Food for Agile Thought #373: ChatGPT and Disruption, Stakeholder Management, The Value of Agile Coaching, The Product Strategy Document

TL; DR: ChatGPT and Disruption, The Value of Agile Coaching — Food for Agile Thought #373

Welcome to the 373rd edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 36,412 peers. This week, we suggest how AI, in general, and ChatGPT and its successors, in particular, may disrupt our current world. Additionally, we delve into how agile coaches can communicate the benefits of their work to organizations, suggesting the NABC value proposition scheme. Plus, we point to the many benefits of cognitive diversity to avoid blind spots and adapt to changing environments. Also, Adam Grant interviews John and Julie Gottman, renowned researchers of marital relationships, on how to play the infinite game. We can apply many of their findings to creating trust and rapport professionally.

Then, we share a comprehensive guide to a critical artifact, the product strategy document, covering the dos & don’ts, what it needs to cover, and its subsequent inspection and adaptation. Moreover, we share “how to use the product discovery loop to build high-growth products” while discussing all things stakeholder management, from its general benefits to the nitty-gritty details of creating alignment. By the way, an excellent tool to create alignment is the Product Goal Canvas; see below.

Finally, we detail how to apply a hugely valuable flow metric to your work and point to the all-so-human flaw of falling for vanity metrics to measure “success” when it is all about solving problems and building relationships. Lastly, we try to answer a compelling question: Is ChatGPT a game-changer? And if so, from whom?

I hope you have a fantastic season filled with joy and happiness. Whether you’re celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or something else, I hope the season brings you good cheer and lots of time to spend with the people you love.

This edition will be the last for 2022; Food for Agile Thought will be back on January 8, 2023. ​

Food for Agile Thought #373: ChatGPT and Disruption, Stakeholder Management, The Value of Agile Coaching, The Product Strategy Document — Age-of-Product.com

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🏆 The Tip of the Week: ChatGPT

(via Harvard Business Review): ChatGPT and How AI Disrupts Industries

Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, and Avi Goldfarb suggest how AI, in general, and ChatGPT and its successors, in particular, may disrupt our current world.

When technology enables more people to complete a task, with help from a machine, the result is typically entirely new systems with new business models and jobs and workflows. AI will be no different: To truly unlock the potential of ChatGPT, the world will need new and different kinds of organizations.

➿ Agile & Scrum

Hendrik Esser, Eric Abelen and Jutta Eckstein (via Agile Alliance): What’s the value proposition of coaches?

Hendrik Esser, Jutta Eckstein, and Eric Abelen delve into how agile coaches can communicate the benefits of their work to organizations, suggesting the NABC value proposition scheme.

Somehow it seems hard to argue and prove the value coaches bring to the organization. Not every business intervention has a direct spreadsheet monetary growth result. We realize that in this article, we will not be able to convince core spreadsheet management thinking. Yet, we hope that we might provide some useful approach to people that have to deal with this attitude.

(via Farnam Street): The Stormtrooper Problem: Why Thought Diversity Makes Us Better

Farnam Street points to the many benefits of cognitive diversity to avoid blind spots and adapt to changing environments.

Adam Grant: 🎙 The Science of Healthy Relationships

In this podcast, Adam Grant interviews John and Julie Gottman, renowned researchers of marital relationships, on how to play the infinite game. We can apply many of their findings to creating trust and rapport professionally.

🎓 🖥 🇺🇸 Professional Scrum Product Owner Training w/ PSPO I Certificate — January 23-26, 2023

Discover Scrum’s four success principles in this official Scrum.org Professional Scrum Product Owner training class including the industry-recognized PSPO I certification. This PSPO I training class is designed as a live virtual class and will be offered in English.

Enjoy the benefits of a live immersive class with like-minded agile peers in the morning hours from 9 am – 1 pm EST.

Professional Scrum Product Owner Training w/ PSPO I Certificate — January 23-26, 2023 — Berlin Product People GmbH

Learn more: 🖥 🇺🇸 Professional Scrum Product Owner Training w/ PSPO I Certificate — January 23-26, 2023.

