Food for Agile Thought #421: Fairytale Planning, Alternatives To PMs, Slowing Down to Speed Up, Insights from Spotify

Welcome to the 421st edition of the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter, shared with 49,812 peers. My name is Stefan Wolpers.

This week, we explore Jason Cohen’s ‘Fairytale Narrative’ for strategic simplicity, examine Jim Highsmith’s critique of the waterfall model’s impact on organizational dynamics, and delve into John Cutler’s insights on balancing productivity in product management. Also, we highlight Eiki’s emphasis on the importance of psychology in agile coaching through transformative leadership methods, and we explore the Scrum trap of applying unsuited practices.

Then we listen to Agile Uprising’s interview with Maarten Dalmijn, discussing his book ‘Driving Value with Sprint Goals,’ while Marty Cagan critiques Brian Chesky’s take on product management. Aatir Abdul Rauf offers insights on crafting product strategies, and Charles Lambdin laments the persistent focus on output over outcomes.

Lastly, Jason Yip discusses lessons from Spotify on autonomy and team building, while Dan Shipper honors Charlie Munger’s legacy in decision-making. Shane Hastie’s podcast with Todd Little delves into Kanban’s advantages, and David Pinsof critically analyzes the nature of opinions in social contexts.

🗞️ Exclusively on my New Substack: Daily Scrum Anti-Patterns — An Excerpt from the Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide (6).

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: 420, 419.

👉 Join 600-plus peers and help create the next edition of the Scrum Master Salary Report — we are still 400 replies short!

🏆 Tip of the Week

Jason Cohen presents a ‘Fairytale Narrative’ for strategic planning, using a structured, story-like approach to simplify complex analysis and planning in a universally understandable way: "The Fairytale Narrative: Structured strategic planning."

🍋 Lemon of the Week

There is no Lemon this week; however, check out Marty Cagan’s comment on Product Owners:

“Or even worse, if you have Agile-trained product owners in the seats where you need product managers, then what you really have are backlog administrators, which leaders eventually come to realize provides very little value to anyone.”

(You will find the link below in ‘Product.’)

➿ Agile & Scrum

• Jim Highsmith discusses the limitations of the waterfall model, emphasizing its impact on organizational structure and communication and the challenges of functional silos in software development: "The Hidden Problems with Waterfall."

• John Cutler explores the dilemma of slowing down to speed up work in product management, offering practical strategies to overcome entrenched work patterns and cognitive biases: "How to Make the Case for Slowing Down to Speed Up."

• Medium: Eiki emphasizes the importance of psychology for agile coaches in elevating team performance, leveraging methods like the Satir Change Model and NLP for transformative leadership: "5 Psychological Approaches as an Agile Coach."

🎓 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Product Backlog Management Cohort Class of Jan 23 to Feb 20, 2024

👉 Get 50% off with the code “PBM2024”: Product Backlog Management Class of Jan 23 to Feb 20, 2024.

Discover the Product Owner success principles in this engaging Product Backlog Management cohort class and accelerate your professional growth and career perspective with tried & tested, hands-on practices:

• Excel at delivering value regularly — your #1 career success factor.
• Learn to distinguish between valuable and useless ideas.
• Abandon the feature factory. Instead, learn to contribute to customer and organizational success.
• Gain actionable insights, learn supportive tools, and practice everything in a safe community of like-minded peers.
• Learn to say no and build trust and rapport with stakeholders while focusing on creating value.
• Create engaging feedback loops.

Enjoy the benefits of an immersive cohort class with like-minded agile peers on Jan 23, Feb 6, and Feb 20, 2024, from 4-6 pm CET. The class will be offered in English.

👉 Get 50% off with the code “PBM2024”: Product Backlog Management Class of Jan 23 to Feb 20, 2024.

🎯 Product

• 🎙 Agile Uprising interviews Maarten Dalmijn about his book ‘Driving Value with Sprint Goals,’ exploring the Sprint Goal’s role as an indicator of team and organizational health: "The Importance of Sprint Goals with Maarten Dalmijn."

• Silicon Valley Product Group: Marty Cagan critiques Brian Chesky’s views on product management, emphasizing the enduring need for strategic alignment, value, and viability in product roles: "Alternatives To Product Managers."

• Aatir Abdul Rauf provides a detailed guide on creating and communicating a product strategy, emphasizing the importance of alignment, shared understanding, and stakeholder collaboration in the process: "Writing a product strategy doc (+ example): the before, during & after."

• Charles Lambdin criticizes the ongoing focus on output over outcomes in project management despite calls for a shift towards value-driven work and strategic planning: "Starting With Value,"

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

• 📺 GOTO Conferences: Jason Yip shares three key insights from his experience at Spotify: the ongoing challenge of aligned autonomy, team building during high growth, and comparing team development in consulting versus product companies: "3 Insights from 4 Years at Spotify."

• Every: Dan Shipper points to Charlie Munger, the recently deceased icon in business and learning who inspired a legacy of reading for decision-making. Integrated with ChatGPT, his mental models now guide effective business choices: "AI-assisted Decision-making."

• 🎙 InfoQ: Shane Harris’s podcast with Todd Little from Kanban University highlights Kanban’s benefits: it boosts team delivery by evolving work processes and pinpointing improvement areas: "Kanban is a Tool for Continuous Improvement."

🎶 Encore

• David Pinsof offers a critical view on opinions, stating they are not facts, preferences, or beliefs but personal judgment expressions often used to assert superiority in social contexts. Opinions, the author argues, are attempts to shape social norms and are often detached from objective reality, serving more as a strategic tool in social dynamics rather than a genuine pursuit of truth: "Opinions Are Bullshit."

📯 The Scrum Trap: How Unfit Practices Will Harm Return on Investment

Scrum is a purposefully incomplete framework. Consequently, it needs to be augmented with tools and practices to apply its theoretical foundation to an organization’s business reality: what problems shall be solved for whom in which market? Moreover, there is an organization’s culture to take into account. However, the intentional “gap” is not a free-for-all to accept whatever comes to mind or is convenient. Some tools and practices have proven highly effective in supporting Scrum’s application and reaping its benefits. And then there are others — the Scrum trap.

Let’s look at what practices and tools for collaboration and team building are not helpful when used with Scrum.

Learn more: The Scrum Trap: How Unfit Practices Will Harm Return on Investment.

📅 Training Classes, Meetups & Events

Upcoming classes and events:

• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 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)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 January 10 — Meetup Hands-on Agile #58: Dysfunction Mapping — A Tool for Creating Real Change w/ Michael Lloyd (Free; 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,