TL; DR: Rapid Prototyping with Claude — Food for Agile Thought #464
Welcome to the 464th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,881 peers. This week, Henrik Kniberg showcases rapid prototyping with Claude, transforming sketches into fully functional apps in minutes, while Steve Blank outlines how innovators can defend against incumbent sabotage. John Cutler discusses using enabling constraints to manage rapid growth, and Adam Ard critiques the overuse of ‘Agile,’ advocating core practices to enhance agility. Also, Bob Galen addresses Agile coach burnout, emphasizing resilience and proactive leadership.
Next, Avi Siegel advises product managers to ignore most feature requests to prevent feature bloat and maintain focus on long-term value. Maarten Dalmijn critiques the unnecessary complexity that can arise with both Product Owners and Product Managers, urging a more streamlined approach, and Martin Eriksson explains why many company visions fail, offering tips to craft a vision that motivates teams and drives results. Moreover, Melissa Suzuno identifies 12 common challenges product trios face, providing solutions to improve collaboration and decision-making.
Lastly, Charles Lambdin delves into estimating the cost of delay, focusing on confidence intervals and structured conversations to prioritize work. Linus Dahlander and Francis de Véricourt explore how Lean Startup methods can be adapted for deep-tech ventures to mitigate technological uncertainty. Then, Gustavo Razzetti advocates for expanding your circle of influence by focusing on what you can control, and Diana Stepner encourages product leaders to adopt a “learn-it-all” mindset, using smart questioning to drive innovation. Finally, Corporate Rebels will feature Bayer’s transformation to self-management and Dynamic Shared Ownership (DSO).
🎓 January 27, 2025: The Advanced Product Backlog Management Course for Just $99!
👉 Please note:
- The course includes membership in my former professional students' brand-new Hands-on Agile community.
- The course will only be available for sign-up until February 3, 2025!
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🏆 The Tip of the Week: Rapid Prototyping with Claude
: 📺 Rapid Prototyping on Steroids - with Claude
Henrik Kniberg demonstrates how AI tool Claude enables rapid prototyping, turning sketches into functional apps within minutes, generating design documents, backlogs, and implementation guides for both web and iOS apps.
🍋 Lemon of the Week
(via Medium): Why are product managers still using agile?
The author wonders why product managers still use Agile, completely missing the point that Agile is not just for delivery but for adaptability across the board. Classically, the author confuses the tools with the mindset, claiming Agile doesn’t fit product management.
➿ Agile & Leadership
(via First Round Capital): The Saboteurs That Threaten Innovation — And How to Handle Them
Steve Blank unpacks the fierce battles innovators and founders face from incumbents who are determined to sabotage disruption, offering a survival checklist to navigate and counter these common roadblocks.
: Using Enabling Constraints for Situational Awareness
John Cutler explores how enabling constraints can help organizations sense and manage incoherence during rapid growth, using early warning systems to maintain balance before inefficiencies spiral out of control.
: How Agile Are You Really?
Adam Ard highlights the overuse of the term ‘Agile.’ He offers three core practices—distributed decision-making, customer collaboration, and frequent releases—to assess an organization’s level of agility and improve it effectively.
: Agile Coach Burnout
Bob Galen acknowledges the reality of Agile coach burnout, urging coaches to embrace resilience, take ownership of their influence, and navigate organizational challenges without waiting for authority to be handed to them.
🖥 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Training w/ PSM II Certificate — November 18-19, 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 — November 18-19, 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.)
🎯 Product
(via Medium): 12 reasons to ignore your users’ feature requests
Avi Siegel emphasizes that ignoring most feature requests is essential for product managers to maintain focus, avoid feature bloat, and deliver long-term value. This ensures a better product that users will appreciate later.
: Are Product Owners Too Much Overhead?
Maarten Dalmijn argues that Product Owners can sometimes create unnecessary complexity, especially when paired with Product Managers, urging organizations to streamline roles and empower teams to deliver real business value.
: Why your (company) vision is blurry
Martin Eriksson explores why most company visions fail to inspire, offering practical guidance on crafting a clear, ambitious vision that motivates teams, empowers decision-making, and drives meaningful outcomes.
