Food for Agile Thought #381: Agile Is Alive and Kicking, Sales-Led Development Problems, Budget Cuts, Show the Team the Money

Welcome to the 381st edition of the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter, shared with 36,846 peers. My name is Stefan Wolpers.

This week, we learn again that rumors of “Agile’s” demise are greatly exaggerated; check out the Tip of the Week as a reply to this week’s 🍋. Also, we delve into the history of the technical debt concept and suggest how to manage the challenge sustainably and effectively. Next, follow the money: Allan Kelly addresses a typically ignored yet essential topic in many organizations: team finances.

Then, we reflect on the problems of allocating most development work to customization while starving the core product, also known as sales-led development. Moreover, we answer a vital question many product people share today: how to sustain the innovation momentum with fewer bucks? And Elad Gil asks whether early SaaS or AI companies are ever defensible at an early stage and delivers a comprehensive list of potential ways to build a moat. Alternatively, you can also steal from an aggregated list of ‘best practices used by successful product companies.’

Finally, Deb Liu suggests changing perspective when you are in a perceived conflict: retell your story with the other as the hero, and Buffer shared their extensive study on how ‘remote workers from around the world feel about remote work.’ Lastly, Jordan Harbinger interviews Alastair Smith on dictatorship. What I find particularly interesting about the talk is why bad behavior often makes for good politics. (I felt instantly reminded of some agile transformations in the past.)

PS: 🗞 Did you miss past issues? No worries, here we go: 380, 379.

PPS: 🎓 📅 See all upcoming events and classes here.

Join 50-plus peers on April 5, 2023: The Product Community of Practice w/ Petra Wille — Hands-on Agile #50.

🏆 Tip of the Week

Medium: In an excellent, myth-busting piece, Jason Yip delves into the evolution and background of ‘agile,’ replying to this week’s Lemon, see below: "The age of cargo cult Agile must end."

🍋 The Lemon of the Week

UX Collective: In this week’s Lemon, Michael Burnett bashes ‘Agile,’ claiming that it has ‘fundamental flaws that have been glaring at us all along.’ Too bad that most of his assumptions are plain wrong, as Jason Yip shows in his reply, see The Tip of the Week: "The age of Agile must end."

➿ Agile & Scrum

• Globant Blog: Michael Feathers and Javier Bonnemaison delve into the history of the concept and suggest how to manage the challenge sustainably and effectively: "How to manage technical debt."

• Allan Kelly addresses a typically ignored yet essential topic in many organizations: team finances: "Lets talk about money: the ultimate feedback loop."
  
  

• Spencer Fry shares what he believes to be a better path for product development: introduce the role of the ‘Champion’ instead of having project or product managers. Take this suggestion with a grain of salt as it applies only to small teams of 3-4 developers: "No [Product Managers], no problem: how we ship great products fast."

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

The Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills (PSFS) training by Berlin Product People is a guaranteed 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

• 🎙 In this podcast, Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson talk to Rich Mironov about the problems of allocating most development work to customization while starving the core product: "The Problem with Sales-led Development."

• 📺 Strategyzer: Tendayi Viki addresses a vital question many product people share today: how to sustain the innovation momentum with fewer bucks? "With companies cutting budgets — what should innovators do?"

• Elad Gil asks whether early SaaS or AI companies are ever defensible at an early stage and delivers a comprehensive list of potential ways to build a moat: "Defensibility & Competition."
  
  

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

• Piotr Kacała aggregated a list of ‘best practices used by successful product companies,’ including detailed guides on how to apply them: "Discover 100+ practices used by successful tech product companies."

• Deb Liu suggests changing perspective when you are in a perceived conflict: retell your story with the other as the hero: "Everyone is the Hero of Their Own Story."

• 📈 Buffer shared their extensive study on how ‘remote workers from around the world feel about remote work:’ "State Of Remote Work 2023."

🎶 Encore

• 🎙 In this podcast, Jordan Harbinger interviews Alastair Smith on dictatorship. What I find particularly interesting is why bad behavior so often makes for good politics; I felt instantly reminded of some agile transformations in the past: "The Dictator's Handbook Part One."
  
  

📅 Training Classes, Meetups & Events

Upcoming classes and events:

• 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 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)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Apr 5 — Live Virtual Meetup: Hands-on Agile 50: The Product Community of Practice w/ Petra Wille (English)
• 🖥 🇩🇪 Apr 18-21 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM II; German)
• 🖥 🇩🇪 Apr 25-28 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 May 4 — Live Virtual Meetup: Hands-on Agile EXTRA: Joe Justice on Elon Musk (English)
• 🖥 🇩🇪 May 9-10 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM I; German)

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,