Food for Agile Thought #332: Talking to Customers, The Learning Repository, Team Dependencies, Resources for Product Owners

TL; DR: Talking to Customers, Learning Repository — Food for Agile Thought #332

Welcome to the 332nd edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 34,681 peers. This week, we regret that most product managers seem to have stopped talking to customers nowadays. Also, we list nine reasons to become agile, from a bad ‘it’s the trendy thing to do’ to a good ‘we believe in the Agile values and principles.’ Moreover, we deal with fixing unnecessary dependencies, and we suggest utilizing seven classic team building models to ‘inspire, troubleshoot, and build alignment,’ from Tuckman to Katzenbach to Hackman.

We then argue that it is essential to create a learning repository to run experience-informed experiments, and we share an epic list of binge-worthy material on product ownership. In addition to that, Teresa Torres provides her approach to identifying candidates for both “beginner” and experienced product teams for user interviews.

Lastly, we share a simple visualization tool to foster rapid idea generation—quantity may have its own quality, and we follow Jeff Gothelf, who vigorously opposes the notion that goals do not need continuous review and adjustment. And there is one more thing: The Guardian reports on a damning new Netflix documentary, detailing the consequences when a once engineering- and quality-driven culture is forced by the new management to bow to Wall Street.

Food for Agile Thought #332: Talking to Customers, The Learning Repository, Team Dependencies, Resources for Product Owners — Age-of-Product.com
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Food for Agile Thought #331: Scaling Ideas From Experiments, #hackerlaws, Communication Stakeholder Read, Healthy Data-Informed Product Teams

TL; DR: Scaling Ideas From Experiments, #hackerlaws — Food for Agile Thought #331

Welcome to the 331st edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 34,627 peers. This week, we listen to Stephen J. Dubner interviewing the economist John List on the trickiness of scaling ideas from successful experiments to actual products and services, quitting, and his book “The Voltage effect.” We also revisit the idea that transformations towards “becoming agile” primarily fail amid a disregard for the first value of the Agile Manifesto. Moreover, we applaud Dave Kerr for aggregating a comprehensive list of helpful mental models for engineering and product development, from Brooks’s Law to YAGNI to Hanlon’s Razor.

We then suggest the “bait the hook, feed the fish” approach for stakeholder communication by adopting the mindset of a newsletter creator. Next, we provide an epic list of essays, videos, and books on the most critical journey of every new product: product/market fit. Also, we delve into the many hats a product manager is wearing, from road mapping to running experiments to being the user advocate, and we follow Kim Witten, who declares the Net Promoter Score ® “unscientific and meaningless” and suggests alternatives.

Lastly, we suggest abandoning the classic code review being a time-sink and switching to mob programming instead, and we list fifteen common behaviors of teams that successfully utilize data in their daily work, from healthy skepticism to killing features and experiments to grappling with uncertainty.

Food for Agile Thought #331: Scaling Ideas From Experiments, #hackerlaws, Communication Stakeholder Read, Healthy Data-Informed Product Teams — Age-of-Product.com
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Food for Agile Thought #330: Making Room for New Things, web3 Product Management, Talking to Engineers, Survival Roadmapping

TL; DR: Making Room, web3 Product Management — Food for Agile Thought #330

Welcome to the 330th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 34,562 peers. This week, we point out the importance of saying no to make room for tackling high-value adhoc/new activities. Also, we delve into how to change the way you respond to challenges by embracing a whole ‘body yes.’ We then explore the origins of low-quality code and what you can do to avoid accruing technical debt as a consequence, and we shed light on the problem of unwarranted confidence because a heuristic has served you well forever. (Until it doesn’t.)

We then share an epic guide on what web3 is, its pros and cons, and how web3 may become an opportunity for your product career. Also, we have eleven tips on improving communication with your engineers, from including them early to respecting their BS detector, and we learn how to switch into survival mode as a product mensch when your company is about to go belly-up.

Lastly, we revisit “real OKRs,” try to regain control over your calendar, freeing up time for critical issues, and ask: Is a Scrum certificate a sound investment for your career?

