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Food for Agile Thought #491: Automated Companies, Product Behaviors, Capacity Planning, How to Abandon Scrum

by Stefan Wolpers | 2025-05-02 News

TL; DR: Automated Companies — Food for Agile Thought #491

Welcome to the 491st edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,669 peers. This week, Dwarkesh Patel envisions AI-powered automated companies that replace hiring, learning, and leadership with computing, radically reshaping how economies function. John Cutler curates 270 behaviors and 180 rituals from product leaders at Canva, Stripe, Notion, and more, revealing what makes strong product cultures tick. Ash Maurya rethinks roadmaps with a traction-first, constraint-driven approach. Ethan Mollick highlights how subtle personality tweaks in AI affect trust and influence, while Simon Willison uncovers ChatGPT o3’s eerily precise photo-location guessing, blending vision and reasoning in ways both brilliant and unsettling.

Next, Aakash Gupta shares how Attio builds AI-native products that disappear into workflows, avoiding flashy bolt-ons. Christina Wodtke warns against outsourcing thinking to AI, urging leaders to engage deeply with data, and Sangeet Paul Choudary dismantles shallow AI memes, redirecting focus to system-level change. Meanwhile, Anthropic’s analysis shows that Claude Code is rapidly reshaping front-end development, especially in startup environments.

Lastly, Willem-Jan Ageling outlines when and how to abandon Scrum; Gregor Ojstersek explores fixing “work about work” with more intelligent systems and AI, while McKinsey links decision quality to strategic speed. Moreover, Petra Wille and Teresa Torres reframe capacity planning conflicts, and Brian Feister debunks AI coding hype, pushing for experience-based, question-led practices over blind automation.

Food for Agile Thought #491: Automated Companies, Product Behaviors, Capacity Planning, How to Abandon Scrum — Age-of-Product.com

Food for Agile Thought #490: Escaping the Feature Factory, Funding Agility, Prioritization Comparison, AI PM Course: RAG, PRD, Agents

by Stefan Wolpers | 2025-04-25 News

TL; DR: A Simplified Scrum Guide — Food for Agile Thought #490

Welcome to the 490th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,688 peers. This week, Tobias Mayer reintroduces Scrum as a minimalist, team-empowering practice rooted in empiricism with a simplified Scrum Guide, and David Pereira challenges the feature factory’s enduring grip with seven sharp tactics for reclaiming product purpose. Aakash Gupta and Paweł Huryn offer an AI PM crash course, while Simon Willison finds AI search finally usable. Also, Dwarkesh Patel urges humility over certainty when navigating uncertain AGI trajectories.

Next, Roni Ben Aharon reflects on the power of sunsetting features to sharpen product focus, and Jenny Wanger champions AI for productivity without losing human connection. Ethan Mollick introduces “Jagged AGI,” while Zvi Mowshowitz warns of its risks, testing o3. Moreover, John Cutler reframes team conversations as core infrastructure shaping alignment, performance, and adaptive capacity.

Lastly, Philippe Bonneton and Mike Cottmeyer explain why AI stalls beyond the pilot phase, while Fredrik Delin calls for funding persistent teams over projects. Itamar Gilad critiques outdated prioritization, Scott Sehlhorst warns of diminishing returns, and Johanna Rothman shows how frequent, collaborative deliveries replace blame with trust. Together, they spotlight the structural shifts needed for real agility and sustainable impact.

Food for Agile Thought #490: Escaping the Feature Factory, Funding Agility, Prioritization Comparison, AI PM Course: RAG, PRD, Agents - Age-of-Product.com

Food for Agile Thought #489: Wrong Product Development Models, Empowerment by AI, PM Agents, Rebuilding Trust

by Stefan Wolpers | 2025-04-18 News

TL; DR: Wrong Product Development Models — Food for Agile Thought #489

Welcome to the 489th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,673 peers. In this week’s edition, John Cutler dissects the fallacy of linear product development models, advocating for messy, fractal approaches that mirror real-world complexity. Marty Cagan sees generative AI as a lever for genuine team autonomy beyond legacy constraints. Dan Shipper champions OpenAI’s o3 for complex, agentic workflows, while Gary Marcus rebuts AGI hype Tyler Cowen advocates. Moreover, Maarten Dalmijn warns against Big Bang rewrite failures, urging incremental progress, better morale, and reduced risk through visible, sustainable change.

Next, John Cutler clarifies the four distinct jobs of prioritization, warning against their conflation, and Hamel Husain shares AI product lessons centered on iteration and domain expertise. Ant Murphy offers a path out of OKR theatre through focused, product-driven goals. Additionally, Tina Huang reveals how AI and fundamentals combine for intuitive, context-aware app development.

Lastly, Aakash Gupta and Anthony Maggio share how they built a no-code AI PM agent in under 90 minutes. David Burkus explains how trust is rebuilt through consistent leadership action. Also, Gregor Ojstersek urges culture-first AI adoption in engineering, avoiding its imposition. Finally, Kevin O’Sullivan demystifies product analytics, while Paweł Huryn shares a no-code guide to building voice agents with n8n and MCP servers.

