TL; DR: Blaming Agile — Food for Agile Thought #457
Welcome to the 457th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,744 peers. This week, Rupert Goodwins critiques Moxie Marlinspike’s view of blaming Agile, emphasizing innovation’s evolution and the need for fresh thinking, while Jim Highsmith urges a shift from productivity metrics to value creation. Dave Rooney highlights simple defect management, using an analog tool, and Jeff Gothelf advocates for trust-based leadership. Following up, Ant Murphy stresses the importance of healthy team tension and collaboration over fear for creativity and the effectiveness of teams.
Next, John Cutler and Leah Tharin emphasize the need for a well-defined operating model in product organizations, focusing on team structure and accountability during growth. David Pereira stresses aligning strategy, discovery, and delivery for value creation in product management, and Melissa Suzuno highlights Ramsey Solutions’ engineer rotation in product trios for balanced skill development. Also, Richard Mironov explains how a company’s price point shapes its organizational behavior, especially in B2C versus B2B environments.
Lastly, Johanna Rothman discusses using the Cost of Delay to prioritize work, emphasizing determining if the work is still valuable first. Chris Stone introduces the Lean Experiment Canvas, a tool for teams to design and test hypotheses in Retrospectives. Then, Jenny Wanger provides a checklist for influencing product managers, focusing on understanding their challenges and simplifying changes, and Rolf Mistelbacher highlights how generative AI helps creators rapidly prototype by bridging skill gaps. Finally, Shane Gibson, Murray Robinson, and Gene Kim discuss the importance of organizational wiring, including leadership and communication, in fostering high-performing DevOps and agile teams.
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🏆 The Tip of the Week: Blaming Agile
(via The Register): Sorry, Moxie. Blaming Agile for software stagnation is wrong
Rupert Goodwins argues that Moxie Marlinspike’s critique of Agile as stifling innovation is misplaced, suggesting that innovation has evolved significantly and that fresh thinking and embracing new approaches are essential to staying relevant.
🍋 Lemon of the Week
➿ Agile & Scrum
: You won’t create 21st century enterprises measuring productivity!
Jim Highsmith argues that 21st-century enterprises should shift from measuring productivity to value creation, emphasizing customer-centric, collaborative, and adaptive management models over traditional productivity metrics.
: The Red File Folder: When an analog tool does a better job than a digital one!
Dave Rooney shares how his team effectively managed defects using a simple analog tool: a red file folder. He emphasizes the value of addressing issues immediately and keeping solutions straightforward over digital tools.
: How to build a high-performance culture without culling the herd
Jeff Gothelf argues that building a high-performance culture requires trust, proper incentives, and adaptive leadership rather than fostering fear and cutthroat competition, which only leads to mediocrity and employee burnout.
: Health and Unhealthy Tension
Ant Murphy explores the dynamics of healthy versus unhealthy tension within teams, emphasizing the importance of compromise, leadership, and fostering an environment that encourages collaboration without stifling progress.
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Training w/ PSM II Certificate — October 15-16, 2024
Discover Scrum’s four success principles in this guaranteed official Scrum.org Advanced Scrum Master training class including the industry-recognized PSM II certification. The PSM II training class is designed as a live virtual class and will be offered in English.
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.
Customer Voice: “Dear Stefan, Thanks a lot for two intense and mindblowing days. Your way of teaching suites me perfectly. I must admit that all the positive feedback you have gotten is spot on! I would any time a day recommand your class to a Scrum Master who wants to add a whole new level to his/her scrum game. To all of you reading this. You have to experience Stefans class to understand how good it is.” (Source.)
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🎯 Product
and : 🎙 How to Structure a Product Organization
John Cutler and Leah Tharin discuss the importance of defining and documenting an operating model in product organizations, emphasizing team structure, shared accountability, and the challenges of cross-functional collaboration, especially during growth and change.
(via Userpilot): Anti-BS Product Management: Driving Value When Everyone Distracts You
David Pereira discusses the importance of focusing on value creation in product management by aligning strategy, discovery, and delivery while avoiding distractions and traps that hinder effective product development.
: Why Ramsey Solutions Rotates Engineers in Their Product Trios
Melissa Suzuno discusses how Ramsey Solutions rotates engineers in product trios to balance continuous discovery with technical skill development, fostering a culture of experimentation, shared learning, and strong team cohesion.
: Price Points Drive Organizational Behaviors
Richard Mironov explains how a company’s price point influences its organizational behavior, especially in B2C versus B2B environments. This influences everything from decision-making to C-level dynamics.
