TL; DR: How Minds Change, Think Big & Work Small — Food for Agile Thought #360
Welcome to the 360th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 35,907 peers. This week, we have a fantastic interview with David McRaney on how minds change, rationalization, and belief. (If you are coaching other people, you should listen.) Also, we learn how teams can “experiment and learn, develop new markets, [and] outmaneuver the competition,” and we reflect on who may likely get ahead when encountering an impediment. Switching perspectives, we delve into the “best way to kill a grassroots movement at your company” and how to help it flourish instead.
Then, we point to the necessary “changes to how the product teams need to interact with customers” when an organization abandons a sales-driven approach, and Roman Pichler details his product model, from product vision to Product Backlog, including four artifacts and two templates. Moreover, we reflect on the perils of Think Small and Work Big, Think Big, Work Big, and Think Small, Work Small, and link mental models to building products, from Parkinson’s Law of Triviality to Conway’s Law to the Pareto Principle.
Finally, Mike Cohn shares a free assessment tool for your team’s mastery of 20 essential elements of a successful transformation. Also, we advocate using anti-personas to “help anticipate how products can be misused in ways that can harm users and the business.” Lastly, Phil Mistry tells the incredible story of an invention ahead of its time in a classic case of an innovator’s dilemma: How Steve Sasson invented Kodak’s digital camera!
Did you miss the previous Food for Agile Thought’s issue 359?
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🏆 The Tip of the Week: How Minds Change
and (via Econlib): 🎙 David McRaney on How Minds Change
Russ Roberts interviews David McRaney on the psychology of change, rationalization, and belief.
➿ Agile & Scrum
and : 📺 Optimizing Outcomes
James Shore, Mary Poppendieck, and Tom Poppendieck discuss how teams can “experiment and learn, develop new markets, [and] outmaneuver the competition.”
: Drivers vs. Fixers
John Cutler reflects on who may likely get ahead when encountering an impediment—drivers or fixers—and why we need a balance between both.
: Grassroots movements at work: How management interventions affect agency
Viktor Cessan delves into the “best way to kill a grassroots movement at your company” and how to help it flourish instead.
🎓 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Professional Scrum Master Training w/ PSM I Certificate — Live Virtual Class: October 4-5, 2022
Discover Scrum’s four success principles in this guaranteed official Scrum.org Professional Scrum Master training class, leading to and including the industry-recognized PSM I certification. The training will be offered in English.
Learn more: 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Professional Scrum Master Training w/ PSM I Certificate — Live Virtual Class: October 4-5, 2022.
“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.”
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🎯 Product
(via Silicon Valley Product Group): Pledge To Customers
Marty Cagan points to the necessary “changes to how the product teams need to interact with customers” when an organization abandons a sales-driven approach.
: My Product Strategy Model
Roman Pichler details his model, from product vision to Product Backlog, including four artifacts and two templates.
(via Medium): Guiding principle: Think Big, Work Small
Jason Yip reflects on the perils of Think Small and Work Big, Think Big, Work Big, and Think Small, Work Small.
(via Simple Thread): Applying Mental Models to Building Digital Products
Brian Bassett links mental models to building products, from Parkinson’s Law of Triviality to Conway’s Law to the Pareto Principle.
📯 The Product Backlog: 14 First Principles to Help Your Scrum Team Succeed
Contrary to popular belief, the Product Owner does not have dictatorial powers regarding the composition and order of the Product Backlog. Instead, Scrum as a framework is based on a delicate system of checks and balances, collaboration, and joint decision-making to mitigate risk; for example, the Product Owner falling in love with their solution over the problem of the customers. Learn more about critical Product Backlog principles, from the size and growth of the Product Backlog to whether a Product Backlog is necessary in the first place. (Some lean practitioners dispute its existence is justified.)
Read now: The Product Backlog: 14 First Principles to Help Your Scrum Team Succeed.
🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring
: Elements of Agile: An Agile Assessment Tool for Iterative Improvements
Mike Cohn shares a free assessment tool for your team’s mastery of 20 essential elements of a successful transformation.
: Dealing with Top-Down Projects
Itamar Gilad suggests using the GIST framework—Goals, Ideas, Steps, Tasks—next time a manager imposes an output goal.
: The Truth Curve
Jeff Gothelf utilizes a simple visualization technique to determine where and when to spend on experimentation.
(via Nielsen Norman Group): Antipersonas: What, How, Who, and Why?
Sara Ramaswamy advocates using anti-personas to “help anticipate how products can be misused in ways that can harm users and the business.”
🎶 Encore
(via PetaPixel): How Steve Sasson Invented the Digital Camera
Phil Mistry tells the incredible story of an invention ahead of its time in a classic case of an innovator’s dilemma.
📅 Scrum Training & Event Schedule
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📺 Join 4,000-plus Agile Peers on Youtube
Now available on the Age-of-Product Youtube channel to improve learning, for example, about UX & Engineering:
- 🆕 Hands-on Agile 43: Outcome-Based Product Planning with Jeff Gothelf.
- Hands-on Agile 42: Lean Roadmapping and OKRs with Janna Bastow.
- Hands-on Agile 40: The Best Team Ever with David Burkus.
- Hands-on Agile 38: The Product Owner with Roman Pichler.
- Agile Camp Berlin 2021: The Power and Pains of Autonomy with Jimmy Janlén.
- 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.
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