Food for Agile Thought #450: Agile’s Trial, Disruption Is Overrated, Lifecycle of Goals, Pessimistic Product Thinking
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!
Hello everyone!
Welcome to the 450th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,573 peers.
This week, Sjoerd Nijland imagines Agile’s Trial, highlighting criticisms of Scrum Masters and chaotic environments while defending Agile’s focus on flexibility and continuous improvement. John Cutler reflects on teams losing touch with progress, suggesting tracking key metrics to address challenges, and Tobias Mayer emphasizes Scrum Masters’ roles in organizational transformation, not just team management. Also, Maarten Dalmijn explores SAFe’s popularity over LeSS, attributing its success to its appeal to C-level executives and a non-rebellious narrative comforting traditional businesses, and we gain insights into David Pereira’s approach to turning backlog managers into product managers.
Next, Jason Cohen argues against the obsession with disruption, advocating for useful, desirable products and incremental improvements for sustainable success. April Dunford warns against “overly pessimistic product thinking,” urging teams to leverage product strengths for growth. Meanwhile, Eira Hayward discusses the challenges product managers face in organizations that lack understanding of product management, offering advice from industry leaders on overcoming resistance and implementing effective processes. Moreover, Casey Winters shares insights on scaling and product growth in a podcast, discussing fundamentals, product-market fit, and acquisition strategies from his tech industry experience.
Lastly, Itamar Gilad emphasizes managing the lifecycle of goals through phases of research, discovery, delivery, and monitoring to steer organizations toward outcomes, and Jeff Gothelf breaks down OKRs, stressing the importance of outcome-based key results. Joost Minnaar highlights Mainfreight’s budgetless management model, emphasizing decentralized action, transparency, and culture for success. Dan Pilat and Dr. Sekoul Krastev explain the planning fallacy and suggest strategies like AI, specific goals, and task segmentation to mitigate its effects. Finally, Marc Andreessen shares the journey from co-inventing the web browser to founding Netscape.
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?? The Tip of the Week
Sjoerd Nijland (via Medium): Agile on Trial. The Case That’s Shaking the Tech?World
Sjoerd Nijland imagines a mock trial of Agile, with critics targeting Scrum Masters and chaotic work environments. Defenders argue for Agile’s focus on flexibility, accountability, and continuous improvement, emphasizing its role in modern product management and adapting to dynamic environments.
Author: Sjoerd Nijland
?? Lemon of the?Week
We are Lemon-free this week.
? Agile &?Scrum
John Cutler: Staying In?Touch
John Cutler reflects on how teams, like individuals, can lose touch with their progress over time. He suggests tracking key metrics and qualitative observations to effectively understand shifts and address challenges.
Source: Staying In Touch
Author: John Cutler
Tobias Mayer: Who needs scrum?masters?
Tobias Mayer asserts that Scrum Masters are essential for organizational transformation, not for long-term team management, emphasizing their role in restructuring, reducing waste, and increasing autonomy within the organization.
Source: Who needs scrum masters?
Author: Tobias Mayer
Maarten Dalmijn: Why Isn’t LeSS (Large Scale Scrum) More?Popular?
Maarten Dalmijn explores why SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) is more popular than LeSS (Large Scale Scrum), likening it to the marketing failure of “Fight Club.” SAFe succeeds by appealing to C-level executives, avoiding rebellion against the status quo, and crafting a non-shocking, comforting narrative that traditional businesses embrace.
Author: Maarten Dalmijn
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?? Product
(via Jason Cohen): Not disruptive, and proud of?it
Jason Cohen argues against the obsession with disruption, advocating instead for creating useful, desirable products. He emphasizes that modest, incremental improvements often lead to sustainable success and personal fulfillment.
(via Mind The Product): Successful product management in companies where it’s least understood
Eira Hayward discusses the challenges product managers face in organizations that don’t understand product management, sharing advice from industry leaders on overcoming resistance, gaining advocacy, and implementing effective product processes.
April Dunford: Positioning and Pessimistic Product?Thinking
April Dunford discusses “overly pessimistic product thinking,” where teams fixate on perceived deficits, undermining effective positioning and commercial success. She emphasizes recognizing and leveraging product strengths to drive growth and success.
Author: April Dunford
?? Casey Winters (via First Round Capital): How to build and scale winning marketplaces
In this podcast, Casey Winters shares insights on scaling and product growth. He discusses marketplace fundamentals, product-market fit, scaling strategies, and methods for acquiring demand and supply, drawing from his experience with leading tech companies.
Author: Casey Winters
?? Hands-on Agile #62: From Backlog Manager to Product Manager w/ David?Pereira
What does product success mean? In this energizing Hands-on Agile Meetup, David Pereira talked about the challenges of being a product manager and how to move from managing the Product Backlog to driving value. You can expect provoking thoughts, actionable insights, and a bit of unconventional product management.
?? Watch the video now: From Backlog Manager to Product Manager w/ David Pereira?—?Hands-on Agile #62.
?? Concepts, Tools & Measuring
Itamar Gilad: The Lifecycle of Goals: Research, Discover, Deliver,?Monitor
Itamar Gilad emphasizes managing the lifecycle of goals?—?from definition to completion?—?through phases of research, discovery, delivery, and monitoring to effectively steer organizations toward business and user outcomes.
Author: Itamar Gilad
?? Jeff Gothelf (via YouTube): What is an?OKR?
Jeff Gothelf explains OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), breaking down the process into Objectives and Key Results, emphasizing that key results must be outcomes, and providing a practical example.
Source: YouTube: ?? What is an OKR?
Author: Jeff Gothelf
Joost Minnaar (via Corporate Rebels): Budgetless Companies: The Case of Mainfreight
Joost Minnaar highlights Mainfreight’s budgetless management model, emphasizing decentralized action, transparency, and a unique culture to achieve business success, proving rigid budgeting isn’t necessary for extraordinary results.
Author: Joost Minnaar
Dan Pilat and Sekoul Krastev, PhD (via The Decision Lab): Planning?fallacy
Dan Pilat and Dr. Sekoul Krastev explain the planning fallacy, which is our tendency to underestimate time, costs, and risks for tasks. This leads to poor planning and systemic impacts, but they suggest strategies like using AI, setting specific goals, and segmenting tasks to mitigate it.
Authors: Dan Pilat and Sekoul Krastev, PhD
?? Encore
?? Marc Andreessen: The true story?—?as best I can remember?—?of the origin of Mosaic and Netscape.
Marc Andreessen shares the origin of Mosaic and Netscape, highlighting the unexpected journey from a small-town background to co-inventing the web browser, navigating early internet challenges, and ultimately founding Netscape.
Author: Marc Andreessen
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Food for Agile Thought 450: Agile’s Trial, Disruption Is Overrated, Lifecycle of Goals, Pessimistic Product Thinking was first published on Age-of-Product.com.
Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Agile 2 Academy; Executive level Agile and DevOps advisor and consultant; Lead author of Agile 2: The Next Iteration of Agile
2 个月From the software on Trial: the claim that software is easy to change. Except that it's not - not really. Yes, one can easily alter a text file, but to change something so complex while maintaining consistency is actually very hard. The idea that software is easy to refactor, or change in any way, is a myth.
Experience ● Strategy ● Transformation ● Architecture ● Function ● Process ● Analysis
2 个月Awesome material. Thanks!
Empowering Teams with ??Gold-Standard Neuroscience-based ?? Training ?? for High Performance ?? through Professional Learning Journeys ??.
2 个月Thank you for featuring Agile on Trial ??