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Food for Agile Thought #476: PM Career-Defining AI Skills, Graph Theory for Orgs, Budget for Change, High-Performance Team Toolbox

by Stefan Wolpers | 2025-01-17 News

TL; DR: PM Career-Defining AI Skills — Food for Agile Thought #476

Welcome to the 476th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,817 peers. This week, we feature John Cutler on how Lean principles adapt to stabilize scaling challenges, Simon Powers on budgeting strategies for impactful organizational change, and Steven Sinofsky dissecting engineering patterns that fail despite sounding practical. James Hawkins addresses escaping the “deadline doom loop,” while Steve Denning examines the synergy of hierarchies and networks for fostering innovation and competence.

Next, Dan Olsen debunks claims of product management’s demise, highlighting AI’s role in enhancing PM effectiveness. Peter Yang interviews Aman Khan on PM Career-Defining AI Skills in 2025, while Mihika Kapoor shares her playbook for turning bold ideas into viral internal successes. Moreover, David Pereira offers practical guidance on refactoring, bridging technical and business priorities through actionable insights and real-world examples.

Lastly, we explore Stefan Lindegaard’s toolbox for scaling high-performance teams with tools like the Capability Gap Map. Petra Wille highlights trust and generosity as keys to thriving communities, and Melissa Suzuno showcases Vistaly’s role in continuous discovery. Finally, Katelyn Bourgoin shares psychology-driven strategies to shape customer pricing perceptions effectively.

Food for Agile Thought #476: PM Career-Defining AI Skills, Graph Theory, Budget for Change, High-Performance Team Toolbox–Age-of-Product.com

Forensic Product Backlog Analysis — A New Team Exercise

by Stefan Wolpers | 2025-01-13 Agile and ScrumAgile Transition

TL; DR: Forensic Product Backlog Analysis Exercise

The Forensic Product Backlog Analysis: A 60-minute team exercise to fix your Backlog. Identify what’s broken, find out why, and agree on practical fixes—all in five quick steps. There is no fluff, just results.

Want technical excellence and solve customer problems? Start with a solid Product Backlog.

Forensic Product Backlog Analysis — A New Team Exercise — Age-of-Product.com

Food for Agile Thought #475: Natural Agility, Fake Product Transformations, AI Product Management, Fail a Lot!

by Stefan Wolpers | 2025-01-10 News

TL; DR: Natural Agility — Food for Agile Thought #475

Welcome to the 475th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,812 peers. This week, Dave Snowden challenges the “Agile Industrial Complex” to move beyond rote behaviors toward fostering natural agility and strategic impact. Charles Lambdin dissects Agile’s waning influence, citing political naïveté and misaligned priorities, while Chris Matts warns of superficial “Product Transformations” in 2025, echoing past Agile missteps. Gene Gendel discusses with Andy Cleff and Jay Hrcsko how HR and finance can either constrain or enable agility. Finally, Gregor Ojstersek and Michał Poczwardowski offer actionable tips for creating meetings engineers won’t hate, emphasizing relevance and purpose.

Next, Aletheia Delivre introduces “Walk the Park” and “Customer Love Sprints,” rituals that help teams tackle UX debt and prioritize customer-focused improvements. John Cutler advocates for nuanced customer segmentation via organizational psychographics, aligning strategy and product with GTM approaches, and Marty Cagan reflects on AI’s evolving role in product management, examining its effects on discovery, creativity, and team satisfaction. Also, Jason Cohen shares actionable strategies for uncovering customer insights before building a product, emphasizing creative outreach and leveraging networks.

Lastly, Nir Eyal reframes failure as a growth opportunity, advocating for resilience through structured reflection and positivity. Benji Weber explores overcoming resistance to Extreme Programming by inviting teams to embrace collaboration and shared ownership. Moreover, Kent Beck contrasts the “Desert” and “Forest” mindsets, showcasing how XP practices lead to near-zero production bugs. Gustavo Razzetti uncovers five hidden team habits that sabotage collaboration, while Van Halen’s “no brown M&Ms” clause offers a metaphor for identifying overlooked details, much like sentinel species signal broader systemic risks.

Food for Agile Thought #475: Natural Agility, Fake Product Transformations, AI Product Management, Fail a Lot! — Age-of-Product.com

Is the Era of the Scrum Master Coming to an End?

by Stefan Wolpers | 2025-01-05 Agile and ScrumAgile Transition

TL; DR: Three Data Points Pointing to the Decline of the Scrum Master’s Role

If you hang out in the “Agile” bubble on LinkedIn, the dice have already been cast: Scrum is out (and the Scrum Master), and the new kid on the block is [insert your preferred successor framework choice here.] I’m not entirely certain about that, but several data points on my side suggest a decline in the role of the Scrum Master.

Read on and learn more about whether the Scrum Master is a role at risk.

Scrum Master: Is an Era Coming to an End? Three Data Points Pointing to its Decline — by Age-of-Product.com.

Food for Agile Thought #474: Bureaucracies, Proactive Product Quality, Dark Lean, Growing Professional Relationships

by Stefan Wolpers | 2024-12-20 News

TL; DR: Bureaucracies — Food for Agile Thought #474

Welcome to the 474th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,8883 peers. This week, John Cutler examines the tension between adhocracies and bureaucracies in tech, while Miljan Bajić uses Kuhn’s paradigm shift theory to frame the transition from Waterfall to true agility. Christoph Roser warns against “Dark Lean,” where cost-centric misuse of lean practices undermines safety and respect. Maarten Dalmijn highlights the importance of simplicity and emergence in navigating uncertainty, and John Rauser champions probabilistic thinking and adaptive systems for large-scale software delivery success. Also, we consider whether “pure Scrum” is actually applicable.

Next, Richard Mironov emphasizes the need for product managers to tailor communication to diverse audiences, aligning with stakeholder needs. Pavel Samsonov highlights the pitfalls of focusing on product problems over customer needs, advocating outcome-driven planning. Aakash Gupta shares strategies for proactive product quality, including pre-mortems, lifecycle planning, user testing, and robust monitoring to build trust and avoid reactive issues.

Lastly, Gergely Orosz and Sean Goedecke discuss navigating Big Tech projects, blending technical expertise with management savvy, and Jason Yip challenges traditional productivity metrics, focusing on value and impact. Tejas Kumar introduces the TJS Collaboration Model to foster meaningful professional relationships, while Madeleine Wyatt explores navigating office politics with integrity to build authentic and effective connections.

Food for Agile Thought #474: Bureaucracies, Proactive Product Quality, Dark Lean, Growing Professional Relationships — Age-of-Product.com-

Can Pure Scrum Actually Work?

by Stefan Wolpers | 2024-12-16 Agile and ScrumAgile Transition

TL; DR: Pure Scrum?

Can you rely on pure Scrum to transform your organization and deliver value? Not always. While Scrum excels in simplicity and flexibility, applying it “out of the box” often falls short in corporate contexts due to limitations in product discovery, scaling, and portfolio management.

This article explores the conditions under which pure Scrum thrives, the organizational DNA required to support it, and practical scenarios where it works best—along with a candid look at where it struggles. Discover whether pure Scrum is a realistic approach for your team and how thoughtful adaptation can unlock its true potential.

Learn about conditions under which pure Scrum thrives and the organizational DNA required to support it — Age-of-Product.com