Food for Agile Thought #330: Making Room for New Things, web3 Product Management, Talking to Engineers, Survival Roadmapping— Age-of-Product.com
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Food for Agile Thought #329: #NoCoaching, Opportunity Assessment, Supporting Team Decisions, What Is Good Monthly Churn?

TL; DR: #NoCoaching — Food for Agile Thought #329

Welcome to the 329th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 34,503 peers. This week, we address #NoCoaching, pointing at situations and probable consequences when your work as a coach is rejected. We also elaborate on the benefits of having a capable Scrum Master at your side and what you can do as a product mensch if there is none, and we point out critical knowledge to become agile: maximizing the amount of work not done is essential.

We then provide a pragmatic, hands-on approach to deciding which ideas are worth further attention, and we delve into the effects of rushing to work before clarifying your team’s vision and mission. Moreover, we share Tendayi Viki’s take on how to move from being a corporate pirate—restrained by red tape—to a valued explorer, appreciated by the organization.

Lastly, we point at numbers for healthy (vs. deathly) churn for B2C and B2B companies serving various markets. Also, we explain why the habit of under-promising and over-delivering regarding OKRs is an anti-pattern, not a qualification, and we share an epic guide on how to ace remote work and why improving your writing skills is essential.

Food for Agile Thought #329: #NoCoaching, Opportunity Assessment, Supporting Team Decisions, What Is Good Monthly Churn? Age-of-Product.com
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Food for Agile Thought #328: KPI Trees, The Product-Led Process, Scaling Agility in Real-Life, Experimenting w/ Netflix

TL; DR: KPI Trees, Scaling Agility in Real-Life — Food for Agile Thought #328

Welcome to the 328th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 34,452 peers. This week, we advocate a simple tool to ‘help you foster alignment, transparency, and focus in your product organization:’ The KPI tree. Also, we share six real-life examples of extraordinary organizations and their path to business agility, from Vanguard to Bosch to Paypal, and we point at a simple lesson: You may likely accrue more technical debt first before efforts to reduce it bear fruit.

We then consider an idea about the ‘right’ way to build products by steepening the learning curve while helping customers reap benefits earlier. Next, Board of Innovation summarizes how it invalidated 100-plus business ideas last year, pointing at the importance of identifying weak spots early. Moreover, we enjoy a detailed history of Netflix, pointing at all the experiments it took to lift them to today’s level, and we reflect on probable anti-patterns when organizations start aligning humanity and the development process utilizing a seemingly intuitive practice.

Lastly, we learn from Dave West how his job as CEO unintentionally seems to affect his role as a stakeholder. Also, Shane Hastie interviews Patricia Kong of Scrum.org on how collecting empirical evidence supports decision-making in complex environments and how EBM supports that approach.

Food for Agile Thought #328: KPI Trees, The Product-Led Process, Scaling Agility in Real-Life, Experimenting w/ Netflix — Age-of-Product.com
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Food for Agile Thought #327: Improve Learning and Maximize Retention, Failing Innovation Experiments, Value of an Agile Coach, PMs Don‘t Need Domain Knowledge?

TL; DR: Improve Learning, Failing Experiments — Food for Agile Thought #327

Welcome to the 327th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 34,305 peers. This week, we explore the most critical meta-skill a knowledge worker can acquire: Learning how to learn by improving learning itself. Also, we ask: How do you assess the value of an agile coach, and we delve into the first principles of leadership in complex environments.

We then pursue the thought that a lack of domain knowledge forces a product manager to improve product discovery to compensate, thus contributing to value creation, or not? Moreover, we detail seven pitfalls of experimentation and validation and how to avoid them, and we explore UX designers’ many difficulties and challenges in SAFe®-driven organizations.

Lastly, we appreciate Jeff Gothelf sharing a ‘box-by-box breakdown of how to use the [Business Model Canvas and Lean UX Canvas ] as complementary tools in your business and product development process,’ and we suggest a formula to help you account for your team’s innovation efforts.

Food for Agile Thought #327: Improve Learning and Maximize Retention,  Failing Innovation Experiments, Value of an Agile Coach, PMs Don‘t Need Domain Knowledge? — Age-of-Product.com
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