Food for Agile Thought #353: Sales vs. Product, Minimum Viable Transformation, Pivot or Persevere?
Stefan Wolpers
?? I help Product Owners, Product Managers, Scrum Masters & Agile Coaches Grow w/ Classes, Courses, Books & Community. ?? Author of the ”Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide;” ??Trainer at Scrum.org; ?? Book a 1-on-1; talk chances!
TL; DR: Sales vs. Product, Minimum Viable Transformation — Food for Agile Thought?#353
Welcome to the 353rd edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 35,651 peers.?
This week, we delve into Sales vs. Product, analyzing their conflicting worldviews. Additionally, we learn about the pre-requisites of cultural change, for example, ensuring that at least a quarter of your community supports the endeavor. Also, we detail why long-term software development plans do not work and critique an acclaimed book on DevOps, metrics, and effectiveness in software development.
Then, we reflect on Lean Startup’s “pivot or persevere” decision: scale, kill, pivot, or persevere, and we show practical ways to reduce our product’s risk of failure, from testing assumptions to data-informed decision-making. Moreover, we share eleven lessons on enabling product management with distributed teams, from the need to write more to embrace tools beyond Zoom and Google Docs.
Finally, we enjoy Avion’s bookmark-worthy guide on user story mapping and detail how product analytics can reduce churn if you learn to identify customers that share ‘specific characteristics and usage patterns.’ Lastly, Russ Roberts interviews the economist — and former chief economist of Uber and Lyft — John List on what determines scalability and ‘good ideas.’
Did you miss the previous?Food for Agile Thought’s issue 352?
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?? The Tip of the Week: Sales vs.?Product
Rich Mironov: ‘A Working Request Process Should End in YES’ (aka Incompatible Worldviews)
Rich Mironov analyses the context of different worldviews of sales on the one side and product/development on the other side, pointing to the inherent conflict between these views.
Author:?Rich Mironov
? Agile &?Scrum
Daniel Stillman (via Medium): Minimum Viable Transformation
Daniel Stillman dives deep into the pre-requisites of cultural change, for example, ensuring that at least a quarter of your community supports the endeavor.
Author:?Daniel Stillman
Lucas F Costa: Why long-term plans don’t work and how to fix?them
Lucas F Costa details why long-term software development plans are his favorite ‘genre of fiction.’
Author:?Lucas F Costa
Keunwoo Lee: A review of _Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and?DevOps_
Keunwoo Lee critically dissects an acclaimed book on DevOps, metrics, and effectiveness in software development.
Author:?Keunwoo Lee
?? ?? ?? ???? Hands-on Agile #44: Honey, I Shrunk the Backlog with Allan Kelly — September 5,?2022
The backlog was a great idea until it wasn’t. Many successful teams deliver backlog items daily, but their backlogs aren’t getting any smaller. The never-ending backlog overshadows delivery success. Product discovery, dual-track agile, OKRs, etc., make it worse by accelerating backlog growth without taking any of the rotting items away.
Worst of all, doing the backlog distracts from delivering benefits to the customers and responding to change. So what are we to do?
In this presentation,?Allan “Nuke the backlog” Kelly suggests you rethink the very idea of the backlog?and rebuild your agile process around outcomes. You have nothing to lose by your burn-down charts.
RSVP now and join 170-plus peers — seats are limited: ?? ?? ?????Honey, I Shrunk the Backlog with Allan Kelly — September 5, 2022
?? Product
Tristan Kromer (via Kromatic): How to Make “Pivot or Persevere” Decisions in Your Innovation Accounting
Tristan Kromer reflects on Lean Startup’s “pivot or persevere” decision, claiming that there are four possible outcomes: scale, kill, pivot, or persevere.
Author:?Tristan Kromer
(via Department of Product): How to de-risk your Product?Strategy
Richard Holmes shows practical ways to reduce your product’s risk of failure, from testing assumptions to data-informed decision-making.
Jens-Fabian Goetzmann (via Medium): Remote and Asynchronous Product Management
Jens-Fabian Goetzmann shares eleven lessons on enabling product management with distributed teams, from the need to write more to embracing tools beyond Zoom and Google Docs.
Author:?Jens-Fabian Goetzmann
?? Unengaged Stakeholders at the Sprint Review — Making Your Scrum Work?#25
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. For example, what if your Scrum team repeatedly faces unengaged stakeholders at the Sprint Review? How can the Scrum team stay on track in accomplishing the Product Goal when a vital feedback loop is missing?
Join me and delve into how to support your stakeholders in living up to their part of the collaboration with the Scrum team in less than two minutes.
?? Concepts, Tools & Measuring
(via Avion): What Is User Story Mapping? Examples & Step-By-Step Guide
Avion created a comprehensive guide on user story mapping worth bookmarking.
(via Amplitude): Cohort Analysis: Reduce Churn & Improve Retention
Darshil Gandhi details how product analytics can reduce churn if you learn to identify customers that share ‘specific characteristics and usage patterns.’
?? Cutting Room?Floor
?? John List and Russ Roberts (via Econlib): John List on Scale, Uber, and the Voltage?Effect
Russ Roberts interviews the economist — and former chief economist of Uber and Lyft — John List on what determines scalability and ‘good ideas.’
Authors:?John List?and?Russ Roberts
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Food for Agile Thought 353: Sales vs. Product, Minimum Viable Transformation, User Story Mapping Guide, Pivot or Persevere? was first published on Age-of-Product.com.