Food for Agile Thought #349: 4 Deadly Sins of Work Culture, Right-Sizing Your Stories, Engineering Culture at Uber, Little Scrum Islands

TL; DR: Engineering Culture, Little Scrum Islands — Food for Agile Thought #349

Welcome to the 349th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 35,462 peers. This week, we share the impact of a 2014 change in engineering culture at Uber by ‘creating cross-functional program teams and introducing platform teams.’ Moreover, we reflect on why your little, happy Scrum island isn’t enough to achieve business agility, and we combine two powerful coaching tools for agile practitioners to learn from each other. Also, Adam Grant interviews Jenny Chatman on the effects of toxicity, mediocracy, bureaucracy, and anarchy.

Then, we detail how to address the leadership’s need for more predictability by ‘right-sizing’ work items to one- or two-day stories; we delve into the details of product-centric companies, and we listen to Lenny Rachitsky interviewing Teresa Torres on ‘automating continuous discovery, the opportunity solution tree framework, making a case for user research, [and] common interviewing mistakes.’

Finally, we refer to the many advantages of using our own products internally, pointing to examples from Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft. Also, we explain how the ‘5 Whys’ practice works and its benefits, and we enjoy a hearty laugh when Yuri Malishenko applies the IKEA metaphor to Scrum.

Food for Agile Thought #349: 4 Deadly Sins of Work Culture, Right-Sizing Your Stories, Engineering Culture at Uber, Little Scrum Islands — Age-of-Product.com

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🏆 The Tip of the Week: Engineering Culture at Uber

Gergely Orosz: The Platform and Program Split at Uber

Gergely Orosz shares the impact of a 2014 change in engineering culture at Uber by ‘creating cross-functional program teams and introducing platform teams.’

➿ Agile & Scrum

(via Leading Agile): Why an Agile Delivery Model Isn’t Always Enough

Leading Agile reflects on why your little, happy Scrum island isn’t enough to achieve business agility.

(via Agile Alliance): Uncover the unknown with Gemba Troika Consulting

Jakob Schmidt Soerensen, Bo Bjerregaard, and Maryanne Kmit share lessons learned on how to help Scrum Masters learn from each other by combining two powerful coaching tools.

Adam Grant (via TED Talks): 🎙 The 4 Deadly Sins of Work Culture

Adam Grant interviews Jenny Chatman on the effects of toxicity, mediocracy, bureaucracy, and anarchy.

🎓 🖥 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training w/ PSM II Certificate — September 6-9, 2022

Discover Scrum’s four success principles in this official Scrum.org Advanced Scrum Master training class including the industry-recognized PSM II certification. The PSM II training class is designed as a live virtual class and will be offered in English.

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.

🎓 🖥 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training w/ PSM II Certificate — September 6-9, 2022 — Berlin Product People GmbH

Learn more: 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training w/ PSM II Certificate — September 6-9, 2022.

“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

Johanna Rothman: How to Right-Size Your Stories for Better Predictability

Johanna Rothman details how to address the leadership’s need for more predictability by ‘right-sizing’ work items to one- or two-day stories.

Lenny Rachitsky and Teresa Torres: 🎙 Teresa Torres on how to interview customers […]

Lenny Rachitsky interviews Teresa Torres on ‘automating continuous discovery, the opportunity solution tree framework, making a case for user research, [and] common interviewing mistakes.’

Ant Murphy (via Medium): 📺 What Product-Led Companies Look Like

Ant Murphy delves into the details of product-centric companies.

📈 Join the Product Owner and Product Manager Salary Report 2022 — Let Us Create Transparency

The purpose of this anonymous Product Owner and Product Manager salary report is to create a clear, data-backed benchmark that allows everyone in the agile community to understand whether their compensation is adequate. (And yes, the report will cover Product Owners as well as Product Managers, both employed and freelancing. Obviously, a successful Product Owner is an agile Product Manager at heart.)

The goal is to have a sufficient number of replies – that would be at least 500 – by the end of September 2022 to create the report in time for November 2022. Of course, the report will be available for free.

Product Owner and Product Manager Salary Report 2022 — Age-of-Product.com

Join now: Join the Anonymous Poll for the Upcoming Free ‘Product Owner and Product Manager Salary Report 2022’.

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

Zevi Reinitz (via DZone): Why You Should Be Obsessed With Dogfooding

Zevi Reinitz refers to the many advantages of using your own products internally, pointing to examples from Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft.

Jason Yip (via Medium): Some thoughts on ‘5 Whys’

Jason Yip explains how the practice works and what its benefits are.

✂️ Cutting Room Floor

Yuri Malishenko: 😂 If Scrum framework was a piece of furniture that an organization attempted

Yuri Malishenko applies the IKEA metaphor to Scrum.


📅 Scrum Training & Event Schedule

You can secure your seat for Scrum training classes, workshops, and meetups directly by following the corresponding link in the table below:

Date Class and Language City Price
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 April 2-30, 2024 GUARANTEED: Product Backlog Management Cohort Class (English; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €499 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 April 9, 2024 GUARANTEED: Hands-on Agile #60: A Q&A on Dynamic Reteaming with Heidi Helfand (English) Live Virtual Meetup FREE
🖥 💯 🇩🇪 April 10-11, 2024 GUARANTEED: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1,299 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 April 23-24, 2024 GUARANTEED: Professional Scrum Master (Advanced) Training (PSM II; English; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1,299 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 May 7, 2024 GUARANTEED: Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Training (PSFS; English; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €749 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 May 7, 2024 GUARANTEED: Hands-on Agile #61: Toyota Kata Coaching for Agile Teams & Transformations with Fortune Buchholtz (English) Live Virtual Meetup FREE
🖥 🇩🇪 May 14-15, 2024 Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1,299 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 🇬🇧 May 28-29, 2024 Professional Scrum Master (Advanced) Training (PSM II; English; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1,189 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 June 6, 2024 GUARANTEED: Hands-on Agile #62: From Backlog Manager to Product Manager: From Outputs to Outcomes w/ David Pereira (English) Live Virtual Meetup FREE
🖥 🇩🇪 June 25-26, 2024 Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1,299 incl. 19% VAT

See all upcoming classes here.

Professional Scrum Trainer Stefan Wolpers

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.

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Download the free Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide by PST Stefan Wolpers — 160 ways to improve as a Scrum Team — Age-of-Product.com

🗞️ Last Week’s Food for Agile Thought Edition

Read more: Food for Agile Thought 348: Ditching Spotify for Scrum, New Product Strategy Framework, Coaching Ain’t a Panacea, Predictability & Options.

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