TL; DR: Product Team Performance — Food for Agile Thought #376
Welcome to the 376th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 36,564 peers. This week, we listen to our two product heavyweights, Lenny Rachitsky and John Cutler, delving into the performance of product teams. We continue with suggesting abandoning the popular framing that Waterfall is the opposite of Agile and that moving from one to the other requires a transformation, and identify four roles, at least one which you will play in a moment of injustice: person harmed, upstander, the person who caused harm, or leader. Moreover, we learn how a major Toyota program was saved by descaling and applying Scrum.
Then, we enjoy Marty Cagan sharing his approach to how teams and companies “can best deal with the challenges of complexity.” Also, we explore “three popular models for product teams,” and point to stakeholder alignment factors, from not trapping yourself to not confusing roadmaps with release plans to treating stakeholders as customers. Moreover, the ProdPad folks compiled a comprehensive list of questions your team may engage in identifying what is worth building.
Finally, Petra Wille shares the first findings from her 2022 survey into what drives thriving communities of practices for product people. Next, JTBD Toolkit released the JTBD Canvas 2.0, and there are new ChatGPT prompts for Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and Developers. Lastly, Tami Reiss has a candid conversation with Rich Mironov on product ethics and the corresponding responsibilities of product managers and leaders.
Did you miss the previous Food for Agile Thought’s issue 375?
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🏆 The Tip of the Week: Product Team Performance
and : 🎙 What differentiates the highest-performing product teams
Our two product heavyweights, Lenny Rachitsky and John Cutler delve into the performance of product teams.
➿ Agile & Scrum
: Agile vs. Waterfall (And Other Obfuscation)
Charles Lambdin suggests abandoning the popular framing that Waterfall is the opposite of Agile and that moving from one to the other requires a transformation.
(via Radical Candor): Injustice At Work: 4 Effective Ways To Respond
Kim Scott identifies four roles, at least one which you will play in a moment of injustice: person harmed, upstander, the person who caused harm, or leader.
: How Scrum Rescued a Major Toyota Program
Nigel Thurlow shares how a major Toyota program was saved by descaling and applying Scrum.
🎓 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Professional Scrum Master Training w/ PSM I Certificate — Live Virtual Class: February 7-10, 2023
Discover Scrum’s four success principles in this guaranteed official Scrum.org Professional Scrum Master training class including the industry-recognized PSM I certification. This PSM 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 CET.
Learn more: 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Professional Scrum Master Training w/ PSM I Certificate — Live Virtual Class: February 7-10, 2023.
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🎯 Product
(via Crisp): 📺 Leading Complexity with Context not Control
In this video, Marty Cagan shares his approach to how teams and companies “can best deal with the challenges of complexity.”
: Three Product Teams
John Cutler explores “three popular models for product teams” and points to the impossibility of reducing real life into three simple models.
(via productboard): 5 Secrets to Stakeholder Alignment on Roadmaps
Bruce McCarthy points to stakeholder alignment factors, from not trapping yourself to not confusing roadmaps with release plans to treating stakeholders as customers.
📯 ChatGPT Prompts for Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and Developers
Last week, I ran an “interview” with ChatGPT as an applicant for a fictitious Scrum Master position based on questions from Scrum Master Interview Guide. (See below.) While the overall results were broadly acceptable, I thought that changing the ChatGPT prompts might deliver better results. So, this time, I chose to present ChatGPT with three everyday scenarios based on more comprehensive prompts. Lo and behold, it worked very well.
Think twice if you still believe this technology is a fad or a toy. Instead, grab a cup of coffee and read for yourself.
👉 Learn more: ChatGPT Prompts for Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and Developers.
🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring
: What I Learned from Surveying Over 100 People About Product Communities of Practice
Petra Wille shares the first findings from her 2022 survey into what drives thriving communities of practices for product people.
(via ProdPad): The 12 Most Important Product Discovery Questions
Fleur Sykes compiled a comprehensive list of questions your team may engage in identifying what is worth building.
(via JTBD Toolkit): JTBD Canvas 2.0
JTBD Toolkit released the JTBD Canvas 2.0, a tool “to help you scope out your JTBD landscape prior to conducting field research.”
🎶 Encore
and : 🎙 Ethical Dilemmas in Product Management
Tami Reiss has a candid conversation with Rich Mironov on product ethics and the corresponding responsibilities of product managers and leaders.
📅 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:
See all upcoming classes here.
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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 product team performance:
- 🆕 Hands-on Agile 47: How much Product Discovery Is enough? The Confidence Meter Explained with Itamar Gilad.
- 🆕 Hands-on Agile 46: The Agile Fluency Model ® with Diana Larsen.
- 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 Product Team Performance — 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.
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 deal with product team performance by pointing them to the free Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide: