Food for Agile Thought #429: Product Management 2024, The Feature Trap, Root Cause Analysis, Fluid Agile Teams
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: Product Management 2024 Report?—?Food for Agile Thought?#429
Welcome to the 429th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,168 peers. This week, we delve into ProductPlan’s Product Management 2024 Report, unveiling evolving trends in strategic focus, measuring outcomes over outputs, aligning with customer feedback, standardizing Product Ops, and adopting AI with purpose. Tim Metz highlights the trend towards fluid, agile teams, enhancing flexibility but cautioning against the potential loss of team cohesion and burnout. The Agile Uprising podcast, featuring Chris Murman, Jay Hrcsko, and Andrew Leff, tackles “Gluttony” in agile transformation, urging a balance in work, personal growth, and relationships, and Takeshi Yoshida brings essential leadership skills for navigating the VUCA world to light, advocating for a diverse set of mental models for effective decision-making. Additionally, we explore how to get hired as a Scrum Master or Agile Coach.
Then, Peter Yang shares insights on the necessity for product managers to foster product sense, empathy, and creativity, and Melissa Suzuno recounts Sandrine Veillet’s methodical and challenging journey towards implementing continuous discovery at WebMD, underlining the critical role of stakeholder engagement and team education. Michael Goitein challenges the efficacy of prioritization frameworks in product management, proposing a focus on strategic clarity to ensure product initiatives resonate with company objectives and customer needs. Moreover, Andy Budd critiques the prevalent feature-driven development model, advocating for a user experience and outcomes-focused strategy to significantly enhance product value.
Lastly, Chris Matts critically examines Kanban’s shift from manufacturing to software, emphasizing the importance of practical application. We present a guide on Root Cause Analysis (RCA) in product management for addressing issues at their source for lasting improvements, and Cedric Chin shares insights on adopting Amazon’s Weekly Business Review (WBR), underscoring Statistical Process Control principles for smarter decision-making. Finally, Randall Munroe of xkcd combines humor with physics in a unique thought experiment about a baseball pitched at nearly the speed of light.
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?? The Tip of the Week: Product Management 2024?Report
(via ProductPlan): The 2024 State of Product Management Annual?Report
The 2024 State of Product Management Report reveals trends in strategy focus, outcome measurement, customer feedback alignment, Product Ops standardization, and reasoned AI adoption among product professionals.
?? Lemon of the?Week
We do not have a lemon this week.
? Agile &?Scrum
(via Parabol Focus): Fluid Teams: The Next Evolution of?Agile?
Tim Metz discusses the rising trend of fluid teams in Agile, where team composition shifts as needed, enhancing flexibility and resource optimization but raising concerns about cohesion and burnout.
?? (via Agile Uprising): Gluttony, The Third Deadly Sin of Agile Transformation
In this episode of the Agile Uprising podcast, Chris Murman, Jay Hrcsko, and Andrew Leff discuss “Gluttony” as a significant issue in agile transformation, focusing on the consequences of excess in work, personal development, and relationships, and advocates for mindful balance.
?? Takeshi Yoshida (via Medium): Navigating Uncertainty, Handling Complexity?—?Leadership Skills Development
Takeshi Yoshida discusses developing leadership skills to navigate the complexities of the VUCA world, emphasizing the Cynefin Framework and integrating diverse mental models for effective decision-making.
Author: Takeshi Yoshida
?? ?? ???? Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Class w/ PSFS Certificate?—?February 15,?2024
The Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills (PSFS) training by Berlin Product People is a one-day official Scrum.org class for advanced Scrum practitioners and agile coaches, including the industry-acknowledged PSFS certification. This PSFS training class is in English.
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?? Product
Peter Yang (via Figma): 10 Rules for Making Products that Customers Love
Peter Yang emphasizes a product manager’s need to continually develop their product sense, empathy, and creativity, sharing lessons from his extensive career across major tech platforms.
Author: Peter Yang
Teresa Torres: Product in Practice: Bringing the Discovery Habits to?WebMD
Melissa Suzuno highlights Sandrine Veillet’s journey in implementing continuous discovery at WebMD, emphasizing her systematic approach, the challenges faced, and the importance of stakeholder involvement and team training for real progress.
Author: Teresa Torres
领英推荐
Michael Goitein (via Medium): The One Reason Why Prioritization Frameworks Will Never Work, and What to Do?Instead
Michael Goitein critiques prioritization frameworks in product management, advocating for strategic clarity over feature ranking to align product development with organizational goals and customer needs.
Source: Medium: The One Reason Why Prioritization Frameworks Will Never Work, and What to Do Instead
Author: Michael Goitein
Andy Budd (via Smashing Magazine): The Feature Trap: Why Feature Centricity Is Harming Your?Product
Andy Budd discusses the limitations of a feature-centric approach in product development, suggesting a shift towards understanding user experiences and outcomes to enhance product value truly.
Author: Andy Budd
?? Getting Hired as a Scrum Master or Agile?Coach
Are you considering a new Scrum Master or Agile Coach job? However, you are not sure that it is the right organization? Don’t worry; there are four steps of proactive research to identify suitable employers or clients for getting hired as a Scrum Master and avoid disappointment later.
I have used those four steps for years to identify organizations I would like to work with, and they never failed me. Read on and learn how to employ search engines, LinkedIn’s people search, reach out to peers in the agile community, and analyze the event markets in the quest for your next Scrum Master job.
Read the article now: Getting Hired as a Scrum Master or Agile Coach .
?? Concepts, Tools & Measuring
Chris Matts: Kanban?sucks!
Chris Matts critiques the adaptation of Kanban from manufacturing to software, highlighting key differences in workflow and efficiency and underscoring the importance of understanding practical application over theory.
Source: Kanban sucks!
Author: Chris Matts
(via Userpilot): Root Cause Analysis in Product Management: A Step-By-Step Guide
The article delves into the importance of Root Cause Analysis (RCA) in product management, offering a detailed guide on executing RCA to identify and solve the underlying causes of issues for long-term improvement and customer satisfaction enhancement.
Cedric Chin (via Commonplace): Becoming Data Driven, From First Principles
Cedric Chin outlines a journey from understanding variation to implementing Amazon’s Weekly Business Review (WBR), emphasizing the importance of Statistical Process Control principles for data-driven decision-making.
Author: Cedric Chin
?? Encore
?? Randall Munroe (via XKCD Comic): What if you threw a baseball at nearly light?speed?
Randall Munroe of xkcd explores the hypothetical scenario of hitting a baseball pitched at nearly the speed of light, blending humor with physics.
Author: Randall Munroe
?? Training Classes, Meetups & Events?2024
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??? Last Week’s Food for Agile Thought?Edition
Read more: Food for Agile Thought 428: Why Agile Fails, Product Management Theater, Decision Velocity, Deadlines & Trust .
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9 个月Vielen dank, Stefan Wolpers ??