Food for Agile Thought #456: Strategy Creation, Product Model & Outsourcing, Agile Transformation Pitfalls, Derisking Daily Work

Welcome to the 456th edition of the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter, shared with 42,728 peers. I am Stefan Wolpers, and I offer actionable advice to agile professionals.

This week, Rob Lambert offers a detailed guide to building effective strategies, while Reddit user henbitcookies1 questions the value of Scrum, seeking ways to reduce its burdens. Willem-Jan Ageling identifies common pitfalls in Agile transformations, and Tobias Berggren Jensen and Elisabeth Naima Mikkelsen explore the challenges of radically decentralized self-managing organizations. Also, Todd Lankford advocates for abandoning upfront commitments in favor of continuous learning to achieve better product development outcomes.

Next, Marty Cagan and Josh Kerievsky discuss how outsourcing agencies can adopt the product model to enhance collaboration and client outcomes. Richard Mironov argues for retiring the term “prioritization” in favor of more precise communication between stakeholders and product teams. Additionally, UserPilot outlines strategies for identifying and solving customer problems, emphasizing continuous research and effective onboarding, and Roman Pichler explores the benefits and challenges of involving stakeholders in product teams, stressing strategic involvement and the role of coaching in improving collaboration and decision-making.

Lastly, on the personal side, Wes Kao shares strategies to mitigate risks at work by asking critical questions and preempting issues, and Lenny Rachitsky offers ten time management techniques to enhance productivity and reduce stress. Paweł Huryn introduces the Assumption Prioritization Canvas, refining traditional methods for prioritizing assumptions in Continuous Product Discovery, while Martijn Oost critiques the “Team Topologies” framework, advocating for context-specific strategies rooted in foundational principles like Conway’s Law. Finally, Gustavo Razzetti emphasizes the power of team culture over company culture, highlighting its role in driving change and fostering collaboration.

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🎓 Launch on October 23: Learn How to Master the Most Important Artifact in the Advanced Product Backlog Management Course!

👉 Please note:

• The course includes membership in my professional students' brand-new Hands-on Agile community.
• The course will only be available for sign-up until October 31, 2024!

🏆 Tip of the Week

Rob Lambert provides a comprehensive guide to building a strategy, emphasizing the importance of a clear vision, identifying obstacles, and creating actionable plans. He advocates for clear communication and aligning team efforts with strategic goals to achieve organizational success: "How to Build a Strategy."

🍋 Lemon of the Week

We are Lemon-free this week.

➿ Agile & Scrum

• Reddit: henbitcookies1 questions whether Scrum genuinely adds value or wastes time with meetings and planning, seeking input from PMs and developers on making Scrum more effective and less burdensome: "Does Scrum Actually Help, or Is It Just a Time Suck?"

• Willem-Jan Ageling identifies ten common pitfalls in Agile transformations and offers actionable advice to avoid them, such as ensuring alignment, focusing on outcomes, and investing in people’s capacity: "10 Agile Transformation Pitfalls - and how to avoid them."

• Medium: Todd Lankford argues that Scrum Masters and managers should abandon upfront commitments, which fuel false certainty, and instead embrace continuous learning to achieve meaningful outcomes in product development: "How Scrum Masters (and Managers) Go Astray By Committing to Plans."

• SpringerLink: Tobias Berggren Jensen and Elisabeth Naima Mikkelsen reveal how radically decentralized self-managing organizations (SMOs) can boost team responsibility and efficiency. However, they trigger conflicts that challenge their viability: "Positive, challenging, or impossible self-managing organizations?"

🎓 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Advanced Product Backlog Management Cohort Class of August 29-September 26, 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.

Quote: “If you are looking to move beyond merely delivering features and want to start consistently delivering outcomes and valuable deliverables to your customers, this course is essential. Stefan provides the focus and tools necessary to embark on a journey toward excellent product management. With a curriculum that includes vision, strategy, roadmap, product discovery, continuous delivery, idea management, hypothesis management, and backlog management, this course promises less than it delivers—a truly transformative experience.” (Hector Feliciano.)

Enjoy the benefits of an immersive cohort class and its community with like-minded agile peers on August 29, September 12, and September 26, 2024, from 3-6 pm CEST. The class will be offered in English.

