Category: News

TL; DR: Amazon Product Management Framework — Food for Agile Thought #394

Welcome to the 394th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 46,957 peers. This week, we start with exploring the Amazon product management framework, a 10-step process. Moreover, we assess the state of ethics in agile coaching and apply Goldratt’s idea that a business aims to make money now and in the future to Scrum. Moreover, Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson interviewed Jim Highsmith, one of the authors of the Agile Manifesto, and we explore a magic technique to turn a boring Retrospective into an outstanding one.

Then, we reflect on the trend in product development of dropping the dogma and seeking what works, sharing an excellent primer on a problematic strategic decision with an often underestimated importance for your business to get you going. Speaking of what works for you: Lenny Rachitsky interviewed Gustav Söderström, Co-President, CPO, and CTO at Spotify, on what has worked for them.

Finally, we attempt to debunk the original findings of Dunning and Kruger, claiming that the actual effect is that “everyone thinks they are better than average.” We also dip into the meaning of IKIGAI and share a comprehensive essay mapping the similarities and differences between Sociocracy and Holacracy. Lastly, we point to research by the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard, shedding “light on what it takes for people to get comfortable with machine learning.”

TL; DR: The Double Diamond Problem — Food for Agile Thought #393

Welcome to the 393rd edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 46,731 peers. This week, Jason Godesky takes a deep dive into the well-established design process, pointing to the Double Diamond problem. Also, we reflect on the hype the agile coaching industry is experiencing, causing the market entry of less qualified players, and we listen to Dave Farley interviewing Kent Beck on a classic topic of the agile community: Is Waterfall experiencing a comeback? Moreover, we offer a primer to creating ChatGPT prompts for Scrum practitioners to get you started running.

Then, John Cutler states that the (product) world does not need yet another prioritization framework. Instead, he suggests prioritizing a focus area. We share insights and examples on dealing with PMF’s evolving, fluctuating, and changing nature, and Lenny Rachitsky interviews Ayo Omojola on the aspects of creating outstanding products. Also, we point to the importance of inspecting and adapting OKRs regularly and provide a guide on how to do this.

Finally, we appreciate Mark Graban interviewing Joshua Kerievsky, discussing how ‘agility’ doesn’t strictly mean ‘Agile’ in software, and Gergely Orosz shares an “interview with the four researchers behind a new developer productivity framework: The three dimensions of DevEx.” Lastly, we close this week’s edition with a simple question: Should we be polite to chatbots?

TL; DR: The Origin of Ideas and Innovation — Food for Agile Thought #392

Welcome to the 392nd edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 46,619 peers. This week, we delve into the origin of ideas, sharing the results of seven research studies and revealing the people, incentives, and environments that create innovation. Also, we address misconceptions leaders harbor about agility; we examine the habits of high-performing teams and offer some guidance for adopting these habits on your team, and we share a primer on facilitation, answering a vital question: “What is a facilitator?” (The guide pairs well with this week’s blog post on: Agile Negotiations — Life Is a Negotiation; Why Would Scrum Be Different?)

Then, we share Jason Godesky’s belief that design and development are the two sides of the same medal when he explores a contested area: agility. Moreover, Alex Osterwalder dives into the art of testing and developing hypotheses, from desirability over feasibility to leveraging AI to testing in corporate or B2B environments, and Daniel Stillman points to the crucial role of conversations in product management: types, designing techniques, empathy’s significance, and facilitation’s role.

Finally, we introduce Kim Scott’s Get Stuff Done (GSD) wheel, where she clarifies that you must first establish the groundwork for collaboration through a listening culture for GSD to succeed. Additionally, we address statistics on change fatigue: In 2022, employees faced ten enterprise changes on average, up from two in 2016. However, support for change dropped to 43% due to change fatigue. Lastly, we ponder whether AI is comparable to a management-consulting firm like McKinsey. The parallels between the pervasive use of consulting firms and AI are apparent.

TL; DR: Your Creative Second Brain — Food for Agile Thought #391

Welcome to the 391st edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 46,445 peers. This week, Tiago Forte shares the essence of his massively popular book on productivity, supporting your second brain. Also, we address proven techniques that will ‘help you to effectively communicate your vision and get buy-in from your team for your change,’ and we examine three approaches that exceptional teams use to accept failure at individual, group, and organization-wide levels, allowing them to learn, develop, and enhance their performance.

Then, we point to a video game practice that is highly effective for products, too: Games help users become more skilled throughout their journey, as onboarding is a continuous process. John Cutler answers, ‘What are you working on right now, and why is it the most important thing you could be working on?’ in all the wrong ways, and we explain different approaches to learning whether a customer might buy from the worst way to one that actually works. Moreover, Stripe’s CTO David Singleton describes how to build a product-minded engineering team that excels at planning and prioritizing at scale.

Finally, Charles Lambdin applies some ideas from the past to create products today, from Lenin’s concepts of commandism and tailism to Marx’s notions of struggle and contradiction. (Think of it as a kind of intellectual stretching.) We also talk about vanity metrics and share that it is primarily our lack of courage that leads us to seek refuge in estimates instead of facing the undeniable truth that software development inherently involves risks.

The most popular discussion on LinkedIn last week was: 🤬 Rant: Scrum Masters are no Project Managers!

TL; DR: AI Replacing Developers — Food for Agile Thought #390

Welcome to the 390th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 46,277 peers. This week, we ask a simple question: Is AI replacing Developers a likely future? In the meantime, we delve into the importance of (software) architecture in an agile context, suggest alleviating some of the additional cognitive load developers shouldering with DevOps, and deep-dive into lessons learned on overcoming long-standing behaviors and winning hearts and minds.

Then, we suggest that as a product leader, you must ensure that you negotiate the right aspects by going beyond debating solutions and delving deeper to reach a consensus. Moreover, Itamar Gilad cautions against using generative AI to produce product management artifacts, pointing to serious tradeoffs, and Mike Cohn dissects a familiar template, looking at the “elements, advantages, and drawbacks of the three-part story template.”

Finally, we advocate using OKRs with Story Maps to support your release strategy, list positive attributes your goals should reflect, and cherish the ProductOps Manifesto. Lastly, we applaud Matt Schlicht for creating an epic intro to the latest AI trend; we might all become managers, herding bots.