TL; DR: Learning from Spotify, The Lizard Brain & Agile—Food for Agile Thought #299

Welcome to the 299th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 32,056 peers. This week, we continue learning from Spotify: Kevin Goldsmith shares lessons learned during the hay days of the “Spotify Model.” Moreover, we delve into the psychology of our inner lizard, constantly on the alert and hiding below a thin crust of civilization and how it relates to team building. Finally, we also witness a desperate attempt by McKinsey to save the PMO by relabeling it ATO. (The sad thing is that C-level folks from BigCorp will go for it.)

We then reflect on autonomy, empowerment, agency, and what that means for work at the team level, and we try to define what “product sense” is about in design, product management, engineering, or venture capital. Also, Ken Norton shares another interview from his outstanding series on successful product practices, and there is an infographic on the differences between projects and products developed by agile teams.

Lastly, we share Patricia Thompson’s journey of teaching Agile in schools, the “triumphs and enlightenment and how we adapted along the way.”