👉 Join now: 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Product Backlog Management Class of August 29-September 26, 2024.

🎯 Product

• Silicon Valley Product Group: Marty Cagan and Josh Kerievsky explore how outsourcing agencies can apply the product model to improve collaboration and deliver better client outcomes, focusing on trust, continuous discovery, and adaptive engagement: "The Product Model in Outsourcing."

• Rich Mironov suggests retiring the term “prioritization” due to its ambiguous interpretations, advocating for more precise language to align expectations between stakeholders and product teams, and emphasizing realistic capacity limits: "My Next Word to Retire is 'Prioritization.'"

• Roman Pichler discusses the benefits and challenges of including stakeholders in product teams, emphasizing the importance of strategic involvement, securing commitment, and utilizing coaching to enhance collaboration and decision-making: "Should Stakeholders Be on the Product Team?"

• Userpilot: The article outlines seven strategies for identifying how a product or service solves customer problems. It emphasizes ongoing customer research, analyzing feedback, and creating effective onboarding to ensure long-term success: "7 Ways to Identify How a Product or Service Solves Customers' Problems."

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

• Wes Kao shares practical strategies for identifying and reducing risks in your daily work by asking key questions, embracing paranoia, and focusing on preventing avoidable issues before they escalate: "Derisking 101: How to identify and reduce risk in your daily work."

• Lenny Rachitsky shares ten practical time management techniques, including using your calendar for to-dos, prioritizing deep work, and saying no more often to help boost productivity and reduce overwhelm: "Time management techniques that actually work."

• Medium: Martijn Oost critiques the “Team Topologies” framework, highlighting its potential oversimplification of organizational complexities. He emphasizes the importance of adapting strategies to specific contexts, advocating for foundational principles like Conway’s Law and Domain-Driven Design over rigid adherence to predefined models: "Stop Team Topologies: Reevaluating Team Topologies: A Critical Perspective on Organizational Strategies."

• Paweł Huryn introduces the Assumption Prioritization Canvas, a tool designed to help product teams identify and prioritize assumptions for testing. He critiques traditional assumptions mapping techniques and offers a refined approach that aligns with Continuous Product Discovery and idea prioritization methods like RICE/ICE, emphasizing cross-functional collaboration: "Assumption Prioritization Canvas: How to Identify And Test The Assumptions That Matter."

🎶 Encore

Gustavo Razzetti argues that team culture is more influential than company culture, as it fosters deeper connections, belonging, and collaboration. Team-driven subcultures drive meaningful change and innovation within organizations: "Why Team Culture Is More Powerful Than Company Culture."

📯 Hands-on Agile’s Upcoming Transformation

For years, I have supported the Agile community with a wealth of free resources and opportunities for growth. From the Food for Agile Thought newsletter to the Scrum Master Salary Report to tools like the Scrum Master Job GPT, and from ebooks like the Scrum Master Interview Questions Guide to the Hands-on Agile Slack and Meetup groups, I’ve consistently provided value without asking for anything in return than your support and participation. As for all communities, there is a simple rule: the more, the merrier; the benefit of being a member increases with the size of the community and those who contribute themselves. Giving back to the community is a win-win proposition.

However, the landscape is changing. The recent economic downturn and a noticeable backlash against Scrum have presented new challenges. As a result, the business model that has sustained these efforts—financing by subsidies through my Professional Scrum classes—has become increasingly unsustainable. Consequently, my approach to continuing to support this incredible community will need to evolve, too.

Learn more: Hands-on Agile’s Upcoming Transformation.

📅 Training Classes, Meetups & Events

Upcoming classes and events:

• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 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)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Aug 29-Sep 26 — Live Virtual Cohort: Advanced Product Backlog Management Cohort (English)
• 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 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 1-2 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Oct 9 — Live Virtual Meetup: Hands-on Agile 65: The Lean Tech Manifesto with Fabrice Bernhard (English)
• 🖥 🇬🇧 Oct 15-16 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master - Advanced Training (PSM II; English)

See all upcoming classes here.

📺 Youtube Channel

• David Pereira: From Backlog Manager to Product Manager.

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