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Food for Agile Thought #297: North Star Metric, Tech Debt Is any Opportunity, MBA Pathology in Product, Team Dynamics Explained

TL; DR: North Star Metric, Team Dynamics Explained—Food for Agile Thought #297

Welcome to the 297th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 31,817 peers. This week, we point at data and case studies, providing insights into how to narrow in on your organization’s North Star Metric. Also, we advocate that technical debt is rather a strategic lever for your organization’s success than a liability, and we analyze the invisible undercurrents that determine your team’s culture.

We then continue reading Marty Cagan’s pathology series with a deep dive into the well-known problems with MBA programs. Moreover, we share six common product discovery anti-patterns and what you can do about them, and we introduce fundamental principles behind designing and maintaining a product roadmap tailored to the needs of agile teams.

Lastly, we enjoy listening to Richard Kasperowski and Seb Rose talking about how to help create a good team with less seasoned professionals.

Did you miss the previous Food for Agile Thought’s issue #296?

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🎓 Join Stefan in one of his upcoming Professional Scrum training classes!

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: Rebels Spark Ideas

Lenny Rachitsky (via Andreessen Horowitz): Choosing Your North Star Metric

Lenny Rachitsky points at data and case studies, providing insights into how to narrow in on your organization’s North Star Metric.

➿ Agile & Scrum

Matt Greenberg and Keya Patel (via Reforge): Tech debt is not a burden, it's a strategic lever for success

Matt Greenberg and Keya Patel advocate that technical debt is rather a strategic lever for your organization's success than a liability.

James Shore and Diana Larsen: Team Dynamics

In this excerpt of the upcoming new edition from James Shore’s book, Diana Larsen analyzes the invisible undercurrents that determine your team’s culture.

Richard Kasperowski and Seb Rose: 🎙 The Secret of a Good Team is a Shared Goal and What Else?

In this pod, Richard Kasperowski and Seb Rose talk about how to help create a good team with less seasoned professionals.

🎓 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 Professional Scrum Product Owner Training w/ PSPO Certificate — Online: July 6-9, 2021

Discover Scrum’s four success principles in this official Scrum.org guaranteed Professional Scrum Product Owner training class, leading to and including the industry-recognized PSPO I certification. The training is designed as a live virtual class of 4 hours per day from 9 am to 1 pm CEST. The class will be offered in German.

Learn more: 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 Professional Scrum Product Owner Training w/ PSPO Certificate — Online: July 6-9, 2021.

Kundenstimmen: “Stefan’s class was outstanding. Not only is Stefan an extremely knowledgable and experienced Scrum expert but also a very calm and nice instructor with very competent use of tools for remote learning. Additionally, we had a very focused and determined group of people attending this online course. If I ever consider doing another Scrum-related course, it will surely be with Stefan.”” (Link.)

👉 From time to time, we can offer last-minute seats for training classes at cost to individuals who do not have access to a corporate training budget. If you like to be notified about these opportunities, please register here.

🎯 Product

Marty Cagan: The MBA Pathology

Marty Cagan continues his pathology series with a deep dive into the well-known problems with MBA programs.

Imogen Johnson (via Mind The Product): Common product discovery pitfalls and how to avoid them

Imogen Johnson shares six common product discovery anti-patterns and what you can do about them.

(via productboard): 📖 The role of product ops in successful distributed teams

Hubert Palan and Sameer Karim provide the results of a recent survey on how teams have embraced the ProductOps concept during the last year.

📯 Three Common Developer Blunders in 5:05 Minutes—Making Your Scrum Work #14

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. While it is common to first look outside our team for impediments, such as dysfunctional processes or other systemic issues, I would advise starting with the Scrum team’s way of collaboration: Are we aligned on the why, what, and how? Otherwise, the three following Developer blunders may diminish the team effectiveness.

📺 Join me and explore the consequences of these Scrum Developer blunders and what you can do about them in a little more than five minutes.

Update: I am running a poll on LinkedIn—join the voting: “What common ways have you observed how Developers diminish the value creation of their own work?”

Learn more: Three Common Developer Blunders in 5:05 Minutes—Making Your Scrum Work #14.

🛠 Tools & Measuring

Jerome Kehrli: A proposed framework for Agile Roadmap Design and Maintenance

Jerome Kehrli introduces fundamental principles behind designing and maintaining a product roadmap tailored to the needs of agile teams.

📅 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
🖥 🇩🇪 January 28-31, 2025 Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1,299 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Feburary 4-6, 2025 GUARANTEED: Hands-on Agile 2025: From Concept-Based to Context-Based Agility (English) Live Virtual Conference FREE
🖥 🇬🇧 February 12-13, 2025 Professional Scrum Master Advanced Training (PSM II; English; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1,299 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 February 27, 2025 GUARANTEED: Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Class (PSFS; English; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €749 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 March 6-April3, 2025 GUARANTEED: Align, Discover, Deliver: The Product Backlog Management Cohort Class (English; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Cohort €499 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 🇩🇪 March 11-12, 2025 Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1,299 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 🇬🇧 March 26-27, 2025 Professional Scrum Master Advanced Training (PSM II; English; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1,299 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 🇩🇪 April 10, 2025 Professional Product Discovery and Validation Class (PPDV; German; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €749 incl. 19% VAT

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 2,900-plus Agile Peers on Youtube

Now available on the Age-of-Product Youtube channel:

✋ Do Not Miss Out and Learn more about the North Star Metric — Join the 10,000-plus Strong ‘Hands-on Agile’ Slack Community

I invite you to join the “Hands-on Agile” Slack Community and enjoy the benefits of a fast-growing, vibrant community of agile practitioners from around the world.

If you like to join all you have to do now is provide your credentials via this Google form, and I will sign you up. By the way, it’s free.

🗞️ Last Week’s Food for Agile Thought Edition

Read more: Food for Agile Thought #296: Rebels Spark Ideas, Agile Rituals for Hyper-Growth, CSPO Pathology, Collaborative Product Decisions.

Categories: News
Stefan Wolpers: Stefan, based near Hamburg, Germany, has worked for 18-plus years as a Product Manager, Product Owner, Agile Coach, and Scrum Master. He is a Professional Scrum Trainer (PST) with Scrum.org and the author of Pearson’s “Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide.” He has developed B2C as well as B2B software, for startups as well as corporations, including a former Google subsidiary. Stefan curates the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter and organizes the Hands-on Agile Conference, a Barcamp for agile practitioners.
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