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Food for Agile Thought #448: Reclaiming Agile’s Core Values, Product Pitfalls, Splitting User Stories, Dealing w/ System Bottlenecks

by Stefan Wolpers | 2024-06-21 News

TL; DR: Agile’s Core Values — Food for Agile Thought #448

Welcome to the 448th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,549 peers. This week, Jim Highsmith calls for reclaiming Agile’s core values to reclaim its original spirit. Our Lemon introduces Water-Scrum-Fall, which ironically embodies the very constraints Scrum aims to avoid. John Cutler highlights how great teams achieve effectiveness through proactive processes, and Maarten Dalmijn critiques SCREAM!, pointing out its creative strengths but practical inefficiencies in timely delivery. Moreover, Joost Minnaar discusses Kazuo Inamori’s “Amoeba Management,” which champions recruiting inherently motivated individuals to drive team success, and we explore the free Scrum Master JobGPT to help those who look for new jobs.

Next, Richard Mironov discusses the ongoing challenge of addressing one software bottleneck to discover another, advocating for resilience in a seemingly endless cycle. On a podcast, David Pereira highlights typical pitfalls in product strategy and how to evade them, and Dan Shipper reveals how Claire Vo leveraged AI to create ChatPRD, enhancing product management despite her hectic schedule. Lastly, Aatir Abdul Rauf identifies six friction points between Product Managers and Product Marketers, suggesting strategies to improve communication and collaboration for better outcomes.

Lastly, Mike Cohn presents SPIDR, five techniques for efficiently splitting user stories and simplifying complex tasks into manageable actions. Johanna Rothman discusses preemptive strategies to identify and mitigate common project failures, such as resource scarcity and poor teamwork, while Mike Belsito advocates an evidence-based approach to product decision-making using the GIST framework and ICE scoring to navigate complex decisions. Finally, Andrew Chen challenges the productivity norms of routine work, promoting randomness and strategic choices to achieve impactful “10x work” that significantly alters professional outcomes.

Food for Agile Thought #448: Reclaiming Agile’s Core Values, Product Pitfalls, Splitting User Stories, System Bottlenecks—Age-of-Product.com

Food for Agile Thought #447: Effective Product Teams, Coaching Mastery, Fixing the Double Diamond, Athletic Agile

by Stefan Wolpers | 2024-06-14 News

TL; DR: Effective Product Teams, Coaching Mastery — Food for Agile Thought #447

Welcome to the 447th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,561 peers. This week, John Cutler explores how effective product teams prioritize customer interactions, data-driven decisions, and collaboration over estimations and internal requests. Shreyas Doshi clarifies that mastery-level coaching focuses on self-awareness and transformative leadership, and Sjoerd Nijland shares strategies for transforming teams through self-management and accountability. Also, Francis Laleman examines the crucial Scrum values that build trust and support empirical pillars, and Ari Tikka emphasizes creating a culture of Trust, Care, and Love for team success and psychological safety in diverse environments.

Next, Arne Kittler underscores the necessity of clarity for product managers, offering practical steps for vision, strategy, and priority alignment. At the same time, Lenny Rachitsky presents 27 examples of using the AI-powered search engine Perplexity to enhance growth strategies and market research, and Roman Pichler details a four-step process for adopting outcome-based product roadmaps. Moreover, Janna Bastow highlights the importance of feedback analysis and AI tools for transforming user interactions into strategic insights.

Lastly, Paweł Huryn critiques the Double Diamond of Design Thinking, suggesting a more flexible, iterative approach that separates discovery from delivery. Ivar Jacobson explores the evolution of use cases in Agile practices, emphasizing their complementarity with user stories, and Emily Webber introduces a framework for maintaining team memory and fostering connections in hybrid organizations through intentional communication. Finally, Gareth Edwards chronicles Don Estridge’s transformative journey in building the IBM PC, showcasing his rebellious approach that defied corporate norms.

