Food for Agile Thought #449: Lean Mindset, Building Product Sense, Trust Unveils Reality, When Will It Be Ready?

Welcome to the 449th edition of the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter, shared with 42,561 peers.

This week, David Pereira and Ash Maurya discuss the benefits of a lean mindset in product development, focusing on value creation and customer needs. John Cutler examines the negative impact of low trust and high pressure in organizations, stressing the importance of psychological safety, while Jurriaan Kamer advocates for using consent over consensus in decision-making to enhance organizational agility and reduce delays. Maarten Dalmijn criticizes the reliance on detailed sprint capacity spreadsheets, which he argues hampers flexibility and obscures real planning challenges. Finally, McKinsey outlines critical strategies for successful organizational transformation, emphasizing actionable steps from ambition to execution, and we detail how you can stand out as a Scrum Master or Agile Coach during job interviews.

Next, Ant Murphy discusses the importance of building product sense through deliberate practices like engaging with customers and conducting product teardowns. Michael H. Goitein advises against merely asking users what they want, instead emphasizing the need to understand and anticipate user needs deeply. For that reason, Teresa Torres cautions against using generative AI to replace human-led discovery, stressing that while AI can assist, it cannot replace the deep insights from real interactions. Also, Kareem Amin shares insights on achieving product-market fit at Clay, underlining the significance of narrowing focus and understanding psychological factors in entrepreneurial success.

Lastly, Christiaan Verwijs emphasizes the importance of social cohesion in enhancing team performance and satisfaction, detailing strategies like establishing a solid team identity and shared norms. Shane Hastie and Neil Vass discuss strategies for making organizational changes stick, and Indu Alagarsamy highlights the critical role of documenting product and software architecture decisions for future clarity and project continuity. Finally, Sam Higham offers advice on handling the common query “When will it be ready?” by advocating for realistic planning and continuous updates on potential delays and changes in project confidence.

🎓 Launch on September 1, 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.
• The course will only be available until September 8, 2024, for sign-up!

🏆 Tip of the Week

📺 David Pereira and Ash Maurya discuss adopting a lean mindset to avoid feature overload and focus on creating value. They emphasize continuous learning and customer-focused development in product teams: "How a Lean Mindset Enables Breaking Free from Features Nobody Needs."

🍋 Lemon of the Week

We are Lemon-free this week.

➿ Agile & Scrum

• John Cutler explores the dysfunction within organizations, where low trust and high pressure distort reality and hinder effective problem-solving, emphasizing the importance of psychological safety and the dangers of relying on simplified metrics: "Trust Lets You Observe Reality."

• The Liberators: Christiaan Verwijs discusses the importance of social cohesion in teamwork and highlights practical strategies to enhance cohesion, including creating a solid team identity, setting shared norms, and encouraging shared experiences. He emphasizes that feeling connected and valued within a team boosts performance and satisfaction: "In-Depth: How Social Cohesion Shapes Teamwork And How To Improve It."

• Maarten Dalmijn criticizes the reliance on detailed Sprint capacity spreadsheets for planning, arguing they hinder adaptability and obscure the real challenge: aligning workload with unpredictable capacity: "Sprint Planning: Stop Wasting Time on Spreadsheet Capacity Micromanagement."

• McKinsey & Company: The brief from “Five Fifty” outlines the essentials for successful organizational transformations, emphasizing the shift from ambition to actionable strategies: "What it takes to create a winning transformation."

🎓 🖥 🇬🇧 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.

Customer review: “Since about 12 people have already asked me these last 2 days: Yes, taking one of Stefan Wolpers’ classes is a mind-blowing experience. He’s actually the most adroit facilitator I’ve met after Guy Kawasaki & Roland Busch. It all flows like a silk ribbon in a soft spring breeze but with a strong authenticity that prevents the thing from feeling all Del Monte Canned Corporate Facilitation(tm). It may be due to his seemingly effortless mastery of the Liberating Structures. He doesn’t “teach to the test,” yet when you take the open practice assessments, you somehow score 95+ the first time. I dunno, it’s magic or Mozart, you pick.” (Link.)

🎯 Product

• Ant Murphy advocates for building product sense through deliberate practices like customer engagement, feedback cycles, and product teardowns, emphasizing continuous learning and product knowledge as keys to effective product management: "Effective Ways to Build Your Product Sense."

• Medium: Michael Goitein advises against directly asking users what they want, suggesting that successful products arise from profoundly understanding user needs and crafting solutions that anticipate and address them effectively: "Create The Right Products Without Asking Users What They Want."

• Teresa Torres highlights the risks of substituting generative AI for human-led discovery in product development. She asserts that AI can support specific tasks but cannot replicate the nuanced insights gained from real interactions and should not replace human-driven processes like customer interviews: "Don't Use Generative AI to Replace Discovery with Real Humans."

• First Round Capital: Kareem Amin reflects on Clay’s path to product-market fit, emphasizing the importance of narrowing focus, overcoming founder biases, and valuing psychological awareness in shaping a company’s success: "Clay’s Path to Product-Market Fit — A 7-Year 'Overnight Success'."

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

• Medium: Jurriaan Kamer highlights the benefits of using consent over consensus for decision-making, illustrating through a fictional case how this approach fosters quicker progress and reduces delays in an organizational context: "Make better decisions using consent, not consensus."

• 🎙 InfoQ: In this podcast, Shane Hastie speaks with Neil Vass about the challenges of making organizational changes stick. They discuss the common reasons changes fail and strategies for effective implementation, such as the importance of communicating the value of change and the role of people skills in ensuring sustainable progress: "Making Change Stick with Neil Vass."

• Indu Alagarsamy emphasizes the importance of documenting product and software architecture decisions to ensure clarity and continuity, highlighting that such documentation aids future project management and problem-solving efforts: "Document your product and software architecture decisions."

• When asked, “When will it be ready?” Sam B Higham advises not to make up answers but to engage your team in defining a realistic confidence interval to manage expectations effectively. This includes discussing potential delays like technical issues or legal reviews and updating stakeholders on changes in confidence levels, always clarifying the reasons behind uncertainties: "When will it be ready?"

🎶 Encore

• 📺 Everyday Astronaut: Join Elon Musk for an exclusive tour of SpaceX’s Starbase and the new Starfactory, filmed on the eve of Flight 4, showcasing starships, manufacturing insights, and advanced engineering discussions: "First Look Inside SpaceX's Starfactory w/ Elon Musk."

📅 Training Classes, Meetups & Events

Upcoming classes and events:

• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 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)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Sep 5 — Live Virtual Meetup: Hands-on Agile 64: Mastering Work Intake: The Key to Sustainability and Flow (English)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Oct 9 — Live Virtual Meetup: Hands-on Agile 65: The Lean Tech Manifesto with Fabrice Bernhard (English)

See all upcoming classes here.

📺 Youtube Channel

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

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