Food for Agile Thought #448: Reclaiming Agile’s Core Values, Product Pitfalls, Splitting User Stories

Welcome to the 448th edition of the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter, shared with 42,549 peers.

This week, Jim Highsmith calls for reviving Agile’s core values to reclaim its original spirit. Our Lemon introduces Water-Scrum-Fall, which ironically embodies the very constraints Scrum aims to avoid. John Cutler highlights how great teams achieve effectiveness through proactive processes, and Maarten Dalmijn critiques SCREAM!, pointing out its creative strengths but practical inefficiencies in timely delivery. Moreover, Joost Minnaar discusses Kazuo Inamori’s “Amoeba Management,” which champions recruiting inherently motivated individuals to drive team success, and we explore the free Scrum Master JobGPT to help those who look for new jobs.

Next, Richard Mironov discusses the ongoing challenge of addressing one software bottleneck to discover another, advocating for resilience in a seemingly endless cycle. On a podcast, David Pereira highlights typical pitfalls in product strategy and how to evade them, and Dan Shipper reveals how Claire Vo leveraged AI to create ChatPRD, enhancing product management despite her hectic schedule. Lastly, Aatir Abdul Rauf identifies six friction points between Product Managers and Product Marketers, suggesting strategies to improve communication and collaboration for better outcomes.

Lastly, Mike Cohn presents SPIDR, five techniques for efficiently splitting user stories and simplifying complex tasks into manageable actions. Johanna Rothman discusses preemptive strategies to identify and mitigate common project failures, such as resource scarcity and poor teamwork, while Mike Belsito advocates an evidence-based approach to product decision-making using the GIST framework and ICE scoring to navigate complex decisions. Finally, Andrew Chen challenges the productivity norms of routine work, promoting randomness and strategic choices to achieve impactful “10x work” that significantly alters professional outcomes.

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👉 Please note:

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• The course will only be available until September 8, 2024, for sign-up!

🏆 Tip of the Week

Jim Highsmith explores how Agile lost its essence and advocates a return to its foundational values. He encourages reimagining Agile to recapture its spirit and soul, which are vital for adapting to future technological advancements: "Reimagining Agile: How Agile Lost Its Soul and is Seeking to Get It Back."

🍋 Lemon of the Week

Medium: The author ambitiously promotes Water-Scrum-Fall, a hybrid approach aiming to fuse Scrum’s agility with Waterfall’s structure for long-term projects. This failed attempt paradoxically revisits the constraints that Scrum originally sought to overcome, illustrating a classic misstep in attempting to blend fundamentally contrasting practices: "Water-Scrum-Fall: How to Hybrid Scrum and Waterfall to Keep Adaptability in Long-Term Development."

➿ Agile & Scrum

• John Cutler notes that great teams close loops, integrate insights, foster understanding, address dissonance, and take high-leverage steps, ensuring effective processes and avoiding festering issues: "Close the Loop. Stop the Drift."

• Maarten Dalmijn critiques SCREAM!, an approach used in multidisciplinary design teams, noting its lack of emphasis on timely delivery. Despite fostering creativity, SCREAM! may be impractically costly and slow for modern product development: "Scrum Alternatives: SCREAM!"

• Corporate Rebels: Joost Minnaar discusses Kazuo Inamori’s “Amoeba Management,” emphasizing recruitment of ‘spontaneously combustible people’—individuals who ignite with passion and drive autonomously. Inamori’s model thrives on these self-starters, fostering proactive, committed team environments: "Why You Should Only Recruit Spontaneously Combustible People."

• 📺 Leading Agile: Mike Cottmeyer explores how to foster psychological safety and agility within organizations. In his talk, he discusses using personality profiling and strategic operational changes to create a truly agile environment: "Creating Psychological Safety for Your People to Change."

🎓 🖥 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training w/ PSM II Certificate — August 20-21, 2024

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 CEST.

Learn more: 🖥 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training w/ PSM II Certificate — August 20-21, 2024.

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🎯 Product

• Rich Mironov explores the continuous challenge in software and product management where solving one bottleneck or issue reveals another, likening the process to a never-ending game of Whac-a-Mole, necessitating resilience, and a positive outlook: "Every System Has a Bottleneck."

• 🎙 Mind The Product: In this podcast, David Pereira discusses the common pitfalls in product strategy on our podcast, offering unique insights into avoiding the traps that often ensnare product-led organizations: "Product Pitfalls: How to Avoid Them."

• Every: Dan Shipper details how Claire Vo created ChatPRD, an AI-powered tool enhancing product management. Despite a demanding job, she innovatively used AI to develop a tool that simplifies and accelerates product development: "She Built an AI Product Manager Bringing in Six Figures—As A Side Hustle."

• Aatir Abdul Rauf outlines six friction points between Product Managers and Product Marketers, highlighting role overlap and communication gaps, and proposes solutions to enhance collaboration and strategic alignment in product development: "6 friction points between Product Managers and Product Marketers (+ and how to resolve them)."

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

• Mike Cohn introduces SPIDR, five powerful techniques for splitting user stories, thus enhancing agile team efficiency. He emphasizes how mastering these methods simplifies complex tasks into manageable actions: "SPIDR: Five Simple but Powerful Ways to Split User Stories."

• Johanna Rothman outlines how to identify and mitigate project failures preemptively, highlighting common issues like resource scarcity, multitasking, and poor cross-functional collaboration: "How to See and Stop Project Failure Before the Effort Starts."

• Product Collective: Mike Belsito emphasizes a structured, evidence-based approach to product decision-making, showcasing tools like the GIST framework and ICE scoring to mitigate risks and enhance product strategy efficacy amid complex, high-stakes environments: "Deep-Dive: Making More Informed Decisions."

🎶 Encore

• Andrew Chen critiques the productivity pitfalls of routine work and advocates for embracing randomness and strategic decision-making to achieve “10x work,” which significantly impacts one’s professional output: "The case against morning yoga, daily routines, and endless meetings."

📯 Scrum Master JobGPT: Your New Tool for Thriving in the Current Job Market

Given the current turbulent times for Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches, our community must stand united. This brings me to the Scrum Master JobGPT, your new ally in navigating the job market. This free tool, available with a paid ChatGPT account, delivers actionable insights on job hunting, interview prep, and evaluating Agile maturity in potential employers, based on my years-long writing on identifying suitable employers and clients, passing job interviews with flying colors, and hiring team members while respecting Scrum’s principles.

With Scrum Master JobGPT, you’ll get practical guidance—from deciphering job ads to excelling in interviews and ensuring the right cultural fit. Let’s weather this storm together—leverage Scrum Master JobGPT to secure your next Scrum Master or Agile Coach role and advance your career.

👉 Check out the free Scrum Master JobGPT now! (Please note that accessing GPTs requires a ChatGPT subscription.)

📅 Training Classes, Meetups & Events

Upcoming classes and events:

• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 June 25 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Training (PSFS; English)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 July 3 — Live Virtual Meetup: Hands-on Agile 63: The Anti-Patterns Canvas — A Tool Session (1) (English)
• 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 Jul 9-10 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German)
• 🖥 🇬🇧 Aug 20-21 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master - Advanced Training (PSM II; English)
• 🖥 🇩🇪 Aug 27-28 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM I; German)
• 🖥 🇩🇪 Sep 3-6 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German)

See all upcoming classes here.

📺 Youtube Channel

• Fortune Buchholtz: Toyota Kata Coaching for Agile Teams & Transformations.

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