Food for Agile Thought #318: Kodak’s Shirley Cards, Prediction & Uncertainty in Product, Change Agent Leadership, Dark Side of Metrics

TL; DR: Kodak’s Shirley Cards, Dark Side of Metrics — Food for Agile Thought #318

Welcome to the 318th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 33,565 peers. This week, we tell the story of a lack of diversity and its consequences for humanity, photography, and product design: Kodak’s Shirley Cards. Also, we share a long list of improv games to support team building and help prevent burnout and fatigue, and we point at five possible values you could provide when asked for an estimate, from optimistic to risk-averse to worst-case estimates.

We then ask whether uncertainty might establish a better foundation for product discovery and product design, and we listen to Melissa Perri interviewing John Cutler on the importance of product education. Moreover, we advocate thinking of ‘time as a blade, a tool that can sharpen focus and trim waste,’ detailing Honeycomb’s approach to planning, and we reflect on how to overcome the annual planning waste while pointing at the reasons continuous planning fails in practice.

Lastly, we name the dark side of metrics: Companies expose themselves to metric corruption when optimizing those at the cost of all else, and we share an epic list of resources to further your change agent skills.

Food for Agile Thought #318: Kodak’s Shirley Cards, Prediction & Uncertainty in Product, Change Agent Leadership, Dark Side of Metrics — Age-of-Product.com

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Agile Metrics Survey 2021 — Free Download — Age-of-Product.com

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🏆 The Tip of the Week

(via 99% Invisible): 🎙 Shirley Cards

In this episode, Kai McNamee tells the story of a lack of diversity at Kodak and its consequences for humanity, photography, and product design.

➿ Agile & Scrum

Tom Connor (via Medium): Change Agent Leadership and Facilitation​

Tom Connor shares an epic list of resources to further your change agent skills.

James Smart (via SessionLab): 22 great improv games for better collaboration (and fun!)

James Smart curated a long list of improv games to support team building and help prevent burnout and fatigue.

Mike Cohn: The Five Possible Estimates and Which One Your Team Should Use (Free Video Training)

Mike Cohn points at five possible values you could provide when asked for an estimate, from optimistic to risk-averse to worst-case estimates.

🎓 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 Fortgeschrittenen Professional Scrum Master Online Schulung mit PSM II Zertifikat — 23. bis 26. November 2021

Entdecken Sie die vier Erfolgsprinzipien von Scrum mit dieser offiziellen Scrum.org Fortgeschrittenen Professional Scrum Master-Schulung, welche die branchenweit anerkannten PSM II-Zertifizierung beinhaltet.

Genießen Sie die Vorteile eines intensiven virtuellen Live-Kurses über vier Sessions mit gleichgesinnten agilen Peers in den Morgenstunden von 09:00 – 13:00 Uhr. Die Unterrichtssprache ist Deutsch.

🖥 Fortgeschrittenen Professional Scrum Master Online Schulung mit PSM II Zertifikat — 23. bis 26. November 2021 — Berlin Product People GmbH

Mehr erfahren: 🖥 🇩🇪 Fortgeschrittenen Professional Scrum Master Online Schulung mit PSM II Zertifikat — 23. bis 26. November 2021.

Kundenstimmen: “Very hands-on class with lots of concrete takeaways to help in real world scenarios. Reinforced practices and highlighted things that helped in passing the PSM II exam but that was merely a bonus as the content of the class is so useful – certifications or not. Stefan Wolpers is an excellent trainer with broad practical and theoretical knowledge on the subject and his classes seem to have very good working atmosphere (this was a second class by him that I have taken).” (Link.)

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🎯 Product

Heli Rantavuo (via epicpeople): Facing the Future in Product Development: Prediction and Uncertainty in Decision Making

Heli Rantavuo asks whether uncertainty might establish a better foundation for product discovery and product design.

Melissa Perri and John Cutler (via Produx Labs): 🎙 Episode 40: Identifying Patterns in Product

In this podcast, Melissa Perri interviews John Cutler on the importance of product education.

Megan Gleason (via Honeycomb): Cut Out Time Estimates on Roadmaps: Get Into a Product Delivery Rhythm

Megan Gleason advocates thinking of ‘time as a blade, a tool that can sharpen focus and trim waste,’ detailing Honeycomb’s approach to planning.

John Cutler: Annual Planning (Wicked Problem)

John Cutler reflects on how to overcome the annual planning waste while pointing at the reasons continuous planning fails in practice.

📯 The Agile Metrics Survey 2021

If you value agile practices, it is crucial to know if a job offering or a prospective business partner that claims to be “agile” really keeps its promises. Unfortunately, as agility usually cannot be observed directly, and certainly not from the outside of an organization, there is no way of knowing in advance if you will enter an agile environment that serves your own working needs or if a lot of frustration lies ahead of you.

Therefore, we ran an extensive survey throughout 2020 and 2021 with more than 1,000 participants from all walks of agility: the Agile Metrics Survey 2021.

With the Agile Metrics Survey 2021, we present the first results and conclude with some thoughts about possible application scenarios of our instrument as well as possible next steps in our research.

Agile Metrics Survey 2021 — Berlin Product People GmbH

Learn more: The Agile Metrics Survey 2021.

🛠 Tools & Measuring

Kate Moran and Page Laubheimer (via Nielsen Norman Group): Campbell’s Law: The Dark Side of Metric Fixation

Kate Moran and Page Laubheimer point at the dark side of metrics: Companies expose themselves to metric corruption when optimizing those at the cost of all else.

📅 Scrum Training Classes, Workshops, and Events

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🖥 💯 🇩🇪 April 20-21, 2022 GUARANTEED: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1.189 incl. 19% VAT
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🖥 💯 🇬🇧 May 9-10, 2022 Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; English; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1.189 incl. 19% VAT
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🖥 🇬🇧 May 31-June 1, 2022 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training (PSM II; English; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1.189 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 🇩🇪 June 7-10, 2022 Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM I; German; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1.189 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 🇬🇧 June 20-23, 2022 Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM I; English; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1.189 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 🇩🇪 June 28-July 1, 2022 Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1.189 incl. 19% VAT

See all upcoming classes here.

Professional Scrum Trainer Stefan Wolpers

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🗞️ Last Week’s Food for Agile Thought Edition

Read more: Food for Agile Thought #317: Underperforming Dev Team, PO vs. PM Madness, Failure Cultures Reward Failure, 2022 Product Conference List.

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