Food for Agile Thought #423: How to Ditch the Project Mindset, Who Rules Product, Thoughtful HIPPOs
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: How to Ditch the Project Mindset?—?Food for Agile Thought?#423
Welcome to the 423rd edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 49,908 peers. This week, Janna Bastow discusses how to ditch the project mindset, emphasizing user-centric development, and Annie Duke and Howard Marks explore decision-making in uncertainty. At the same time, John Cutler examines the value of top-down decision-making, and Martijn Oost critiques the “SpotiSAFe?” model’s harmful effect on transformations. Also, I highlight pitfalls in the Scrum Framework from my book, “Scrum Anti Patterns Guide.”
Then, Itamar Gilad advocates for evidence-based leadership in product development, critiquing Airbnb’s approach. Noah Desai Weiss of Slack reveals his bold overhaul of user experience, while Jeff Gothelf discusses the effectiveness of empowered product teams over output-driven feature teams. Stay SaaSy contributes practical tips to enhance team velocity, focusing on removing dependencies and streamlining project narratives.
Lastly, Kate Leto highlights the importance of conflict resolution and emotional intelligence in product development. Also, Kim Scott and Lenny Rachitsky explore Scott’s books “Radical Candor” and “Radical Respect,” focusing on leadership and feedback. Ben McRedmond discusses principles for increasing startup product velocity, and Chris Lewicki recounts a near-miss incident at NASA, emphasizing resilience and learning from mistakes. Finally, we unravel the secrets of what makes a Scrum Master not just good but amazingly outstanding. From regularly achieving Sprint Goals, delivering value to customers, and building stakeholder rapport easily, discover the traits that set apart successful Scrum Masters.
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?? The Tip of the Week: How to Ditch the Project?Mindset
Janna Bastow (via ProdPad): From Project to Product Mindset: How to Make The?Change
Janna Bastow elaborates on transitioning from a project to product mindset, focusing on evolving from mere task completion to strategic, insightful product development driven by user needs and market dynamics.
Author: Janna Bastow
?? Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide
The Podcast by Agile Coaching Round Table (ACRT): Anti-Patterns of Scrum with Stefan?Wolpers
I discuss my brand-new book, the “Scrum Anti Patterns Guide,” exploring elements of the Scrum Framework and identifying common anti-patterns within each element on the Agile Coaching Round Table podcast.
Source: ?? The Podcast by Agile Coaching Round Table (ACRT): Anti-Patterns of Scrum with Stefan Wolpers
Author: Stefan Wolpers
? Agile &?Scrum
?? Annie Duke (via Oaktree): Conversations?—?Special Episode with Annie Duke and Howard?Marks
The author Annie Duke, alongside Howard Marks, delves into luck, decision quality, and uncertainty, inspired by her book “Thinking in Bets” and Howard’s memo “You Bet!” in a compelling podcast.
Author: Annie Duke
John Cutler: The Thoughtful HIPPO
John Cutler highlights the often-underrated value of top-down decision-making in uncertain situations, using vacation analogies to illustrate the challenges and solutions in leadership dynamics.
Source: The Thoughtful HIPPO
Author: John Cutler
Martijn Oost (via Medium): Stop SpotiSAFe?: The havoc-wreaking bastard child of SAFe? and the Spotify model must be?stopped
Martijn Oost criticizes the hybrid “SpotiSAFe?” model, a blend of the Spotify model and SAFe?, for its convoluted structure that fails to capture the strengths of either approach, leading to ineffectiveness and disillusionment in Agile Transformations.
Author: Martijn Oost
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Learn more: ?? ?? ???? Product Backlog Management Cohort Class of Jan 23 to Feb 20, 2024.
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?? Product
Itamar Gilad: Who Should Rule the?Product?
Itamar Gilad debates the optimal decision-making authority in product development, citing Airbnb’s controversial shift and advocating for balanced, evidence-based leadership over traditional top-down or discipline-centric approaches.
Source: Who Should Rule the Product?
Author: Itamar Gilad
领英推荐
Noah Desai Weiss (via First Round Capital): How to take bigger, bolder product?bets
The author narrates how Slack’s CPO, Noah Desai Weiss, transformed the user experience by daring to overhaul it completely, illustrating his approach to bold, informed product decision-making.
Author: Noah Desai Weiss
Jeff Gothelf: Ego killed the empowered product?team
Jeff Gothelf contrasts feature teams, driven by output and lacking autonomy, with empowered product teams, highlighting the latter’s effectiveness in solving problems and achieving outcomes. This approach requires humility and trust, often hindered by leadership ego.
Author: Jeff Gothelf
staysaasy: Practical Ways To Increase Product?Velocity
Stay SaaSy offers practical strategies to enhance product and engineering team velocity, emphasizing the importance of eliminating dependencies, requiring clear project narratives, and improving deployment and incident metrics for increased efficiency.
Author: staysaasy
?? Successful Scrum?Masters
In this article, I unravel the secrets of what makes a Scrum Master not just good but amazingly outstanding. From regularly achieving Sprint Goals, delivering value to customers, and building stakeholder rapport easily, discover the traits that set apart successful Scrum Masters.
Moreover, we also shed light on the pitfalls to avoid if you want to keep the respect of your teammates and probably your job.
Learn more: Successful Scrum Masters.
?? Concepts, Tools & Measuring
Kate Leto: Conflict is not the secret sauce to building a great?product
Kate Leto dispels the myth that conflict is essential for great product development, advocating for conflict resolution and emotional intelligence in teams to foster better outcomes.
Author: Kate Leto
?? Lenny Rachitsky and Kim Scott: Radical Candor: From Theory to?Practice
Kim Scott, acclaimed author of “Radical Candor,” and Lenny Rachitsky discuss her influential framework and upcoming book “Radical Respect,” exploring leadership, feedback strategies, and the balance between kindness and effectiveness.
Authors: Lenny Rachitsky and Kim Scott
Ben McRedmond (via Equals): How to ship?fast
Ben McRedmond shares eight principles for maintaining product velocity in startups: focus on momentum, customer closeness, design involvement, decision speed, task ownership, detailed planning, quality-speed balance, and capturing inspiration.
Source: Equals: How to ship fast
Author: Ben McRedmond
?? Encore
Chris Lewicki: My $500M Mars Rover Mistake: A Failure?Story
Chris Lewicki recounts a harrowing experience at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where a testing error on the Spirit Mars Rover nearly resulted in a $500M failure, teaching valuable lessons about resilience and learning from mistakes.
Author: Chris Lewicki
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??? Last Week’s Food for Agile Thought?Edition
Read more: Food for Agile Thought 422: Human Misjudgment, Evaluating Product Managers, Fake Agile, Scaling Simplified.
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I Help Startup & B2B with Sales & Business Development | Founder @ Brainstorm
9 个月Hey Stefan, just got through your latest newsletter - you've really outdone yourself this time! The piece on user experience overhaul was quite an eye-opener. And that bit about resilience and learning from mistakes? Absolutely spot on! Keep these coming, mate!
Thought Provoker / COO - AI / Edge Computing
9 个月Spotisafe? Haven't heard that phrase yet, but the "Spotify Model" is already mangled beyond recognition when I encounter it. Usually, all it does it a matrix organization consisting of tribes and chapters, and when I ask what these things are supposed to mean - it already gets thin. And when I ask what else Spotify Model is besides the Matrix ... Blank stares.