TL; DR: Product-Led Companies, #NoProjects—Food for Agile Thought #281
Welcome to the 281st edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 30,412 peers. This week, we learn to identify product-led companies; we reflect on the effects of top-down decisions on imposing agile frameworks without identifying problems first, and we remind us of signs that an organization lacks the ‘agile mindset’ yet pretends to be agile.
We then gain insight into how to innovate within Google after being acquired—or not. We suggest embracing Pareto’s principle to execute an effective product strategy by ruthless prioritization, and we acknowledge the importance of picking appropriate metrics to guide our product teams to success.
Lastly, we appreciate introducing critical root cause analysis techniques, from ‘5 Whys’ to ‘Pareto Analysis.’
Did you miss the previous Food for Agile Thought’s issue #280?
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Join us on March 9, 2021, for a live virtual workshop to create actionable recommendations on how to deal with the outcome of a forensic Product Backlog analysis. (Participation is free.)
🏆 The Tip of the Week: Product-Led Companies
: How to know if you're interviewing at a product-led company
Andrew Skotzko suggests a set of five questions you can use as a candidate to figure out whether you are applying for the right job opening.
➿ Agile & Scrum
: Want a Successful Agile Project? Start with Why Before How
Johanna Rothman reflects on the effects of organizations’ top-down decisions on imposing agile frameworks without identifying problems that shall be addressed in the first place.
(via Product Coalition): When Agile isn’t Agile: Signs your organization has missed the point of Agile
In this article, Irzana Golding reminds us of signs that an organization lacks the ‘agile mindset’ yet pretends to be agile.
and (via InfoQ): Allan Kelly on Continuous Digital, #NoProjects, Minimally Viable Teams and OKRs
🎙 In this podcast, Shane Hastie interviews Allan Kelly about his new book on the impact of digital transformations.
🎓 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training w/ PSM II Certificate — March 10-11, 2021
This guaranteed Advanced Scrum Master Training (PSM II) is an official Scrum.org class for advanced Scrum Masters, including the industry-acknowledged PSM II certification. The PSM II training class is designed as a live virtual class from 9:00 am to 5:45 pm CET and will be offered in English.
Learn more: 📅 🖥 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training w/ PSM II Certificate — March 10-11, 2021.
What our customer say about this Advanced Scrum Master Training (PSM II):
“Outstanding PSM II experience: Having looked forward to attending this class, literally for years, it was everything I expected, hoped for and then some. I am so grateful that this was an online virtual class, as it added an additional dimension to the learning, and was incredibly insightful. The trainer did an outstanding job of taking us through the learning plan, facilitating discussions, guiding the outcome and believing in the structures. Whether the learning was tangible curriculum, or intangible observation, it was excellent – made even more solid by the open sharing from my classmates and willingness from everyone to participate.” (Link.)
🎯 Product
: Why did I leave Google or, why did I stay so long?
Noam Bardin—founder and CEO of WAZE—remembers his attempts to innovate within a corporate Google after the acquisition.
(via ProductCraft): Why product managers need to understand the 80/20 rule
Ryan Seamons suggests embracing Pareto’s principle to execute an effective product strategy by supporting ruthless prioritization.
(via Medium): Creating an actionable Product Roadmap: My approach to balance certainty and flexibility
Jan-Henrik Franetzki shares his approach to creating valuable product roadmaps.
🛠 Tools & Measuring
(via KaiNexus): 5 Root Cause Analysis Techniques to Breakthrough Barriers
Kade Jansson takes us to critical root cause analysis techniques, from ‘5 Whys’ to ‘Pareto Analysis.’
: 🎙 Know How to Use Evidence to Quickly Improve Your Leadership
In this podcast, Richard Kasperowski interviews Patricia Kong about the importance of picking appropriate metrics to guide your product teams to success and how Evidence-Based Management might help in the process.
📯 Product Discovery Anti-Patterns Leading to Failure
Scrum has proven to be an effective product delivery framework for all sorts of products. However, Scrum is equally well suited to build the wrong product efficiently as its Achilles heel has always been the product discovery part. What product discovery part, you may think now. And this is precisely the point: The Product Owner miraculously identifies what is the best way to proceed as a Scrum Team by managing the Product Backlog. How that is supposed to happen is nowhere described in the Scrum Guide. Consequently, when everyone is for themselves, product discovery anti-patterns emerge.
From sunk costs, HIPPO-ism, my-budget-my-features to self-fulfilling prophecies — learn more about the numerous product discovery anti-patterns that can manifest themselves when you try to fill Scrum’s product discovery void.
👉 Learn more: Product Discovery Anti-Patterns Leading to Failure.
📅 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:
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 2,600-plus Agile Peers on Youtube
Now available on the Age-of-Product Youtube channel:
- 🆕 Scrum Guide 2020: Eight Remarkable Changes — Hands-on Agile #28.
- Remote Agile (1) Replay: Practices and Tools for Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, and Product Owners.
- Scrum Sprint Retrospective Anti-Patterns.
✋ Do Not Miss Out and Learn about Product-Led Companies: Join the 9,000-plus Strong ‘Hands-on Agile’ Slack Community
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