Age of Product’s Food for Thought of May 29th, 2016 provides insights into essential agile metrics, and what questions to ask at the beginning of an agile transition. We deal with agile self-righteous know-it-alls and lift the secret of Hubspot’s product management practice: customer-centricity.
We also explore, what makes us buy things, and why traction is the first of all agile metrics. We also dive into lessons learned from Mr. Lean Startup, Eric Ries, and read about SocialWire’s successful pivot.
Last, but least, we learn why enterprise culture is a double-edged sword, what artificial intelligence and automation will mean for the future of work, and how technology hijacks our psychological vulnerabilities.
Essential Reads
(via The Stratechery): The Curse of Culture
Ben on why culture is not something that begets success, rather, it is a product of it, covering Microsoft’s blindness, Steve Jobs’ leadership, and warning signs for Apple and Google.
(via Andreessen Horowitz): Automation, Jobs, & the Future of Work (and Income)
a16z on what will it take to deal with a world—and a workplace—where machines could be thought of as colleagues? The key lies in distinguishing between automation vs. augmentation, argue IT management professor Thomas Davenport and Harvard Business editor Julia Kirby.
(via Medium): How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds — from a Magician and Google’s Design Ethicist
Tristan, formerly a Design Ethicist at Google, on how technology hijacks our psychological vulnerabilities.
Agile Metrics & Scrum
(via Version One): Agile Metrics: Measuring What Actually Matters
Sally of AgilityHealth on which metrics to track, when an organizations transform to agile, and which metrics only end up serving vanity purposes.
(via Scrum Alliance): An Agile Transformer's Initial Dialogue with an Organization
Marie Louise on which questions to ask an organization, when starting an agile transformation project.
(via UserVoice): Dealing With Difficult Stakeholders
Ashwini, Product Manager at HealthSparq, shares her tips & tricks on how to deal with difficult stakeholders. (Originally given at ProductCamp Portland in 2016.)
(via DZone): Agile Adolescence: The Gawky Teenage Years
Dwight on those, who are just starting the path to agile, who can be self-righteous know-it-alls, procrastinators, rebels, and attention hogs. It’s just like the path to adulthood, and made me instantly smile.
and : Retro Technique: Building Team Empathy
Andy on designing a retrospective to help the “Left Brains” and the “Right Brains” on a team figure out, why they were having so much trouble communicating effectively.
and (via Strategyzer): CXOTALK: Alex Osterwalder Chats About Culture Change & Digital Transformation
Alex & Dave on how to transform an enterprise organization to a digital entity and create a culture of change along the way.
Product & Lean
and (via This Is Product Management): Building a Customer-Driven Product Team is Product Management
Daniel, CEO of Drift and formerly Chief Product Officer at Hubspot, shares how to structure product teams and how autonomy increases employee retention and customer-centricity.
(via Mind The Product): The Psychology Behind Successful Products
Nathalie explains the psychological principles behind the successful conversion, adoption and monetization of products, and how you can use these techniques in a nice vs naughty way.
(via The Wharton School): The Art of Product Management with Sachin Rekhi (ENG’05 W’05)
Sachin, former Head of Product at LinkedIn, shares in this video his understanding of how product managers drive the vision, strategy, design, and execution of their products.
: Scaling Lean Course: The One Metric to Rule Them All
Ash on the importance of traction and why you should be careful: traction can be gamed, too, then it’s vanity metric.
and (via This Week In Startups): Eric Ries, author of the upcoming book “The Leader’s Guide,” on the science of startup success
Jason interviews Eric Ries on his learnings how to best apply the lean Startup methodology and why (product) experiments need to be of a scientific nature to succeed.
(via 500 Startups): The Startup Pivot Pyramid
Selcuk on why and how his former startup SocialWire—later acquired by Rakuten—started and accomplished its pivot.