Food for Agile Thought #418: Spotify Product Model, Advanced Forecasting, Healthy Storming, Biases in PM

Welcome to the 418th edition of the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter, shared with 49,581 peers. My name is Stefan Wolpers.

This week, we traverse the landscape of agility in leadership: from Joakim Sundén’s ‘Autonomous Squads’ in the Spotify Product Model to Takeshi Yoshida’s facilitative leadership model. Moreover, Pim de Morree discusses Krisos’s transformational investments, while Daniele Davi offers a cautionary tale on agile adoption. We also dissect the ‘Illusion of Velocity’ in agile metrics, advocating for servant leadership and pushing past conventional metrics.

Then, John Cutler explores delivery tactics, while Tiago Nogal delves into strategies against cognitive biases in product management, and Roman Pichler shares inclusive product leadership insights. Plus, experience the ‘Product/Market Fit’ journey with Jason Cohen, from the initial customer pursuit to the overwhelming demand.

Finally, Troy Lightfoot interviews Dan Vacanti and Prateek Singh on advanced agile forecasting and their latest book, while John Miller champions a Kata-style practice for revitalizing Retrospectives. Sketchplanations brings us a powerful lesson in responsibility, and Marc Randolph praises the strategic value of saying ‘no’ for entrepreneurial clarity and prioritization.

🗞️ Exclusively on my New Substack: Developer Anti-Patterns — An Excerpt from the Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide (3).

👉 Join 575-plus peers and help create the next edition of the Scrum Master Salary Report!

PS: 📖 Preorder the Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide book now for delivery in January 2024!

PPS: Did you miss past issues? No worries, here we go: 416, 417.

Save 30% until 2023-11-18 with the code SW_SPECIAL_6714: Designing Agile Ecosystems - self-paced video course with the creators Org Topologies™.

🏆 Tip of the Week

Crisp: Joakim Sundén shares insights on Spotify’s true differentiator, ‘Autonomous Squads,’ and the company’s unique approach to product leadership, inspired by Marty Cagan’s empowered team concepts: "The Product Model at Spotify."

🍋 Lemon of the Week

Medium: This week’s Lemon depicts a graphic of “Agile” that is a Waterfall wolf in Agile sheep’s clothing, missing the iterative heart and collaborative soul of proper agile practices: "What Is Agile? A Comprehensive Guide."

Join the Product Backlog Management Class of Jan 23 to Feb 20, 2024; get one of five tickets 25% off with the code “PBM2024”!

➿ Agile & Scrum

• Medium: Takeshi Yoshida emphasizes the role of facilitative leadership in navigating teams through Tuckman’s stages for robust development and trust-building: "Facilitating Healthy Storming."

• Corporate Rebels: Pim de Morree reveals how investment firm Krisos turns research into action, buying and transforming companies into self-managing, progressive workplaces with the NER approach: "Becoming Bossless: An Update On The Radical Transformation Of Our First Acquisition."

• Medium: Daniele Davi warns against hiring Scrum Masters without embracing actual agile change, highlighting a clash between old habits and Scrum values: "Stop! Stop hiring Scrum Masters!"

🎓 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training w/ PSM II Certificate — December 18-19, 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 and will be offered in English.

Enjoy the benefits of a compact immersive class with like-minded agile peers from 09:00 – 17:30 o’clock CET.

👉 New in 2023: Refresher Classes: Attend a free refresher class as a former student upon arrangement and availability.

Learn more: 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training w/ PSM II Certificate — December 18-19, 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

• 📺 John Cutler distills the essence of agile delivery: prioritize, work small, and value feedback to fuel strategy and prevent system overload: "My 5 minute manifesto on measuring velocity, impact, "efficiency", etc. I use emojis like 🔥, 👩🏼‍🚒 , 💵 , and 🚀 and even add a little humor."

• Mind The Product: Tiago Nogal highlights insights on cognitive biases in product management, from the Bandwagon effect to the Recency bias, advocating for strategies that promote informed, bias-aware decision-making: "Navigating biases in product management."

• Roman Pichler discusses the essential role of solid product leadership beyond job titles, offering advice for fostering inclusive and impactful leadership within product management teams: "Decoding Product Leadership."

• Jason Cohen articulates the palpable shift to ‘Product/Market Fit’ as a transition from customer chase to demand surge, outlining its challenges and critical growth indicators: "Product/Market Fit: Experience & Data."

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

• 🎙 Agile Uprising: Troy Lightfoot explores advanced agile concepts with Dan Vacanti and Prateek Singh, debunking myths and offering tools for enhanced predictability in their new book “Actionable Agile Metrics For Predictability Vol II:” "Advanced Topics in Metrics and Predictability."

• John Miller probes the inefficacy of agile Retrospectives, advocating for a deeper, Kata-style approach to foster genuine continuous improvement and learning: "Revitalizing Agile Retrospectives with Katas."

• Sketchplanations reflects on a tale of accountability, reminding us that action often falls through when left to ‘Everybody,’ ‘Somebody,’ ‘Anybody,’ and ‘Nobody:’ "Whose job is it?"

🎶 Encore

• Marc Randolph champions the power of ‘no’ in entrepreneurship for focus and balance, heralding it as a key to managing priorities effectively: "I Promise I’m Not Avoiding You."

📅 Training Classes, Meetups & Events

Upcoming classes and events:

• 🖥 🇩🇪 November 21-24 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 November 21 — Meetup Hands-on Agile 56: The Big Product Picture — Creating Value through Alignment (Free; English)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 November 28 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Training (PSFS; English)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 December 6 — Meetup Hands-on Agile #57: Humble Planning: How To Make Your Plans Suck Less w/ Maarten Dalmijn (Free; 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)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Jan 23-Feb 20 — Live Virtual Class: Product Backlog Management Cohort Class (English)

See all upcoming classes here.

📺 Youtube Channel

• David Pereira: Overcoming Common Product Backlog Management Traps.

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Best,