Food for Agile Thought #454: Product Type Canvas, AI Tools for Product Managers, High-Stakes Collaboration, Disrupting Large Organizations
Also: Transformed: The Product Model, Competitive Analysis, Winning Strategy

Food for Agile Thought #454: Product Type Canvas, AI Tools for Product Managers, High-Stakes Collaboration, Disrupting Large Organizations

Hello everyone!

Welcome to the 454th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,673 peers.

This week, Jeff Patton introduces his Product Type Canvas, aiding teams in understanding users and measuring product value. Cady Coleman shares lessons from her NASA career on risk assessment and cross-cultural communication, and Alex Ewerl?f discusses how organizational structure affects service reliability and the importance of consumer journeys. Moreover, Woody Zuill delves into mob programming with Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson, highlighting its impact on team effectiveness and skill development, and we ask: Are there regulated industries that are agile?

Then, Marty Cagan discusses his book Transformed, focusing on a product operating model that prioritizes outcomes, empowered teams, and continuous deployment, emphasizing engineers’ role in innovation. Steve Blank explores why large organizations struggle with disruption, highlighting legacy systems and leadership inaction. In an interview with Lenny Rachitsky, Roger Martin outlines five essential questions for effective strategy development, emphasizing clear aspirations, market focus, competitive advantage, necessary capabilities, and supportive management systems. Also, Andrew Chen examines the failure of high-growth, high-churn products, emphasizing the importance of retention and the challenges of sustaining growth in a dopamine-driven market.

Lastly, Marc Abraham highlights AI tools transforming product management and aiding PMs in understanding customer problems. We also examine competitive analysis, its importance, and practical templates for SaaS companies, while Matt O’Connell discusses handling overwhelming Opportunity Solution Trees (OSTs) with five archetypes and strategies to prioritize opportunities. Christoph Steinlehner introduces Reverse Impact Mapping to shift from feature requests to outcomes, focusing on business impact. Finally, Bandan Jot Singh explains software estimate inaccuracies and offers five modern roadmap methods prioritizing value-driven metrics over strict timelines.


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?? The Tip of the?Week


Jeff Patton: Product Type?Canvas

Jeff Patton presents his Product Type Canvas to identify digital products in organizations. It provides teams with essential information to understand users and measure product value, emphasizing user roles, uses, and metrics.

Source: Product Type Canvas

Author: Jeff Patton


?? Lemon of the?Week


We are Lemon-free this week.


? Agile &?Scrum


?? Cady Coleman (via Harvard Business Review): An Astronaut’s Advice on High-Stakes Collaboration

In her book Sharing Space, Cady Coleman shares lessons from her 24 years as a NASA astronaut on stress management, risk assessment, and cross-cultural communication that can be applied to various careers.

Source: Harvard Business Review: ?? An Astronaut’s Advice on High-Stakes Collaboration

Author: Cady Coleman


?? Woody Zuill, Murray Robinson, and Shane Gibson: Mob Programming and Software?Teaming

Woody Zuill discusses mob programming with Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson. It is a method where a cross-functional team collaboratively focuses on one feature at a time, significantly boosting team effectiveness, learning, and skills development.

Source: ?? Mob Programming and Software Teaming with Woody Zuill

Authors: Woody Zuill , Murray Robinson , and Shane Gibson


Alex Ewerl?f: Organization Architecture

Alex Ewerl?f emphasizes that an organization’s shape, not just budget or headcount, impacts service reliability. He highlights how consumer journeys provide insights into creating reliable systems and stresses the importance of team communication and organizational structure.

Source: Organization Architecture

Author: Alex Ewerl?f


?? ?? ???? Advanced Professional Scrum Master Training w/ PSM II Certificate?—?August 20–21,?2024

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?? Product


?? Marty Cagan (via Mind The Product): Transformed: Moving to the product?model

Marty Cagan discusses his book Transformed, emphasizing the shift to a product operating model focused on outcomes, empowered teams, and continuous deployment, highlighting the importance of engineers in the innovation process.

