Food for Agile Thought #435: Overcoming the Feature Factory, Product Model First Principles, Overproduction in Software

Welcome to the 435th edition of the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter, shared with 42,329 peers.

This week, John Cutler presents strategies for product managers in feature factories to refine skills through customer interaction and collaboration. Elizabeth Ayer discusses the dangers of software overproduction and strategies for value maintenance, and Vadim Kravcenko examines software project failures, emphasizing the need for accountability and collaboration. Also, Maarten Dalmijn compares evolution’s adaptation mechanisms to Agile’s learning-focused approach, advocating adaptation over prediction, while Alex Miguel Meyer offers methods to counteract the highest-paid person’s opinion (HIPPO) in decision-making with fact-based analysis and structured communication. Additionally, we talk about ten approaches to continuous improvement as a team.

Then, Paweł Huryn summarizes Marty Cagan’s insights from “TRANSFORMED” on Product Discovery, Delivery, and Culture, which are essential for product managers aiming for superior products and learning culture. Jonny Williams, Paul Brown, Adam Clark, and Ed Seymour champion a product mindset in platform engineering for value enhancement through incremental improvements and user focus. Moreover, Janna Bastow distinguishes between outputs and outcomes in Product Management, urging a focus on meaningful changes, and David Cox critiques the emphasis on “low-hanging fruit” and marginal gains, suggesting strategic efficiency and tackling valuable problems, drawing lessons from British Cycling’s strategic investment success.

Lastly, Jacob Kaplan-Moss emphasizes breaking down software projects into manageable tasks to ensure effective planning and delegation, aligning them with project goals. Johanna Rothman discusses using agility and real-time data to navigate market volatility, recommending a focus on cycle time and throughput for quick decision-making, and Marcus Hammarberg introduces using Monte Carlo Simulation in Google Sheets for backlog prognosis, offering a data-driven planning method. Finally, Suno is revolutionizing music production by allowing users to create professional-level songs through text prompts, sparking debate on its effects on artists and the future of music creation.

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👉 There is a Community Ticket at € 649.50 off: Join the Advanced Professional Scrum Master Class of April 23-24, 2024, with the code March50 👈.

🎓 Launch on May 30, 2024: Learn How to Master the Most Important Artifact in the Advanced Product Backlog Management Course!

👉 Please note: The course includes membership in a new community of product professionals and will only be available until June 6, 2024, for sign-up!

🏆 Tip of the Week

John Cutler offers actionable strategies for product managers to learn and refine their skills within a feature factory setting, emphasizing the value of hands-on experience, customer interaction, and internal collaboration: "How to Learn and Practice Product Management in a Feature Factory."

🍋 Lemon of the Week

We are lemon-free this week.

➿ Agile & Scrum

• Medium: Elizabeth Ayer delves into the risks of overproduction in software development, emphasizing its varying impact across the product lifecycle and proposing strategies for maintaining value without succumbing to excess features or complexity: "Enshittification as Overproduction in Software, Part 2: Overproduction in the product lifecycle."

• Vadim Kravcenko highlights subtle reasons for software project failures, including developer overconfidence, inexperienced management, and mismanaged stakeholders. Stressing accountability and collaboration, the piece advocates recognizing project failures to combat the detrimental “not my problem” attitude: "Why software projects fail."

• Maarten Dalmijn draws parallels between evolution’s blind adaptation mechanisms and Agile’s emphasis on learning from mistakes rather than over-planning. He encourages embracing adaptation over prediction to find optimal solutions: "Agile: The Blind Watchmaker?"

• Medium: Alex Miguel Meyer introduces a strategic approach to overcoming the influence of the highest-paid person’s Opinion (HIPPO) in corporate decision-making, emphasizing the importance of fact-based analysis and structured communication: "The Strategy Consultant’s Way to Counter the Corporate HIPPO (Highest Paid Person’s Opinion)."

🎓 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Product Backlog Management Cohort Class of April 2-30, 2024

Discover the Product Owner success principles in this guaranteed 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 and its community with like-minded agile peers on April 2, April 16, and April 30, 2024, from 4-7 pm CEST. The class will be offered in English.

