Food for Agile Thought #369: Joy of Agility, CEOs and Product Leaders, Team Change is Inevitable, Data Mistakes

Welcome to the 369th edition of the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter, shared with 36,291 peers. My name is Stefan Wolpers.

This week, we delve into the Joy of Agility and learn about the inevitability of team change and how dynamic reteaming may support dealing with it. Then we consider whether how decisions are made is more important than who makes them and why startups should have a risk roadmap, a plan for what they need to learn, from de-risking their organization to techniques used.

Also, we notice that ‘strong alignment and candid communication between a CEO and CPO’ are prerequisites for an organization’s product success. However, they can slowly dissipate when the organization is on a growth trajectory. Marty Cagan delves into multiple product management topics, from strategy, vision, and ethics, to the ways of working on a recent podcast. Additionally, Lenny Rachitsky interviews Alex Hardiman, the Chief Product Officer at the New York Times, for example, about the background of the Wordle acquisition.

Finally, we use a well-known Indian parable to point at three anti-patterns when using data, from rejecting ‘unfitting’ data to not turning disagreements into learnings. Moreover, we highlight the criticality of developing ‘inclusive mindsets to understand your own perspectives, the perspectives of others, and how they influence collaboration in design.’ Lastly, W.B. explores fundamental limitations to A/B tests that many businesses fail to consider—with possibly grave consequences.

PS: 🗞 Did you miss past issues? No worries, here we go: 367, 368.

👉 📈 Join 900-plus peers—less than 100 to go: The Anonymous Scrum Master and Agile Coach Salary Report 2023.

🏆 Tip of the Week

🎙 In this podcast, Andy Cleff and Jay Hrscko chat with Joshua Kerievsky about his latest book that addresses a critical topic: experiencing joy while working in an agile organization. The book ‘reflects over two decades of experimenting, learning, unlearning, and explores the nature of agility:’ "The Joy of Agility with Joshua Kerievsky."

➿ Agile & Scrum

• 🎙 Jason Knight interviews Heidi Helfand about team change, its inevitability, and how dynamic reteaming may support dealing with change: "Team Change is Inevitable—What’s Important is How we Respond to It."
  
  

• Medium: Jason Yip believes that ‘how decisions are made is more important than who makes them:’ "Some thoughts on decision making."

• Medium: John Zeratsky suggests that startups should have a risk roadmap, a plan for what they need to learn, from de-risking their organization to techniques used: "The Risk Roadmap."

🎓 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Hands-on Agile #48: How Elon Musk Would Run YOUR Business with Joe Justice on December 7, 2022

Joe Justice worked for Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk.

In this Hands-on Agile meetup, Joe will share DX, or Digital Transformation, the agile operating system for TeslaSpeed—a term coined by the EU Commission to talk about how fast Tesla moves and how fast they need to move now.

The 12-step DX process brings companies from where they are now toward their manifest destiny.

RSVP now: 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Hands-on Agile #48, December 7, 2022: How Elon Musk Would Run YOUR Business with Joe Justice.

🎯 Product

• Ken Norton notices that ‘strong alignment and candid communication between a CEO and CPO’ are prerequisites for an organization’s product success. However, they can slowly dissipate when the organization is on a growth trajectory: "CEOs and Product Leaders."
  
  

• 🎙 Mind The Product: In this podcast, Marty Cagan delved into multiple product management topics, from strategy, vision, and ethics, to the ways of working: "Product Vision and Strategy."

• 🎙 Lenny Rachitsky interviews Alex Hardiman, the Chief Product Officer at the New York Times, for example, about the background of the Wordle acquisition: "An inside look at how the New York Times builds product."

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

• Medium: Julie Zhuo uses a well-known Indian parable to point at three anti-patterns when using data, from rejecting ‘unfitting’ data to not turning disagreements into learnings: "The Blind Men, the Elephant, and the 3 Data Mistakes."
  
  

• IDEO U: Coe Leta Stafford and Nusrat Ahmed point to the criticality of developing ‘inclusive mindsets to understand your own perspectives, the perspectives of others, and how they influence collaboration in design:’ "How to Get Started with Inclusive Design"

• Senior PowerPoint Engineer (Not Parody) explores fundamental limitations to A/B tests that many businesses fail to consider—with possibly grave consequences: "Caveats and Limitations of A/B Testing at Growth Tech Companies."

🎶 Encore

• John Cutler talks about the dichotomy in product development: "The problem with outcomes vs outputs, problems vs. solutions, opportunity."

📅 Training Classes, Meetups & Events

Upcoming classes and events:

• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Dec 7 — Live Virtual Meetup: Hands-on Agile 48: How Elon Musk Would Run YOUR Business w/ Joe Justice (English)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Dec 12-13 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM II; English)
• 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 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)
• 🖥 🇺🇸 Jan 23-27 👉 US Timezone — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; English)
• 🖥 🇬🇧 Jan 24-28 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM II; English)
• 🖥 🇩🇪 Jan 31-Feb 3 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM I; German)
• 🖥 🇬🇧 Feb 3-10 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM I; English)
• 🖥 🇺🇸 Feb 13-16 👉 US Timezone — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM II; English)
• 🖥 🇩🇪 Feb 3-Mar 3 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German)

See all upcoming classes here.

📺 Youtube Channel

• James Shore: FAST Scaling: An Innovative Way to Scale Agile.

Your Opinion Matters

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Best,