Food for Agile Thought #462: Enabling Agility in Large Organizations, Product Team Topologies, Feature Parity, Anatomy of Self-Management
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 462nd edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,839 peers.?
This week, Nick van der Meulen explores how enabling agility in large organizations works by empowering teams through four decision rights guardrails. Itamar Gilad examines decision-making challenges, advocating for decentralization and context-sharing, while Petra Wille and Elias Lieberich offer strategies for optimizing team topologies to enhance flow and productivity. Also, Willem-Jan Ageling highlights how organizational culture often undermines the autonomy promised by Agile principles, and Pim de Morree discusses how self-managing organizations, functioning as dynamic networks, drive innovation and adaptability.
Next, Marcus Castenfors warns against giving too much autonomy too soon during product transformations, highlighting the need for clear leadership and team competence. Maarten Dalmijn challenges the traditional view of requirements, emphasizing the need to anchor them in actual needs, and Saeed Khan advises against chasing feature parity with competitors, advocating instead for market-driven, value-differentiated product strategies. Moreover, Afonso Franco calls for viewing cross-functional teams as a unified discipline, focusing on collective jobs-to-be-done to enhance collaboration and reduce siloed thinking.
Lastly, Doc Norton shares his take on Opportunity Solution Trees, emphasizing collaborative problem-solving and iterative experimentation for achieving outcomes. Wes Kao offers practical advice on delivering bad news effectively, focusing on clarity, avoiding blame, and maintaining agency. Additionally, Melissa Perri explores the role of Product Ops, addressing key pillars, scaling, and the skills essential for a CPO, and Tobi Lütke, CEO of Shopify, shares insights on his journey from coder to tech leader, discussing cultural contrasts, coding, and retail’s future with VR and AI. Finally, IDEO highlights the potential of integrating AI with Design Thinking to enhance creativity and user-centric innovation.
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Did you miss the previous Food for Agile Thought issue 461 ?
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?? The Tip of the Week: Enabling?Agility
Nick van der Meulen (via MIT Sloan Management Review): The Four Guardrails That Enable?Agility
Nick van der Meulen discusses how large organizations can achieve agility comparable to startups by empowering teams through four decision rights guardrails: aligning actions with purpose, democratizing access to data, simplifying policies, and providing dynamic resource allocation. These guardrails enable faster decision-making while maintaining strategic alignment and reducing risk.
Author: Nick van der Meulen
?? Lemon of the?Week
We are Lemon-free this week.
? Agile & Leadership
Itamar Gilad: A Culture of Good Decision-Making (Part?1)
Itamar Gilad discusses how organizations struggle with decision-making, emphasizing the importance of differentiating decision types, decentralizing decision-making, and sharing context to improve decision speed and quality.
Author: Itamar Gilad
Petra Wille and Elias Lieberich (via Mind The Product): Optimizing teams: A dual perspective on Team Topologies
Petra Wille and Elias Lieberich offer practical insights on implementing team topologies and share strategies for optimizing team structures for flow, alignment, and productivity in rapidly evolving organizations.
Author: Petra Wille
Willem-Jan Ageling: Organizational Culture Eats Developer Autonomy For Breakfast
Willem-Jan Ageling explores how organizational culture undermines the autonomy promised by Agile, emphasizing the gap between Agile principles and the reality many developers face in their work environments.
Author: Willem-Jan Ageling
Pim de Morree (via Corporate Rebels): The Anatomy of a Self-Managing Organization: Why Networks Trump Hierarchies
Pim de Morree explores how self-managing organizations outperform traditional hierarchies by functioning as dynamic, interconnected networks. This structure fosters adaptability, innovation, distributed leadership, resilience, and higher employee engagement.
Source: Corporate Rebels: The Anatomy of a Self-Managing Organization: Why Networks Trump Hierarchies
Author: Pim de Morree
?? ?? ???? Advanced Professional Scrum Master Training w/ PSM II Certificate?—?October 15–16,?2024
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Enjoy the benefits of a live virtual immersive class with like-minded agile peers from 09:00–17:30 CEST.
Learn more: ?? ?? ???? Advanced Professional Scrum Master Training w/ PSM II Certificate?—?October 15–16, 2024 .
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?? Product
Marcus Castenfors: Introduction & Anti-pattern #1: ‘Giving too much autonomy, too?soon’
Marcus Castenfors explains the anti-pattern of giving too much autonomy too soon during a product transformation, emphasizing the need for leadership to provide clear direction and develop team competence to avoid chaos.
