Food for Agile Thought #359: UX & Engineering, Product for Truly Agile Teams, 4 Major Issues w/ Lean Startup

Welcome to the 359th edition of the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter, shared with 35,852 peers. My name is Stefan Wolpers.

This week, we delve into UX & engineering, detailing how product discovery benefits from including engineers early in the process, from timely feasibility discussions to designing minimum viable experiments (MVE). Also, we reflect on the many aspects of velocity, “if you are planning for a stable team with high morale that can consistently deliver,” and explore a vital character trait of any trainer, coach, entrepreneur, or artist — tenacity — with Jerry Colonna and Jules Pieri.

Then, Allan Holub explores the importance of product management for agile teams, from C-level buy-in to empowering people w/o leaving them to JIRA’s perils, while dissing Scrum. Moreover, Ryan J. Salva shares the success story of Copilot, GitHub’s OpenAI’s ML engine, while Martin Spinnangr asks: Continue, pivot, kill, or charge ahead?

Finally, Sachin Rekhi points to four Lean Startup issues, from agnostic experimentation to over-focusing on MVPs to incrementalism, and we dig into the benefits of journaling for decision-making. Also, we explore the effects of limiting beliefs on change, from anchoring to selection bias. PS: Can I interest you in Dr. Laurence J. Peter explaining some of the observations leading to his theory?

PS: 🗞 Did you miss past issues? No worries, here we go: 357, 358.

📅 💯 🇬🇧 September 27, 2022: Join 200-plus peers at the 45th Hands-on Agile Meetup: FAST: An Innovative Way to Scale with James Shore.

🏆 Tip of the Week

epicpeople: Julia Tan and Carolina Aldas detail how product discovery benefits from including engineers early in the process, from timely feasibility discussions to designing minimum viable experiments (MVE): "User Research & Engineering: Better Together During Discovery."

➿ Agile & Scrum

• Stack Overflow: Ben Matthews reflects on the many aspects of velocity, “if you are planning for a stable team with high morale that can consistently deliver:” "Does high velocity lead to burnout? That may be the wrong question to ask."

• 🎙 In this podcast, Jerry Colonna and Jules Pieri explore a vital character trait of any trainer, coach, entrepreneur, or artist: tenacity: "The Other Side of Fear."
  
  

• Michael Küsters explores the effects of limiting beliefs, a “belief confining us, or reducing our options in some way,” on change, from anchoring to selection bias: "Dealing with limiting beliefs."

🎓 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Hands-on Agile #45: FAST: An Innovative Way to Scale w/ James Shore on September 27, 2022

How can multiple teams work together on a single product? The common wisdom is to carefully align teams and responsibilities to create autonomous teams. But, invariably, this approach eventually runs into cross-team bottlenecks, challenges aligning responsibilities to teams, and difficulties creating cross-functional teams.

Fluid Scaling Technology, or FAST, is an innovative new approach that solves these problems. It uses frequent team self-selection to prevent bottlenecks, share knowledge amongst teams, and ensure the right people are working on the right things. It’s simple and lightweight.

Join James Shore as he shares his experiences with scaling Agile—first with traditional approaches, and more recently with FAST. Learn what works, what doesn’t, and how you can try FAST in your organization.

RSVP now: 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Hands-on Agile #45: FAST: An Innovative Way to Scale w/ James Shore on September 27, 2022.

👉 From time to time, we can offer last-minute seats for 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 register here.

🎯 Product

• 🎙 In this podcast, Allen Holub is at his best, exploring C-level buy-in, empowering people w/o leaving them, JIRA’s perils, and dissing Scrum: "The Role of Product Management on Truly Agile Development Teams."

• UX Collective: Martin Spinnangr asks: Continue, pivot, kill, or charge ahead? "The toughest question of product discovery."
  
  

• 🎙 In this podcast, Ryan J. Salva shares the success story of Copilot, GitHub’s OpenAI’s ML engine: "The role of AI in new product development."

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

• Reforge: Sachin Rekhi points to four Lean Startup issues, from agnostic experimentation to over-focusing on MVPs to incrementalism: "4 Major Problems With The Lean Startup Methodology."
  
  

• Farnam Street: Shane Parrish digs into the benefits of journaling for decision-making. Moreover, he also provides a template for your start: "How a Decision Journal Changed the Way I make Decisions (Template Included)."

🎶 Encore

• 🎙 Gennaro Cuofano interviews author and WSJ reporter Tim Higgins about the rise of Tesla: "The History of Tesla."

• 📺 BBC Archive: In this classic video, Dr. Laurence J. Peter explains some of the observations leading to his theory: "1974: Are YOU at your level of INCOMPETENCE? | The Peter Principle."

📅 Training Classes, Meetups & Events

Upcoming classes and events:

• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Sep 27 — Live Virtual Meetup: Hands-on Agile 45: FAST: An Innovative Way to Scale w/ James Shore (English)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Sep 29 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills (PSFS; English)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Oct 4-5 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM I; English)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Oct 12 — Live Virtual Meetup: Hands-on Agile 46: Engage the Agile Fluency® Model with Diana Larsen (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)
• 🖥 🇩🇪 Nov 15-18 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German)
• 🖥 🇬🇧 Dec 12-13 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM II; German)
• 🖥 🇩🇪 Dec 14-15 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German)
• 🖥 🇩🇪 Dec 19-20 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM I; German)

See all upcoming classes here.

📺 Youtube Channel

• Jeff Gothelf: Outcome-Based Product Planning — Hands-on Agile 43.

Your Opinion Matters

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Best,