Source: Mind The Product: ?? Transformed: Moving to the product model

Author: Marty Cagan


Steve Blank: Steve Blank Why Large Organizations Struggle With Disruption, and What to Do About?It

Steve Blank explains why large organizations struggle with disruption, citing legacy systems and leadership inaction, and offers solutions like direct innovation pipelines, real-world experiments, and strategic outside advisors to adapt and thrive.

Source: Steve Blank Why Large Organizations Struggle With Disruption, and What to Do About It

Author: Steve Blank


?? Lenny Rachitsky and Roger Martin: 5 Essential Questions to Craft a Winning?Strategy

In his interview with Lenny Rachitsky, Roger Martin outlines five key questions for developing an effective strategy. He emphasizes the importance of a clear winning aspiration, focused market segments, competitive advantage, essential capabilities, and supportive management systems to sustain long-term success.

Source: ?? 5 Essential Questions to Craft a Winning Strategy

Authors: Lenny Rachitsky and Roger Martin


Andrew Chen: Why high growth, high churn products never seem to?work

Andrew Chen explores why high-growth, high-churn products often fail, highlighting the fleeting success of meme apps due to poor retention and the challenges of sustaining long-term growth in a dopamine-driven market.

Source: Why high growth, high churn products never seem to work

Author: Andrew Chen


?? Agile Regulated Industries: Hiring Scrum Masters Instead of Project Managers?

Are there agile regulated industries, or is that an oxymoron?

Recently, I received a project alert from an organization looking for a Scrum Master with “at least two years knowledge of information systems for rail and public transport travelers.”

Now, if you go through the job description, they do not seem to look for a Scrum Master but a project manager and glorified Jira clerk. If that is the case, why don’t they say so but pretend there is such a thing as agile regulated industries?

Learn more: Agile Regulated Industries: Hiring Scrum Masters Instead of Project Managers?


?? Concepts, Tools & Measuring


Marc Abraham: AI Tools for Product?Managers

Marc Abraham highlights how and which AI tools transform product management, assisting PMs with understanding customer problems, identifying target personas, creating product strategies, and managing the product lifecycle efficiently.

Source: AI tools for Product Managers

Author: Marc Abraham


(via Userpilot): What is Competitive Analysis? [Example + Templates]

The author explains competitive analysis, detailing its importance in studying rivals’ strengths and weaknesses to improve strategies, and provides examples and templates to help SaaS companies conduct their analyses effectively.

Source: Userpilot: What is Competitive Analysis? [Example + Templates]


Matthew O’Connell: Taming Opportunity Solution Trees (Part?One)

Matt O’Connell discusses managing overwhelming Opportunity Solution Trees (OSTs) by introducing five archetypes and providing strategies for structuring and prioritizing opportunities to maintain focus and achieve business outcomes.

Source: Taming Opportunity Solution Trees (Part One)

Author: Matthew O’Connell


Christoph Steinlehner: Shifting from Feature Requests to Outcomes: Reverse Impact?Mapping

Christoph Steinlehner introduces Reverse Impact Mapping to shift conversations from feature requests to outcomes, helping product managers focus on business impact and make smarter decisions to drive the right results.

Source: Shifting from Feature Requests to Outcomes: Reverse Impact Mapping

Author: Christoph Steinlehner


?? Encore


Bandan Jot Singh: Why do software estimates suck? Here’s what to?do.

Bandan Jot Singh discusses why software estimates are often inaccurate and provides five modern roadmap methods to manage expectations and prioritize value-driven metrics over strict timelines in product development.

Source: Why software estimates suck? Here’s what to do.

Author: Bandan Jot Singh


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??? Last Week’s Food for Agile Thought?Edition

Read more: Food for Agile Thought 453: Product Management Organizations, Improving ProductOps, New Feature Revenue Estimations, Quo Vadis Agile?

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Christoph Steinlehner

Visual Mapping | Product Team and Leadership Coaching | Product Consulting

3 个月

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