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Food For Thought #69: Scaling Agile, LeSS Huge, Ruthless Prios, Good Metrics, Comfort Zones

Age of Product’s Food for Thought of November 27th, 2016—shared with 4,912 peers—pays tribute to an all-time favorite: scaling agile. Jeff Sutherland shares a recent presentation on the Shu Ha Ri principle, and we learn that you can build 22 teams at once. LeSS can be indeed Huge.

We then dive deep into best practices for agile retrospectives—cardinal sins to avoid, dealing with strange behavior—, and once again we refer to our velocity-is-not-a-suitable-agile-metric mantra.

Speaking of metrics: Laura Klein shares a chapter of her new book, addressing suitable product metrics, we embrace the ideas of ruthless prioritization and continuous product discovery, and learn again that diversity is good for product & profits. (By the way, can anyone explain to me why this seems to be so hard to understand?)

Last but not least, innovation and personal growth don’t seem to flourish in comfort zones. Maybe, seeking discomfort intentionally could help? Well then, read what Lyft’s director of product design has to say…

Enjoy a great Sunday!

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Scaling Agile & Scrum

Alexey Krivitsky: scaled lego4scrum - done with 155 people!

Alexey Krivitsky looks back at creating 22 teams and kicking off LeSS Huge with 155 people simultaneously.

Jeff Sutherland (via Scrum Inc): The Shu Ha Ri of Scrum @ Scale

Jeff Sutherland provides the download link to his presentation on scaling Scrum from a recent “Give Thanks for Scrum” event based on the Shu Ha Ri principle.

Eb: Velocity is NOT about Productivity

Eb wraps up his take on velocity, its place within the agile software development process, and why velocity hasn't got anything to do with productivity.

Szymon Skórczyński (via Medium): 7 cardinal sins of retrospectives

Szymon Skórczyński describes seven popular retrospective mistakes and suggests some ideas how to get rid of them.

Corinna Baldauf: What can you do if retrospectives repeatedly go sideways?

Corinna Baldauf shares her tips & tricks how to deal with strange behavior or team dynamics in a retrospective.

Product & Lean

Laura Klein (via UXmatters): Build Better Products

Laura Klein shares a sample chapter from her new book “Build Better Products” on metrics and how to measure whether a team’s work has made a product indeed better for users.

David Pasztor (via Mind The Product): How to turn a story point factory into a customer-centric team?

David Pasztor explains why continuous product discovery, e.g. based on Marty Cagan’s dual-track Scrum approach, is essential for building the right product.

John Vars: The Manifesto of Ruthless Prioritization

John Vars states that every company needs to be smart when setting their priorities. But startups need to be ruthless, and avoid being seduced by all the small, easy problems.

(via Stanford ECorner): Ignoring Diversity Hurts Tech Products and Ventures

Mike Peña of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program shares data on diversity – or the lack thereof – for top-ranked Silicon Valley technology firms, and explains why this is bad for product and business.

John Cutler (via Medium): Success Theater…

John Cutler provides us with another great listicle of thoughts and experiences. This time, why ‘success theater’ undermines the long-term potential of your team and organization.

The Essential Read

Frank Yoo (via Medium): Deliberate Discomfort

Frank Yoo, Director of Product Design @Lyft, describes the benefits of moving out of your comfort zone.

Categories: News
Stefan Wolpers: Stefan, based near Hamburg, Germany, has worked for 18-plus years as a Product Manager, Product Owner, Agile Coach, and Scrum Master. He is a Professional Scrum Trainer (PST) with Scrum.org and the author of Pearson’s “Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide.” He has developed B2C as well as B2B software, for startups as well as corporations, including a former Google subsidiary. Stefan curates the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter and organizes the Hands-on Agile Conference, a Barcamp for agile practitioners.
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