Category: News

TL; DR: Product Team Performance — Food for Agile Thought #376

Welcome to the 376th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 36,564 peers. This week, we listen to our two product heavyweights, Lenny Rachitsky and John Cutler, delving into the performance of product teams. We continue with suggesting abandoning the popular framing that Waterfall is the opposite of Agile and that moving from one to the other requires a transformation, and identify four roles, at least one which you will play in a moment of injustice: person harmed, upstander, the person who caused harm, or leader. Moreover, we learn how a major Toyota program was saved by descaling and applying Scrum.

Then, we enjoy Marty Cagan sharing his approach to how teams and companies “can best deal with the challenges of complexity.” Also, we explore “three popular models for product teams,” and point to stakeholder alignment factors, from not trapping yourself to not confusing roadmaps with release plans to treating stakeholders as customers. Moreover, the ProdPad folks compiled a comprehensive list of questions your team may engage in identifying what is worth building.

Finally, Petra Wille shares the first findings from her 2022 survey into what drives thriving communities of practices for product people. Next, JTBD Toolkit released the JTBD Canvas 2.0, and there are new ChatGPT prompts for Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and Developers. Lastly, Tami Reiss has a candid conversation with Rich Mironov on product ethics and the corresponding responsibilities of product managers and leaders.

TL; DR: Acceleration Beats Velocity — Food for Agile Thought #375

Welcome to the 375th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 36,502 peers. This week, we add new layers to the old ‘is velocity a useful metric’ discussion, pointing at physics, acceleration, and its multi-dimensionality. While at it, we also analyze the delicate tension between leadership and stakeholders, product management, and engineering, and learn how to make ‘effective decisions and [reduce] human misjudgment.’ As an experiment, we put OpenAI’s latest generative AI to the test: Would ChatGPT pass a screening interview for a fictitious Scrum Master position?

Then, we learn lessons from Frank Barrett’s book ‘Yes To The Mess: Surprising Leadership Lessons from Jazz,’ and we go back in history to shed more light on a divisive term — the ‘feature factory.’ Additionally, Marty Cagan shares his take on how to progress as a product manager in the field of product coaching, explaining prerequisites, the different coaching fields, and customer types.

Finally, we dissect the original idea of “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure” to explore Amazon’s approach, especially working backward. Moreover, we appreciate Will Larson’s deep dive into the details of assessing an engineering organization for various interested parties and Jason Yip’s measures to improve flow, from changing measuring delivery to per-process-step WIP limits. And if you are looking to spice up your Retrospectives, we have you covered with a set of retrospective games, from photo finish to Retrospective bingo to agile Battleship.

TL; DR: The Hidden Micromanager, Defining Product Outcomes — Food for Agile Thought #374

Happy 2023 and welcome to the 374th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 36,453 peers. This week, we share a short assessment of whether you fall into the category of the “hidden micromanager.” Speaking of which, we delve into nurturing a blame-free learning organization, from accepting the inevitability of failure, embracing the resulting learning opportunity, reflecting, and moving on. Moreover, we listen to Jason Knight and Douglas Squirrel diving deep into how tech teams can get closer to the business side, improve decision processes, and have effective conversations across the whole organization whiling pointing to five habits of high-performing teams, from using pre-mortems to a disagree-but-commit attitude to making learning a priority.

Then, we follow Teresa Torres and Hope Gurion, delving into the intricate details of getting outcomes right, from avoiding masquerading outputs as outcomes to not choosing outcomes outside your team’s control to not measuring action instead of value, and we reflect on the inherent risks of continuing to work with your prototypes beyond product-market fit, which is all too common. Additionally, we point out that failures are inevitable, and product managers learn in public. Consequently, it would help if you improved dealing with failure in public, too.

Finally, we provide a comprehensive guide on the OKR framework and its application to product management. Moreover, we reframe the investigative and often intrusive ‘why’ question so you “indirectly but effectively get the answers you need.” Amazingly, John Cutler created a live diagram of his modeling process. As an example, he aims to identify the drivers of a healthy community. Lastly, Jason Yip advocates using Blink Estimation, User Story Mapping, and swimlane sizing to improve project-level forecasting.