: 12 Hurdles to Effective Product Trio Collaboration
Melissa Suzuno highlights 12 common hurdles product trios face, from decision-making dominance to lack of participation and time constraints, offering insights on overcoming these challenges to foster more effective collaboration.
📯 Transformation to Agile Primitives: Rebuilding Agility from the Ground Up
Undergoing a transformation to Agile Primitives from a botched [insert your failed agile framework of choice here] isn’t about adopting another framework; it’s about returning to core principles that empower teams and deliver real value. (Please note: If you haven’t read the article on Agile Primitives, please do so now.)
This journey requires leaders to model desired behaviors, embrace vulnerability, and foster a culture where failure is a learning opportunity. Middle management should be engaged as enablers, not obstacles. It’s not a quick fix but a commitment to genuine agility through people-centric practices.
By focusing on the Agile Primitives, organizations can reignite the spirit of agility and achieve meaningful, lasting transformation. Start today with this comprehensive sketch of what you need to address in your organization to overcome dysfunction, create value, and become competitive and profitable again.
Learn more: Transformation to Agile Primitives: Rebuilding Agility from the Ground Up.
📅 Hands-on Agile 2025 Is Here — Join 300-plus Peers: From Concept-Based to Context-Based Agility
I am thrilled to announce that Hands-on Agile 2025 is officially on the horizon and will be free to attend from February 4-6, 2025. This time, we will focus on how Agile needs to evolve from concept-based agility to context-based agility.
But before we discuss what that means, let’s take a step back and consider why Hands-on Agile 2025 is going to be a can’t-miss event for everyone in the agile community.
For those unfamiliar, Hands-on Agile isn’t just another conference. It’s an event built around the Barcamp model, meaning it’s a self-organized, community-driven gathering with one goal: Sharing knowledge and experiences.
From February 4 to 6, 2025, we will spend three energizing days engaging in sessions, practicing agile games, sharing war stories, and learning directly from each other. Hands-on Agile is all about creating a space for practitioners, coaches, leaders, and newcomers to connect in a truly hands-on way.
Save Your Seat Now!
There are no tickets; Hands-on Agile 2025 is free.
However, you will need to register nevertheless. Otherwise, you would not receive, for example, the invitation to the HoA2025 community or have access to individual session access credentials:
Please note:
- For technical reasons, your sign-up confirmation will be sent from stefan [at] age-of-product.com.
- Your registration to Hands-on Agile 2025 will also subscribe you to Stefan’s Food for Agile newsletter, one of the largest independent newsletters on agile practices worldwide.
- Your invitation to join the Hands-on Agile 2025 community will be limited to February 28, 2025.
🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring
: Estimating Cost of Delay
Charles Lambdin explains how to facilitate conversations around estimating the cost of delay to prioritize work effectively, emphasizing confidence intervals, calibration, and structured group discussions to surface assumptions and assess value.
(via Harvard Business Review): Do Lean Startup Methods Work for Deep Tech?
Linus Dahlander and Francis de Véricourt explain that while lean startup methods don’t fully apply to deep-tech ventures, adapting aspects like proof of concept, strategic partnerships, and learning by thinking can mitigate technological uncertainty.
: From Powerless to Powerful: Expand Your Circle of Influence
Gustavo Razzetti emphasizes expanding one's circle of influence by focusing on what one can control, fostering ownership, and empowering teams to influence outcomes rather than wasting energy on uncontrollable concerns.
: Beyond the Five Whys: The Power of Smart Questioning for Product Leaders
Diana Stepner urges product leaders to shift from a “know-it-all” to a “learn-it-all” mindset, using smart questioning—focusing on “what” and “how”—to foster innovation, collaboration, and adaptability in an AI-driven world.
🎶 Encore
(via Corporate Rebels): 📅 Bayer’s Radical Transformation
On October 21, Corporate Rebels presents an exclusive live interview on Bayer’s radical shift to Dynamic Shared Ownership (DSO), self-management, 90-day cycles, and the journey of transforming a 100,000-employee organization.
📅 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 Rapid Prototyping with Claude:
- 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 Rapid Prototyping with Claude — 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 Bringing Problems to Leaders by pointing them to the free Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide: