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Food for Agile Thought #335: Idea Repositories, Team Building w/ Conway’s Law, Measuring Added Value, Estimation Is a Waste

by Stefan Wolpers | 2022-03-25 News

TL; DR: Idea Repositories, Team Building w/ Conway’s Law — Food for Agile Thought #335

Welcome to the 335th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 34,866 peers. This week, we analyze the benefits of organizing transparent systems that handle the influx of suggestions, requirements, epiphanies, and learning: ideas repositories. Also, we describe the benefits of applying lessons learned from “Team Topologies” by Manuel Pais and Matthew Skelton regarding team building, and we explain the difference between coaching and mentoring, two critical stances of a servant leader.

We then listen to John Cutler exploring how “teams slip into the trap of using a single ‘mono-process’ (one way) for all types of work.” Moreover, we suggest building products with—not for—your community, delve into six essentials factors determining whether your product team will be successful, and figure out a way to measure the added value of your product.

Lastly, we share Luís Soares’s refreshingly contrarian thinking on estimations, Sprints, and other practices he considers futile. Finally, we close with Shane Parrish, who reflects on the effects of “mapping” the world and then taking this map as an accurate representation of the world.

Food for Agile Thought #335: Idea Repositories, Team Building w/ Conway‘s Law, Measuring Added Value, Estimation Is a Waste — Age-of-Product.com

Food for Agile Thought #334: Shape Up, Product Sense, Adaptive Self-Organization, User Onboarding at Shopify

by Stefan Wolpers | 2022-03-18 News

TL; DR: Shape Up, Product Sense — Food for Agile Thought #334

Welcome to the 334th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 34,804 peers. This week, we share lessons learned on what it takes to succeed with Shape Up, Basecamp’s framework for running product development teams by collaboration and productivity. Also, we explore “the impact of hybrid work environments on Agile work,” and we delve into anything Spike-related, from purpose to common misunderstandings.

We then follow Jules Walter as he explains what ‘product sense’ is all about and shares actionable and practical advice on how to develop your product sense. At the same time, John Cutler summarizes the must-haves to get a product team started, from having some process to artifacts to tools. Moreover, we analyze why the collaboration between Product and Marketing may unravel, how to fix this issue, or—better—prevent it from happening in the first place.

Lastly, we reflect on the eleventh principle of the Agile Manifesto: “The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams,” and we point at five estimation failures, from settling for the average to skipping the Definition of Done to fixing time to story points.

Food for Agile Thought #334: Shape Up, Product Sense, Adaptive Self-Organization, User Onboarding at Shopify — Age-of-Product.com

Food for Agile Thought #333: Identifying New Ways of Working, Burnout in Product Teams, Management Fads such as Agile, Saying No as a PM

by Stefan Wolpers | 2022-03-11 News

TL; DR: Identifying New Ways of Working, Burnout in Product Teams — Food for Agile Thought #333

Welcome to the 333rd edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 34,749 peers. This week, we reflect on signs of failed self-management and explore how to improve the identification of new ways of working instead. Also, we share a comprehensive take on tech debt, from the term’s coining to cost to inherited debt to, finally, keep it under control. Moreover, we follow Joost Minnaar when he delves into his favorite management fads, turning into religions attracting missionaries and apostles, and we follow Ben Thompson’s analysis on the long-term impact of Putin’s war on Ukraine on the tech industry.

We then explore product management practices that can lead to burnout, and we dive into product strategy, the “connective tissue between what a product team is doing day-to-day and the company’s ambition.” Additionally, we share Joni Hoadley’s recipe for managing stakeholders and how to ‘say no’ without losing their support or trust, and we learn more about user stories as a concept from Bill Wake.

Lastly, we list seven common reasons why stakeholders ignore your team’s Sprint Review, from a lack of progress to ignored feedback to conflicting obligations. On top of that, we answer ten popular questions regarding the Monte Carlo method to help you better forecast your team’s throughput for a future period.

Food for Agile Thought #333: Identifying New Ways of Working, Burnout in Product Teams, Management Fads such as Agile, Saying No as a PM — Age-of-Product.com

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

by Stefan Wolpers | 2022-03-04 News

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

Food for Agile Thought #331: Scaling Ideas From Experiments, #hackerlaws, Communication Stakeholder Read, Healthy Data-Informed Product Teams

by Stefan Wolpers | 2022-02-25 News

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

Food for Agile Thought #330: Making Room for New Things, web3 Product Management, Talking to Engineers, Survival Roadmapping

by Stefan Wolpers | 2022-02-18 News

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?