TL; DR: Personal AI Productivity — Food for Agile Thought #506
Welcome to the 506th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 40,541 peers. This week, Jenny Wanger explores how cognitive biases like loss aversion and the planning fallacy can derail personal AI productivity, while John Cutler dissects poor strategy execution into structural problems of insight, clarity, and commitment. David Pereira critiques outdated stakeholder management, calling for a collaborative partnership instead. Justin Massa outlines a four-step method to evaluate AI models beyond the hype, and Mike Fisher dismantles the heroic leader myth, advocating for humility and systems that foster shared leadership.
Next, Aakash Gupta interviews Teresa Torres on how Continuous Discovery Habits apply to AI products, stressing thoughtful validation over speed. Phoebe Sajor reflects on building with AI tools as a non-coder, exposing risks beneath the empowerment, while Jing Hu reveals how persuasion tactics can manipulate AI safety mechanisms. Zvi Mowshowitz reviews GPT-5’s subtle but functional upgrades, and Mark Graban urges leaders to fix systemic blockers that daily Kaizen efforts alone cannot resolve.
Lastly, Bessemer’s 2025 State of AI highlights two startup archetypes and urges focus on memory, action, and private evaluations. Kevin Kelly examines AI as an insatiable resource feeding itself in endless loops, and Gergely Orosz warns of unsustainable workweeks in AGI-focused startups. Additionally, Torsten Walbaum and Kyle Poyar show how Deep Research can drive serious GTM gains. Finally, Louise North critiques misleading A/B tests and calls for deeper user insight and strategic boldness.
🎓 🇬🇧 🤖 The AI 4 Agile BootCamp Online Course at $129 — September 15, 2025
I developed the self-paced AI 4 Agile Boot Camp Online Course for agile practitioners, including Product Owners, Product Managers, Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, and delivery professionals who want to integrate artificial intelligence into their workflows with clarity, ethics, and purpose.
You don’t need to become an AI expert. However, you do need to understand how LLMs like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini can support real agile work and where their limitations lie. Like Jim Highsmith said, AI isn’t just a tool, but a new context for agility.
This course shows you how to do precisely that.
What’s Included:
- 10+ hours of self-paced video modules
- A cohort-hardened, proven course design
- Learn to 10x your effectiveness with AI; your stakeholders will be grateful
- Delve into classic agile use cases of AI
- Help your team create more customer value
- All texts, slides, prompts, graphics; you name it
- Access custom GPTs including the "Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide GTP"
- Enjoy community access for peer learning
- Guaranteed: Lifetime access to all course updates and materials; there is a lot more to come
- Certificate of completion.
👉 Please note: The course will only be available for sign-up at $129 until September 22, 2025! 👈
🎓 Join the Waitlist of the AI 4 Agile BootCamp Online Course Now: Master AI Integration for Agile Practitioners—No AI Expertise Required!
Did you miss the previous Food for Agile Thought issue 505?
🗞 Shall I notify you about articles like this one? Awesome! You can sign up here for the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter and join 40,000-plus subscribers.
🎓 Join Stefan in one of his upcoming Professional Scrum training classes!
🏆 The Tip of the Week: Personal AI Productivity
: Why Your Brain Is the Biggest Bottleneck in AI Productivity
Jenny Wanger shares how cognitive biases like loss aversion and the planning fallacy, not AI, sabotaged her productivity, turning a “free” project into a time sink and highlighting how mental models shape tool effectiveness.
🎯 Product
: Diagnosing Your Company's Strategy Problem
John Cutler breaks down weak strategy execution into missing insights, unclear strategic games, and failure to commit, urging contributors to diagnose indecision as a structural issue rather than mere incompetence.
: Why Stakeholder Management Fails (and What Works Instead)
David Pereira argues that stakeholder management is outdated in modern product work, urging product leaders to build partnerships, use clear language, and foster alignment through collaboration instead of collecting scattered requests.
and : 📺 Teresa Torres' Step-by-Step Guide to AI Product Discovery
Aakash Gupta interviews Teresa Torres on applying Continuous Discovery Habits to AI product development, covering validation, opportunity mapping, interview synthesis, and how AI can accelerate but not replace thoughtful discovery.
(via Stack Overflow): A new worst coder has entered the chat: vibe coding without code knowledge
Phoebe Sajor explores “vibe coding” as a nontechnical user building an app with AI tools like Bolt, revealing both the empowerment and hidden pitfalls when code is generated without understanding, testing, or security in mind.
🧠 Artificial Intelligence
: Evaluating New AI Models
Justin Massa shares a four-step system for evaluating new AI models that cuts through hype and helps you spot meaningful improvements. The approach blends quick tests, signature questions, deep work trials, and stress tests.
: How Do You Negotiate With AI?
Jing Hu explores how classic persuasion techniques like flattery, urgency, and social proof can trick AI models into bypassing their safety rules, revealing how human-like vulnerabilities emerge from purely statistical training.
: GPT-5s Are Alive: Synthesis
Zvi Mowshowitz outlines why GPT-5 is a steady, not spectacular, upgrade. Thinking and Pro modes improve writing and reduce hallucinations, but rollout flaws and overhype obscure otherwise solid usability gains across everyday workflows.
