Food for Agile Thought #411: Team Diversity Problems, Marginal Users' Tyranny, Useful Agile Mantras

Welcome to the 411th edition of the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter, shared with 49,134 peers. My name is Stefan Wolpers.

This week, Christiaan Verwijs and Daniel Russo scrutinize the complex relationship between team diversity and performance. Emily Webber identifies three collaboration anti-patterns sabotaging teamwork in organizations, and Jason Little takes us back to the foundational Agile principles that we should remember. Also, Jason Evanish dispels myths around introverted leadership, highlighting its unique strengths and benefits, and we enjoy a great interview with Jim Highsmith.

Then, Ivan Vendrov critiques the sacrifice of user experience for metrics in consumer software, while David Pereira distinguishes between genuine product management and its hollow counterpart, urging us to develop a “bullshit radar.” Leah Tharin cautions Airtable on its enterprise focus, potentially jeopardizing product-led growth for smaller clients. Moreover, Jenny Wanger showcases a food delivery company that has successfully integrated customer-centricity through operational choices.

Finally, Benji Huser-Berta underscores the importance of feature forecasting for effective planning in organizations with long release cycles. Chris Meyer delves into the Dunning-Kruger Effect, spotlighting its impact on self-awareness. Kai Hellström critiques superficial approaches to ‘Shared Understanding,’ advocating a more profound commitment to solving customer problems.

🏅 The most popular discussion on LinkedIn last week was: Stop “Shielding” Your Scrum Teams! 🤬

PS: 🗞 Did you miss past issues? No worries, here we go: 410, 409.

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🏆 Tip of the Week

The Liberators: Christiaan Verwijs and Daniel Russo, Ph. D., conducted a study examining the effects of diversity in teams. The study found that diversity in gender, role, and culture isn’t straightforwardly beneficial to team performance. Age diversity showed positive effects, and gender diversity could increase conflict. The conclusion suggests that teams should focus on harnessing diversity effectively through coaching and support structures, emphasizing the moral and ethical imperatives of maintaining diverse teams: "In-Depth: The Double-Edged Sword Of Diversity In Teams."

🍋 Lemon of the Week

Pretty Agile: The Lemon of the Week introduces the “Agile Release Tram,” a miniaturized SAFe construct. The idea amplifies SAFe’s existing flaws by forcing them into unsuitable smaller settings, making it an ill-advised solution: "What is an Agile Release Tram?"

➿ Agile & Scrum

• InfoQ: Emily Webber sheds light on the growing trend of collaboration anti-patterns in organizations. She highlights three main culprits: individual specialists stretched across multiple teams, product vs. engineering conflicts, and skewed organizational focus. These anti-patterns hamper multi-disciplinary teamwork, leading to slow delivery and subpar outcomes: "Bridging Silos and Overcoming Collaboration Antipatterns in Multidisciplinary Organisations."

• Jason Little revives old Agile mantras to remind us of the core principles that make Agile effective. From “You Ain’t Gonna Need It (YAGNI)” to “Last Responsible Moment,” Little urges agile practitioners to revisit these timeless concepts to maintain the original spirit of agile: "4 Old School Agile Mantras that Change Agents Should Be Stealing."

• Get Lighthouse: Jason Evanish discusses the value of introverted leadership, countering stereotypes that introverts are shy and quiet. He highlights how introverted leaders excel in empathy, listening, and managing proactive employees, citing a study that supports these traits: "Introverted Leadership: Ways to Shine as an Introvert Leader."

🎓 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 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

• Ivan Vendrov critiques the decline in user experience and agency in popular consumer software, attributing it to the “Tyranny of the Marginal User.” He argues that companies focus on metrics like Daily Active Users, sacrificing quality for broader appeal: "The Tyranny of the Marginal User."

• David Pereira confronts the fine line between “product management” and “bullshit management,” calling for a reality check. He argues that the latter is a wasteful pursuit focused on non-value-adding activities, while genuine product management aims for business and customer value. Pereira emphasizes needing a “bullshit radar” to identify and eliminate practices that don’t contribute to real value: "Pragmatism over Bullshitism."

• Leah Tharin warns that Airtable’s enterprise focus could risk its product-led growth, especially for smaller clients. Also, she questions the wisdom of segmenting product teams by company stage: "When product falls under the (Air)table."

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

• Chris Meyer discusses the Dunning-Kruger Effect, a cognitive bias where people overestimate their skills. He highlights its origin in a 1999 study and notes it affects the unskilled most, robbing them of critical self-awareness: "Dunning-Kruger Effect: How to Cringe Yourself to Success."

• Medium: Kai Hellström emphasizes the importance of ‘Shared Understanding’ in product development but warns that it’s often misunderstood. He critiques tick-box approaches that lack empathy and alignment, stressing that a truly shared understanding requires a more profound commitment to solving customer problems: "What the Hell Is Shared Understanding Anyway?"

• Medium: Benji Huser-Berta emphasizes that feature forecasting is crucial for organizations with long release cycles or interconnected products to plan effectively and schedule acceptance tests: "Using Probabilistic Forecasts for Feature Planning.

📅 Training Classes, Meetups & Events

Upcoming classes and events:

• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 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 30-31 — Live Virtual Class: Advanced Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM II; German)
• 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 November 1-2 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM I; German)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 November 8 — Meetup:Designing Agile Ecosystems with Org Topologies™ w/ Alexey Krivitsky and Roland Flemm (Free; English)
• 🖥 🇩🇪 November 21-24 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 November 28 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Training (PSFS; English)
• 🖥 🇩🇪 December 11-12 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM I; German)
• 🖥 🇩🇪 December 13-14 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German)
• 🖥 🇬🇧 December 18-19 — Live Virtual Class: Advanced Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM II; English)

See all upcoming classes here.

📺 Youtube Channel

• Jim Highsmith: Wild West to Agile — An Interview with the Co-Creator of the Agile Manifesto.

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Best,