Food for Agile Thought #352: Team Topologies, CEOs and Product Leaders, Why Strategies Change, Leadership Essentials

by Stefan Wolpers |  News

TL; DR: Team Topologies, CEOs and Product Leaders — Food for Agile Thought #352

Welcome to the 352nd edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 35,602 peers. This week, we revisit Team Topologies, Conway’s Law, and how you might influence an organization’s structure as a lone product manager. We also explore the essence of behavioral change and apply lessons from Tim Hartford’s Cautionary Tale “The South Pole Race: David and Goliath on Ice” to your failed agile transformation. Moreover, we try to understand what ‘dream teams’ or ‘tiger teams’ supposedly are.

Then, we delve into the delicate relationship between the CEO and the product leader of an organization, stressing the importance of building candor, trust, and communicating well. Also, we listen to Casey Winters sharing career advice for aspiring product managers, from communicating upward to de-risking meetings. Finally, John Cutler continues his quest to understand product strategy; this time is all about why it changes, from recency bias to sporadic research.

Finally, we follow Jake Burghardt delving into the usefulness of research repositories as internal learning tools, including practical suggestions on how to employ them, and we enjoy a new game to ‘illustrate essential aspects for collaboration and workflow improvements.’ Lastly, HBR points to a critical element of why ‘organizational transformations are prone to failure.’

Food for Agile Thought #352: Team Topologies, CEOs and Product Leaders, Why Strategies Change, Leadership Essentials—Age-of-Product.com
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Stakeholder Trust

by Stefan Wolpers |  Agile and ScrumAgile Transition

TL; DR: Stakeholder Trust

Trust is the beginning of everything. I am hesitant to recycle an old slogan of a banking institute. However, in the context of becoming a learning organization and embracing business agility, it condenses the main challenge perfectly: How shall we convince the incumbents with vested interests in the status quo to give the new way of working the benefit of the doubt? Join me and delve into how distrust manifests and what we can do to earn stakeholder trust.

Stakeholder Trust — Scrum Master Survival Guide — Age-of-Product.com
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Food for Agile Thought #351: Agile and Deadlines, Why We (Often) Lack Strategy, Making Room for Discovery, Switching to Shape Up

by Stefan Wolpers |  News

TL; DR: Agile and Deadlines, Lack of Strategy — Food for Agile Thought #351

Welcome to the 351st edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 35,559 peers. This week, we delve into Agile and deadlines, debunking the myth of many managers that being agile only works in environments without them. Moreover, James Shore and Aino Vonge Corry dissect a core event to help teams reflect and improve. Also, we learn how Safesite went from two-week sprints to an approach that helped them understand ‘our customers better and [validate] what should be built next.’

Then, we reflect on disincentives to thinking strategically, starting with system design, and we describe Paypal’s innovation system that involves a ‘blockchain-based token system that lets employees place wagers on ideas.’ Also, we list suggestions to free yourself from administrative tasks for the benefit of figuring out what is worth building.

Finally, we analyze why most managers are good at managing but lack a critical skill of the 21st century, and we define lean metrics based on insights from the leading organization in everything ‘Lean’—Toyota. Lastly, we delve into the lessons learned from mastering mobbing together in a live stream.

Food for Agile Thought #351: Agile and Deadlines, Why We (Often) Lack Strategy, Transitioning to Shape Up, More Time for Product Discovery — Age-of-Product.com
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Prisoners of Retrospectives — Making Your Scrum Work #24

by Stefan Wolpers |  Agile and ScrumAgile Transition

TL; DR: Prisoners of Retrospectives

There are plenty of failure possibilities with Scrum. Given that Scrum is a framework with a reasonable yet short “manual,” this effect should not surprise anyone. What if, for example, not all of your Scrum team’s members feel enthusiastic about the Sprint Retrospective, the critical event when the Scrum team inspects itself? How can you help them become dedicated supporters instead? Join me and delve into how to avoid teammates feeling like prisoners of Retrospectives in less than two minutes.

Prisoners of Retrospectives — Making Your Scrum Work #24 —Age-of-Product.com
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Food for Agile Thought #350: Product Discovery Tool, Team Longevity, Vanity Metrics, Shared Understanding in Sketches

by Stefan Wolpers |  News

TL; DR: Product Discovery Tool, Vanity Metrics — Food for Agile Thought #350

Welcome to the 350th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 35,507 peers. This week, we introduce the ‘Confidence Meter,’ a product discovery tool. Plus, we ask a seemingly simple question: how do we define team longevity, and is it indeed a helpful approach? Moreover, we enjoy an introductory guide to understanding and using Product Goals to your team’s advantage and point at waste at all levels in our software shops.

Then, we share ‘empirical evidence for the [usefulness of the] Double-Diamond model’ and applaud Jason Yip, who sketched use cases of user stories, from 😞 to 🤔 to 😀 practices. And in case you plan your next career step: Roman Pichler sheds light on the responsibilities of a head of product. Moreover, Janna Bastow talks about being lean while creating and maintaining your roadmap and how objectives and key results (OKR) may help meet that challenge.

Finally, we share John Cutler’s ultimate guide to fighting vanity metrics, from understanding their appeal to identifying and overcoming them. And while we are at it: Agile Uprising provides a guide to helpful metrics in various environments, from flow efficiency to work item age to time to market.

Food for Agile Thought #350: Product Discovery Tool, Team Longevity, Vanity Metrics, Shared Understanding in Sketches — Age-of-Product.com
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Janna Bastow: Lean Roadmapping and OKRs — Hands-on Agile #42

by Stefan Wolpers |  Agile and ScrumLean and Product

TL; DR: HoA #42: Lean Roadmapping and OKRs w/ Janna Bastow

In this energizing 42nd Hands-on Agile session on Lean Roadmapping, Janna Bastow, the go-to-authority on product roadmaps, talked about being lean while creating and maintaining your roadmap and how objectives and key results (OKR) may help meet that challenge.

Janna Bastow: Lean Roadmapping and OKRs — Hands-on Agile #42 — Age-of-Product.com

📺 Watch the video now: Janna Bastow: Lean Roadmapping and OKRs — Hands-on-Agile #42.

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