Food for Agile Thought #438: Agile in the AI Age, Product Operating Model, Effective Roadmaps, Failing Transformations

Welcome to the 438th edition of the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter, shared with 42,401 peers.

This week, Henrik Kniberg challenges traditional Agile team sizes, advocating for smaller, AI-enhanced teams. Our Lemon champions a retro, bureaucratic approach to “Agile reporting,” and Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson discuss enhancing organizational agility with Evan Leybourn. Also, Michael Küsters argues for Agile as a dynamic, evolvable practice rather than a rigid dogma, while Petra Wille emphasizes structured strategies for effective organizational transformation. Moreover, Marty Cagan shares his perspective on Scrum and the trendy Product Model.

Then, Agustin Soler shares insights from his tenure as Mural’s Chief Product Officer, detailing strategic initiatives that spurred growth. Ant Murphy discusses the nuanced differences between roadmaps and plans, advocating adaptability and audience-specific customization. Phil Hornby and John Cutler explore product management complexities, and Janna Bastow highlights the importance of closing the feedback loop in product management, suggesting AI could transform feedback mechanisms.

Lastly, First Round Capital introduces a new B2B framework to accelerate product-market fit, and 37signals shares decision-making principles that underpin thoughtful business choices. Additionally, the Coaching Card Download Hub provides many practice cards for organizational learning and productivity enhancement. Finally, Todd Lankford emphasizes rational decision-making in product development, advocating for clarity over emotion to boost team performance and product evolution.

👉 I created a short, anonymous survey: What Professional Problem Do You Face?

It aims to identify the professional challenges you encounter in your work with Scrum and Agile practices. Your feedback will guide me in offering solutions to help you overcome these obstacles—particularly given the current crisis. The Hands-on Agile Meetup is a good start; however, there could be more support, and I want to understand where to focus my efforts. Join your peers now in less than 3 minutes!

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🎓 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 agile professionals.
• Become fully reimbursed if you choose to join the Advanced Product Backlog Management Cohort of June 13-July 11, 2024, at € 399.
• The course will only be available until June 6, 2024, for sign-up!

🏆 Tip of the Week

Hups: Exploring AI's impact on Agile and Scrum practices, Henrik Kniberg delves into how AI challenges traditional Agile assumptions and necessitates a reevaluation of cross-functional teams. As AI enhances productivity, it questions the necessity of large teams, suggesting smaller, more efficient teams could become the norm, fundamentally altering Agile practices like the Daily Scrum and Sprint Planning: "Agile in the Age of AI."

🍋 Lemon of the Week

Medium: Peter Lee’s article offers an almost nostalgic return to the thrilling days of bureaucracy. With six rigorously structured questions that might make even a seasoned bureaucrat blush, Lee’s toolkit champions a formality that agile practices typically sprint away from. It’s a bold, retro move—because who doesn’t miss the days of turning agile practices into rigid, checklist-driven chores? "My Toolkit for Agile Reporting."

➿ Agile & Scrum

• 🎙 Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson discuss business agility with Evan Leybourn, exploring how organizations can adopt agile practices to enhance flexibility, resilience, and customer responsiveness amidst changing markets and internal challenges: "Business Agility with Evan Leybourn."

• Petra Wille discusses the complexity of organizational transformation, stressing clarity and structured approaches to navigating change effectively, using targeted tactics to align product management with evolving customer needs, for example, by employing the product operating model as a blueprint: "Why Your Transformation Might Not Be Going as Well as You Expected… And What to Do About it."

• Michael Küsters argues that Agile should not be treated as a dogma resistant to criticism but rather as a dynamic, evolving practice that thrives on scrutiny and adaptation, encouraging a scientific approach over unwavering faith: "‘Agile’ is not sacred."

🎓 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Advanced Product Backlog Management Cohort Class of June 13-July 11, 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.

Additional bonuses:

1. You will become a member of an exclusive community of product professionals comprising participants from all my classes since 2019.
2. You will have free access to the corresponding online course; revisit all topics of the cohort at your convenience.

Enjoy the benefits of an immersive cohort class and its community with like-minded agile peers on Juni 13, June 27, and July 11, 2024, from 3-6 pm CEST. The class will be offered in English.

👉 Join now: 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Product Backlog Management Class of Juni 13-July 11, 2024.

🎯 Product

• Circuit: Agustin Soler, co-founder and former Chief Product Officer at Mural, shares a comprehensive overview of his responsibilities and strategies contributing to the company's growth. He outlines specific tasks and initiatives that helped maintain customer value and operational excellence, emphasizing strategic planning, team management, and product development: "Things I did as Mural’s Chief Product Officer."

• Ant Murphy emphasizes the distinction between roadmaps and plans. Roadmaps focus on long-term goals and flexibility, highlighting the ‘what’ and ‘why.’ Plans are more immediate and detailed, addressing the ‘how’ and ‘when.’ Murphy advocates for adaptable timelines and recommends customizing roadmaps for different audiences to improve organizational communication and alignment: "Building Effective Product Roadmaps."

• 📺 Talking Roadmaps: In this video, Phil Hornby and John Cutler delve into the complexities of product management: "Is your roadmap a beautiful mess?"

• ProdPad: Janna Bastow emphasizes the crucial role of closing the feedback loop in product management. Also, she outlines strategies for effectively communicating changes to users and using feedback to inform product roadmaps, highlighting the potential of AI to revolutionize feedback processes: "Closing the Feedback Loop: A Product Manager's Guide."

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

• First Round Capital introduces a new framework designed to demystify product-market fit for B2B founders, breaking down the process into strategic steps and sharing expert insights for a systematic approach to achieving PMF faster: "The 4 Levels of PMF."

• 37signals: The author outlines decision-making principles at 37signals, emphasizing practical frames and considerations that guide daily choices in business, fostering a culture of thoughtful and informed decision processes: "The 37signals Guide to Making Decisions."

• 📖 Ivar Jacobson Intl.: The Coaching Card Download Hub offers a comprehensive collection of practice cards to enhance learning and productivity for organizations, teams, and individuals. Available for download, these cards cover a wide range of practices and provide interactive learning through serious games and simulations: "Free: Coaching Card Download Hub."

🎶 Encore

• Medium: Todd Lankford advocates for clear, rational decision-making in product development, emphasizing tactics to replace emotion-driven decisions with clarity-driven actions to enhance team performance and product evolution: "Apply These 5 Product Team Tactics to Bypass Emotion and Act With Clarity."

📯 Marty Cagan on the Product Operating Model and Scrum’s Future

Let’s explore Marty Cagan’s insights on revolutionizing product management, embracing empowered teams, and fostering innovation by employing the Product Operation Model described in his latest book “Transformed.”

We will uncover how to navigate the transformational path to a product-centric approach effectively and how Marty sees Scrum in this context; quote: “To be blunt, a Scrum team is quite amateur compared to a professional product team. The top tech-powered product companies in the world are built on product teams.”

Read now: Marty Cagan on the Product Operating Model and Scrum’s Future.

📅 Training Classes, Meetups & Events

Upcoming classes and events:

• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 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)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Jun 13-Jul 11 — Live Virtual Cohort: Advanced Product Backlog Management Cohort (PBM; English)
• 🖥 🇩🇪 Jun 25-26 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German)

See all upcoming classes here.

📺 Youtube Channel

• Johanna Rothman: Tackling Fake Agility.

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