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.

TL; DR: The Hidden Micromanager, Defining Product Outcomes — Food for Agile Thought #374

Happy 2023 and welcome to the 374th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 36,453 peers. This week, we share a short assessment of whether you fall into the category of the “hidden micromanager.” Speaking of which, we delve into nurturing a blame-free learning organization, from accepting the inevitability of failure, embracing the resulting learning opportunity, reflecting, and moving on. Moreover, we listen to Jason Knight and Douglas Squirrel diving deep into how tech teams can get closer to the business side, improve decision processes, and have effective conversations across the whole organization whiling pointing to five habits of high-performing teams, from using pre-mortems to a disagree-but-commit attitude to making learning a priority.

Then, we follow Teresa Torres and Hope Gurion, delving into the intricate details of getting outcomes right, from avoiding masquerading outputs as outcomes to not choosing outcomes outside your team’s control to not measuring action instead of value, and we reflect on the inherent risks of continuing to work with your prototypes beyond product-market fit, which is all too common. Additionally, we point out that failures are inevitable, and product managers learn in public. Consequently, it would help if you improved dealing with failure in public, too.

Finally, we provide a comprehensive guide on the OKR framework and its application to product management. Moreover, we reframe the investigative and often intrusive ‘why’ question so you “indirectly but effectively get the answers you need.” Amazingly, John Cutler created a live diagram of his modeling process. As an example, he aims to identify the drivers of a healthy community. Lastly, Jason Yip advocates using Blink Estimation, User Story Mapping, and swimlane sizing to improve project-level forecasting.

TL; DR: ChatGPT and Disruption, The Value of Agile Coaching — Food for Agile Thought #373

Welcome to the 373rd edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 36,412 peers. This week, we suggest how AI, in general, and ChatGPT and its successors, in particular, may disrupt our current world. Additionally, we delve into how agile coaches can communicate the benefits of their work to organizations, suggesting the NABC value proposition scheme. Plus, we point to the many benefits of cognitive diversity to avoid blind spots and adapt to changing environments. Also, Adam Grant interviews John and Julie Gottman, renowned researchers of marital relationships, on how to play the infinite game. We can apply many of their findings to creating trust and rapport professionally.

Then, we share a comprehensive guide to a critical artifact, the product strategy document, covering the dos & don’ts, what it needs to cover, and its subsequent inspection and adaptation. Moreover, we share “how to use the product discovery loop to build high-growth products” while discussing all things stakeholder management, from its general benefits to the nitty-gritty details of creating alignment. By the way, an excellent tool to create alignment is the Product Goal Canvas; see below.

Finally, we detail how to apply a hugely valuable flow metric to your work and point to the all-so-human flaw of falling for vanity metrics to measure “success” when it is all about solving problems and building relationships. Lastly, we try to answer a compelling question: Is ChatGPT a game-changer? And if so, from whom?

I hope you have a fantastic season filled with joy and happiness. Whether you’re celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or something else, I hope the season brings you good cheer and lots of time to spend with the people you love.

This edition will be the last for 2022; Food for Agile Thought will be back on January 8, 2023. ​