Author: Marcus Castenfors
Maarten Dalmijn: WTF is a Requirement?
Maarten Dalmijn challenges the traditional view of requirements, emphasizing the importance of understanding the actual needs behind them and warning against the dangers of unanchored, floating requirements.
领英推荐
Source: WTF is a Requirement?
Author: Maarten Dalmijn
Afonso Franco: A different lens of seeing a product?team
Afonso Franco advocates viewing cross-functional teams as a discipline, focusing on collective jobs-to-be-done rather than individual roles to foster collaboration, adaptability, and elimination of siloed thinking within product development teams.
Author: Afonso Franco
Saeed Khan (via Medium): Why Trying to Achieve Feature Parity with Competitors is a Bad?Idea
Saeed Khan argues that striving for feature parity with competitors is a losing strategy, urging companies to focus on market needs, differentiate through real value, and avoid reactive product development driven by competitors.
Author: Saeed Khan
?? Hands-on Agile 2025 Is Here: From Concept-Based to Context-Based Agility
I am thrilled to announce that Hands-on Agile 2025 is officially on the horizon and will be freeto attend from February 4–6, 2025. This time, we will focus on how Agile needs to evolve from concept-based agility to context-based agility.
But before we discuss what that means, let’s take a step back and consider why Hands-on Agile 2025 is going to be a can’t-miss event for everyone in the agile community.
For those unfamiliar, Hands-on Agile isn’t just another conference. It’s an event built around the Barcamp model, meaning it’s a self-organized, community-driven gathering with one goal: Sharing knowledge and experiences.
From February 4 to 6, 2025, we will spend three energizing days engaging in sessions, practicing agile games, sharing war stories, and learning directly from each other. Hands-on Agile is all about creating a space for practitioners, coaches, leaders, and newcomers to connect in a truly hands-on way.
?? Save Your Seat Now ! ??
Please note: There are no tickets; Hands-on Agile 2025 is free. However, you will need to register nevertheless. Otherwise, you would not receive, for example, the invitation to the HoA2025 community or have access to individual session access credentials.
?? Concepts, Tools & Measuring
?? Melissa Perri: Product Ops?Guide
Melissa Perri discusses Product Ops with Afonso Franco, its key pillars, misconceptions, and how it supports product teams and leaders. She also covers scaling, measuring success, and the essential skills for a CPO.
Source: ?? Product Ops Guide
Author: Melissa Perri
Doc Norton: Opportunity Solution?Trees
Doc Norton describes the Opportunity Solution Trees as connecting experiments to desired outcomes by identifying problems and solutions, emphasizing collaborative problem-solving and iterative experimentation, and focusing on small, testable steps to validate solutions.
Source: Opportunity Solution Trees
Author: Doc Norton
Wes Kao: How to deliver bad news when it’s not your?fault
Wes Kao shares tips on delivering bad news when it’s not your fault, emphasizing the importance of avoiding negative language, keeping messages concise, not accepting blame, and reminding others of their agency.
Author: Wes Kao
(via IDEO U): The Intersection of Design Thinking and AI: Enhancing Innovation
The author highlights how integrating AI with design thinking enhances creativity and problem-solving. Combining AI’s data-driven insights with human-centered design drives innovation and user-centric solutions.
?? Encore
?? Tyler Cowen and Tobi Lütke: Tobi Lütke on Creating Shopify for Americans as a German in?Canada
Tobi Lütke, CEO of Shopify, discusses his journey from German coder to tech leader with Tyler Cowen. They explore cultural contrasts, coding insights, and the future of retail through VR and AI.
Authors: Tyler Cowen and Tobi Lütke
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Founder | Product Coach & Advisor | Ex-VP @ Laerdal | Ex-Director @ Easee | Board Member | Host ??? Scandinavian Product Podcast
1 个月Thanks for the mention Stefan!
Coaching teams and organizations toward the product operating model
1 个月Thank you for sharing my article Stefan Wolpers. ??♂? https://mcastenfors.substack.com/p/introduction-and-anti-pattern-1-giving
Author of 'Driving Value with Sprint Goals' | Helping teams to beat the Feature Factory | Speaking, Training and Consulting all over the world @ dalmyn.com
1 个月Thanks for the mention Stefan Wolpers!
Coaches organisations to create high-value products - ageling.substack.com/
1 个月Thank you for the mention!