TL; DR: Scrum History, State of PM 2021 Report — Food for Agile Thought #274
Welcome to the 274th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 29,681 peers. This week, we delve into Scrum history, and we enjoy an interview with Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber on the changes of the Scrum Guide 2020 and what motivated them. Also, we dissect the dilemma surrounding the estimation process.
We then enjoy the results of two product management related surveys; we discuss user stories, tasks, and features in disguise to release more value sooner, and we learn from Martin Eriksson’s decision stack.
Lastly, we welcome John Cutler’s comprehensive checklist to support decision-making at a high-quality level, maintaining the decision flow. Speaking of decision-making, you may be interested in the ‘Six Thinking Hats’ tool as well. (That’s right, there is a tool section now.)
TL; DR: Visual Collaboration, Rejecting Requests — Food for Agile Thought #273
Welcome to the 273rd edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 29,133 peers. This week, we appreciate the merits of visual collaboration; we detail the path of agility from the team level to the organizational level, and we reflect on cost-saving with ‘Agile’ and its inherent trickiness.
We then delve into the differences between user stories and use cases; we share a hands-on guide on how to move toward a balanced, outcome-driven way of product development, and we embrace an approach that allows understanding which stakeholder requests to accept or reject—without burning bridges. We also welcome a set of 50 team building activities, games, and exercises from communication to collaboration to alignment and vision.
🎉 Wishing you a joyous Holiday season and a happy and peaceful New Year. The next edition of ‘Food for Agile Thought’ will be available on January 10th, 2021.
TL; DR: Awesome Remote Teams, Agile Iron Triangle — Food for Agile Thought #272
Welcome to the 272nd edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 28,937 peers. This week, we embrace a set of lessons learned, tools, and practices for awesome remote teams. We also address the necessary buy-in to an agile transformation’s underlying philosophy, and we revisit the once-popular project management tool that still might be beneficial in the age of agility.
We then analyze the difference between product management and Product Ownership; we identify product-driven companies’ cultural principles, and we reflect on why so many product teams end up in the feature factory.
Lastly, we delve into the ‘one-[framework]-fits-all’ myth of agile transformation approaches.
TL; DR: Pre-Mortems, Leaving the Feature Factory — Food for Agile Thought #271
Welcome to the 271st edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 28,708 peers. This week, we understand the advantages of pre-mortems to kick-off agile transformations; we discover learning obstacles rooted in entrenched ways of operating, and we appreciate the learnings from a long yet successful lean transformation.
We then learn about how quarterly process changes can unshackle a product team to realize its full potential; we check a system to apply objectives and key results (OKR) to product management, and we acknowledge common traps of validating product ideas, such as false positives.
Lastly, we dissect the consequences of remote work, ranging from the remote hype cycle, the risk of return, new physical and digital solutions, and the implications of remote and hybrid work.
TL; DR: Agile’s Intangibles, Productive Uncertainty — Food for Agile Thought #270
Welcome to the 270th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 28,431 peers. This week, we cover Agile’s intangibles; we delve into innovation, risk mitigation, and creating value, and we analyze prerequisites of successful agile transformations at an organizational level.
We then learn about a developer’s perspective on what it takes to build a successful product development team. Also, we explore a handy tool for ordering Product Backlogs beyond the usual suspects like Cost of Delay, Kano model, or RICE, and we ask: “What else about product [management] is as ‘simple as it sounds’ but needs to be learned? Why do we fall into these traps?”
TL; DR: Estimating Cost of Delay, Re-Teaming — Food for Agile Thought #269
Welcome to the 269th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 28,267 peers. This week, we delve into estimating Cost of Delay; we identify nine signs that your CEO understands Scrum, and we learn that mental models impact the efficiency and accuracy in decision-making.
We then enjoy the essence of product leadership from a new Marty Cagan book; we get into measuring real progress as a product team, and we embrace the canary product launch approach to test the waters with a restricted set of clients.
Lastly, we applaud Ken & Jeff for releasing the new Scrum Guide 2020.
