TL; DR: Identifying Digital Product — Food for Agile Thought #455
Welcome to the 455th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,701 peers. This week, Jeff Patton explores how identifying digital products is crucial for adopting a product operating model, while Esther Derby, Diana Larsen, and David Horowitz discuss updates in their second edition of Agile Retrospectives. Barry Overeem addresses Agile Coach burnout and the importance of creating supportive environments, and Henry E. Pozzetta examines the impact of cognitive biases on Agile, offering strategies to mitigate them. Also, Shane Gibson and Murray Robinson interview Arnold Stroobach about the Buurtzorg model, showcasing the success of small, self-managed teams in delivering high-quality, cost-effective care.
Next, Janna Bastow and Leah Tharin discuss the evolving role of product managers in the age of AI, stressing that AI should enhance rather than replace human judgment. Todd Lankford offers a three-step guide to building effective product teams by fostering ownership and adaptability, and Alexandre Serrurier shares his experiences at ManoMano, highlighting the critical role of ProductOps in optimizing product environments with strong leadership and structured initiatives. Moreover, Marty Cagan clarifies that adopting a product model doesn’t require reorganization; organizational design should align with business strategy and product vision.
Lastly, Philipp Pelka and Johannes Schartau introduce the Creative Destruction Canvas, a tool to help teams trim bloated products by removing unnecessary features. Aakash Gupta delivers a comprehensive analysis of the product analytics market, emphasizing its importance in product management, and Gregor Ojstersek and Jordan Cutler discuss the detrimental effects of perfectionism on engineering productivity, advocating for progress over perfection. Then, dynomight7 explores why advice often fails, offering strategies to enhance its effectiveness through simplicity and practicality, and, finally, Pavel Samsonov examines Nike’s costly reliance on easily gathered data, stressing the importance of qualitative insights in product strategy.
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🏆 The Tip of the Week: Identifying Digital Product
: Identifying your org’s digital products
Jeff Patton delves into identifying digital products as the first step in adopting a product operating model. He explains using a simple product decomposition model to organize teams around digital products for effective software development.
🍋 Lemon of the Week
: Scrum is the Symptom, not the Problem
Adam Ard claims that Scrum is a tool for corporate control rather than Agile empowerment, overlooking the true potential of Scrum when implemented correctly. His solution? Engineers need to own companies to escape the horrors of micro-management! Seriously?
➿ Agile & Scrum
, and : 📺 Whats New in the 2nd Edition of Agile Retrospectives
Esther Derby, Diana Larsen, and David Horowitz discuss updates in the second edition of ‘Agile Retrospectives,’ sharing new insights, practices, and real-life stories to enhance team learning and improvement.
(via The Liberators): Are Agile Coaches Burning Out?
Barry Overeem reflects on Agile Coach burnout, highlighting their struggles with lack of mandate and respect, and suggests using Liberating Structures to foster supportive and impactful environments for better team collaboration and decision-making.
, and : The Buurtzorg Model with Arnold Stroobach
🎙 Shane Gibson and Murray Robinson talk with Arnold Stroobach about the Buurtzorg model, where small, self-managed teams deliver decentralized, high-quality, cost-effective home care, illustrating the potential for wider organizational efficiency and effectiveness.
: Agility Shares an Expected Utility Problem. Here's a Solution.
Henry E. Pozzetta highlights the challenges Agile faces due to cognitive biases and offers solutions like promoting risk awareness, fostering experimentation, and embracing diverse perspectives to enhance team decision-making and innovation.
🎓 🖥 🇬🇧 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.
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🎯 Product
and : 📺 The challenges and opportunities AI brings to Product Management
Janna Bastow and Leah Tharin discuss the role of product managers in the age of AI, emphasizing that AI should assist, not replace, human judgment. She highlights the importance of product road mapping, stakeholder alignment, and understanding revenue connections.
(via Silicon Valley Product Group): The Product Model and Org Design
Marty Cagan explains that adopting a product model doesn’t necessitate reorganization. Organizational design should align with business strategy and product vision, leveraging either the GM or Functional model based on specific needs.
(via Mind The Product): Product ops is the fuel of your product environment’s health
Alexandre Serrurier shares insights from his experience at ManoMano on the crucial role of ProductOps in optimizing product environments, emphasizing the importance of leadership support, structured community initiatives, and resilient implementation.
(via Medium): How I Build Powerful Product Teams Without Boundaries and Governance
Todd Lankford shares a three-step guide for building powerful product teams: removing boundaries and governance, fostering end-to-end ownership, creating safety, and cultivating adaptability for better outcomes.
📯 Quick Scrum Gains to Elevate Your Standing as a Scrum Master or Agile Coach
Suppose you are a Scrum Master or Agile Coach. Have you recently been asked to explain your contribution to the organization’s value creation?
In other words, does management want to know whether you are pulling your weight or if your salary is an expendable expenditure? This article points to ten quick Scrum gains you can pull off without asking for permission or budget to prove your contribution to your organization’s survival in these challenging times.
Learn more: Quick Scrum Gains to Elevate Your Standing as a Scrum Master or Agile Coach.
🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring
(via Holisticon): Discover the Power of Creative Destruction
Philipp Pelka and Johannes Schartau introduce the Creative Destruction Canvas, a tool to help teams reflect on and remove product functionalities effectively, addressing the common issue of bloated products due to our tendency to add features rather than remove them.
: The Product Analytics Market: Overview and Deep Dive
Aakash Gupta provides an in-depth analysis of the product analytics market, including interviews with leaders, a market map, and insights into top tools, emphasizing their critical role in product management.
(via dynomight): Why doesn't advice work?
The author examines why advice often fails, suggesting reasons like incomplete understanding, lack of willpower, and cognitive biases while offering insights into improving advice effectiveness by focusing on simplicity and practicality.and : Perfectionism - one of the biggest productivity killers in the engineering industry
Gregor Ojstersek and Jordan Cutler share their personal experiences of how perfectionism hampers productivity in the engineering industry. They emphasize the importance of progress over perfection for better mental health and efficiency.
🎶 Encore
(via UX Collective): Nike’s $25B blunder shows us the limits of ‘data-driven’
Pavel Samsonov highlights Nike’s $25B mistake, showing the pitfalls of relying solely on easy-to-gather data for decisions, and underscores the need for qualitative insights and human judgment in product and UX strategy.
📅 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:
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📺 Join 6,000-plus Agile Peers on Youtube
Now available on the Age-of-Product Youtube channel to improve learning, for example, about Identifying Digital Products:
- 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 Identifying Digital Products — Join the 20,000-plus Strong ‘Hands-on Agile’ Slack Community
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Help your team to learn about Identifying Digital Products by pointing them to the free Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide: