Food for Agile Thought #360: How Minds Change, Think Big & Work Small, Grassroots Movements, Elements of Agile

Welcome to the 360th edition of the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter, shared with 35,907 peers. My name is Stefan Wolpers.

This week, we have a fantastic interview with David McRaney on how minds change, rationalization, and belief. (If you are coaching other people, you should listen.) Also, we learn how teams can “experiment and learn, develop new markets, [and] outmaneuver the competition,” and we reflect on who may likely get ahead when encountering an impediment. Switching perspectives, we delve into the “best way to kill a grassroots movement at your company” and how to help it flourish instead.

Then, we point to the necessary “changes to how the product teams need to interact with customers” when an organization abandons a sales-driven approach, and Roman Pichler details his product model, from product vision to Product Backlog, including four artifacts and two templates. Moreover, we reflect on the perils of Think Small and Work Big, Think Big, Work Big, and Think Small, Work Small, and link mental models to building products, from Parkinson’s Law of Triviality to Conway’s Law to the Pareto Principle.

Finally, Mike Cohn shares a free assessment tool for your team’s mastery of 20 essential elements of a successful transformation. Also, we advocate using anti-personas to “help anticipate how products can be misused in ways that can harm users and the business.” Lastly, Phil Mistry tells the incredible story of an invention ahead of its time in a classic case of an innovator’s dilemma: How Steve Sasson invented Kodak’s digital camera!

PS: 🗞 Did you miss past issues? No worries, here we go: 359, 358.

📅 💯 🇬🇧 October 12, 2022: Join 120-plus peers at the 46th Hands-on Agile Meetup: Engage the Agile Fluency® Model with Diana Larsen.

🏆 Tip of the Week

🎙 Econlib: Russ Roberts interviews David McRaney on change, rationalization, and belief: "David McRaney on How Minds Change."

➿ Agile & Scrum

• 📺 James Shore, Mary Poppendieck, and Tom Poppendieck discuss how teams can “experiment and learn, develop new markets, [and] outmaneuver the competition:” "Optimizing Outcomes."

• John Cutler reflects on who may likely get ahead when encountering an impediment—drivers or fixers—and why we need a balance between both: "Drivers vs. Fixers."

• Viktor Cessan delves into the “best way to kill a grassroots movement at your company” and how to help it flourish instead: "Grassroots movements at work: How management interventions affect agency."
  
  

🎓 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Professional Scrum Master Training w/ PSM I Certificate — Live Virtual Class: October 4-5, 2022

Discover Scrum’s four success principles in this guaranteed official Scrum.org Professional Scrum Master training class, leading to and including the industry-recognized PSM I certification. The training will be offered in English.

Enjoy the benefits of a compact immersive class with like-minded agile peers from 09:00 – 17:30 o’clock CEST.

Learn more: 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Professional Scrum Master Training w/ PSM I Certificate — Live Virtual Class: October 4-5, 2022.

“Great class. Probably the best training I ever attended. Extremely driven and productive class, with interactive exercises that challenge you to think in Agile manner. Keeps the focus on the point regardless of the remote session. Stefan for sure goes above and beyond to teach you how to be a real Scum master.”(Source.)

👉 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

• Silicon Valley Product Group: Marty Cagan points to the necessary “changes to how the product teams need to interact with customers” when an organization abandons a sales-driven approach: "Pledge To Customers."

• Roman Pichler details his model, from product vision to Product Backlog, including four artifacts and two templates: "My Product Strategy Model."

• Medium: Jason Yip reflects on the perils of Think Small and Work Big, Think Big, Work Big, and Think Small, Work Small: "Guiding principle: Think Big, Work Small."
  
  

• Simple Thread: Brian Bassett links mental models to building products, from Parkinson’s Law of Triviality to Conway’s Law to the Pareto Principle: "Applying Mental Models to Building Digital Products."

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

• Mike Cohn shares a free assessment tool for your team’s mastery of 20 essential elements of a successful transformation: "Elements of Agile: An Agile Assessment Tool for Iterative Improvements."

• Itamar Gilad suggests using the GIST framework—Goals, Ideas, Steps, Tasks—next time a manager imposes an output goal: "Dealing with Top-Down Projects."

• Jeff Gothelf utilizes a simple visualization technique to determine where and when to spend on experimentation: "The Truth Curve."

• Nielsen Norman Group: Sara Ramaswamy advocates using anti-personas to “help anticipate how products can be misused in ways that can harm users and the business:” "Antipersonas: What, How, Who, and Why?"

🎶 Encore

• PetaPixel: Phil Mistry tells the incredible story of an invention ahead of its time in a classic case of an innovator’s dilemma. "How Steve Sasson Invented the Digital Camera"
  
  

📅 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

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.

If you like the newsletter, please forward it to a friend or colleague—it would mean a lot to me! 🙏

If you want to receive even more news, just follow @AgeOfProduct or @StefanW on Twitter for your daily dose.

Last, but not least: If you are a first time reader of this newsletter, click here to subscribe and join 35,907 peers.

Best,