TL; DR: Back to Agile Roots, Zoom’s Bad Rep—Food for Agile Thought #236
Welcome to the 236th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 26,031 peers. This week, we explore how the adoption of Agile outside the software industry may have cut the agile roots; we are pleased to learn that Zoom’s CEO got the memo, and we embrace Strategy Knotworking to inspect and adapt our plans in uncertain times.
We also reflect on how to best deal with difficult people; we oppose the idea that tech, design, and product are infighting factions, and we learn more about genuine innovation beyond mercenary engineers implementing stakeholder requirements.
Lastly, we applaud Shane Parrish for pointing at the obvious: that merely excelling at one thing might prove to be tricky in a VUCA world.
Did you miss last week’s Food for Agile Thought’s issue #235?
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🏆 The Tip of the Week: Future Remote Work
(via Lean Agile Brighton): 📺 Doctrine, Domesticity and Delinquency; Returning Agile to the Wild
In this talk, Dave Snowden asks whether Agile is all lost or if we can get back the original inspiration of the Agile Manifesto.
Agile Roots & Scrum
(via Zoom): A Message to Our Users
Zoom’s founder and CEO promises to deal with the privacy issues starting immediately.
(via The Liberators): Moving Forward in a New and Uncertain World
Barry Overeem shares how The Liberators applied Liberating Structures’ Strategy Knotworking to inspect the present and adapt to the new circumstances.
(via Farnam Street): Preserving Optionality: Preparing for the Unknown
Shane Parrish advocates that — as the future gets harder to predict — preserving optionality allows us to pivot when the road ahead crumbles.
📅 🖥 Book Your Seat for the Distributed Agile Masterclass: Practices, Tools & virtual Liberating Structures
The live virtual class on “Remote Agile” addresses tips, tricks, and tools for Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, and Product Owners on how to facilitate agile events effectively. The training class is organized in three blocks of 2.5 hours each within two weeks. You can book your seat right here:
June 23, June 30, and July 7, 2020, 4:00 pm to 6:30 pm CEST:
Learn more: 📅 Distributed Agile Training — A Live Virtual Masterclass.
Product & Lean
: The Role of Technology
Marty Cagan delves into software is eating the world, mercenary engineers, roadmaps of stakeholder requirements, and genuine innovation.
: Dealing with Difficult Emotions in Product Management
Roman Pichler reflects on how to learn dealing with difficult people constructively.
(via Product Coalition): ‘Product vs Design vs Tech’: A Partnership, not a Battlefield
Anthony Murphy shares his take on what high performing product teams look like.
📯 Remote Agile (Part 3): Mastering Zoom
In this third post of the Remote Agile series, we address the tool at the heart of working with a distributed team as a Scrum Master, Agile Coach, or Product Owner: Zoom. While Zoom is an excellent video conference application—particularly for larger groups of twelve or more attendees—by all standards, its killer feature is breakout rooms. Turning a more or less passive audience into engaged collaborators where everyone is included and has a voice makes the difference between a successful facilitator and someone who fails to adapt to a new situation. Let’s have a look at what mastering Zoom is all about.
Read more: 📅 🖥 Remote Agile (Part 3): Mastering Zoom.
📅 Scrum Training & Event Schedule
You can secure your seat for Scrum training classes, workshops, and meetups directly by following the corresponding link in the table below:
| Date | Class and Language | City | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 April 15-29, 2026 | Guaranteed: Claude Cowork BootCamp (English; Live Virtual Cohort) | Live Virtual Cohort | $149 incl. 19% VAT (If applicable.) |
| 🖥 🇩🇪 April 22-23, 2026 | Professional Scrum Product Owner – AI Essentials Training (PSPO AIE; German; Live Virtual Class) | Live Virtual Class | €799 incl. 19% VAT (If applicable.) |
| 🖥 🇩🇪 May 19-20, 2026 | Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German; Live Virtual Class) | Live Virtual Class | €1,299 incl. 19% VAT (If applicable.) |
| 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 May 28 to June 25, 2026 | Guaranteed: AI4Agile BootCamp #7 (English; Live Virtual Cohort) | Live Virtual Cohort | €499 incl. 19% VAT (If applicable.) |
See all upcoming classes here.
You can book your seat for the training directly by following the corresponding links to the ticket shop. If the procurement process of your organization requires a different purchasing process, please contact Berlin Product People GmbH directly.
📺 Join 2,000-plus Agile Peers on Youtube
Now available on the Age-of-Product Youtube channel:
- 🆕 Remote Agile (1) Replay: Practices and Tools for Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, and Product Owners.
- Scrum Sprint Retrospective Anti-Patterns.
- Scrum Master Anti-Patterns.
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