(via Bessemer Venture): The State of AI 2025
Bessemer shares its 2025 State of AI, mapping a chaotic but clarifying universe where AI startups fall into two archetypes, Supernovas and Shooting Stars, and urges founders to focus on memory, action, and private evals over hype.
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 AI for Agile BootCamp Cohort #2 — September 15 - October 6, 2025
The job market’s shifting. Agile roles are under pressure. AI tools are everywhere. But here’s the truth: the Agile pros who learn how to work with AI, not against it, will be the ones leading the next wave of high-impact teams.
So, become the one who professional recruiters call first for “AI‑powered Agile.” Be among the first to master practical AI applications for Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, Product Owners, Product Managers, and Project Managers.
Tickets also include lifetime access to the corresponding online course, once it is published. The class is in English. 🇬🇧
Learn more: 🖥 🇬🇧 AI for Agile BootCamp Cohort #2 — September 15 - October 6, 2025.
Customer Voice: “The AI for Agilists course is an absolute essential for anyone working in the field! If you want to keep up with the organizations and teams you support, this course will equip you with not only knowledge of how to leverage AI for your work as an Agilist but will also give you endless tips & tricks to get better results and outcomes. I thoroughly enjoyed the course content, structure, and activities. Working in teams to apply what we learned was the best part, as it led to great insights for how I could apply what I was learning. After the first day on the course, I already walked away with many things I could apply at work. I highly recommend this course to anyone looking to better understand AI in general, but more specifically, how to leverage AI for Agility.” (Lauren Tuffs, Change Leader | Business Agility.)
➿ Agile & Leadership
: The Narcissistic Leader
Mike Fisher challenges the myth of the heroic leader by contrasting narcissism with real leadership, which thrives on humility, shared success, and building systems that empower others to lead and grow.
: No Limit for Better
Kevin Kelly explores why artificial intelligence may be the first truly insatiable resource, as we shift from human use to AI agents consuming AI in endless loops, chasing betterment without a finish line.
: New trend: extreme hours at AI startups
Gergely Orosz explores how AI startups are reviving extreme workweeks, with some pushing 80-hour norms driven by AGI hype, investor pressure, and dreams of wealth, despite mounting risks of burnout and attrition.
📯 The Benefits of AI Micromanagement
The Benefits of AI Micromanagement show up when you feed ChatGPT 5 progressively more context about your actual situation. I tested five prompts for a Retrospective design: from zero context to full team background with extended reasoning time. Case 1 produced generic “Scrum Oscars” nonsense. Case 5 delivered sophisticated root-cause analysis targeting chronic top-down thrash, dependency gridlock, and psychological safety erosion.
The difference? Strategic context curation. More context created better solutions, but only when that context was relevant and structured.
🎓 Learn more: The Benefits of AI Micromanagement.
🛠 Concepts, Practices, Tools & Measuring
: Kaizen Alone Isn't Enough: Why Leaders Must Fix the System for Real Improvement
Mark Graban argues that daily Kaizen is necessary but insufficient when systemic flaws persist, emphasizing that only leaders have the authority to fix structures that frontline improvement alone cannot overcome.
and : How to use Deep Research for GTM
Torsten Walbaum and Kyle Poyar share how to turn Deep Research into a practical GTM force multiplier, offering workflows, prompt templates, and use cases that save hours and upgrade AI from toy to McKinsey-tier assistant.
(via Webdesigner Depot): Your A/B Tests Are Lying to You! The Myth of Data Driven Design
Louise North argues that most A/B tests mislead more than they inform, especially for teams with low traffic, and urges designers to prioritize user insight, long-term thinking, and bold strategic choices instead.
📅 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 April 15-29, 2026 | Guaranteed: Claude Cowork BootCamp (English; Live Virtual Cohort) | Live Virtual Cohort | $149 incl. 19% VAT (If applicable.) |
| 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 April 22-23, 2026 | Guaranteed: Professional Scrum Product Owner – AI Essentials Training (PSPO AIE; German; Live Virtual Class) | Live Virtual Class | €799 incl. 19% VAT (If applicable.) |
| 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 May 19-20, 2026 | Guaranteed: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German; Live Virtual Class) | Live Virtual Class | €1,299 incl. 19% VAT (If applicable.) |
| 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 May 28 to June 25, 2026 | Guaranteed: AI4Agile BootCamp #7 (English; Live Virtual Cohort) | Live Virtual Cohort | €499 incl. 19% VAT (If applicable.) |
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 Personal AI Productivity:
- Hands-on Agile #68: How to Analyze Unstructured Team Interview Data with AI.
- Fabrice Bernhard: The Lean Tech Manifesto.
- Maarten Dalmijn: The 5 Obstacles to Empowered Teams.
- Roman Pichler: The Top Reasons Why a Product Strategy Fails.
- Johanna Rothman: How to Instill Agility, not Agile Practices.
- Hands-on Agile EXTRA: How Elon Musk Would Run YOUR Business with Joe Justice.
✋ Do Not Miss Out: Learn more about Personal AI Productivity — 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 would 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 Personal AI Productivity by pointing them to the free Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide:
🗞️ Last Week’s Food for Agile Thought Edition
Read more: Food for Agile Thought #505: GPT-5, Building Product Sense, The ‘Just Ship It’ Issue, Future of Scrum Teams.