TL; DR: The Systems Change Problem, Agile Death Spirals—Food for Agile Thought #287
Welcome to the 287th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 30,878 peers. This week, we address the systems change problem and that an ‘agile transformation’ is often no more than the first initiative to clear a path to introduce agile ways of working. Also, we explain the Haier Model—Rendanheyi, microenterprises, micro-communities, and ecosystems—in a short animation.
We then discuss the two first principles of continuous product discovery; we enjoy a war story from the trenches of product discovery at Victoria’s Secret, and we come back to the common idea that ‘prioritization’ is a trivial mechanical process run on autopilot. (Spoiler alert: it’s not that trivial.)
Lastly, we point at the elephant in the room: companies use unsuitable metrics to track their innovation efforts.
TL; DR: The virtual Agile Camp Berlin 2021 Has A Job Opening
I am looking for someone (m/f/x) to support me in running the Agile Camp Berlin 2021; use the form below to apply for the job.
The virtual Agile Camp Berlin 2021
The virtual Agile Camp Berlin 2021 (ACB21) will take place from May 27 to May 29, 2021, from 1 pm to 7 pm CEST. You can find all information on the event here: Virtual Agile Camp Berlin from May 27-29, 2021.
As of 2021-04-10, we are 130-plus participants, and I expect the number to grow to probably 200. Since we are not giving away free tickets, I expect a high show rate among the attendees.
The Job Opening at the Agile Camp Berlin 2021
I am looking for someone (m/f/x) to support me in running the Agile Camp Berlin 2021. For example, your tasks would cover:
Admitting attendees to the event
Inviting attendees to the ACB21 Slack channel
Pointing attendees to where they can find more information
Updating the public schedule.
Generally, it is about addressing questions and issues that attendees might have and supporting them to have the best experience possible.
Your main working hours would be:
May 27, 2021, from 1-7 pm CEST: Day 1 of the Agile Camp Berlin 2021.
May 28, 2021, from 1-7 pm CEST: Day 2 of the Agile Camp Berlin 2021.
On May 27 and May 28, I will host the live-stream of the ACB21 from 2-6 pm. Hence, I won’t be able to support you full time during these sessions. (Please note: You won’t be able to attend any session on either May 27 or 28. Feel free, though, to join the sessions on May 29, 2021.)
Remuneration will be in the ballpark of USD 500/€450; our accountant is still working on the details. (For residents of Germany, we plan to go with a mini-job.)
If that sounds interesting to you, please spend five minutes on the following application form:
Yes, even absolute beginners can prototype an app. And learn a lot about agile product management, Scrum, empiricism, product design, and user experience along the way.
If you intend to live up to Scrum and agile product development’s full potential, creating a shared understanding of how empiricism works among all co-workers in your organization is essential. This low-cost exercise of creating clickable prototypes will significantly improve your organization’s agile transformation.
TL; DR: Rethinking Bad Decisions, Metrics Maturity—Food for Agile Thought #286
Welcome to the 286th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 30,802 peers. This week, we figure out how rethinking bad decisions may work; we learn why postponing the decision on who will work on something is beneficial for Scrum teams, and we suggest starting Scrumban with either Kanban or Scrum and then add some flavor from the other practice.
We then learn more about common anti-patterns with product discovery, from ‘there is no demand’ to ‘we don’t have time,’ and we delve into the learnings from the book ‘Working Backwards’ on Amazon’s way of creating products. Also, we suggest a way to figure out whether our team is genuinely evidence-driven.
Lastly, we cherish a board design that elicits questions, for example, to guide qualitative research.
Make no mistake: Your Product Backlog is the last line of defense preventing your Scrum Team from becoming a feature factory; hence Product Backlog defense is vital: Figure out a process that creates value for your customers. Moreover, have the courage — and the discipline — to defend it at all costs.
TL; DR: Agile Meets Beyond Budgeting, Managing Ideas at Scale—Food for Agile Thought #285
Welcome to the 285th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 30,736 peers. This week, we delve into Nassim Taleb’s ‘Antifragile.’ Also, we detail why Agile meets Beyond Budgeting may represent two roads to the same end: creating greater business agility. Additionally, we point at the importance of questioning our knowledge and opinions in the face of new evidence.
We then enjoy the Head of Design at Stripe’s deep dive into the ideal collaboration between design and product management. Moreover, we share the fundamental principles to enable ideation and innovation at scale, from accessibility to simplicity to discoverability and innovators’ community, and we suggest four ways to track product discovery efforts.
Lastly, we learn how a team can use internal data to create usable forecasts, thus inspiring trust among stakeholders by improving predictions’ quality.
