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.
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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
and (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.
: 🎙 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.
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.”
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🎯 Product
(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.
(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.
and : 🎙 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.
and : 🎙 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.
👉 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.
: 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
and (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?
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- 🆕 Hands-on Agile 46: The Agile Fluency Model ® with Diana Larsen.
- 🆕 Hands-on Agile 45: FAST: An Innovative Way to Scale with James Shore.
- Hands-on Agile 44: Honey, I Shrunk the Backlog with Allan Kelly.
- 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 38: The Product Owner with Roman Pichler.
✋ Do Not Miss Out and Learn more about ChatGPT — Join the 12,000-plus Strong ‘Hands-on Agile’ Slack Community
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Help your team to tackle ChatGPT by pointing them to the free Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide: