Food for Agile Thought #375: Acceleration Beats Velocity, Jazz Lessons for Product, 3 Forms of Debt, Becoming a Product Coach

Welcome to the 375th edition of the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter, shared with 36,502 peers. My name is Stefan Wolpers.

This week, we add new layers to the old ‘is velocity a useful metric’ discussion, pointing at physics and its multi-dimensionality. While at it, we also analyze the delicate tension between leadership and stakeholders, product management, and engineering, and learn how to make ‘effective decisions and [reduce] human misjudgment.’ As an experiment, we put OpenAI’s latest generative AI to the test: Would ChatGPT pass a screening interview for a fictitious Scrum Master position?

Then, we learn lessons from Frank Barrett’s book ‘Yes To The Mess: Surprising Leadership Lessons from Jazz,’ and we go back in history to shed more light on a divisive term — the ‘feature factory.’ Additionally, Marty Cagan shares his take on how to progress as a product manager in the field of product coaching, explaining prerequisites, the different coaching fields, and customer types.

Finally, we dissect the original idea of “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure” to explore Amazon’s approach, especially working backward. Moreover, we appreciate Will Larson’s deep dive into the details of assessing an engineering organization for various interested parties and Jason Yip’s measures to improve flow, from changing measuring delivery to per-process-step WIP limits. And if you are looking to spice up your Retrospectives, we have you covered with a set of retrospective games, from photo finish to Retrospective bingo to agile Battleship.

PS: 🗞 Did you miss past issues? No worries, here we go: 374, 373.

RSVP now — and join 100-plus peers for an exciting workshop: 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Hands-on Agile 49: ChatGPT.

🏆 Tip of the Week

Jessica Joy Kerr adds new layers to the old ‘is velocity a useful metric’ discussion, pointing at physics and its multi-dimensionality: "Velocity defeats itself. Get acceleration instead."

➿ Agile & Scrum

• Big O(n) Development: Julius Uy explores the delicate tension between leadership and stakeholders, product management, and engineering: "How to Address Tech Debt vs. Product Debt vs. Business Debt."
  
  

• Farnam Street spreads more wisdom from Charlie Munger to make ‘effective decisions and [reduce] human misjudgment:’ "The Munger Two Step."

• Parabol Focus curated a set of retrospective games, from photo finish to Retrospective bingo to agile battleship: "13 Sprint Retrospective Games for Remote Teams."

🎓 🖥 💯 🇺🇸 Professional Scrum Product Owner — January 23-26, 2023

Discover Scrum’s four success principles in this guaranteed official Scrum.org Professional Scrum Product Owner training class, leading to and including the industry-recognized PSPO I certification. (This live-virtual class will be offered in English.)

Enjoy the benefits of a live immersive class with like-minded agile peers in the morning hours from 9 am – 1 pm EST.

Learn more: 🖥 🇺🇸 Professional Scrum Product Owner — January 23-26, 2023.

“Great Depth of Knowledge & Experience: The depth is experience that Stefan Wolpers possesses was evident in his ability to answer questions of all levels during the 4 training sessions. I particularly appreciated his willingness to tease apart Scrum answers into application in real life with examples.” (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

• Ken Norton shares leadership lessons from Frank Barrett’s book ‘Yes To The Mess: Surprising Leadership Lessons from Jazz:’ "Please Make Yourself Uncomfortable: What product managers can learn from jazz musicians."
  
  

• Itamar Gilad goes back in history to shed more light on a divisive term — the ‘feature factory:’ "Feature Factories vs. Value Generators."

• Silicon Valley Product Group: Marty Cagan shares his take on how to progress as a product manager in the field of product coaching, explaining prerequisites, the different coaching fields, and customer types: "Becoming a Product Coach."

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

• Commonplace: Cedric Chin dissects the original idea of “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure” to explore Amazon’s approach, especially working backward: "Goodhart's Law Isn't as Useful as You Might Think."

• Will Larson dives deep into the details of assessing an engineering organization for various interested parties: "Measuring an engineering organization."

• Medium: Jason Yip points to five measures to improve flow, from changing measuring delivery to per-process-step WIP limits: "Fixing ‘Too much WIP.’"

🎶 Encore

• David Heinemeier Hansson shares his belief about running a business in a way you can feel proud about and the importance of values: "We don't A/B test core values."

📯 A Job Interview w/ ChatGPT for a Scrum Master Position

Can a large language model, not specializing in anything “agile,” pass a screening interview for a Scrum Master position?

In this ChatGPT job interview, I put OpenAI’s latest generative AI to the test. I took several questions from the 73 Scrum Master Interview Questions guide, covering the whole spectrum from the broad picture to more specific questions, only answerable with hands-on experience on the interviewee’s side.

👉 So, read on and learn whether Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches will soon be replaced with a chatbot.

📅 Training Classes, Meetups & Events

Upcoming classes and events:

• 🖥 💯 🇺🇸 Jan 23-26 👉 US Timezone — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; English)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Jan 24-27 — 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 1 — Live Virtual Meetup: Hands-on Agile 49: ChatGPT (English)
• 🖥 🇬🇧 Feb 7-10 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM I; English)
• 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 Feb 28-Mar 3 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German)
• 🖥 🇩🇪 Mar 20-21 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Agile Leadership Essentials Class (PAL I; German)
• 🖥 🇬🇧 Mar 23 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Class (PSFS; English)
• 🖥 🇬🇧 Mar 28-29 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM II; English)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 May 11 — Live Virtual Meetup: Hands-on Agile EXTRA: Joe Justice on Elon Musk (English)

See all upcoming classes here.

📺 Youtube Channel

• Itamar Gilad: How much Product Discovery Is enough? The Confidence Meter — HoA #47.

Your Opinion Matters

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Best,