Food for Agile Thought #385: ChatGPT in Product Development, Organizational Change Patterns, The Art of the User Story, Do We Need Sprint Goals?

TL; DR: ChatGPT in Product Development — Food for Agile Thought #385

Welcome to the 385th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 45,612 (1) peers. This week, we delve into ChatGPT in product development, pointing to what ChatGPT can and cannot do. Also, John Cutler asked some friends a simple question: “How does change actually happen at your company,” and we explain the relationship between organizational design and an organization’s size. Moreover, we learn how to deal with controversial topics that “elicit strong emotions, have little or no effort invested into resolution, and unequal participation” as a coach.

Then, we dive into the challenges of integrating UX research and Scrum and what a token for discussion — also known as a user story — has to do with it while questioning the utility of strictly adhering to the mandate of employing a Sprint Goal every single Sprint. Also, we learn how Fender, the famous guitar maker, overcame its existence-threatening churn rate among new customers and reflect on why larger organizations quickly become less innovative and what autonomous teams and ‘saying no’ have to do with it.

Finally, we check out ChatGPT 4 for Scrum practitioners; we report on a recent analysis of how OpenAI’s GPT technology could affect the workforce and walk you through the current ChatGPT ecosystem, helping everyone to understand why it has been called AI’s iPhone moment.

Food for Agile Thought #385: ChatGPT in Product Development, Organizational Change Patterns, The Art of the User Story, Do We Need Sprint Goals? — Age-of-Product.com

(1) It is time to consolidate subscriptions: In addition to the email-based edition, there is also the LinkedIn-based newsletter edition with 8,000-plus subscribers.

📈 Please join the anonymous survey: What Anti-Patterns have you observed that make Jira unbearable?

Did you miss the previous Food for Agile Thought’s issue 384?

🗞 Shall I notify you about articles like this one? Awesome! You can sign up here for the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter and join 45,000-plus subscribers.

🎓 Join Stefan in one of his upcoming Professional Scrum training classes!

📖 Get notified when the Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide book is available!

Hands-on Agile #50: The Product Community of Practice w/ Petra Wille

Join your peers on April 5, 2023: Hands-on Agile #50: The Product Community of Practice w/ Petra Wille.

🏆 The Tip of the Week: ChatGPT in Product Development

Marily Nika: The Promises and Pitfalls of ChatGPT [in Product Development]

Marily Nika delves into ChatGPT-supported product development, pointing to what ChatGPT can and cannot do.

🍋 The Lemon of the Week

Emmanuel Maggiori: I’ve been employed in tech for years, but I’ve almost never worked

Emmanuel Maggiori blames “Agile” in general and Scrum in particular for the demise of the productivity of engineers.

➿ Agile & Scrum

John Cutler: Organic, Planned, and Manager-Drive Change

John Cutler asked some friends a simple question: “How does change actually happen at your company?”

Viktor Cessan: Coaching controversial topics

Viktor Cessan delves into dealing with controversial topics that “elicit strong emotions, have little or no effort invested into resolution, and unequal participation” as a coach.

Michael Küsters: The Rule of Three

Michael Küsters explains the relationship between organizational design and an organization’s size

🎓 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training w/ PSM II Certificate — March 28-29, 2023

Discover Scrum’s four success principles in this guaranteed 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 two compact sessions with like-minded agile peers from 09:00 – 17:30 o’clock CEST:

Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training PSM II Certificate March 2023 — Berlin Product People GmbH — BER-99

Learn more: 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training w/ PSM II Certificate — March 28-29, 2023.

👉 From time to time, we can offer last-minute seats for training classes at cost to individuals who do not have access to a corporate training budget. If you like to be notified about these opportunities, please register here.

🎯 Product

Jason Godesky (via Medium): The Art of the Vertical Slice

Jason Godesky dives into the challenges of integrating UX research and Scrum and what a token for discussion — also known as a user story — has to do with it.

Mike Cohn: Does Your Sprint Really Even Need a Sprint Goal?

Mike Cohn questions the utility of strictly adhering to the mandate of employing a Sprint Goal every single Sprint.

Jeff Gothelf: Case Study: How product management saved Fender guitars

Jeff Gothelf shares how the famous guitar maker overcame its existence-threatening churn rate among new customers.

📯 ChatGPT 4: A Bargain for Scrum Practitioners?

When OpenAI released its new LLM model GPT-4 last week, I could not resist and signed up for $20 monthly. I wanted to determine whether ChatGPT 4 is superior to its predecessor, which left a good impression in recent months; see my previous articles on Scrum, Agile, and ChatGPT.

I decided to run three comparisons, using the identical prompt to trigger answers from the new GPT-4 and previous GPT-3.5 models. Read on and learn what happened. It was not a foregone conclusion.

ChatGPT 4: A Bargain for Scrum Practitioners? — Age-of-Product.com

👉 Learn more: ChatGPT 4: A Bargain for Scrum Practitioners?

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

(via Connected): Innovation 2.0 : Faster, smarter, safer and bigger

Alex Christodoulou reflects on why larger organizations quickly become less innovative and what autonomous teams and ‘saying no’ have to do with it.

Michael Kan (via PCMag): OpenAI: ChatGPT Could Disrupt 19% of US Jobs, Is Yours on the List?

Michael Kan reports on a recent analysis of how OpenAI’s GPT technology could affect the workforce.

Mike Loukides (via O’Reilly Media): What Are ChatGPT and Its Friends?

Mike Loukides walks us through the current ChatGPT ecosystem, helping us to understand why it has been called AI’s iPhone moment.

🎶 Encore

Bob Galen: SAFe — The Gift that Keeps on Giving & Growing

Bob Galen comments on the latest SAFe® version.


📅 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
🖥 💯 🇩🇪 November 6-7, 2024 GUARANTEED: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1,299 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 🇬🇧 November 21, 2024 Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Class (PSFS; English; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €749 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 🇩🇪 December 4-5, 2024 Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM I; German; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1,189 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 🇩🇪 December 10-11, 2024 Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1,299 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 💯 🇩🇪 December 12, 2024 GUARANTEED: Professional Product Discovery and Validation Class (PPDV; German; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €749 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 🇬🇧 December 18-19, 2024 Professional Scrum Master Advanced Training (PSM II; English; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1,299 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Feburary 4-6, 2025 GUARANTEED: Hands-on Agile 2025: From Concept-Based to Context-Based Agility (English) Live Virtual Conference FREE

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.

📺 Join 4,000-plus Agile Peers on Youtube

Now available on the Age-of-Product Youtube channel to improve learning, for example, about avoiding building products without value :

Download the Remote Agile Guide for Free — Age-of-Product.com

✋ Do Not Miss Out and Learn more about ChatGPT in Product Development — 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.

Large scale agile: Join the Hands-on Agile Slack Group

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 learn about ChatGPT in product development 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 #384: The Decline of the Agile Brand, Product Managers Devs Don’t Hate, Product Core Competencies, Scrum a Natural Pattern?

Find this content useful? Share it with your friends!

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.