Food for Agile Thought #383: Building Products without Value, Developers Talking to Customers, Marty Cagan’s Product Model

Welcome to the 383rd edition of the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter, shared with 37,076 peers. My name is Stefan Wolpers.

This week, Jeff Patton attempts to explain why organizations “irrationally and addictively build and release products that often have no real value.” In addition, we address a controversial topic that might help alleviate the “no real value” problem: writing good code requires more technical skills; Developers also need to talk to their customers. Also, improving Product Backlog management in Scrum might support avoiding becoming focused on merely shipping stuff.

Then, we present a “set of principles, practices, and competencies” that together represent the best tech-powered companies’ way of working, bolstered by a “list of potentially helpful questions (and multiple-choice answers) to help you explore the ideas, strategies, opportunities, problems, bets, initiatives, and projects on your roadmap.” Moreover, should you consider turning your service business into a product, you don’t want to miss a podcast with “Productize” author Eisha Armstrong.

Finally, we share experts’ insight into Spotify’s approach to learning about a Squad’s health. Speaking of team health, we also reflect on why answering Scrum’s obsolete three Daily Scrum questions negatively influences your team and share a framework to “meet conversational stuckness and tensions at the appropriate level.” Lastly, we dive into an interesting question: Is it still form follows function in the digital space?

PS: 🗞 Did you miss past issues? No worries, here we go: 382, 381.

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

Join 75-plus peers on April 5, 2023: The Product Community of Practice w/ Petra Wille — Hands-on Agile #50.

🏆 Tip of the Week

Jeff Patton attempts to explain why organizations “irrationally and addictively build and release products that often have no real value:” "Underpants gnomes, Outcomes, and Intermittent Reinforcement – Help Your Organization Focus on Successful Outcomes."

🍋 The Lemon of the Week

We are lemon-free this week!

➿ Agile & Scrum

• Liz Keogh delves into Product Backlog management in Scrum and how to avoid becoming focused on merely shipping stuff: "A Really Common Problem."

• Jeff Gothelf addresses a controversial topic and claims that writing good code requires more technical skills: you also need to talk to your customers: "Talking to customers is not a waste of a developer's time."
  
  

• Spotify Engineering: Justin Kotzé and Fiona Siseman explain Spotify’s approach to learning about a Squad’s health: "Getting More from Your Team Health Checks."

🎓 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 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

• Silicon Valley Product Group: Marty Cagan presents a “set of principles, practices, and competencies” that together represent the best tech-powered companies’ way of working: "The Product Model."

• John Cutler created a “list of potentially helpful questions (and multiple-choice answers) to help you explore the ideas, strategies, opportunities, problems, bets, initiatives, and projects on your roadmap:” "(Roadmap Item) Questions."
  
  

• 🎙 Jason Knight interviews Eisha Armstrong on what to avoid when turning your service business into a product: "The Seven Deadly Mistakes of Productization."

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

• RebootHQ: Allison Schultz shares a framework to “meet conversational stuckness and tensions at the appropriate level:” "I-We-It: A Framework To Have One Conversation at a Time."

• ProdPad: Janna Bastow dives into an interesting question: Is it still form follows function in the digital space? "Product Designer vs Product Manager: What's the Difference?"

• 📺 John Cutler shares an 8-minute practice session on improving flow and productivity: "WIP, Multi-Tasking, Context Switching (Video)."

🎶 Encore

• Dror Poleg claims that “technology creates more work. More work creates technology. But the way it does so is increasingly unclear:” "Productivity and Bullshit."
  
  

📅 Training Classes, Meetups & Events

Upcoming classes and events:

• 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 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: Advanced 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)
• 🖥 🇬🇧 May 16 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Class (PSFS; English)
• 🖥 🇩🇪 May 23-24 — Live Virtual Class: Advanced Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO II; German)
• 🖥 🇬🇧 May 30-31 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM II; English)
• 🖥 🇩🇪 June 13-16 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German)
• 🖥 🇩🇪 June 21-22 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM I; German)
• 🖥 🇩🇪 June 27-30 — Live Virtual Class: Advanced Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM II; 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,