TL; DR: ChatGPT and Disruption, The Value of Agile Coaching — Food for Agile Thought #373

Welcome to the 373rd edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 36,412 peers. This week, we suggest how AI, in general, and ChatGPT and its successors, in particular, may disrupt our current world. Additionally, we delve into how agile coaches can communicate the benefits of their work to organizations, suggesting the NABC value proposition scheme. Plus, we point to the many benefits of cognitive diversity to avoid blind spots and adapt to changing environments. Also, Adam Grant interviews John and Julie Gottman, renowned researchers of marital relationships, on how to play the infinite game. We can apply many of their findings to creating trust and rapport professionally.

Then, we share a comprehensive guide to a critical artifact, the product strategy document, covering the dos & don’ts, what it needs to cover, and its subsequent inspection and adaptation. Moreover, we share “how to use the product discovery loop to build high-growth products” while discussing all things stakeholder management, from its general benefits to the nitty-gritty details of creating alignment. By the way, an excellent tool to create alignment is the Product Goal Canvas; see below.

Finally, we detail how to apply a hugely valuable flow metric to your work and point to the all-so-human flaw of falling for vanity metrics to measure “success” when it is all about solving problems and building relationships. Lastly, we try to answer a compelling question: Is ChatGPT a game-changer? And if so, from whom?

I hope you have a fantastic season filled with joy and happiness. Whether you’re celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or something else, I hope the season brings you good cheer and lots of time to spend with the people you love.

This edition will be the last for 2022; Food for Agile Thought will be back on January 8, 2023. ​

TL; DR: State of Agile 2022, ChatGPT on Agile and Scrum — Food for Agile Thought #372

Welcome to the 372nd edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 36,387 peers. This week, we share the State of Agile 2022 Report and probe ChatGPT on Agile and Scrum. Moreover, we dissect a common corporate anti-pattern while transforming into an agile organization: They continue incentivizing individuals. Also, we discuss the concept of technical debt—a ‘metaphor for communicating the long-term implications of architectural decisions and trade-offs to stakeholders’—and its limitations.

Then, we offer advice on how to lead stakeholders and developers, guide individuals, and create value together without having the authority to tell them what to do. Next, Lenny Rachitsky interviews Madhavan Ramanujam, author of ‘Monetizing Innovation,’ about all the elements that go into your pricing strategy. Of course, getting pricing right requires experiments. Fortunately, we also share a hypothesis for supporting an organizational culture of experimentation by applying a pattern language to cover that part.

Finally, First Round Capital compiled six ‘unique approaches to end-of-year planning,’ covering fresh tactics, different perspectives, and tested frameworks. Moreover, the Concepts & Tools section would not be complete this week without this comprehensive guide to decision-making, from the benefits of including others to games, exercises, tools, and how to avoid premature convergence. Lastly, Andy Cleff analyzes the context and options of saying ‘no’ gracefully, and Ben Thompson also explores ChatGPT by asking, ‘Did Thomas Hobbes believe in the separation of powers?’

TL; DR: User Story Guide, Free Facilitation Resources — Food for Agile Thought #371

Welcome to the 371st edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 36,352 peers. This week, we share an extensive user story guide to create successful products, covering a lot of ground from 3Cs to INVEST to 3Ws. Also, we delve into the benefits of applying principles and patterns from the team topologies concept to remote and hybrid work environments. Moreover, John Cutler busts the myth that all planning is in some way helpful when he points to nine situations where planning might not be beneficial, from planning before the last responsible moment to planning to maximize output.

Also, we appreciate a Forrester Consulting study on the benefits of taking product management seriously, including “key recommendations on making product bets with greater impact.” (Download the study for free.) Then, we analyze different scenarios you may encounter when elevating a team from feature factory workers to problem solvers and dive into the advantages of a product design philosophy popularized by Amazon: Working backward. And Petra Wille shares how to best support your team as a product coach.

Finally, we share lessons learned on how ThoughtWorks helped Etsy create a new product culture, scaling discovery and delivery. The Institute of Cultural Affairs curated an extensive repository of free learning resources for facilitators, from group facilitation methods to virtual facilitation. Lastly, Russ Roberts interviews Annie Duke on the benefits of letting go and how to avoid confusing grit with character.