands-on Agile #45

by Stefan Wolpers | 2022-10-24 Agile and ScrumVideos

TL; DR: Hands-on Agile #45: FAST Scaling: An Innovative Way to Scale Agile with James Shore

In this energizing 45th Hands-on Agile session, James Shore shared his experiences with scaling “agile:” first with traditional approaches and, more recently, with FAST scaling. Learn in this deep-dive what works, what doesn’t, and how you can try FAST in your organization.

James Shore: FAST: An Innovative Way to Scale — Hands-on Agile #45 — Age-of-Product.com

📺 Watch the video now: James Shore: FAST: An Innovative Way to Scale — Hands-on Agile #45.

Food for Agile Thought #365: Fixing Toxic Cultures, From Mission to Strategy to Tasks, Difficult Stakeholders, Go-to-Market Canvas

by Stefan Wolpers | 2022-10-21 News

TL; DR: Fixing Toxic Cultures — Food for Agile Thought #365

Welcome to the 365th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 36,117 peers. This week, we dive into the research on toxicity in the workplace and point to three means of fixing toxic cultures, from leadership to social norms to work design. Also, we detail how to collaborate with challenging people you need to include in your work and argue that principally ruling out discussions on productivity leads in the wrong direction. Additionally, we reflect on critical techniques for any transformation: learning, unlearning, and changing the habits of participants and stakeholders.

Then, we appreciate Lenny Rachitsky’s visualization of the hierarchy of goals in product management, and we share tips & tricks to start or grow your Product CoP, from starting at a minimum viable level to formalizing the CoP to expanding the community management team. Moreover, Janna Bastow shares how the unsuitedness of timeline roadmaps—based on deadlines—helped her design her approach to outcome-based planning.

Finally, we check out a new tool to “help facilitate your thinking when taking new products or ideas to market.” Also, we share a free ebook on identifying what is worth building, from involving your team members to communicating your research results with stakeholders, and we point to six critical elements of successful user journey mapping, from the business goal to mapping a specific user’s experience.