Food for Agile Thought #447: Effective Product Teams, Coaching Mastery, Fixing the Double Diamond, Athletic Agile — Age-of-Product.com

Food for Agile Thought #446: Scrum’s Decline, Product Transformation Failure, Product Trios, CapEx and OpEx and Agile

by Stefan Wolpers | 2024-06-07 News

TL; DR: Scrum’s Decline — Food for Agile Thought #446

Welcome to the 446th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,578 peers. This week, Todd Lankford addresses Scrum’s decline due to lack of trust, customer disconnection, team silos, and limited learning, while Sivan Hermon discusses Google’s success with Itamar Gilad’s GIST framework during COVID-19. Moreover, David Luke explains how aligning CapEx and OpEx with Agile models enhances efficiency, and the McKinsey Talks Operations podcast explores leveraging failure for innovation, emphasizing psychological safety and continuous learning. Also, our Lemon critiques Agile projects’ high failure rates, promoting the self-serving alternative methodology.

Next, John Cutler warns that treating product transformations as projects leads to failure by ignoring the present, team-led change, and continuous improvement. Teresa Torres advocates for product trios, emphasizing their collaborative benefits, and Itamar Medeiros discusses using the Jobs-to-be-Done framework for effective roadmap planning and Product Backlog refinement. Then, Andy Hughes outlines conditions for product managers’ success, stressing supportive environments, effective processes, and a conducive organizational culture.

Lastly, Dave Hora discusses the shift from research-led projects to continuous product-team-led discovery, integrating user research into product practices for better decision-making. Additionally, Ant Murphy clarifies that OKRs should not be mistaken for strategy, stressing the importance of vision and strategic alignment, and Nir Zicherman examines balancing productivity and alignment to foster innovation. Barry Overeem introduces a 90-minute Agile Team Effectiveness workshop. Finally, Jeff Foust highlights Starlink’s disruptive impact on the space industry.

Food for Agile Thought #446: Scrum’s Decline, Product Transformation Failure, Product Trios, CapEx and OpEx and Agile — Age-of-Product.com

Food for Agile Thought #445: Sprint Review Guide, Data-driven Product Decisions, Healthy Failure Culture, 11 Philosophical Razors

by Stefan Wolpers | 2024-05-31 News

TL; DR: The Sprint Review Guide — Food for Agile Thought #445

Welcome to the 445th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,591 peers. This week, Maarten Dalmijn critiques Sprint Reviews as dull and ineffective, advocating for revitalized Scrum events with the Sprint Review guide. John Cutler discusses the complexities of systems thinking and its challenges in professional contexts, while Melissa Perri and Amy Edmondson emphasize the necessity of a healthy failure culture for innovation, focusing on intelligent failure and psychological safety. David Rock identifies leaders as crucial ‘change architects,’ highlighting skills like cognitive capacity and coherence for effective cultural transformation. Also, Alain Goudsmet and Ludo Van der Heyden use David Breashears’ Everest climb to exemplify essential team dynamics for peak performance, and we ask: Can a Product Owner be a Scrum Master at the same time?

Then, Andrew Chen outlines the dilemmas in data-driven decision-making, noting the often necessary reliance on intuition over data. Aatir Abdul Rauf emphasizes the importance of tailored go-to-market strategies for enhancing feature adoption and retention, and Jason Cohen discusses the need for translating between customer desires, product features, and business goals to improve business collaboration. Moreover, David Pereira and Shyvee Shi delve into AI’s ability to connect with human emotions, highlighting the importance of fostering trust and psychological safety.

Lastly, Chris Meyer introduces eleven strategies to simplify decision-making by eliminating unlikely explanations. Gerry Duffy views UX as storytelling that engages stakeholders. Additionally, Rosie Hoggmascall shows how Monzo uses user research for product development, and Shane Drumm offers a guide on value stream mapping to enhance production efficiency. Lastly, Anthropic researchers reveal insights into the AI model Claude Sonnet, enhancing understanding and potential safety.

