Food for Agile Thought #387: Culture & Methods Trends 2023, The Introverted Product Manager, Users Lie to Us

Welcome to the 387th edition of the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter, shared with 45,893 peers. My name is Stefan Wolpers.

This week, Shane Hastie introduces the Culture & Methods Trends 2023 report, from culture handbooks to LLM-supported development to scaling frameworks entering the Late Majority. Moreover, we learn from an interview with Brendan Marsh about Spotify and its way of working, the obvious question being: Is there a ‘Spotify Model?’ Also, we list three critical issues leading to less effective Retrospectives, from inconsistency to a lack of contributions to failure to follow up on action items, and point out that SAFe may not be ideal, but applying it may lead to a higher level of business agility, depending on the environment and context.

Then, Maret Kruve remembers her challenges when starting as a product manager, being an introvert, and how she coped with them. Also, we learn suggestions for encouraging engineers to involve themselves more effectively in the ideation process. In a shocking revelation, Michalina Bidzinska explains why “listening to users is less important than observing their actions,” as they all lie to us.

Finally, we reflect on issues and challenges when using NPS beyond its intended purpose as a consumer research tool and ask ChatGPT to help us with OKR design. Speaking of metrics, Tendayi Viki dissects the idea of return on investment for innovation, distinguishing two realms: the “innovation team lives in Explore, whereas the executive board lives in Exploit.” Lastly, we explore how Chinese companies “prioritize autonomy at scale, internal digital platforms, and a clear project focus.”

PS: 🗞 Did you miss past issues? No worries, here we go: 386, 385.

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

PPPS: 📖 Get notified when the Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide will become available.

Join 150-plus peers on May 4, 2023: HoA EXTRA: How Elon Musk Would Run YOUR Business with Joe Justice.

🏆 Tip of the Week

📈 InfoQ: Shane Hastie introduces the latest trends in engineering, from culture handbooks to LLM-supported development to scaling frameworks entering the Late Majority: "Culture & Methods Trends Report March 2023."

🍋 The Lemon of the Week

UX Collective: In another round of Scrum bashing, Henrik Ståhl claims that “Scrum is just as bad as SAFe. Adopt it at your own risk,” without adding much insight to the discussion than unsubstantiated claims: "Scrum is just as bad as SAFe – adopt it at your own risk."

➿ Agile & Scrum

• 🎙 In this podcast, Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson interview Brendan Marsh about his time at Spotify and its way of working: "What really happened at Spotify."

• Agile Alliance: Enrico Teotti lists three critical issues leading to less effective Retrospectives, from inconsistency to a lack of contributions to failure to follow up on action items: "Why your retros don't work and how to fix them."
  
  

• 📺 Leading Agile: Mike Cottmeyer delves into SAFe’s shortcomings; however, he also points out that applying SAFe may lead to a higher level of business agility, depending on the environment and context: "On Managing Expectations of Methodologies & Frameworks."

🎓 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Class — May 16, 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 an immersive class of two compact sessions with like-minded agile peers from 09:00 – 17:30 o’clock CEST.

👉 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 — May 16, 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

• Medium: Maret Kruve remembers her challenges when starting as a product manager, being an introvert, and how she coped with them: "How I Survived the Lifestyle of a Product Manager as an Introvert."

• Ellen Juhlin asked Teresa Torres’ community for suggestions on encouraging engineers to involve themselves more effectively in the ideation process: "Product in Practice: Getting Engineers Involved in Brainstorming."

• uxdesign.cc: Michalina Bidzinska explains why “listening to users is less important than observing their actions:” "Everybody Lies. Your Users Too."
  
  

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

• Mind The Product: Paula Stürmer reflects on issues and challenges when using NPS beyond its intended purpose as a consumer research tool: "The 9 ugliest truths about NPS in B2B."
  
  

• Tim Herbig shows “the impact that context through strategy can have on OKR design using a mechanical sparring partner:” "I asked ChatGPT to write your OKRs."

🎶 Encore

• Strategyzer: Tendayi Viki dissects the idea of return on investment for innovation, distinguishing two realms: the “innovation team lives in Explore, whereas the executive board lives in Exploit:” "ROI for innovation."

• Harvard Business Review: Mark J. Greeven, Katherine Xin, and George S. Yip explore how Chinese companies “prioritize autonomy at scale, internal digital platforms, and a clear project focus:” "How Chinese Companies Are Reinventing Management."

📅 Training Classes, Meetups & Events

Upcoming classes and events:

• 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 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 14 — Live Virtual Meetup: Hands-on Agile 51: Fast, NoWaste Agile Estimating w/ Ron Lichty (English)
• 🖥 🇩🇪 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,