Food for Agile Thought #422: Human Misjudgment, Evaluating Product Managers, Fake Agile, Scaling Simplified

Welcome to the 422nd edition of the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter, shared with 49,901 peers. My name is Stefan Wolpers.

This week, Farnam Street highlights the revised edition of Charlie Munger’s “The Psychology of Human Misjudgment;” Nigel Thurlow critiques “Fake Agile,” while John Cutler analyzes Brian Chesky’s leadership insights. Also, Marco Nink identifies key traits of agile companies, and we examine how to miss Sprint Goals consistently.

Then, Jeff Patton offers a framework for assessing Product Managers across seven vital areas. Moreover, Roman Pichler discusses the role of a validated product strategy and the Opportunity Solution Tree in product discovery, and Richard Mironov critiques annual planning, advocating for continuous, inclusive corporate and product strategy.

Lastly, Troy Lightfoot and Andy Cleff discuss with Prateek Singh and Dan Vacanti their book “Scaling Simplified,” focusing on Agile scaling through flow. Mark Ridley investigates Bruce Tuckman’s ‘Stages of Group Development,’ its evolution, and its current relevance. Additionally, Casey Rosengren addresses startup decision-making, underscoring the impact of fear and uncertainty, and Dr. Stuart Woolley critiques the gap between management practices and their effectiveness in software engineering.

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

PS: Did you miss the last issue? No worries, here we go: 421.

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🏆 Tip of the Week

Farnam Street shares Charlie Munger’s opus magnum, “The Psychology of Human Misjudgment,” highlighting its extensive revision incorporating new insights into behavioral finance and human behavior patterns or why we behave the way we do: "Psychology of Human Misjudgment (Transcript) by Charlie Munger."

🍋 Lemon of the Week

Denovo: This week’s Lemon takes a naive stab at Agile and Waterfall, turning project management into a ‘choose your own adventure’ book while blissfully skating over the nuanced depths of Scrum and Agility: "Agile and Waterfall: The most complete comparison."

➿ Agile & Scrum

• 📺 YouTube: Nigel Thurlow explores “Fake Agile” through David Graeber’s concept of “Bullshit Jobs,” discussing the “Transformation Myth,” leadership incentives, and the pitfalls causing Agile initiatives to fail: "Leadership Is Failing: ‘Bullshit Jobs’ and ‘Fake Agile’ at the World Agility Forum 2023."

• John Cutler reflects on Brian Chesky’s insights from Lenny Rachitsky’s Podcast, challenging the Silicon Valley mantra of ‘just hire and empower’, and examining leadership’s evolving role in various organizational scales and contexts: "‘Just Hire Talented People and Empower Them.’"

• Gallup: Marco Nink delves into the ‘Agile8,’ identifying eight essential attributes that define a truly agile company, and discusses their transformative effects on employee engagement, competitive edge, and organizational success: "8 Cultural Attributes of a Truly Agile Company."

🎓 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Product Backlog Management Cohort 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.

👉 Join now: 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Product Backlog Management Class of Jan 23 to Feb 20, 2024.

🎯 Product

• Jeff Patton provides a comprehensive framework for evaluating Product Managers, focusing on seven key areas essential for fostering a product-centric culture and individual improvement: "Evaluating Product Managers."

• Roman Pichler underscores the necessity of a well-validated product strategy for successful product discovery, enhanced by the Opportunity Solution Tree technique to define outcomes and opportunities better: "Product Strategy and Product Discovery."

• Rich Mironov stresses the inefficiency of annual planning focused solely on financial targets, advocating for ongoing, holistic corporate and product strategies that involve all departments: "Revenue Goals are Not Company Strategies."

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

• 🎙 Agile Uprising: Troy Lightfoot and Andy Cleff interview Prateek Singh and Dan Vacanti about their new book “Scaling Simplified,” which rethinks common notions about scaling Agile by emphasizing flow: "Scaling Simplified with Prateek Singh and Dan Vacanti."

• Medium: Mark Ridley delves into the origins and implications of Bruce Tuckman’s renowned ‘Stages of Group Development’ model, exploring its history and application in modern team dynamics: "Forming. Storming. Norming. And the other one… the lesser known history of Tuckman’s team model."

• Every: Casey Rosengren explores the decision-making challenges in startups, highlighting the paralysis and avoidance that can stem from fear of loss, wrong choices, and uncertainty about true desires: "Why People Fail to Make Important Choices."

🎶 Encore

• CodeX: Dr Stuart Woolley critically examines the inefficacies of certain management practices in software engineering, highlighting the disconnect between managerial roles and actual contribution to the field: "The Manager-In-The-Middle Attack."

📯 Why Succeed When You Can Fail? A Guide to Missing Sprint Goals

Do you excel in the art of setting unattainable, imposed, or plain non-existing Sprint Goals? In other words, are you good at missing Sprint Goals with regularity? If not, don’t worry; help is on the way!

In this article, we’ll explore how to consistently miss the mark. For example, enjoy the thrill of cherry-picking unrelated backlog items and defining success by sheer output, not outcome. Countless Scrum Teams have thoroughly tested all suggestions. They are ideally suited for teams who love the challenge of aimlessly wandering through Sprints!

Learn more: Why Succeed When You Can Fail? A Guide to Missing Sprint Goals.

📅 Training Classes, Meetups & Events

Upcoming classes and events:

• 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 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)
• 🖥 🇩🇪 Jan 30-Feb 2 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German)
• 🖥 🇬🇧 Feb 6-9 — Live Virtual Class: Advanced Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM II; English)
• 🖥 🇬🇧 Feb 15 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Training (PSFS; English)
• 🖥 🇩🇪 Mar 5-6 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German)
• 🖥 🇩🇪 Mar 12-152 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM I; German)

See all upcoming classes here.

📺 Youtube Channel

• David Pereira: Overcoming Common Product Backlog Management Traps.

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