“This class was extremely engaging and collaborative. The amount of information conveyed was immense and all of it relative to the work I do on a day to day basis. I highly recommend this class to Product Owners of any level.”

(Link.)

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🎯 Product

Janna Bastow (via ProdPad): Product Strategy Document: What it Should and Should Not Be

Janna Bastow shares a comprehensive guide to a critical artifact, the product strategy document, covering the dos & don’ts, what it needs to cover, and its subsequent inspection and adaptation.

Holly Hester-Reilly (via Medium): How to Use the Product Discovery Loop to Find Product-Market Fit

Holly Hester-Reilly shares “how to use the product discovery loop to build high-growth products.” She covers the ark from identifying the first product-market fit to iterating from that step-by-step for sustained product success.

Bruce McCarthy and Chad McAllister: 🎙 Stakeholder Management for Product Leaders

Bruce McCarthy and Chad McAllister discuss all things stakeholder management, from its general benefits to the nitty-gritty details of creating alignment.

Jason Knight and Saeed Khan: 🎙 The Five Dysfunctions of Product Management Teams

In this pod, Jason Knight and Saeed Khan discuss how many organizations seem to share a common set of dysfunctions and how to address them.

📯 Your Unfit Product Goal and the Product Goal Canvas — Making Your Scrum Work (28)

We plan a lot in Scrum: There is a daily plan when the Developers think about progressing toward the Sprint Goal during the Daily Scrum. Of course, the Sprint Goal reflects an intermediate target the Scrum team considers valuable to solve their customers’ problems. Moreover, there is the Product Goal, a mid- or long-term objective of the Scrum team.

The problem is that when Scrum teams already struggle with embracing the concept of the Sprint Goal—first, you agree on the objective of the Sprint, then you pick the work you consider necessary to accomplish it—they most likely also struggle with proper Product Goals.

Let’s check three critical issues Scrum teams have with Product Goals and a practical tool that helps you avoid the mess.

Your Unfit Product Goal and the Product Goal Canvas — Making Your Scrum Work (28) — Age-of-Product.com

👉 Learn more: Your Unfit Product Goal and the Product Goal Canvas — Making Your Scrum Work (28).

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

(via Medium): Using Kanban practices within Scrum — Work Item Ageing

Stephen Waring details how to apply a hugely valuable flow metric to your work.

Arvid Kahl: Avoid Vanity Metrics

Arvid Kahl points to the all-so-human flaw of falling for vanity metrics to measure “success” when it is all about solving problems and building relationships.

🎶 Encore: ChatGPT, Part 2

Des Traynor and Fergal Reid (via Intercom): 📺 How ChatGPT changed everything

In this video, Des Traynor and Fergal Reid try to answer a compelling question: Is ChatGPT a game-changer? And if so, from whom?


📅 Scrum Training & Event Schedule

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Date Class and Language City Price
🖥 🇩🇪 January 28-31, 2025 Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1,299 incl. 19% VAT
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🖥 🇬🇧 February 12-13, 2025 Professional Scrum Master Advanced Training (PSM II; English; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1,299 incl. 19% VAT
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🖥 💯 🇬🇧 March 6-April3, 2025 GUARANTEED: Align, Discover, Deliver: The Product Backlog Management Cohort Class (English; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Cohort €499 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 🇩🇪 March 11-12, 2025 Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1,299 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 🇬🇧 March 26-27, 2025 Professional Scrum Master Advanced Training (PSM II; English; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1,299 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 🇩🇪 April 10, 2025 Professional Product Discovery and Validation Class (PPDV; German; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €749 incl. 19% VAT

See all upcoming classes here.

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✋ Do Not Miss Out and Learn more about ChatGPT — Join the 12,000-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.

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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.

Help your team to tackle ChatGPT by pointing them to the free Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide:

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 #372: State of Agile Report 2022, Annual Planning in Uncertain Times, ChatGPT on Agile and Scrum, The Art and Science of Pricing.

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