📯 Transformed Meets the Scrum Guide
Despite criticism from the product community regarding Scrum as a framework for effective product creation, namely Marty Cagan himself, I believe that it is worthwhile to compare the principles that help form successful product teams with those of Scrum. Let’s delve into an analysis of “Transformed” and how its principles align with Scrum’s.
Learn more: Transformed Meets the Scrum Guide.
🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring
: How to Calculate the Cost of Delay to Rank All the Work, Part 1
Johanna Rothman discusses prioritizing work using the Cost of Delay, starting with assessing whether the work is still valuable before calculating the various costs associated with delays.
: The Lean Experiment Canvas
Chris Stone introduces the Lean Experiment Canvas, a simple template that guides teams in Retrospectives to design experiments focused on solving problems, testing hypotheses, and achieving tangible improvements.
: Your go-to checklist for influencing product managers
Jenny Wanger outlines a checklist for influencing product managers, focusing on understanding their challenges, simplifying changes, and emphasizing benefits to drive value without overwhelming them.
(via Fresh van Root): Prototyping Products with Generative AI
Rolf Mistelbacher explains how generative AI empowers creators across all roles to quickly turn ideas into clickable prototypes by filling skill gaps and making prototyping more accessible and innovative.
🎶 Encore
, and : 🎙 Wiring the Winning Organisation with Gene Kim
Shane Gibson, Murray Robinson, and Gene Kim discuss how effective organizational wiring, encompassing leadership, architecture, and communication, is crucial for fostering high-performing teams, particularly in DevOps and agile practices.
📅 Scrum Training & Event Schedule
You can secure your seat for Scrum training classes, workshops, and meetups directly by following the corresponding link in the table below:
| Date | Class and Language | City | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 August 27-28, 2024 | GUARANTEED: Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM I; German; Live Virtual Class) | Live Virtual Class | €1,189 incl. 19% VAT |
| 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 August 29-September 26, 2024 | GUARANTEED: Advanced Product Backlog Management Cohort (English; Live Virtual Cohort) | Live Virtual Cohort | €399 incl. 19% VAT |
| 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 September 3-6, 2024 | GUARANTEED: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German; Live Virtual Class) | Live Virtual Class | €1,299 incl. 19% VAT |
| 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 September 4, 2024 | GUARANTEED: Hands-on Agile #64: Mastering Work Intake Jeremy Willets and Tom Cagley (English) | Live Virtual Meetup | FREE |
| 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 October 1-2, 2024 | GUARANTEED: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German; Live Virtual Class) | Live Virtual Class | €1,299 incl. 19% VAT |
| 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 October 9, 2024 | GUARANTEED: Hands-on Agile #65: The Lean Tech Manifesto with Fabrice Bernhard (English) | Live Virtual Meetup | FREE |
| 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 October 15-16, 2024 | GUARANTEED: Professional Scrum Master Advanced Training (PSM II; English; Live Virtual Class) | Live Virtual Class | €1,299 incl. 19% VAT |
| 🖥 🇩🇪 November 6-7, 2024 | Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German; Live Virtual Class) | Live Virtual Class | €1,299 incl. 19% VAT |
| 🖥 🇬🇧 November 18-19, 2024 | Professional Scrum Master Advanced Training (PSM II; English; Live Virtual Class) | Live Virtual Class | €1,299 incl. 19% VAT |
| 🖥 🇬🇧 November 21, 2024 | Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Class (PSFS; English; Live Virtual Class) | Live Virtual Class | €749 incl. 19% VAT |
| 🖥 🇩🇪 December 4-5, 2024 | Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM I; German; Live Virtual Class) | Live Virtual Class | €1,189 incl. 19% VAT |
| 🖥 🇩🇪 December 10-11, 2024 | Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German; Live Virtual Class) | Live Virtual Class | €1,299 incl. 19% VAT |
| 🖥 🇬🇧 December 18-19, 2024 | Professional Scrum Master Advanced Training (PSM II; English; Live Virtual Class) | Live Virtual Class | €1,299 incl. 19% VAT |
See all upcoming classes here.
You can book your seat for the training directly by following the corresponding links to the ticket shop. If the procurement process of your organization requires a different purchasing process, please contact Berlin Product People GmbH directly.
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Help your team to learn about avoiding Blaming Agile by pointing them to the free Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide:
🗞️ Last Week’s Food for Agile Thought Edition
Read more: Food for Agile Thought #456: Strategy Creation, Product Model & Outsourcing, Agile Transformation Pitfalls, Derisking Daily Work.