Food for Agile Thought #445: Sprint Review Guide, Data-driven Product Decisions, Healthy Failure Culture, 11 Philosophical Razors — Age-of-Product.com

Food for Agile Thought #444: Change Agent to Overpriced Cheerleaders, Instagram-ification of PM, Gut-Feeling to Scientific Research

by Stefan Wolpers | 2024-05-24 News

TL; DR: Overpriced Cheerleaders — Food for Agile Thought #444

Welcome to the 444th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,579 peers. This week, Sam Haynes critiques the dwindling effectiveness of Agile Coaches, shifting from vital change agents to mere overpriced cheerleaders. Maarten Dalmijn criticizes Scrum for providing a blame-shifting ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card, impeding real improvement, while Christiaan Verwijs advocates for scientific research to restore Agile’s credibility and effectiveness. Also, Michael Küsters emphasizes strategic alignment by rephrasing the query “How do we make money?” to uncover different business insights, and Jason Evanish discusses how lone wolves struggle with leadership due to their independence before Fortune Buchholtz introduces Toyota Kata Coaching for Agile teams.

Then, John Cutler warns against the ‘Instagram-ification’ of product management, which he argues sets unrealistic expectations and drives professionals towards unsustainable practices. David Pereira’s interview with Itamar Gilad emphasizes the importance of discarding 90% of ideas, advocating for evidence-based innovation and adaptability to user needs. Ant Murphy offers a stakeholder management approach that uses proposed solutions to uncover real problems, thus enhancing problem understanding without confrontation. Moreover, Manuel da Costa discusses findings from McKinsey’s Product Operating Model Index, highlighting a significant gap in product management practices between top and bottom-performing companies.

Lastly, Shane Hastie interviewed Esther Derby and David Horowitz about the second edition of the Agile Retrospectives book, focusing on data-driven methods and increased engagement for successful retrospectives, and Christina discusses how effective prioritization is often compromised by multitasking myths and distractions. The Ikigai Retrospective exercise uses a Venn diagram to help teams find their collective purpose by aligning their passions and skills with market value and impact. Finally, Aakash Gupta advises strategically using tailored work products in the PM job market to showcase unique insights and fit with company culture, enhancing job prospects.

Food for Agile Thought #444: Change Agent to Overpriced Cheerleaders, Instagram-ification of PM, Gut-Feeling to Scientific Research - Age-of-Product.com

Food for Agile Thought #443: Scrum Theory, Beating the Feature Factory, We’re All Product Managers Now, Dealing With Chaos

by Stefan Wolpers | 2024-05-17 News

TL; DR: Scrum Theory — Food for Agile Thought #443

Welcome to the 443rd edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,551 peers. This week, Francis Laleman reconsiders Scrum theory, appreciating its robust foundation in empiricism and lean thinking, and Jeff Putz advocates for Agile’s practical value over procedural adherence. Also, Todd Lankford outlines steps to enhance team autonomy and leadership. Verena Schwarzer discusses Agile’s challenges in large organizations, while Chris Matts critiques superficial Agile implementations, particularly the ineffective “Go/No Go” meetings that typify “Agile Kabuki.”

Then, Melissa Perri and Stephen Bungay apply military tactics to product management strategy, discussing daily challenges and solutions, and David Pereira and Maarten Dalmijn advocate for impactful, humble planning over quantity to escape the feature factory trap. Moreover, Michael H. Goitein highlights strategy as crucial for business agility, citing Nokia’s focus on Agile without a strategic foundation as a cautionary tale. Jeff Gothelf argues for unifying roles in product development, suggesting everyone should be a product manager to enhance collaboration.

Lastly, John Cutler interviews Gene Kim about his latest work, ‘Wiring the Winning Organization,’ focusing on simplification and impactful change themes. Lena Reinhard offers strategies for leaders to manage overwhelming workloads, and Simone Cicero presents a manifesto for adaptable, innovative platform organizations suited for the 21st century. Also, Shane Parrish discusses how the differing schedules of Haruki Murakami and Gary Vaynerchuk reflect their unique professional demands. Finally, Andrew Chen critiques the tech industry’s “Dopamine Culture,” highlighting the challenge of balancing instant engagement with lasting retention.