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?
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🏆 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.
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🎯 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.
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📺 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.
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