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Food for Agile Thought #299: Learning from Spotify, The Lizard Brain & Agile, Building Products at Slack, Product Thinking

by Stefan Wolpers | 2021-07-04 News

TL; DR: Learning from Spotify, The Lizard Brain & Agile—Food for Agile Thought #299

Welcome to the 299th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 32,056 peers. This week, we continue learning from Spotify: Kevin Goldsmith shares lessons learned during the hay days of the “Spotify Model.” Moreover, we delve into the psychology of our inner lizard, constantly on the alert and hiding below a thin crust of civilization and how it relates to team building. Finally, we also witness a desperate attempt by McKinsey to save the PMO by relabeling it ATO. (The sad thing is that C-level folks from BigCorp will go for it.)

We then reflect on autonomy, empowerment, agency, and what that means for work at the team level, and we try to define what “product sense” is about in design, product management, engineering, or venture capital. Also, Ken Norton shares another interview from his outstanding series on successful product practices, and there is an infographic on the differences between projects and products developed by agile teams.

Lastly, we share Patricia Thompson’s journey of teaching Agile in schools, the “triumphs and enlightenment and how we adapted along the way.”

Food for Agile Thought #299: Learning from Spotify, The Lizard Brain & Agile, Building Products at Slack, Product Thinking — Age-of-Product.com

Food for Agile Thought #298: Scaling Agility, Hard Product Discussions w/ CEOs, Product Team Health Signals, Enterprise Agility

by Stefan Wolpers | 2021-06-27 News

TL; DR: Scaling Agility, Product Team Health—Food for Agile Thought #298

Welcome to the 298th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 31,941 peers. This week, we advise how to create a system of interdependent agile teams also know as scaling agility. In addition, we advocate for a budgeting approach that will not impede your organization’s agile transformation, and we enjoy a moment of serendipity: Don’t use a big-name consultancy to support agile transformations and beware of their playbooks.

We then provide actionable advice on dealing with a CEO’s worldview that is impeding your product team; we delve into validation, de-risking, and when to use what, and we reflect on the short shelf life many solutions in today’s volatile environment have and how you may counter that effect.

Lastly, we appreciate a set of signals that hint at your product team’s progress in becoming more effective.

Food for Agile Thought #298: Scaling Agility, Hard Product Discussions w/ CEOs, Product Team Health Signals, Enterprise Agility — Age-of-Product.com

Food for Agile Thought #297: North Star Metric, Tech Debt Is any Opportunity, MBA Pathology in Product, Team Dynamics Explained

by Stefan Wolpers | 2021-06-20 News

TL; DR: North Star Metric, Team Dynamics Explained—Food for Agile Thought #297

Welcome to the 297th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 31,817 peers. This week, we point at data and case studies, providing insights into how to narrow in on your organization’s North Star Metric. Also, we advocate that technical debt is rather a strategic lever for your organization’s success than a liability, and we analyze the invisible undercurrents that determine your team’s culture.

We then continue reading Marty Cagan’s pathology series with a deep dive into the well-known problems with MBA programs. Moreover, we share six common product discovery anti-patterns and what you can do about them, and we introduce fundamental principles behind designing and maintaining a product roadmap tailored to the needs of agile teams.

Lastly, we enjoy listening to Richard Kasperowski and Seb Rose talking about how to help create a good team with less seasoned professionals.

Food for Agile Thought #297: North Star Metric, Tech Debt Is any Opportunity, MBA Pathology in Product, Team Dynamics Explained — Age-of-Product.com

Food for Agile Thought #296: Rebels Spark Ideas, Agile Rituals for Hyper-Growth, CSPO Pathology, Collaborative Product Decisions

by Stefan Wolpers | 2021-06-13 News

TL; DR: Rebels Spark Ideas, CSPO Pathology—Food for Agile Thought #296

Welcome to the 296th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 31,704 peers. This week, we acknowledge that rebels spark ideas, and we consider whether OKRs can restore purpose to agile teams and free them from the tyranny of the Product Backlog. Moreover, we get an inside view of how Youtube managed its early hyper-growth, and we point at the advantages of using low-code tooling to build software: Iterating faster.

We then address why the tech industry has such a high proportion of weak product managers and product leaders. We pitch the advantages of collaborative decision-making, leveraging both stakeholders’ and developers’ expertise while creating a shared understanding. Also, we share three tactics that have proven to impact getting buy-in from team members significantly.

Lastly, we enjoy an interview with Christina Wodtke on how OKR can help product managers accomplish more, and we get curious about a new Scrum software: “HappyStack is a Scrum project software tool for developers: Backlog, Sprint Planning, Standups, Reviews, and Retros done the right way.”

Food for Agile Thought #296: Rebels Spark Ideas, Agile Rituals for Hyper-Growth, CSPO Pathology, Collaborative Product Decisions — Age-of-Product.com

Food for Agile Thought #295: Overcoming Team Limits, Pharma Success Story w/ Scrum, The Mediocrity Trap, Your Product is Not Their Problem

by Stefan Wolpers | 2021-06-06 News

TL; DR: Overcoming Team Limits, The Mediocrity Trap—Food for Agile Thought #295

Welcome to the 295th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 31,527 peers. This week, we delve into overcoming team limits with Jeff Sutherland, the co-creator of Scrum. We also dive into an adjacent topic: Team-building in organizations that double the employee count at least yearly, and we analyze some psychological issues that might interfere with the core of agility.

We then share ten compelling reasons why to stay out of meh work. Moreover, we reflect on the necessity of loving your customer’s problem, not your solution, and we embrace a comprehensive primer on how innovators can use the JTBD framework to create successful products.

Lastly, we appreciate a new academic paper on the effectiveness of Scrum teams.

Food for Agile Thought #295: Overcoming Team Limits, Pharma Success Story w/ Scrum, The Mediocrity Trap, Your Product is Not Their Problem — Age-of-Product.com

Food for Agile Thought #294: The Spotify Model Fallacy, Pirates & Leadership, Building Stuff to Close Deals, Scheduling Innovation?

by Stefan Wolpers | 2021-05-30 News

TL; DR: Spotify Model Fallacy, Pirates & Leadership—Food for Agile Thought #294

Welcome to the 294th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 31,412 peers. This week, we dissect the Spotify model fallacy. (By the way, Spotify is no longer using product squads.) We also point at the forward-thinking approach of pirates regarding governance and self-management and why some people have difficulties embracing the idea of autonomous action by self-directed individuals.

We then learn the two only ways of pushing back requests to build features to close deals. Moreover, we list core principles that come with experimentation and what it takes to drive the change; finally, we analyze the popular leadership fallacy to mandate creating ‘innovative feature,’ probably, with a timeline, incentivized by OKRs.

Lastly, we delve into the origins of feature creep, adding on top of the usual suspects—such as gold-plating—the difficulties that distributed teams face. (See also Gold-Plating Beyond Done — Making Your Scrum Work #7.)