Food for Agile Thought #403: Life Coaching In Agile? Full Stack Product Management, Agile Maturity Models, Optimal UVPs

Welcome to the 403rd edition of the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter, shared with 48,157 peers. My name is Stefan Wolpers.

This week, Ronald Purser critically examines the life coaching industry, often selling pseudo-solutions to profound issues. Is that trend spilling over to Agile? Also, Maarten Dalmijn questions the efficacy of Agile Maturity Models, while Julee Everett makes a strong case for full-time Scrum Masters based on financial benefits. Moreover, Vidas Vasiliauskas reflects on Teamhood’s evolution with Scrum, highlighting the significance of continuous improvement.

Then, Howie Mann proposes a novel way of handling product feature requests by focusing on recent problems, and Šejla Vatreš probes into the emerging trend of ‘full stack’ product managers and its potential implications. Additionally, John Utz examines the common disconnect between expected product features and valuable outcomes, especially in annual budgeting, and Ash Maurya underscores the importance of creating a unique value proposition (UVP) that captivates customer attention.

Finally, Nick Brown scrutinizes the metric of Flow Efficiency in Agile, using data from over 60 teams at ASOS to discuss its merits and pitfalls. Daniel Stillman presents a compelling 2018 study that illustrates how a “committed minority group” making up at least 25% can initiate cultural change within a community. Lastly, we suggest applying Hanlon’s Razor to improve relationships and enhance empathy, which can lead to less judgment, increased rationality, and personal happiness.

🏅 The most popular discussion on LinkedIn this week was: Congratulations on your new Scrum Master position! Now what? What are the missteps to avoid at all costs? ❌ 😲

PS: 🗞 Did you miss past issues? No worries, here we go: 402, 401.

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

👉 Es gibt für die Professional Scrum Master Schulung PSM I am 5. und 6. September 2023 Schulung ein Community-Ticket für “Food for Agile Thought”-Abonnenten mit 50 % Nachlass. Bei Interesse meldet Euch bitte bei mir.

📅 Join my first public in-person training in years on October 24-25, 2023, in Berlin: Use the code Berlin to save € 200. Please note that the “first come, first serve” principle applies, and legal recourse is excluded.

🏆 Tip of the Week

Current Affairs: Ronald Purser critically examines the life coaching industry, noting its rise amid dwindling social support and increasing pressures for self-made success. He argues that this industry often sells pseudo-solutions to profound issues. Is that trend spilling over to Agile? "How the Life Coaching Industry Sells Pseudo-Solutions to Our Deepest Problems."

🍋 The Lemon of the Week

Medium: As we all know, Scrum evolves around an utterly inefficient process. According to the author, we can turn this tragic state upside down by adding two more events: the refinement and the prep for the Sprint Review. That was easy, wasn’t it? "Smart Scrum: Optimizing the Effectivity of your Scrum Process."

➿ Agile & Scrum

• Maarten Dalmijn challenges the validity and usefulness of Agile Maturity Models. He questions the assumption that climbing higher on the model’s metaphorical flagpole translates into better results: "Agile Maturity Model Adherence - Be Careful What You Wish For!"
  
  

• Medium: Diving into the economics of hiring full-time Scrum Masters, Julee Everett builds a compelling case using various data sources. Based on average U.S. salaries and a Scrum team size of 10, their insights underscore the financial benefits of such a decision: "The Business Case for a Scrum Master."

• Vidas Vasiliauskas reflects on Teamhood’s two-year journey with Scrum, involving 52 sprints. While acknowledging past misconceptions, they emphasize the importance of continuous learning and improvement. Explore their key learnings presented in the classic retrospective format: "52 Sprints Later - Win Some, Lose Some, Scrum-butt Done."

🎓 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Class — October 4, 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 — October 4, 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

• Howie Mann suggests an insightful shift in addressing product feature requests. Rather than asking ‘what’ or ‘why,’ the focus should be on asking ‘When did you last face this problem?’, paving the way for prompt, practical solutions: "How to respond to product feature requests? Ask “When did you last face this problem?”"

• Mind The Product: Šejla Vatreš explores the concept of ‘full stack’ product managers who juggle various skills from tech to marketing. The piece raises questions about the feasibility and benefits of this approach in product management: "Is full stack product management a good idea?"
  
  

• Medium: John Utz emphasizes the recurring pressure on product teams to deliver features, overshadowing the critical focus on outcomes. This struggle is particularly prominent during annual budgeting, leading to a frequent misunderstanding between value versus features: "Let’s Talk About the F Word — Features: Why budgeting for features leads to product failure."

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

• Medium: Nick Brown critically examines the widely touted metric of Flow Efficiency in Agile, drawing on actual data from over 60 teams at ASOS. Discover more about the validity and flaws of Flow Efficiency in agile environments: "Our survey says… uncovering the real numbers behind flow efficiency."

• Daniel Stillman presents a 2018 study revealing that a “committed minority group” of at least 25% can trigger a cultural change in a community. Explore the power of a minority in driving change: "Minimum Viable Transformation."

• Ash Maurya emphasizes that crafting a unique value proposition (UVP) that grabs customer attention is a product’s initial challenge. The UVP should be concise, different, specific, and persuasive enough to inspire action: "Crafting Attention-Grabbing Unique Value Propositions."
  
  

🎶 Encore

• Farnam Street: The author suggests applying Hanlon’s Razor to improve relationships and enhance empathy. Embracing this mental model can lead to less judgment, increased rationality, and personal happiness: "Hanlon's Razor: Not Everyone is Out to Get You."

📯 Product Discovery for Scrum Teams

While Scrum excels at building and releasing Increments, it does not guarantee that those are valuable—garbage in, garbage out. Scrum teams can equally make things no one is interested in using at all. The critical artifact to create value is the Product Backlog, “an emergent, ordered list of what is needed to improve the product.”

However, Scrum does not elaborate on how the Product Owner identifies Product Backlog-worthy work items. That would be the job of the process that feeds into the Product Backlog: product discovery.

👉 Learn more: Product Discovery for Scrum Teams — Scrum Tools, Part 2.

📅 Training Classes, Meetups & Events

Upcoming classes and events:

• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 August 17 — Meetup: Hands-on Agile #52: Jim Highsmith & the Agile Manifesto (English)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 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)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 September 5 — Meetup: Hands-on Agile #53: An Agile Coaches Guide to Storytelling w/ Bob Galen (English)
• 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 September 26-29 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 October 4 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Training (PSFS; English)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 October 10 — Meetup: Overcoming Common Product Backlog Management Traps w/ David Pereira
• 🇬🇧 October 24-25 — In Berlin: Advanced Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM II; English)

See all upcoming classes here.

📺 Youtube Channel

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

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Best,