TL; DR: Enabling Great Work, The Better Listener — Food for Agile Thought #326
Welcome to the 326th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 34,017 peers. This week, we point out the patterns enabling great work. We also reflect on the essential pre-requisite of a high-performing team: Team members ‘feel free to express their questions, concerns, ideas, and mistakes,’ and we suggest building our listening mindset to escape the ‘surface listening’ trap.
We then delve into the need to balance discovery & delivery while establishing strong ethics of testing business ideas and share an approach to creating an experimentation mindset when the target organization values structure and process. Moreover, we have an interesting look at the top-down world of product management, where the team is just executing what’s put in front of them.
Lastly, we explain why product roadmaps may be roads; however, they are no road maps, and we try a simple quiz to get the self-management discussion going: Where do we stand as a team?
Did you miss the previous Food for Agile Thought’s issue #325?
🗞 Shall I notify you about articles like this one? Awesome! You can sign up here for the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter and join 34,000-plus subscribers.
🎓 Join Stefan in one of his upcoming Professional Scrum training classes!
🏆 The Tip of the Week
: Shaping Patterns
Esther Derby points out the importance of “Clarity, Conditions, and Constraints” to build healthy environments enabling great work.
➿ Agile & Scrum
(via InfoQ): Creating Psychological Safety in Your Teams
Mehmet Baha reflects on the essential pre-requisite of a high-performing team: Team members ‘feel free to express their questions, concerns, ideas, and mistakes.’
(via Stanford Social Innovation): Fostering Self-Organization
David Ehrlichman shares an excerpt from his book ‘Impact Networks’ on ‘four key principles to realize the immense potential of collaborative and purpose-driven networks.’
(via First Round Capital): The Art of Becoming a Better Listener — Tactical Advice for the Startup Setting
Ximena Vengoechea suggests building our listening mindset to escape the ‘surface listening’ trap.
🎓 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 Professional Scrum Master Schulung mit PSM I Zertifikat — Online: 31.01. bis 01.02.2022
Entdecken Sie die vier Erfolgsprinzipien von Scrum mit dieser garantierten offiziellen Scrum.org Professional Scrum Master-Schulung, die zur branchenweit anerkannten PSM I-Zertifizierung führt und diese beinhaltet. Die Unterrichtssprache ist Deutsch.
Genießen Sie die Vorteile eines kompakten virtuellen Live-Kurses mit gleichgesinnten agilen Peers von 09:00 – 17:30 Uhr.
Erfahren Sie mehr: 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 Professional Scrum Master Schulung mit PSM I Zertifikat — Online: 31.01. bis 01.02.2022.
Kundenbewertung: “Great class. Probably the best training I ever attended. Extremely driven and productive class, with interactive exercises that challenge you to think in Agile manner. Keeps the focus on the point regardless of the remote session. Stefan for sure goes above and beyond to teach you how to be a real Scum master.” 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
and : 🎙 Test Business Ideas Ethically by Experimenting With, Not On, Customers
In this podcast, David Bland delves into the need to balance discovery & delivery while establishing strong ethics of testing business ideas.
: 📺 The Experimentation Mindset
In this episode of ‘That Change Show,’ Jason Little shares his approach to creating an experimentation mindset when the target organization values structure and process.
(via Mind The Product): Don’t let your first PRD be your last
Adam Darcy cites a new survey on how PMs feel writing product requirements documents—an interesting look at the top-down world of product management, where the team is just executing what’s put in front of them.
📯 Product Owner Interview Guide: The Product Mindset
If you are looking to fill a position for a Product Owner in your organization, you may find the following 82 interview questions useful to identify the right candidate. This 8th set of Product Owner interview questions addresses the product mindset.
The questions are derived from my sixteen years of practical experience with XP and Scrum, serving both as Product Owner and Scrum Master and interviewing dozens of Product Owner candidates on behalf of my clients. So far, this Product Owner interview guide has been downloaded more than 10,000 times.
Learn more: Product Owner Interview Guide: The Product Mindset?
🛠 Tools & Measuring
(via Corporate Rebels): Quiz: How Self-Managed Is Your Team?
Pim de Morree shares a simple test to get the discussion going: Where do we stand as a team?
: Your Roadmap Isn’t Really a Road Map
Itamar Gilad explains why product roadmaps may be roads; however, they are no road maps.
✂️ Cutting Room Floor
There are no entries in this category for this issue.
📅 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 #31: The Zones of Value Framework with Valerio Zanini & Zeina Zeitouni.
- 🆕 Hands-on Agile #35: Designing Powerful Questions to help you Coach & Create with Daniel Stillman.
- 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.
✋ Do Not Miss Out and Learn more about Enabling Great Work — Join the 11,000-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.
