Food for Agile Thought #375: Acceleration Beats Velocity, Jazz Lessons for Product Management, 3 Forms of Debt, Becoming a Product Coach
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: 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.
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?? The Tip of the?Week
Jessica Joy Kerr: Velocity defeats itself. Get acceleration instead
Jessica Joy Kerr adds new layers to the old ‘is velocity a useful metric’ discussion, pointing at physics and its multi-dimensionality.
Author:?Jessica Joy Kerr
? Agile &?Scrum
(via Big O(n) Development): How to Address Tech Debt vs. Product Debt vs. Business?Debt
Julius Uy explores the delicate tension between leadership and stakeholders, product management, and engineering.
(via Farnam Street): The Munger Two?Step
Farnam Street spreads more wisdom from Charlie Munger to make ‘effective decisions and [reduce] human misjudgment.’
(via Parabol Focus): 13 Sprint Retrospective Games for Remote?Teams
Parabol curated a set of retrospective games, from photo finish to Retrospective bingo to agile battleship.
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Ken Norton: Please Make Yourself Uncomfortable: What product managers can learn from jazz musicians
Ken Norton shares leadership lessons from Frank Barrett’s book ‘Yes To The Mess: Surprising Leadership Lessons from Jazz.’
Author:?Ken Norton
Itamar Gilad: Feature Factories vs. Value Generators
Itamar Gilad goes back in history to shed more light on a divisive term — the ‘feature factory.’
Author:?Itamar Gilad
Marty Cagan (via Silicon Valley Product Group): Becoming a Product?Coach
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.
Author:?Marty Cagan
?? A ChatGPT Job Interview for a Scrum Master?Position
Can a large language model, not specializing in anything “agile,” pass a screening interview for a Scrum Master position? In this ChatGPT job interview, I put OpenAI’s latest generative AI to the test. I took several questions from the?73 Scrum Master Interview Questions?guide, see below, covering the whole spectrum from the broad picture to more specific questions, only answerable with hands-on experience on the interviewee’s side.
So, read on and learn whether Scrum Masters will soon be replaced with a chatbot.
???Learn more:?A ChatGPT Job Interview for a Scrum Master Position.
?? Concepts, Tools & Measuring
Cedric Chin (via Commonplace): Goodhart’s Law Isn’t as Useful as You Might?Think
Cedric Chin dissects 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.
Author:?Cedric Chin
Will Larson: Measuring an engineering organization
Will Larson dives deep into the details of assessing an engineering organization for various interested parties.
Author:?Will Larson
Jason Yip (via Medium): Fixing ‘Too much?WIP’
Jason Yip points to five measures to improve flow, from changing measuring delivery to per-process-step WIP limits.
Source:?Medium: Fixing ‘Too much WIP’
Author:?Jason Yip
?? Encore
David Heinemeier Hansson: We don’t A/B test core?values
David Heinemeier Hansson shares his belief about running a business in a way you can feel proud about and the importance of values.
Source:?We don’t A/B test core values
Author:?David Heinemeier Hansson
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Food for Agile Thought 375: Acceleration Beats Velocity, Jazz Lessons for Product, 3 Forms of Debt, Becoming a Product Coach was first published on Age-of-Product.com.