Food for Agile Thought #352: Team Topologies, CEOs and Product Leaders, Why Product Strategies Change

Welcome to the 352nd edition of the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter, shared with 35,602 peers. My name is Stefan Wolpers.

This week, we revisit Team Topologies, Conway’s Law, and how you might influence an organization’s structure as a lone product manager. We also explore the essence of behavioral change and apply lessons from Tim Hartford’s Cautionary Tale “The South Pole Race: David and Goliath on Ice” to your failed agile transformation. Moreover, we try to understand what ‘dream teams’ or ‘tiger teams’ supposedly are.

Then, we delve into the delicate relationship between the CEO and the product leader of an organization, stressing the importance of building candor, trust, and communicating well. Also, we listen to Casey Winters sharing career advice for aspiring product managers, from communicating upward to de-risking meetings. Finally, John Cutler continues his quest to understand product strategy; this time is all about why it changes, from recency bias to sporadic research.

Finally, we follow Jake Burghardt delving into the usefulness of research repositories as internal learning tools, including practical suggestions on how to employ them, and we enjoy a new game to ‘illustrate essential aspects for collaboration and workflow improvements.’ Lastly, HBR points to a critical element of why ‘organizational transformations are prone to failure.’

PS: 🗞 Did you miss past issues? No worries, here we go: 351, 350.

📈 🔬 Join 430-plus peers and contribute to the anonymous poll for the upcoming free ‘Product Owner and Product Manager Salary Report 2022!’

🏆 Tip of the Week

Shaw Li revisits Team Topologies, Conway’s Law, and how you might influence an organization’s structure as a lone product manager: "How teams are organized will influences your product more than you might realize."

➿ Agile & Scrum

• Reforge: Tom Willerer and Kevin Bechtel share lessons learned on ‘dream teams’ or ‘tiger teams:’ "How to Build More Effective Teams."

• 🎙 Farnam Street: Shane Parrish interviews Marshall Goldsmith, one of the world’s leading executive coaches, on the essence of behavioral change: "The Essentials Of Leadership."

• Karl Scotland applies lessons from Tim Hartford’s Cautionary Tale “The South Pole Race: David and Goliath on Ice” to your agile transformation: "3 Amazing Reasons Your Agile Transformation May Go South."
  
  

🎓 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Hands-on Agile #44: Honey, I Shrunk the Backlog with Allan Kelly — September 5, 2022

The backlog was a great idea until it wasn't. Many successful teams deliver backlog items daily, but their backlogs aren't getting any smaller. The never-ending backlog overshadows delivery success. Product discovery, dual-track agile, OKRs, etc., make it worse by accelerating backlog growth without taking any of the rotting items away.

Worst of all, doing the backlog distracts from delivering benefits to the customers and responding to change. So what are we to do?

In this presentation, Allan "Nuke the backlog" Kelly suggests you rethink the very idea of the backlog and rebuild your agile process around outcomes. You have nothing to lose by your burn-down charts.

RSVP now: 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Hands-on Agile #44: Honey, I Shrunk the Backlog with Allan Kelly — September 5, 2022.

👉 From time to time, we can offer last-minute seats for Professional Scrum training classes at cost to individuals who do not have access to a corporate training budget. If you like to be notified about these opportunities, please apply here.

🎯 Product

• Ken Norton delves into the delicate relationship between the CEO and the product leader of an organization, stressing the importance of building candor, trust, and communicating well: "CEOs and Product Leaders."

• 🎙 Casey Winters shares career advice for aspiring product managers, from communicating upward to de-risking meetings: "How to sell your ideas and rise within your company."

• John Cutler continues his quest to understand product strategy. Moreover, this time is all about why it changes, from recency bias to sporadic research: "Why Does Our Strategy Keep Changing?"
  
  

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

• Team ReOps: Jake Burghardt delves into the usefulness of research repositories as internal learning tools, including practical suggestions on how to employ them: "Activating insights to overcome common barriers to product impact."

• Paulo Caroli presents a new game to ‘illustrate essential aspects for collaboration and workflow improvements:’ "The WIP Drinking Game."

✂️ Cutting Room Floor

• Harvard Business Review: Andrew White, Michael Smets, and Adam Canwell point to a critical element of why ‘organizational transformations are prone to failure:’ "Organizational Transformation Is an Emotional Journey."

📅 Training Classes, Meetups & Events

Upcoming classes and events:

• 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 Aug 29-30 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM I; German)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Sep 5 — Live Virtual Meetup: Hands-on Agile #44: Honey, I Shrunk the Backlog w/ Allan Kelly (English)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Sep 6-9 — Live Virtual Class: Advanced Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM II; English)
• 🖥 🇩🇪 Sep 26-27 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Agile Leadership Essentials Training (PAL-E; German)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Oct 4-5 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM I; English)
• 🖥 🇩🇪 Oct 18-21 — Live Virtual Class: Advanced Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO-A; German)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Oct 31-Nov 3 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; English)

See all upcoming classes here.

📺 Youtube Channel

• Janna Bastow: Hands-on Agile #42: Lean Roadmapping and OKRs.

Your Opinion Matters

Would you like to suggest a post for next week's edition or provide general feedback? You can reply to this email, or contact stefan@age-of-product.com.

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Best,