Food for Agile Thought #489: Wrong Product Development Models, Empowerment by AI, PM Agents, Rebuilding Trust — Age-of-Product.com

Food for Agile Thought #488: Product vs Engineering, Reflexive AI Usage, Psychological Safety and Lean, Guide to Stakeholders

by Stefan Wolpers | 2025-04-11 News

TL; DR: Reflexive AI Usage — Food for Agile Thought #488

Welcome to the 488th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,671 peers. This week, Tobi Lütke calls for reflexive AI usage as a baseline at Shopify, positioning it as a creative and productivity multiplier. Jeremy Brown offers human-centered principles for product–engineering ownership that avoid RACI wars. Aakash Gupta shows how OpenAI and Notion treat experimentation as strategic infrastructure, and Roman Pichler explores AI’s role in product strategy, emphasizing its benefits while reinforcing the irreplaceable role of human judgment. Meanwhile, the 2025 AI Index Report reveals explosive AI progress and investment and flags persistent global gaps in regulation, education, and reasoning performance.

Next, John Cutler unpacks how flawed models and stale dashboards hinder creating shared understanding at scale. Mark Graban explains why psychological safety is key to Lean success, not a nice-to-have. Mike Cottmeyer and Eric Flecher connect AI readiness to the same structural shifts required for real agility. Also, Pim de Morree makes a strong case for replacing hierarchy with well-supported self-management.

Lastly, Wes Kao shares actionable tactics with Lenny Rachitsky for clearer, more persuasive communication—especially when managing up or handling objections. Abby Covert reminds us that stakeholder misalignment, not poor structure, derails excellent information architecture. Hyunsun Park and Subra Tangirala reveal why ambiguity silences employees; they call for cultures where sensing risk isn’t just leadership’s job.

Food for Agile Thought #488: Product vs Engineering, Reflexive AI Usage, Psychological Safety and Lean, Guide to Stakeholders — Age-of-Product.com

Food for Agile Thought #487: Navigating Politics, Gemini Now State-of-the-Art, Product Strategy Playbook, Embracing ‘I Don’t Know’

by Stefan Wolpers | 2025-04-04 News

TL; DR: Navigating Politics — Food for Agile Thought #487

Welcome to the 487th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,663 peers. This week, Murray Robinson speaks with Charles Lambdin about why real organizational change hinges on navigating politics, not just process. Mike Goitein, channeling Roger L. Martin, cautions against data obsession that stifles innovation. Janna Bastow shares a curated list of must-read PM books for 2025. Meanwhile, Zvi Mowshowitz reviews Gemini 2.5 Pro’s impressive reasoning capabilities but critiques Google’s opacity. Lastly, Anthropic’s Alignment Science team exposes troubling gaps in how AIs like Claude 3.7 “think,” revealing alignment risks masked by polished reasoning chains.

Next, Aakash Gupta urges PMs to embrace adaptive, AI-informed strategies over rigid plans. Leah Tharin champions product-led growth through fast discovery and outcome focus, and Colleen McClain reveals a public-expert divide on AI optimism and regulation. Also, Ryan Singer tells Lenny Rachitsky how Shape Up restores clarity to scaling teams. And Ken Norton reframes “I don’t know” as leadership strength, not weakness.

Lastly, Barry O’Reilly calls on leaders to personally engage with AI, not outsource it, fostering curiosity and experimentation. Adam Ard critiques how “DevOps” became a silo, betraying its intent, and Jason Cohen offers a framework for simplifying tough decisions through upside-first thinking. Finally, Kim Scott reaffirms that Radical Candor means clarity with care, not cruelty, and trust at its core.

Food for Agile Thought #487: Navigating Politics, Gemini Now State-of-the-Art, Product Strategy Playbook,, ‘I Don’t Know’ — Age-of-Product.com

Food for Agile Thought #486: Reshaping Teamwork, Product’s Code-first Future, Unintentional Micromanagement, OKR’s Hidden Costs

by Stefan Wolpers | 2025-03-28 News

TL; DR: Reshaping Teamwork — Food for Agile Thought #486

Welcome to the 486th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,656 peers. This week, Fabrizio Dell’Acqua et al. reveal how AI can match team performance and boost collaboration in a Procter & Gamble field study. Julie Zhuo dismantles the traditional product development playbook, while Karri Saarinen champions craft and quality over speed. Itamar Gilad calls for transformational AI visions, not just incremental ones. And Paul Roetzer warns AGI may be closer than we think—raising the stakes for how we lead, build, and stay human.

Next, Zvi Mowshowitz critiques Sam Altman’s casual AGI stance, contrasting it with disruption-heavy models like Epoch’s GATE. Aakash Gupta and Tal Raviv demonstrate building an AI-powered product management copilot in under an hour. McKinsey explores how large organizations are restructuring to unlock gen AI value. Plus, Tobias Mayer and Jade Garratt explore Scrum, safety, and leadership at work.

Lastly, Matheus Lima argues that actual psychological safety thrives on respectful conflict, not artificial harmony. Ian Vanagas identifies communication pitfalls engineers face, while Jeff Gothelf exposes the hidden costs of misused OKRs. Finally, Petra Wille shares why AI notetakers don’t belong in coaching—some moments are too human for machines to capture without consequence.