Food for Agile Thought #376: Product Team Performance, Scrum ChatGPT Prompts, Injustice at Work, How to Lead Complexity

Welcome to the 376th edition of the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter, shared with 36,564 peers. My name is Stefan Wolpers.

This week, we listen to our two product heavyweights, Lenny Rachitsky and John Cutler, delving into the performance of product teams. We continue with suggesting abandoning the popular framing that Waterfall is the opposite of Agile and that moving from one to the other requires a transformation, and identify four roles, at least one which you will play in a moment of injustice: person harmed, upstander, the person who caused harm, or leader. Moreover, we learn how a major Toyota program was saved by descaling and applying Scrum.

Then, we enjoy Marty Cagan sharing his approach to how teams and companies “can best deal with the challenges of complexity.” Also, we explore “three popular models for product teams,” and point to stakeholder alignment factors, from not trapping yourself to not confusing roadmaps with release plans to treating stakeholders as customers. Moreover, the ProdPad folks compiled a comprehensive list of questions your team may engage in identifying what is worth building.

Finally, Petra Wille shares the first findings from her 2022 survey into what drives thriving communities of practices for product people. Next, JTBD Toolkit released the JTBD Canvas 2.0, and there are new ChatGPT prompts for Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and Developers. Lastly, Tami Reiss has a candid conversation with Rich Mironov on product ethics and the corresponding responsibilities of product managers and leaders.

PS: 🗞 Did you miss past issues? No worries, here we go: 374, 375.

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

🏆 Tip of the Week

🎙 Our two product heavyweights, Lenny Rachitsky and John Cutler, delve into the performance of product teams: "What differentiates the highest-performing product teams."

➿ Agile & Scrum

• Charles Lambdin suggests abandoning the popular framing that Waterfall is the opposite of Agile and that moving from one to the other requires a transformation: "Agile vs. Waterfall (And Other Obfuscation)."

• Radical Candor: Kim Scott identifies four roles, at least one which you will play in a moment of injustice: person harmed, upstander, the person who caused harm, or leader: "Injustice At Work: 4 Effective Ways To Respond."
  
  

• Nigel Thurlow shares how a major Toyota program was saved by descaling and applying Scrum: "How Scrum Rescued a Major Toyota Program."

🎓 🖥 🇬🇧 Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Class — March 23, 2023

The Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills (PSFS) training by Berlin Product People is a one-day official Scrum.org class for advanced Scrum practitioners and agile coaches, including the industry-acknowledged PSFS certification. This PSFS training class is in English.

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

👉 New in 2023: Refresher Classes: Attend a free refresher class as a former student upon arrangement and availability.

Learn More: 🖥 🇬🇧 Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Class — March 23, 2023.

👉 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

• 📺 Crisp: In this video, Marty Cagan shares his approach to how teams and companies “can best deal with the challenges of complexity:” "Leading Complexity with Context not Control."

• John Cutler explores “three popular models for product teams” and points to the impossibility of reducing real life into three simple models: "Three Product Teams."
  
  

• productboard: Bruce McCarthy points to stakeholder alignment factors, from not trapping yourself to not confusing roadmaps with release plans to treating stakeholders as customers: "5 Secrets to Stakeholder Alignment on Roadmaps."

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

• Petra Wille shares the first findings from her 2022 survey into what drives thriving communities of practices for product people: "What I Learned from Surveying Over 100 People About Product Communities of Practice."
  
  

• ProdPad: Fleur Sykes compiled a comprehensive list of questions your team may engage in identifying what is worth building: "The 12 Most Important Product Discovery Questions."

• JTBD Toolkit released the JTBD Canvas 2.0, a tool “to help you scope out your JTBD landscape prior to conducting field research:” "JTBD Canvas 2.0."

🎶 Encore

• 🎙 Tami Reiss has a candid conversation with Rich Mironov on product ethics and the corresponding responsibilities of product managers and leaders: "Ethical Dilemmas in Product Management."

📅 Training Classes, Meetups & Events

Upcoming classes and events:

• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 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 14-15 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM II; 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

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 36,564 peers.

Best,