TL; DR: AI Boom-or-Bust Situation — Food for Agile Thought #517
Welcome to the 517th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 40,352 peers. This week, Grant Harvey dissects the AI boom-or-bust situation, warning of inflated valuations built on shaky economics. Petra Wille urges teams to switch deliberately between product and project thinking, guided by feedback loops, and John Cutler skewers empty calls for simplification that mask vague agendas and stalled change. Len Greski declares the “Agile” brand broken but defends its principles, while David Pereira’s chat with David J. Bland highlights lessons learned and why systems thinking now takes center stage.
Next, Maarten Dalmijn highlights how delaying decisions can preserve options and reduce regret. Raghav Sethi critiques AI bloat in products, eroding trust. Richard Mironov warns of inflated AI valuations and urges sharper judgment. At the same time, Eli Pariser reports from a private AI summit where hype meets unease. Also, Johanna Rothman reminds us that truth-telling requires cultural permission and consistent leadership.
Lastly, Jeremy Korst, Stefano Puntoni, and Sonny Tambe show that generative AI delivers ROI at scale, though skills still lag. Teresa Torres explains how Claude Code lets non-technical users build reusable AI workflows, and Maik Seyfert exposes the illusion of team autonomy rooted in structural control. Also, Mark Levison targets bloated backlogs with story maps. Finally, Nadzeya Stalbouskaya urges leaders to treat architectural debt as a strategic risk rather than hide it under the label of technical debt.
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🏆 The Tip of the Week: The AI Boom-or-Bust Situation
(via The Neuron): The Bull and Bear Case For the AI Bubble, Explained
Grant Harvey explores the AI market as both transformative and unstable, presenting detailed bull and bear cases. He argues that we are living through a genuine revolution, financed by an unsustainable, circular, and likely to correct financial bubble.
🎯 Product
: Why It’s Time to Forget the Project vs. Product Operating Model Debate
Petra Wille revisits the project-versus-product model debate, arguing it remains relevant in 2025. She encourages product teams to build fluency in both mindsets, using feedback loops to guide the proper framing for each type of work.
: The Best Product Managers Optimize For Reversibility and Optionality
Maarten Dalmijn argues that great product managers embrace reversibility and optionality, delaying decisions until the last responsible moment. This mindset counters premature optimization and helps navigate uncertainty with better timing and fewer regrets.
: ‘We Have To Simplify!’
John Cutler satirizes vague calls to “simplify,” revealing how leaders often conflate cost-cutting, AI trends, and complexity without clear intent. The result is confusion, not clarity, and zero meaningful change.
(via makeuseof): I’m drowning in AI features I never asked for and I absolutely hate it
Raghav Sethi argues that tech firms are stuffing AI into products at the expense of usability and trust, turning once-simple tools and the broader internet into cluttered, less-human experiences.
🧠 Artificial Intelligence
(via Knowledge @ Wharton): 2025 AI Adoption Report: Accountable Acceleration: Gen AI Fast-Tracks Into the Enterprise
Jeremy Korst, Stefano Puntoni, and Sonny Tambe present findings from a three-year Wharton-led study showing Gen AI is moving from experiments to enterprise-wide ROI. Adoption is up, but capability building still lags behind ambition.
: A Historical Take on the AI Boom
Richard Mironov compares past tech waves to AI, warning valuations exceed reality and a correction looms. He expects AI to become routine, with product managers needing sharper judgment to avoid shipping faster mediocrity.
: What I Saw Around The Curve
Eli Pariser shares insights from “The Curve,” a private AI conference where optimism and unease coexist. Topics included AI acceleration, jagged capabilities, political fault lines, and the need to align AI societies, not just models.
: Claude Code: What It Is, How It's Different, and Why Non-Technical People Should Use It
Teresa Torres explains why Claude Code empowers non-technical users to build reusable, parallelized AI workflows. Unlike browser-based chats, it lets you own your data, automate research, and eliminate repetitive copy-paste work.
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➿ Agile & Leadership
(via Leading Agile): The Future of Agile Isn't ‘agile’
Len Greski argues that the “Agile” brand collapsed under its own weight, but the underlying principles still deliver measurable business value. He outlines how structure, predictability, and risk management drive growth without the “Agile” buzzword.
: Leadership Tip 23: How to Speak Truth to Power
Johanna Rothman reflects on how speaking truth to power requires cultural permission, congruent feedback, and courage. Leaders create fear through incongruence, but honest, well-framed stories can shift systems and restore alignment.
: Team Autonomy Is a Beautiful Lie — Here’s What’s Really Holding Teams Back
Maik Seyfert argues that team autonomy often exists in name only, undermined by structural control, hidden dependencies, and leadership behaviors. Real autonomy requires clear mandates, reduced dependencies, and leaders willing to let go.
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🛠 Concepts, Practices, Tools & Measuring
and : 📺 Beyond Frameworks: Six Years of Testing Business Ideas
David Pereira interviews David J. Bland, who reflects on six years of real-world experimentation, admitting where his framework fell short and why systems, mindset, and AI now matter more than methods or teams.
: Drowning in an Oversized Product Backlog? Story Mapping Is Your Life Raft
Mark Levison argues that giant Product Backlogs kill clarity, motivation, and prioritization. He suggests replacing bloated lists with story maps to reconnect work to vision, focus on near‑term value, and drop stale items.
(via The New Stack): Technical Debt vs. Architecture Debt: Don’t Confuse Them
Nadzeya Stalbouskaya warns that confusing technical debt with deeper architecture debt masks systemic flaws that stall cloud and AI efforts. She urges treating architecture debt as a strategic risk with metrics and governance.
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See all upcoming classes here.
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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 the AI Boom-or-Bust Situation:
- 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.
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Help your team to learn about the AI Boom-or-Bust Situation by pointing them to the free Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide:
