TL; DR: Fulfilling Working Experiences, Sustainable Disruption — Food for Agile Thought #315
Welcome to the 315th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 33,364 peers. This week, we will learn how kindness, consideration, and respect can transform any team into a fulfilling working experience. We also look at using our current knowledge to nudge the post-pandemic world into a better place. Finally, for the sake of contrast, we also list six attributes of a dysfunctional corporate culture, from information hoarding to recreational complaining to high top performer turnover.
We then refer to Star Trek’s transporter tech to visualize software creation in an agile context. (Okay, it is about many backlog items turning into a releasable Increment.) Moreover, we delve into successful decision-making, pointing at drivers, constraints, and floats, and we propose a pivot for startups from technical diligence to product diligence before funding rounds and deliver a framework for the task.
Lastly, we analyze the evaporating illusion of long-term planning when you start using OKRs to target outcomes, and we summarize the whole story point thingy. (Maybe, some people will learn this time.)
Did you miss the previous Food for Agile Thought’s issue #314?
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🏆 The Tip of the Week
and : 🎙 Knowing When to Stop a Conversation Is Knowing When to Listen
Richard Kasperowski interviews Woody Zuill, who points at how kindness, consideration, and respect can transform any team into a fulfilling working experience.
➿ Agile & Scrum
: Signs Of A Toxic Company Culture
David Burkus lists six attributes of a dysfunctional corporate culture, from information hoarding to recreational complaining to high top performer turnover.
: Jira: Razor Blades?
Ron Jeffries considers Jira a tool that is “far easier to use badly than well: Jira is razor blades to babies.”
, and (via Agile Alliance): Sustainable Disruption, Where We Go From Here
Alistair Cockburn, Jutta Eckstein, and Gabrielle Benefield look at how we can use our current knowledge to nudge the post-pandemic world into a better place.
🎓 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 Professional Scrum Product Owner Training w/ PSPO Certificate — Online: November 2-5, 2021
Discover Scrum’s four success principles in this guaranteed official Scrum.org Professional Scrum Product Owner training class, leading to and including the industry-recognized PSPO I certification. The class will be offered in German.
Enjoy the benefits of an immersive class of four sessions with like-minded agile peers in the morning hours from 09:00 – 13:00 o’clock CEST.
Learn more: 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 Professional Scrum Product Owner Training w/ PSPO Certificate — Online: November 2-5, 2021.
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🎯 Product
: Keep actual effort and outcome visible – Help your organization focus on successful outcomes
Jeff Patton refers to Star Trek’s transporter tech to visualize software creation in an agile context. Okay, it is about many backlog items turning into a releasable Increment.
: The Secret to Initiative Success (D, LC, F, EC)
John Cutler delves into successful decision-making, pointing at drivers, constraints, and floats.
(via Mind The Product): Product Diligence: The New Technical Diligence
Drew Falkman proposes a pivot for startups from technical diligence to product diligence before funding rounds and delivers a framework for the task.
📯 My Top Ten Worst Scrum Anti-Patterns
I recently was invited to a Scrum.org webinar. I picked a topic close to my heart: the worst Scrum anti-patterns, from the ‘coders code’ fallacy to the hardening Sprint to micromanagement to the lack of a product vision.
Learn more: My Top Ten Worst Scrum Anti-Patterns.
🛠 Tools & Measuring
: Planning work with OKRs
Jeff Gothelf analyzes the evaporating illusion of long-term planning when you start using OKRs to target outcomes.
(via Contino Engineering): You Are Using Story Points Wrong: How to Make Story Points Suck Less
Chris Hart summarizes the whole story point thingy. Maybe, some people will learn this time.
📅 Scrum Training Classes, Workshops, and Events
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📺 Join 3,000-plus Agile Peers on Youtube
Now available on the Age-of-Product Youtube channel:
- 🆕 Agile Camp Berlin 2021: Adapt How You Lead for Agile Success with Johanna Rothman.
- 🆕 Agile Camp Berlin 2021: Linking Strategy to Everyday Work with John Cutler.
- Agile Camp Berlin 2021: Sustainable Agility at the Enterprise Level with Jorgen Hesselberg.
- Agile Camp Berlin 2021: How to Win with Agile Resistant Teams – A Case Study with Scott Weiner.
- Agile Camp Berlin 2021: Increasing the Velocity of Value with Dave West.
- Agile Camp Berlin 2021: Evidence-based Interventions with Viktor Cessan.
- Agile Camp Berlin 2021: Real Cross-functional Teams for Creating real and better Products with Jutta Eckstein and Maryse Meinen.
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