TL; DR: Product Manager Replacement — Food for Agile Thought #451
Welcome to the 451st edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,601 peers. This week, Mike Taylor shows how close AI is as a product manager replacement, often outperforming humans in complex PM tasks, while Dave Rooney addresses Agile backlash and advocates for Extreme Programming (XP). Woody Zuill highlights the benefits of Mob Programming, and Maarten Dalmijn introduces a Sprint Goal template to avoid anti-patterns. Also, Todd Lankford emphasizes reducing dependency on experts to reclaim team flow, and we ask: Why don’t we regard teams as investors?
Next, Jason Knight explores the challenges of transforming sales-driven companies into product-led ones. Moreover, Johanna Rothman shares five critical ideas for effective product development, including understanding customers and solving one problem at a time. Richard Mironov highlights building executive coalitions by understanding C-level priorities, and Roman Pichler emphasizes involving key stakeholders in co-creating product strategies and roadmaps for successful execution.
Lastly, Jeff Gothelf argues that vanity metrics, while not ultimate success measures, provide early insights into activities and idea resonance. Wes Kao emphasizes the importance of effectively defending your work to build leadership credibility. At the same time, Pim de Morree critiques downsizing, advocating for employee engagement and innovation instead. Aatir Abdul Rauf shares how the SPACER framework aligns Product Managers and Marketers on feature value. Finally, Gergely Orosz discusses recent changes in the tech industry and their impact on software engineering in a post-pandemic world.
🎓 September 1, 2024: The Advanced Product Backlog Management Course for Just $99!
👉 Please note:
- The course includes membership in a new community of agile professionals.
- The course will only be available until September 8, 2024, for sign-up!
Did you miss the previous Food for Agile Thought’s issue 450?
🗞 Shall I notify you about articles like this one? Awesome! You can sign up here for the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter and join 42,000-plus subscribers.
🎓 Join Stefan in one of his upcoming Professional Scrum training classes!
🏆 The Tip of the Week: Product Manager Replacement
: How close is AI to replacing product managers?
Mike Taylor reveals how close AI is to replacing product managers, demonstrating AI’s ability to handle complex PM tasks through real-world tests and expert prompting, showing AI often outperforms humans.
🍋 Lemon of the Week
➿ Agile & Scrum
: Agile (is dead|sucks|is (🐂|)💩|is irresponsible|is a bad idea)
Dave Rooney addresses the backlash against Agile, noting that poorly implemented Scrum often fuels criticism. He advocates revisiting Extreme Programming (XP) for its practical, adaptable practices in achieving true agility.
(via Crisp): Interview with Woody Zuill - Software Teaming (Mob Programming) - addressing complexity with genuine collaboration.
Woody Zuill highlights the power of genuine collaboration through ‘Software Teaming’ or Mob Programming. He shares how teamwork eliminates delays and waste, leading to smoother workflows and faster problem-solving.
: Maarten's Sprint Goal Template
Maarten Dalmijn introduces his Sprint Goal template, designed to address critical weaknesses in existing templates. It focuses on the importance of collaboration and context and avoids common Sprint Goal anti-patterns.
(via Medium): How to Reclaim Team Flow Fast by Relieving Your Dependency on Experts
Todd Lankford outlines how to reclaim team flow by reducing dependency on experts, emphasizing that spreading knowledge and decentralizing decision-making leads to a more self-reliant, productive team.
🎓 🖥 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Training w/ PSM II Certificate — August 20-21, 2024
Discover Scrum’s four success principles in this 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 a live virtual immersive class with like-minded agile peers from 09:00 – 17:30 CEST.
Learn more: 🖥 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Training w/ PSM II Certificate — August 20-21, 2024.
Customer Voice: “Dear Stefan, Thanks a lot for two intense and mindblowing days. Your way of teaching suites me perfectly. I must admit that all the positive feedback you have gotten is spot on! I would any time a day recommand your class to a Scrum Master who wants to add a whole new level to his/her scrum game. To all of you reading this. You have to experience Stefans class to understand how good it is.” (Source.)
👉 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 would like to be notified about these opportunities, please register here.
🎯 Product
: Can Every Sales-Driven Company be Transformed to Being Product-Led?
Jason Knight explores whether sales-driven companies can transform into product-led ones, highlighting the complexities of defining key terms and aligning company values and goals.
: Five Big Ideas to Effectively Manage Your Product Development
Johanna Rothman shares five key ideas for effective product development: understand your customer, solve one problem at a time, deliver solutions quickly, act as a bridge between stakeholders, and facilitate the team’s environment for success.
: Coalition-Building and Corporate Anthropology
Richard Mironov emphasizes the importance of building executive coalitions by understanding C-level priorities instead of focusing on technical details to advocate for product management decisions effectively.
: Maximising Stakeholder Buy-in to Product Strategy and Product Roadmap
Roman Pichler emphasizes the importance of involving key stakeholders in co-creating product strategies and roadmaps, ensuring their support to achieve alignment and successful execution.
📯 Agile Teams as Investors: A Deeper Dive into Maximizing Organizational Value
Stakeholders often regard Scrum and other agile teams as cost centers, primarily focused on executing projects within budgetary confines. This conventional view, however, undervalues their strategic potential. If we reconsider agile teams as investors—carefully allocating their resources to optimize returns—they can significantly impact an organization’s strategic objectives and long-term profitability.
This perspective not only redefines their role but also enhances the effectiveness of their contributions to the business by solving the customers’ problems.
Learn more: Agile Teams as Investors: A Deeper Dive into Maximizing Organizational Value.
🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring
: In defense of vanity metrics
Jeff Gothelf argues that vanity metrics, while not ultimate success measures, provide early insight into whether activities are taking place and if ideas are resonating, guiding initial steps toward meaningful impact.
: Playing defense: How to control the narrative if your work is being questioned
Wes Kao discusses the importance of effectively defending your work when questioned, emphasizing that how you respond can either build or diminish your credibility as a leader.
(via Corporate Rebels): Managers Believe Downsizing Is Effective. Research Says: Nope.
Pim de Morree argues that downsizing fails to improve financial performance and harms productivity and morale. He advocates focusing on employee engagement and innovative transformations rather than cost-cutting measures.
: How the SPACER framework can align PMs & PMMs on the value of a feature
Aatir Abdul Rauf shares how the SPACER framework helps Product Managers and Product Marketers align on feature value, preventing rework and ensuring a shared understanding of pricing, user stories, abilities, and roadmap.
🎶 Encore
: 📺 What is Old is New Again
Gergely Orosz discusses the recent changes reshaping the tech industry, exploring their impacts on businesses and development teams, and predicting future pragmatic software engineering approaches in a post-pandemic world.
📅 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.
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 6,000-plus Agile Peers on Youtube
Now available on the Age-of-Product Youtube channel to improve learning, for example, about the Product Manager Replacement:
- Hands-on Agile 62: From Backlog Manager to Product Manager with David Pereira.
- Hands-on Agile 61: Toyota Kata Coaching for Agile Teams & Transformations with Fortune Buchholtz.
- Hands-on Agile 59: Tackling Fake Agility with Johanna Rothman.
- Hands-on Agile 57: Humble Planning with Maarten Dalmijn.
- Hands-on Agile 53: An Agile Coaches Guide to Storytelling with Bob Galen.
- Hands-on Agile EXTRA: How Elon Musk Would Run YOUR Business with Joe Justice.
✋ Do Not Miss Out and Learn About the Product Manager Replacement — Join the 20,000-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 learn about a possible Product Manager Replacement by pointing them to the free Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide: