Food for Agile Thought #377: Spotify Model Critique, Building Products With AI, Gemba Walk Guide, Product or Feature?

TL; DR: Spotify Model Critique — Food for Agile Thought #377

Welcome to the 377th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 36,609 peers. This week, we start with a Spotify Model critique: Jason Yip dissected what many consider an agile framework from an insider’s perspective. Also, we point to issues contributing to management’s failure to keep pace with innovation, from branded management practices vying for attention to business school complicity to confusing management with exact science, and we appreciate John Cutler’s sketch of a simple framework to become a better leader.

Then, we apply the 5C model to ‘bring some structure and product thinking to AI solutions.’ Additionally, we share practical advice on a common product management challenge: feature or product? Also, we listen to Jason Knight and Jeff Gothelf philosophizing about the necessary shift from output to outcome orientation and why organizations still struggle to do so, and we explain Spotify’s approach to validation employing the broader DIBB framework: Data, Insight, Belief, and Bet.

Finally, John Shook shares his guidelines for Gemba walks as an outside advisor, from asking why to showing respect. Moreover, RebootHQ released a bundle of free self-guided courses, and Puppet made the 10th edition of the State of DevOps Report available. Lastly, we shed light on quality metrics, defining different ones for different stakeholder groups while warning of the risks of gaming them.

Food for Agile Thought #377: Spotify Model Critique, Building Products With AI, Gemba Walk Guide, Product or Feature? Age-of-Product.com
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Scrum Master Interview Questions 2023: The Scrum Master Role

TL; DR: Scrum Master Interview Guide 2023: The Scrum Master Role

If you want to fill a Scrum Master position in your organization, you may find the following interview questions helpful in identifying the right candidate. They are derived from my seventeen years of practical experience with XP as well as Scrum, serving both as Product Owner and Scrum Master, as well as interviewing dozens of Scrum Master candidates on behalf of my clients. This revised set of questions addresses the Scrum Master role.

Given the remarkable results, ChatGPT recently scored in my fictitious interview for a Scrum Master position; I added extra scrutiny to the nature of the questions. While I find ChatGPT a fascinating technology, I want it to fail in this interview challenge.

So far, this Scrum Master interview guide has been downloaded more than 25,000 times.

Scrum Master Interview Questions 2023: The Scrum Master Role — Age-of-Product.com
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How much Product Discovery Is Enough? Itamar Gilad’s Confidence Meter

TL; DR: Evidence-guided Product Discovery Using Itamar Gilad’s Confidence Meter

How much product discovery is enough? Figuring out what is worth building often feels valuable in and of itself. The problem is that becoming stuck in an endless discovery cycle neither solves your customers’ issues nor contributes to your organization’s sustainability. Don’t worry; help is on the way in the form of Itamar Gilad’s Confidence Meter!

How much Product Discovery Is Enough? Itamar Gilad’s Confidence Meter — Age-of-Product.com

📺 Watch the video now: How much Product Discovery Is enough? Itamar Gilad’s Confidence Meter Explained — Hands-on Agile #47.

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Food for Agile Thought #376: Product Team Performance, Injustice at Work, How to Lead Complexity, ChatGPT Prompts for Scrum

TL; DR: Product Team Performance — Food for Agile Thought #376

Welcome to the 376th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 36,564 peers. This week, we listen to our two product heavyweights, Lenny Rachitsky and John Cutler, delving into the performance of product teams. We continue with suggesting abandoning the popular framing that Waterfall is the opposite of Agile and that moving from one to the other requires a transformation, and identify four roles, at least one which you will play in a moment of injustice: person harmed, upstander, the person who caused harm, or leader. Moreover, we learn how a major Toyota program was saved by descaling and applying Scrum.

Then, we enjoy Marty Cagan sharing his approach to how teams and companies “can best deal with the challenges of complexity.” Also, we explore “three popular models for product teams,” and point to stakeholder alignment factors, from not trapping yourself to not confusing roadmaps with release plans to treating stakeholders as customers. Moreover, the ProdPad folks compiled a comprehensive list of questions your team may engage in identifying what is worth building.

Finally, Petra Wille shares the first findings from her 2022 survey into what drives thriving communities of practices for product people. Next, JTBD Toolkit released the JTBD Canvas 2.0, and there are new ChatGPT prompts for Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and Developers. Lastly, Tami Reiss has a candid conversation with Rich Mironov on product ethics and the corresponding responsibilities of product managers and leaders.

Food for Agile Thought #376: Product Team Performance, Injustice at Work, How to Lead Complexity, ChatGPT Prompts for Scrum — Age-of-Product.com
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ChatGPT Prompts for Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and Developers

TL; DR: ChatGPT Prompts for Scrum Practitioners

Last week, I ran an “interview” with ChatGPT as an applicant for a fictitious Scrum Master position based on questions from Scrum Master Interview Guide. (See below.) While the overall results were broadly acceptable, I thought that changing the ChatGPT prompts might deliver better results. So, this time, I chose to present ChatGPT with three everyday scenarios based on more comprehensive prompts. Lo and behold, it worked very well.

Think twice if you still believe this technology is a fad or a toy. Instead, grab a cup of coffee and read for yourself.

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Food for Agile Thought #375: Acceleration Beats Velocity, Jazz Lessons for Product, 3 Forms of Debt, Becoming a Product Coach

TL; DR: Acceleration Beats Velocity — Food for Agile Thought #375

Welcome to the 375th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 36,502 peers. This week, we add new layers to the old ‘is velocity a useful metric’ discussion, pointing at physics, acceleration, and its multi-dimensionality. While at it, we also analyze the delicate tension between leadership and stakeholders, product management, and engineering, and learn how to make ‘effective decisions and [reduce] human misjudgment.’ As an experiment, we put OpenAI’s latest generative AI to the test: Would ChatGPT pass a screening interview for a fictitious Scrum Master position?

Then, we learn lessons from Frank Barrett’s book ‘Yes To The Mess: Surprising Leadership Lessons from Jazz,’ and we go back in history to shed more light on a divisive term — the ‘feature factory.’ Additionally, Marty Cagan shares his take on how to progress as a product manager in the field of product coaching, explaining prerequisites, the different coaching fields, and customer types.

Finally, we dissect the original idea of “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure” to explore Amazon’s approach, especially working backward. Moreover, we appreciate Will Larson’s deep dive into the details of assessing an engineering organization for various interested parties and Jason Yip’s measures to improve flow, from changing measuring delivery to per-process-step WIP limits. And if you are looking to spice up your Retrospectives, we have you covered with a set of retrospective games, from photo finish to Retrospective bingo to agile Battleship.

Food for Agile Thought #375: Acceleration Beats Velocity, Jazz Lessons for Product Management, 3 Exhausting Forms of Debt, Becoming a Product Coach — Age-of-Product.com
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