👉 Join now: 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Product Backlog Management Class of April 2-30, 2024.

🎯 Product

• Paweł Huryn summarizes Marty Cagan’s principles from “TRANSFORMED” on Product Discovery, Delivery, and Culture, offering product managers foundational insights for building better products and embracing a learning mindset: "Product Model First Principles: Product Discovery, Product Delivery, and Product Culture In Depth."

• Jonny Williams and co-authors Paul Brown, Adam Clark, and Ed Seymour advocate for a product mindset in platform engineering, emphasizing incremental improvements, user focus, and aligning with business goals to enhance value delivery in the face of increasing demands and constrained resources: "There’s no value in your platform!"

• ProdPad: Janna Bastow emphasizes the critical distinction between outputs and outcomes in Product Management. She advocates for focusing on the impactful changes and benefits arising from one’s efforts rather than just the tangible deliverables: "Output vs Outcome: What's the difference and where should I focus?"

• Mind The Product: David Cox criticizes the focus on “low-hanging fruit” and marginal gains in product development, arguing it leads to product debt. He advocates prioritizing strategic efficiency and addressing the most valuable problems for better ROI, inspired by British Cycling’s success through significant investment and strategic choices: "Organisations starve on a diet of low-hanging fruit."

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

• Jacob Kaplan-Moss offers guidance on breaking down software projects into tasks, emphasizing the importance of defining tasks clearly for effective planning and delegation. His approach aims to make tasks manageable and aligned with project goals: "Breaking Down Tasks."

• Johanna Rothman highlights the importance of agility and real-time data for adapting to market volatility. She shows how focusing on cycle time, throughput, and immediate data enables quick, informed decisions, suggesting setting overarching goals to guide adaptable strategies: "How to Predict A Little About the Future Work Without Long Intricate Plans."

• Marcus Hammarberg demonstrates how to use Monte Carlo Simulation in Google Sheets for backlog prognosis with minimal data, inspired by Daniel Vacanti’s “When will it be done.” By tracking start and stop dates, the simulation predicts completion times with varying confidence levels, offering a data-driven approach to project planning: "Monte Carlo Simulation for backlog prognosis - with one function in Google Sheets."

🎶 Encore

• Rolling Stone: Suno, an AI startup, is transforming music production, enabling users to generate professional-level songs with simple text prompts. This capability raises questions about the impact on traditional artists and the future of music creation: "A ChatGPT for Music Is Here. Inside Suno, the Startup Changing Everything."

📯 How to Continuously Improve as a Team

Cultivating a culture of continuous improvement within Scrum teams or Agile teams is pivotal for personal well-being, enhancing effectiveness, building trust with stakeholders, and delivering products that genuinely enhance customers' lives.

This post dives into the top ten actionable strategies derived from the Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide book, providing a roadmap for teams eager to embrace Kaizen practices. From embracing Scrum values and fostering psychological safety to prioritizing customer feedback and continuous learning, these strategies offer a comprehensive approach to fostering innovation, collaboration, and sustained improvement.

Learn more: Continuous Improvement as a Team.

📅 Training Classes, Meetups & Events

Upcoming classes and events:

• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Apr 2-30 — Live Virtual Cohort: Product Backlog Management Cohort (English)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Apr 9 — Live Virtual Meetup: A Q&A on Dynamic Reteaming with Heidi Helfand (English)
• 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 Apr 10-11 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Apr 23-24 — Live Virtual Class: Advanced Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM II; English)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 May 7 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Class (PSFS; English)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 May 7 — Live Virtual Meetup: Toyota Kata Coaching for Agile Teams & Transformations with Fortune Buchholtz (English)
• 🖥 🇩🇪 May 14-15 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German)
• 🖥 🇬🇧 May 28-29 — Live Virtual Class: Advanced Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM II; English)

See all upcoming classes here.

📺 Youtube Channel

• Johanna Rothman: Tackling Fake Agility.

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