TL; DR: Overcoming Team Limits, The Mediocrity Trap—Food for Agile Thought #295
Welcome to the 295th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 31,527 peers. This week, we delve into overcoming team limits with Jeff Sutherland, the co-creator of Scrum. We also dive into an adjacent topic: Team-building in organizations that double the employee count at least yearly, and we analyze some psychological issues that might interfere with the core of agility.
We then share ten compelling reasons why to stay out of meh work. Moreover, we reflect on the necessity of loving your customer’s problem, not your solution, and we embrace a comprehensive primer on how innovators can use the JTBD framework to create successful products.
Lastly, we appreciate a new academic paper on the effectiveness of Scrum teams.
Did you miss the previous Food for Agile Thought’s issue #294?
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Join more us on July 6, 2021, for the Hands-on Agile #32: How to Win with Agile Resistant Teams—Scott Weiner.
🏆 The Tip of the Week: Spotify Model Fallacy
and : Jeff Sutherland: Know How to Overcome Your Team's Limits and Become a Leading Force
In this podcast, Richard Kasperowski interviews Jeff Sutherland, the co-creator of Scrum.
➿ Agile & Scrum
(via Medium): Why it’s difficult to build teams in high growth organisations
Jason Yip delves into a critical topic: Team-building in organizations that double the employee count at least yearly.
(via InfoQ): Inspect & Adapt – Digging into Our Foundations of Agility
Sven Ihnken analyzes some psychological issues that might interfere with the core of agility.
(via Agile Alliance): From Pyramid to Communities: How a Pharma Company Reinvented Themselves Using Scrum
Sami Lilja, Jarkko Kailanto, Marita Saanila-Sotamaa report on a Scrum success story in a strictly regulated environment and with lengthy development cycles.
🎓 🖥 🇩🇪 Professional Scrum Master Training w/ PSM I Certificate — Live Virtual Class: June 15-18, 2021
Discover Scrum’s four success principles in this official Scrum.org Professional Scrum Master training class, leading to and including the industry-recognized PSM I certification. The training is designed as a live virtual class of four sessions from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm CEST and will be offered in German.
Learn more: 🖥 🇩🇪 Professional Scrum Master Training w/ PSM I Certificate — Live Virtual Class: June 15-18, 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
: The Mediocrity Trap
John Cutler shares ten compelling reasons why to stay out of meh work.
: Your Product is Not Their Problem
Steve Blank reflects on the necessity of loving your customer’s problem, not your solution.
(via Strategyn): The Official Jobs-to-be-Done Playbook
Strategyn shares a comprehensive primer on how innovators can use the JTBD framework to create successful products.
📯 The Oversized Product Backlog Problem — Making Your Scrum Work #11
There are plenty of failure possibilities with Scrum. Given that Scrum is a framework with a reasonable yet short “manual,” this effect should not surprise anyone. Neglecting the critical Scrum artifact for continuous value creation is one of the common Scrum anti-patterns. If your Scrum Team strives to make your customers’ lives easier Sprint after Sprint, beware of the oversized Product Backlog.
📺 Join me and explore the consequences of inadequate Product Backlog management in less than three minutes.
Learn more: The Oversized Product Backlog Problem — Making Your Scrum Work #11.
🛠 Tools & Measuring
: A Theory of Scrum Team Effectiveness
Christiaan Verwijs co-authored a new academic paper, available for free.
(via Precoil): How To Map Risk With A Mission Model Canvas
David J Bland demonstrates how to use Mission Model Canvas for the benefit of a mission-driven organization.
📅 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.
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📺 Join 2,900-plus Agile Peers on Youtube
Now available on the Age-of-Product Youtube channel:
- 🆕 Hands-on Agile #30: Making Your Scrum Work—The Product Backlog Forensic Analysis.
- 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.
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