Food for Agile Thought #295: Overcoming Team Limits, Pharma Success Story w/ Scrum, The Mediocrity Trap, Your Product is Not Their Problem

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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🏆 The Tip of the Week: Spotify Model Fallacy

Richard Kasperowski and Jeff Sutherland: 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.

Source: Jeff Sutherland: Know How to Overcome Your Team's Limits and Become a Leading Force

Authors: Richard Kasperowski and Jeff Sutherland

➿ Agile & Scrum

Jason Yip (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.

Source: Medium: Why it’s difficult to build teams in high growth organisations

Author: Jason Yip

(via InfoQ): Inspect & Adapt – Digging into Our Foundations of Agility

Sven Ihnken analyzes some psychological issues that might interfere with the core of agility.

Source: InfoQ: Inspect & Adapt – Digging into Our Foundations 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.

Source: Agile Alliance: From Pyramid to Communities: How a Pharma Company Reinvented Themselves Using Scrum

🎓 🖥 🇩🇪 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

John Cutler: The Mediocrity Trap

John Cutler shares ten compelling reasons why to stay out of meh work.

Source: The Mediocrity Trap

Author: John Cutler

Steve Blank: Your Product is Not Their Problem

Steve Blank reflects on the necessity of loving your customer’s problem, not your solution.

Source: Your Product is Not Their Problem

Author: Steve Blank

(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.

Source: Strategyn: The Official Jobs-to-be-Done Playbook

📯 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

Christiaan Verwijs: A Theory of Scrum Team Effectiveness

Christiaan Verwijs co-authored a new academic paper, available for free.

Source: A Theory of Scrum Team Effectiveness

Author: Christiaan Verwijs

David J Bland (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.

Source: Precoil: How To Map Risk With A Mission Model Canvas

Author: David J Bland

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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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🗞️ Last Week’s Food for Agile Thought Edition

Read more: Food for Agile Thought #294: The Spotify Model Fallacy, Pirates & Leadership, Building Stuff to Close Deals, Scheduling Innovation?.