Food for Agile Thought #396: Constructive Feedback Framework, Cognitive Bias in Product, Agile & UX: A Failed Marriage?

Welcome to the 396th edition of the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter, shared with 47,254 peers. My name is Stefan Wolpers.

This week, we learn about Roman Pichler’s new constructive feedback framework to help you to have difficult conversations with stakeholders, management, and team members. Moreover, we share lessons learned on ‘instilling Agile and Scrum knowledge based on a Just-In-Time strategy’ and point to the obvious: Working extra hard and overtime causes stress and burnout and will, inevitably, lead to mistakes.

Then, we delve into the psychology behind questionable decision product people make, from sunk cost fallacy to the Halo effect, and appreciate Steven Sinofsky’s epic essay on ‘patterns and practices in the creation, rise, and fall of platforms.’ Also, we analyze the intersection of artificial intelligence and product management, for example, ‘AI’s ability to emulate human cognition’ and provide insight into the effort to integrate User Experience & Design (UX) within the Agile software development frameworks: Agile & UX — a failed marriage?

Finally, we Look back at 20 years of the Double Diamond, now available in version 4.1, supporting the concept with a long list of product discovery practices, from the Concierge Test to the Fake Door Test to A/B testing. Lastly, Marc Andreessen goes all in on artificial intelligence, claiming it is a ‘way to make everything we care about better,’ and Google Cloud provides a free, curated collection of content on generative AI products and technologies.

🏅 The most popular discussion on LinkedIn this week was: Introducing: The Minimum Viable Library — #ScrumMaster edition!

PS: 🗞 Did you miss past issues? No worries, here we go: 394, 395.

PPS: 🎓 📅 Für die Scrum-Master-Klasse am 21. und 22. Juni 2023 gibt es ein Community-Ticket mit 50 % Nachlass. Bei Interesse an einer Teilnahme antwortet bitte auf diese Email.

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

📅 Join your peers on June 14: Hands-on Agile 51: Fast, NoWaste Agile Estimating w/ Ron Lichty (English).

🏆 Tip of the Week

Roman Pichler created a framework to help you to have difficult conversations with stakeholders, management, and team members: "How to Offer Constructive Feedback: A Framework for Product People."

🍋 The Lemon of the Week

News.YC (HackerNews): In a rambling thread, nabazlbhf1337 delves into ‘agile extremism’ and its supposedly resulting collateral damage: "Agile sucks for software development and I’m tired of pretending it doesn’t."

➿ Agile & Scrum

• Agile Alliance: Erik De Bos shares lessons learned on ‘instilling Agile and Scrum knowledge based on a Just-In-Time strategy:’ "Adopting Scrum in a Management Team with a Just-In-Time Learning Approach."

• Mike Cohn points to the obvious: Working extra hard and overtime causes stress and burnout and will, inevitably, lead to mistakes: "Why Sustainable Pace Is So Important to Agile Teams."
  
  

• Medium: Alexander Ryazanov, noting that ‘Agile’ has drifted too far away from original ideas, ventures out to fix it: "Fixing Agile. Part 1."

🎓 🖥 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training — August 29-30, 2023

Discover Scrum’s four success principles in this official Scrum.org Advanced Scrum Master training class including the industry-recognized PSM II certification. The PSM II training class is designed as a live virtual class of two compact sessions from 9 am to 5:30 pm CEST and will be offered in English.

Learn more: 🖥 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training w/ PSM II Certificate — August 29-30, 2023.

Customer voices: “Outstanding PSM II experience: Having looked forward to attending this class, literally for years, it was everything I expected, hoped for and then some. I am so grateful that this was an online virtual class, as it added an additional dimension to the learning, and was incredibly insightful. The trainer did an outstanding job of taking us through the learning plan, facilitating discussions, guiding the outcome and believing in the structures. Whether the learning was tangible curriculum, or intangible observation, it was excellent – made even more solid by the open sharing from my classmates and willingness from everyone to participate.” (Link.)

👉 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

• Mind The Product: Christine Itwaru delves into the psychology behind questionable decision product people make, from sunk cost fallacy to the Halo effect: "How to deal with cognitive bias in Product."

• Steven Sinofsky wrote an epic essay on ‘patterns and practices in the creation, rise, and fall of platforms:’ "Ultimate Guide to Platforms."
  
  

• Mind The Product: Jing Hu analyzes the intersection of artificial intelligence and product management, for example, ‘AI’s ability to emulate human cognition.’ "From LaLa Land to The Matrix: Can AI replace product management?"

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

• UX Collective: Aviram (Avi) Vijh provides insight into the effort to integrate User Experience & Design (UX) within the Agile software development frameworks: "Agile & UX: a failed marriage?"

• uxdesign.cc: Looking back at 20 years of the Double Diamond, Darren Yeo reports on its latest incarnation: "Double Diamond v4.1: an operating manual for designers using AI."

• UX Collective: Bart Jaworski shares a long list of product discovery practices, from the Concierge Test to the Fake Door Test to A/B testing. "The ultimate guide to Product Discovery Techniques."
  
  

🎶 Encore

• Andreessen Horowitz: Marc Andreessen goes all in on artificial intelligence, claiming it is a ‘way to make everything we care about better:’ "Why AI Will Save the World."

• Google Cloud: “This learning path guides you through a curated collection of content on generative AI products and technologies, from the fundamentals of Large Language Models to how to create and deploy generative AI solutions on Google Cloud:” "Generative AI Learning Path"

📯 Scrum Master Interview Questions — ChatGPT Edition

Previously, I tested how ChatGPT would answer questions from the Scrum Master Interview Guide; see below. Back in January 2023, I would not have taken the next step in the Scrum Master interview process, inviting ChatGPT to a full-size interview with several Scrum team members.

So, if the GPT 3.5 or 4.0 models still need to be better to pass the interview hurdle, what about their capability to create similar interview questions? Enjoy the following article on my excursion into creating Scrum Master interview questions with ChatGPT.

👉 Learn more: Scrum Master Interview Questions — ChatGPT Edition.

📅 Training Classes, Meetups & Events

Upcoming classes and events:

• 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 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)
• 🖥 🇬🇧 August 29-30 — Live Virtual Class: Advanced Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM II; English)
• 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 September 5-6 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM I; German)
• 🖥 🇬🇧 October 4 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Training (PSFS; English)

See all upcoming classes here.

📺 Youtube Channel

• Joe Justice: How Elon Musk Would Run YOUR Business — Hands-on Agile EXTRA.

Your Opinion Matters

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Best,