TL; DR: FAST Agile, OKRs’ Dark Side—Food for Agile Thought #289
Welcome to the 289th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 31,016 peers. This week, we delve into FAST Agile to fill the gap for a purely complex agile method. We examine the Boeing 737 Max crashes through the lens of industry and corporate culture, and we point at OKRs’ dark side—their dual-use nature and the inherent prospective misuse potential in the hands of traditional performance management protagonists.
We then share the open-source template of the ‘Product Management Competency Framework;’ we explore the topic of design justice, and we enjoy a teacher’s story of breaking into product management without a CS degree.
Lastly, we point at the pre-requisits of shifting from a traditional management style to genuinely remote leadership, from remote-first to avoiding the rookie mistake of applying controlling tools.
Did you miss the previous Food for Agile Thought’s issue #288?
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Join more than 150 peers from May 27-29, 2021, for the Virtual Agile Camp Berlin 2021, a live virtual Barcamp using open space technology principles and practices.
🏆 The Tip of the Week
(via Medium): There’s a New Kid on the Agile Block — FAST Agile
Ron Quartel shares his ‘Fluid Scaling Technology (FAST Agile)’ framework to fill the gap for a purely complex agile method. (If you’re not a Medium subscriber, consider using a private browser window to open the URL.)
➿ Agile & Scrum
(via Harvard Business Review): What Went Wrong with the Boeing 737 Max?
Harvard Business School professor Bill George examines the Boeing 737 Max crashes through the lens of industry and corporate culture.
(via InfoQ): Moving from Collocated Management to Remote Leadership
Molood Ceccarelli points at the pre-requisits of shifting from a traditional management style to genuinely remote leadership, from remote-first to avoiding the rookie mistake of applying controlling tools.
(via Industrial Logic): Collective Code Ownership and Conway's Law
Anthony Sciamanna details how collective code ownership can bear fruit in enterprises and multi-team software organizations.
🎓 🖥 🇩🇪 Professional Scrum Master Schulung mit PSM I-Zertifikat: 11. und 12. Mai 2021
Entdecken Sie die vier Erfolgsprinzipien von Scrum mit dieser offiziellen Scrum.org Professional Scrum Master-Schulung, die zur branchenweit anerkannten PSM I-Zertifizierung führt und diese beinhaltet. Die Unterrichtssprache ist Deutsch und die Schulung ist als virtuelles Live-Training (8 Stunden/Tag) konzipiert.
Erfahren Sie mehr: 🖥 🇩🇪 Professional Scrum Master Schulung mit PSM I-Zertifkat: 11. und 12. Mai 2021.
Kundenstimmen: “The class with Stefan was very well structured, delivering a helpful hands-on approach to all the Scrum basics. He managed to cover participants with different levels of expertise and from various fields easily and delivered knew knowledge and value to all of them from my point of view. The culture during these four days was excellent, so that everyone felt capable to speak up. Very much worth the invested time and money!” (Link.)
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🎯 Product
(via Mind The Product): Making Product Management growth a team effort
Brendan Marsh shares the open-source template of the ‘Product Management Competency Framework,’ supporting individual and team conversations about your growth as a Product Manager.
: 📺 Rethinking Product Discovery with Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Mind
Teresa Torres shares her talk at IndustryConf, exploring the topic of design justice.
(via ProductCraft): You don’t need a technical background to be a PM. I’m proof.
Jenny Wolochow shares her story of breaking into product management as a teacher, as you can develop the skills necessary to become a PM in other ways than by obtaining a CS degree.
📯 Product Owner Interview Questions — The Product Backlog and Refinement
Please find the following 19 of 71 Product Owner interview questions to identify suitable candidates for the role of Product Owner, addressing the Product Backlog, Product Backlog refinement, work items, forecasts, and estimates.
Learn more: Product Owner Interview Questions — The Product Backlog and Refinement.
🛠 Tools & Measuring
(via Corporate Rebels): The Dark Side Of OKRs (And Why We Should Care)
Antoinette Weibel names a significant challenge of OKRs: its dual-use nature and the inherent prospective misuse potential in the hands of traditional performance management protagonists.
(via Medium): A Path to the Minimum Viable Product
Steve Blank shares a guest post of Shawn Carolan, introducing the MVP Tree to break down your mission into more manageable chunks based on the author’s experience in coaching hundreds of startups.
📅 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 June 8, 2026 | GUARANTEED: Claude Cowork: Stop Prompting. Start Delegating. (English; Self-paced Online Course) | Self-Paced Online Course | $129 incl. 19% VAT (If applicable.) |
| 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 June 9, 2026 | GUARANTEED: HoA 74: "CLAUDE.md" — The One File That Makes AI Remember How You Work. (English) | Meetup | FREE |
| 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 June 10-July 2, 2026 | GUARANTEED: Claude Cowork BootCamp #2 (English; Live Virtual Cohort) | Live Virtual Cohort | $249 incl. 19% VAT (If applicable.) |
| 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 June 11, 2026 | GUARANTEED: HoA 75: Token Economics. (English) | Meetup | FREE |
| 🇩🇪 June 30-July 1, 2026 | Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German; Live Virtual Class) | Live Virtual Class | €1,299 incl. 19% VAT (If applicable.) |
| 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 July 1, 2026 | GUARANTEED: AI 4 Agile Course v3 — Master AI for Agile Practitioners (English; Self-paced Online Course) | Self-Paced Online Course | $149 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 2,700-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 more about FAST Agile — Join the 9,000-plus Strong ‘Hands-on Agile’ Slack Community
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