TL;DR: Scrum Master Salary Report 2023 — An Anonymous Poll by the Community for the Community
The purpose of this anonymous Scrum Master salary report 2023 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 Scrum Masters as well as Agile Coaches, both employed and freelancing.)
The goal is to have a sufficient number of replies – that would be at least 1,000 – by the end of November 2022 to create the report in time for January 2023. Of course, the report will be available for free.
TL; DR: Useful Agile Metrics — Food for Agile Thought #361
Welcome to the 361st edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 35,942 peers. This week, we enjoy an Agile 2022 workshop, where Doc Norton deep-dives into the tricky issue of useful agile metrics, from the problematic ones, like velocity, to gaming metrics to selecting metrics that support your team. Also, we dissect contributing factors to successful agile transformations while pointing at what to avoid, from cargo-cultism to HyperScrum-dementalism to agile scapegoatism, and delve into the rationale of higher purpose goals, from motivating people to driving autonomy. Finally, did you know that the fourth element of Scrum’s empiricism—beyond transparency, inspection, and adaptation—is hiding in plain sight in a sentence on Scrum Values?
Then, we learn from Lenny Rachitsky how to best proceed in becoming the stakeholder whisperer, while Jon Moore and Marty Cagan sketch necessary changes in how you build products when transforming to become a strong, product-led company. Moreover, John Cutler reflects on the “tension between your go-to-market (GTM) and product teams as you scale,” resulting in more complexity, for example, product debt. By the way, there is also an interview with John by Jason Knight.
Finally, we listen to John Drogosz pitching the advantages of value stream mapping for cross-functional teams to improve their way of working and suggest ten steps to gain any basic industry understanding, from diagrams to glossaries to thought leaders and conferences. Moreover, Rita McGrath elaborates on Kodak’s demise and what the halo effect has to do with it. Think printers from the company that invented digital photography.
In its theory section, the Scrum Guide refers to the three elements of empiricism: transparency, inspection, and adaptation. However, a fourth element, foundational to enable empiricism, is hidden in a sentence on Scrum Values. Read on and learn more about the complete picture of Scrum’s empiricism.
TL; DR: How Minds Change, Think Big & Work Small — Food for Agile Thought #360
Welcome to the 360th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 35,907 peers. This week, we have a fantastic interview with David McRaney on how minds change, rationalization, and belief. (If you are coaching other people, you should listen.) Also, we learn how teams can “experiment and learn, develop new markets, [and] outmaneuver the competition,” and we reflect on who may likely get ahead when encountering an impediment. Switching perspectives, we delve into the “best way to kill a grassroots movement at your company” and how to help it flourish instead.
Then, we point to the necessary “changes to how the product teams need to interact with customers” when an organization abandons a sales-driven approach, and Roman Pichler details his product model, from product vision to Product Backlog, including four artifacts and two templates. Moreover, we reflect on the perils of Think Small and Work Big, Think Big, Work Big, and Think Small, Work Small, and link mental models to building products, from Parkinson’s Law of Triviality to Conway’s Law to the Pareto Principle.
Finally, Mike Cohn shares a free assessment tool for your team’s mastery of 20 essential elements of a successful transformation. Also, we advocate using anti-personas to “help anticipate how products can be misused in ways that can harm users and the business.” Lastly, Phil Mistry tells the incredible story of an invention ahead of its time in a classic case of an innovator’s dilemma: How Steve Sasson invented Kodak’s digital camera!
Contrary to popular belief, the Product Owner does not have dictatorial powers regarding the composition and order of the Product Backlog. Instead, Scrum as a framework is based on a delicate system of checks and balances, collaboration, and joint decision-making to mitigate risk; for example, the Product Owner falling in love with their solution over the problem of the customers. Learn more about critical Product Backlog principles, from the size and growth of the Product Backlog to whether a Product Backlog is necessary in the first place. (Some lean practitioners dispute its existence is justified.)
TL; DR: UX & Engineering, AI in Product — Food for Agile Thought #359
Welcome to the 359th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 35,852 peers. This week, we delve into UX & engineering, detailing how product discovery benefits from including engineers early in the process, from timely feasibility discussions to designing minimum viable experiments (MVE). Also, we reflect on the many aspects of velocity, “if you are planning for a stable team with high morale that can consistently deliver,” and explore a vital character trait of any trainer, coach, entrepreneur, or artist — tenacity — with Jerry Colonna and Jules Pieri.
Then, Allan Holub explores the importance of product management for agile teams, from C-level buy-in to empowering people w/o leaving them to JIRA’s perils, while dissing Scrum. Moreover, Ryan J. Salva shares the success story of Copilot, GitHub’s OpenAI’s ML engine, while Martin Spinnangr asks: Continue, pivot, kill, or charge ahead?
Finally, Sachin Rekhi points to four Lean Startup issues, from agnostic experimentation to over-focusing on MVPs to incrementalism, and we dig into the benefits of journaling for decision-making. Also, we explore the effects of limiting beliefs on change, from anchoring to selection bias. PS: Can I interest you in Dr. Laurence J. Peter explaining some of the observations leading to his theory?
