Food for Agile Thought #102: Ain’t No Spotify Model, Ditching Scrum, Feature Creep Myth

Food for Agile Thought’s issue #102—shared with 10,204 peers—applauds Mr. Hodgson for pointing at the obvious: There is no Spotify Model — you have to figure out ‘agile’ within your organization yourself. And by the way, ‘agile’ does not mean Scrum either. Hubspot ditched it years ago and got it right nevertheless. We also learn how to break up silos in your organization, and why people outside the product trenches regular have trouble understanding what we are talking about.

We watch Melissa Perri warn us to fall for the feature factory trap, and we come to understand that ‘feature creep’ is merely a disguise for us failing to identify the core of our product, and we figure out how to identify our customers’ need and to reverse-engineer it into a product.

Lastly, we listen to Jeff Gothelf to learn how continuous innovation can become the center of an organization.

Have a great week!

🏆 Tip of the Week

Matthew Hodgson (via Zen Ex Machina): Why Spotify’s agile patterns work and why you shouldn’t copy them

Matthew Hodgson rightfully points at a critical understanding: There is no Spotify agile model.

No Spotify Model & Scrum

Christopher ODonnell (via ThinkGrowth.org): Why We Traded Scrum for “Science Fair” to Build HubSpot

Christopher ODonnell looks back at the path of product creation at Hubspot over the years and why they ditched Scrum.

Tomas Laboutka: Break down your departments to build 100% agile company. This is how we did it!

Tomas Laboutka details HotelQuickly’s journey to become truly agile by breaking down silos and empowering the team.

John Cutler (via Hacker Noon): 42 Things Non-Front-Liners Misunderstand

John Cutler lists 42 issues of product and software development that are not self-explanatory to outsiders.

Samantha Laing (via Growing Agile): Survey Results: Remote Agile Teams

Samantha Laing shares the ‘Remote Agile Teams’ survey results.

Download the “Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide” Ebook for Free

The ’Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide’ is another free ebook from the Hands-On Agile series of practical guides from the trenches. It covers more than 100 scrum anti-patterns that hold your scrum team back. Download the “Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide” for free now:

Food for Agile Thought: Spotify Model

Product & Lean

Mike Fishbein and Jeff Gothelf (via This Is Product Management): Continuous Innovation is Product Management

Jeff Gothelf shares in this podcast his thoughts on how to move to a continuous innovation model as an organization.

Melissa Perri (via Mind The Product): Escaping the Build Trap

Melissa Perri describes her experience with the feature factory early in her career and how to avoid falling for it.

Hiten Shah (via Product Habits): Feature Creep Isn't the Real Problem

Hiten Shah—the co-founder of Hubspot—dissects the ‘feature creep syndrome’: the inability to execute on the core value of your product.

David Bailey (via Medium): How To Sell The Problem Before Selling The Solution

David Bailey on identifying your customers’ need and reverse-engineering it into a product.

Brent Tworetzky (via Medium): Negotiation Skills for Product Managers: 5 Things You Need to Know

Brent Tworetzky analyzes the principles of negotiation and how mastering them will improve your team’s outcome.

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