Food for Agile Thought #405: Dysfunction Mapping, Guide to Product Ideas, Resistance To Change

Welcome to the 405th edition of the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter, shared with 48,416 peers. My name is Stefan Wolpers.

This week, we delve into Maarten Dalmijn’s introduction of “Dysfunction Mapping” to address organizational complexities, explore the principles behind Jeff Bezos’ leadership success as dissected by Jason Evanish, and learn about the emotional roots of resistance to change with insights from David Burkus. Additionally, Miss_HayaX reflects on the prevalent use of Scrum in technical projects and explores when teams might consider alternatives.

Then, we discover Peter Yang’s valuable insights on acing behavioral interviews for PM candidates, explore what Deb Liu learns from the 1960s Milgram experiment about requests, and dive into Lenny Rachitsky’s comprehensive playbook for kickstarting and scaling B2B businesses.

Finally, we explore Tim Metz’s advocacy for essential “team health checks,” delve into Christoph Roser’s insights into the “soft power” of the Toyota Production System, unravel Kim Scott’s reflections on the misconceptions surrounding Radical Candor, and find out about a precarious alternative approach to Product Backlog refinement.

PS: 🗞 Did you miss past issues? No worries, here we go: 404, 403.

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

🏆 Tip of the Week

Maarten Dalmijn emphasizes that all organizations face problems, and the real challenge is viewing these problems from a system’s perspective, introducing the concept of “Dysfunction Mapping” to address organizational complexities: "A Gentle Introduction to Dysfunction Mapping."

🍋 Lemon of the Week

Leading Agile: The protagonists promote a dangerous alternative to deal with a non-issue if a team values and practices proper Product Backlog refinement: "How to Create a Definition of Ready."

➿ Agile & Scrum

• Get Lighthouse: Jason Evanish explores Jeff Bezos’ leadership style, highlighting the five principles that helped him build one of the world’s most valuable companies: "Jeff Bezos’ Leadership Style: 5 Powerful Principles to Apply."

• David Burkus explores the emotional reasons behind employee resistance to organizational change rather than the change itself, suggesting the need to address underlying emotions: "How To Overcome Resistance To Change."

• Reddit: Miss_HayaX highlights the prevalence of Scrum in technical project development, reflecting on various experiences and asking when a team should consider alternatives to Scrum: "At what point does a team reach the ‘tipping point’ where following Scrum becomes a burden rather than an asset?

🎓 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 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

• Peter Yang shares insights from interviewing hundreds of PM candidates, revealing that behavioral interviews often determine the outcome, sharing ten advanced tips to excel and avoid common mistakes: "10 Advanced Tips to Ace Your PM Behavioral Interviews."

• Lenny Rachitsky announces an in-depth playbook for starting and scaling a B2B business based on interviews with successful B2B companies: "How the most successful B2B startups came up with their original idea."

• Deb Liu reflects on what the 1960s Milgram experiment can teach us about asking and being asked: "The Dark Side of Influence: Understanding the Power of Requests."

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

• Parabol Focus: Tim Metz emphasizes the importance of “team health checks” in the workplace, likening them to a doctor’s visit for warning signs like burnout or productivity dips: "9 Team Health Check Methods To Unlock Team Potential."

• Christoph Roser delves into the “soft power” of the Toyota Production System, contrasting it with the “hard power” prevalent in Western companies: "The Soft Power of the Toyota Production System—Yokoten, Nemawashi, and More."

• Medium: Kim Scott reflects on the misunderstandings surrounding Radical Candor, a concept often mislabeled as brutal honesty or a license to be rude: "Brutal Honesty and Radical Candor: 6 Ways You’re Getting Radical Candor Wrong and 6 Ways to Get It Right."

🎶 Encore

There are no entries to this category this week.

📯 Minimum Viable Library (1) — Scrum Master Edition

The Minimum Viable Library is available! Explore a series of carefully curated collections of essential books, newsletters, podcasts, and tools to elevate your agile expertise.

Read on and learn how the recommendations for Scrum Masters cover a wide range of topics, including Scrum, servant leadership, customer value creation, coaching teams, improving team dynamics through Retrospectives, and navigating agile enterprise transformations.

👉 Learn more: Minimum Viable Library (1) — Scrum Master Edition.

📅 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.

Your Opinion Matters

Would you like to suggest a post for next week's edition or provide general feedback? You can reply to this email, or contact stefan@age-of-product.com.

If you like the newsletter, please forward it to a friend or colleague—it would mean a lot to me! 🙏

If you want to receive even more news, just follow @AgeOfProduct or @StefanW on Twitter for your daily dose.

Last, but not least: If you are a first time reader of this newsletter, click here to subscribe and join 48,416 peers.

Best,