TL; DR: Agile at Tesla, Roadmap Bankruptcy—Food for Agile Thought #276
Welcome to the 276th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 30,023 peers. This week, we delve into Agile at Tesla; we learn how Retrospectives work in the most unlikely places, and we embrace a new approach of risk-mitigating by utilizing the Product Backlog.
We then analyze what product managers can do to deliver more value with existing processes; we detail three cases that indicate that your product roadmap is not up to the job but in desperate need of a restart, and we point at three common mistakes when calculating customer lifetime value.
Lastly, we explore a simple visualization tool to help teams turn learnings into a better way of working, and we ask: Is SAFe® safe?
Did you miss previous Food for Agile Thought’s issue #275?
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🏆 The Tip of the Week
(via The Agile Wire): 📺 Agile at Tesla with Joe Justice
In this video, Joe Justice provides a rare insight into Tesla’s agile work principles.
➿ Agile & Scrum
(via Scrum.org): Facilitating Retrospective in the Prison
Konstantin Razumovsky describes an extraordinary Retrospective inside a Belorussian prison with fellow demonstrators who peacefully protested the Lukashenko regime's politics.
: Creating a Risk-Adjusted Backlog
Mike Griffiths shares his approach of risk-mitigating by utilizing the Product Backlog.
: Is SAFe safe?
Dave Farley details why he believes that SAFe® is not well-suited to further changes in large organizations as it is misguided.
🎓 🖥 🇬🇧 Professional Scrum Master Online Training w/ PSM I Certificate — March 2-5, 2021
This Professional Scrum Master training (PSM I) by Berlin Product People is an official Scrum.org PSM I class that leads to and includes the industry-recognized PSM I certification. The training class is designed as a live virtual class of 4 h per day from 9 to 13 o’clock CEST and will be offered in English.
Learn more: 📅 🖥 🇬🇧 Professional Scrum Master Online Training w/ PSM I Certificate — March 2-5, 2021.
🎯 Product
: How Product Can (and Can’t) Speed Up Development
Rich Mironov delves into what product managers can do to deliver more value with existing processes. Also, he addresses what product managers shall restrain from doing to wring more code out of the engineers.
(via ProductPlan): Declaring Roadmap Bankruptcy: When should you do it?
Annie Dunham details three cases that indicate that your product roadmap is not up to the job but in desperate need of a restart.
(via ProdPad): Should Product Managers Say No?
Andrea Saez addresses one of the classic questions of a product manager’s life: how to deal with stakeholder demands?
🛠 Tools & Measuring
(via Industrial Logic): The Continuous Improvement Canvas
Willem Larsen shares a simple visualization tool to help teams turn learnings into a better way of working.
: The do’s and don'ts of LTV calculation
Oleg Yakubenkov points at three common mistakes when calculating customer lifetime value and explains how to avoid them.
📯 22 Scrum Master Anti-Patterns from Job Ads: From Funny to What the Heck?
Job ads for Scrum Master positions reveal great insight into an organization’s progress on becoming agile. I analyzed more than 50 job ads for Scrum Master positions to gain these. Learn more about what makes job ads such a treasure trove with the following 22 Scrum Master anti-patterns derived from job ads.
👉 Learn more: 22 Scrum Master Anti-Patterns from Job Ads: From Funny to What the Heck?.
📅 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 2,600-plus Agile Peers on Youtube
Now available on the Age-of-Product Youtube channel:
- 🆕 Scrum Guide 2020: Eight Remarkable Changes — Hands-on Agile #28.
- Remote Agile (1) Replay: Practices and Tools for Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, and Product Owners.
- Scrum Sprint Retrospective Anti-Patterns.
✋ Do Not Miss Out and Learn about Agile at Tesla: Join the 9,000-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.
