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.
Did you miss the previous Food for Agile Thought’s issue #317?
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📈 Free: Download the Agile Metrics Survey 2021.
🏆 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
(via Medium): Change Agent Leadership and Facilitation
Tom Connor shares an epic list of resources to further your change agent skills.
(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.
: 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
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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.
Mehr erfahren: 🖥 🇩🇪 Fortgeschrittenen Professional Scrum Master Online Schulung mit PSM II Zertifikat — 23. bis 26. November 2021.
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🎯 Product
(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.
and (via Produx Labs): 🎙 Episode 40: Identifying Patterns in Product
In this podcast, Melissa Perri interviews John Cutler on the importance of product education.
(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.
: 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.
Learn more: The Agile Metrics Survey 2021.
🛠 Tools & Measuring
and (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
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 3,000-plus Agile Peers on Youtube
Now available on the Age-of-Product Youtube channel:
- 🆕 Hands-on Agile #34: Core Protocols for Psychological Safety with Richard Kasperowski.
- 🆕 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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