Food for Agile Thought #460: Copy-Paste Agile, Improving Retention, Psychological Safety Myth, Kano Model Guide

Welcome to the 460th edition of the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter, shared with 42,798 peers. I am Stefan Wolpers, offering hands-on, actionable advice to agile professionals.

This week, Maarten Dalmijn argues that the era of one-size-fits-all Agile is over, advocating for agnostic approaches tailored to organizational contexts, and Gustavo Razzetti challenges rigid psychological safety truisms, urging leaders to promote ownership and courage instead. Willem-Jan Ageling highlights common Scrum practices that frustrate developers, while Joost Minnaar shares insights from over 50 self-managing organizations exemplifying the RenDanHeYi model. Also, Pierre Pureur and Kurt Bittner discuss how embracing technical debt through Minimum Viable Architecture can accelerate learning.

Next, James Gunaca explores the evolving product management job market, emphasizing competition and shifting hiring practices. Aakash Gupta shares retention strategies from his 15-year experience in product, while Stephen Shapiro offers unconventional innovation prompts that foster long-term value and differentiation. Moreover, David Pereira outlines five tactics for B2B product managers to avoid the “feature factory” trap, focusing on balancing customer wants with user needs, iterating quickly, and leveraging qualitative data.

Lastly, Mark Somerfield critiques The Lean Startup, emphasizing the importance of strong relationships over data-driven processes. Johanna Rothman advocates for using Cost of Delay (CoD) to align teams with business goals, while Bandan Jot Singh offers a practical guide to prioritizing features using the Kano model. Productside provides a comprehensive overview of U.S. Product Management salaries in 2024, and David Pinsof presents 30 concepts exploring manipulation, self-deception, and the role of status in human behavior.

👉 Could you do me a favor and forward this email to someone who will enjoy it? Thank you! 🙏

✍️ I wrote a guest post for Maarten Dalmijn: 10 Valid Reasons Why You’ll Struggle with Sprint Goals.

🎓 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

Maarten Dalmijn Maarten Dalmijn argues that the era of one-size-fits-all Agile is over, urging a shift toward agnostic approaches tailored to unique organizational contexts rather than mindlessly following frameworks or relying on certifications alone: "The Era of Copy-Paste Agile Is Over."

🍋 Lemon of the Week

We are Lemon-free this week.

➿ Agile & Leadership

• Willem-Jan Ageling explores why Scrum often gets a bad reputation, highlighting nine common practices that frustrate developers, such as misused story points, constant crunch time, and external dependencies: "9 Practices that Haunt Developers Working with Scrum."

• Gustavo Razzetti challenges five popular truisms about psychological safety, encouraging leaders to rethink rigid approaches and foster environments where courage, ownership, and meaningful participation drive team growth: "5 Myths About Psychological Safety That Hinder Your Team's Growth."

• Corporate Rebels: Joost Minnaar shares insights into over 50 self-managing organizations, each exemplifying the principles of RenDanHeYi, focusing on autonomy, customer-centricity, and shared rewards to revolutionize traditional corporate structures: "50+ Case Studies of Self-Managing Organizations."

• InfoQ: Pierre Pureur and Kurt Bittner argue that technical debt (TD) can be essential to learning, enabling faster feedback, and reducing over-investment in uncertain solutions. They propose using a Minimum Viable Architecture (MVA) to ensure teams only address critical TD that impacts an MVP’s success: "How to Make Technical Debt Your Friend."

🎓 🖥 🇬🇧 Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Class w/ PSFS Certificate — November 21, 2024

The Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills (PSFS) training by Berlin Product People is a one-day official Scrum.org class for advanced Scrum practitioners and agile coaches, including the industry-acknowledged PSFS certification. This PSFS training class is in English.

Enjoy the benefits of a live virtual immersive class with like-minded agile peers from 09:00 – 17:30 CET.

Learn more: 🖥 🇬🇧 Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Class w/ PSFS Certificate — November 21, 2024.

Customer review: “Great experience – “You reap what you saw.” What I really liked about it was the constant usage of facilitation techniques & Liberating Structures to engage all participants & harness the collective knowledge while reaching the goal of the exercises during the workshop. Therefore, my experience was great because I could really leave with some insights from the whole group that I could apply in my daily work starting from the next day. “You reap what you saw” and in this case, it was the collective intelligence of everyone in the training class.” (Link.)

🎯 Product

• Mind The Product: James Gunaca explores the challenges facing the current product management job market, highlighting increased competition, evolving hiring practices, and the impact of tech layoffs, offering insights for both candidates and employers: "Everything wrong with the product management job market. And how to fix it."

• Aakash Gupta shares hard-earned lessons from over 15 years in product, offering actionable strategies to boost retention, from measuring cohorts correctly to leveraging gamification and proactive churn prevention tactics: "How to Improve Retention: The Ultimate Guide for Product Managers and Leaders."

• David Pereira outlines five strategies for B2B product managers to escape the “feature factory” trap: balancing customer wants with user needs, iterating quickly, measuring outcomes, and effectively leveraging qualitative data: "A Life Beyond Features for B2B PMs."

• Stephen Shapiro encourages leaders to rethink conventional innovation questions, offering ten alternative prompts focusing on long-term value, differentiation, and deeper customer relationships to drive meaningful innovation: "10 Unconventional Questions to Stimulate Innovation."

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

• Medium: Mark Somerfield critiques The Lean Startup methodology, arguing that building successful businesses depends more on strong relationships with customers, staff, and investors than on lean, data-driven processes: "The Lean Startup Is a Con. Successful Businesses Are Built on Relationships, Not Methodologies."

• Johanna Rothman highlights the positive effects of using Cost of Delay (CoD) to rank work, emphasizing its focus on value, better decision-making, and improved flow metrics to align teams with business goals: "Positive Effects of Using the Cost of Delay to Rank All the Work."

• Bandan Jot Singh provides a practical guide to applying the Kano model for feature prioritization, helping product teams categorize and rank features by customer satisfaction to optimize resource allocation and development: "Your Guide to Kano Model for feature prioritization."

• Productside provides an overview of U.S. Product Management salaries in 2024, highlighting compensation ranges across roles from Associate Product Manager to Chief Product Officer based on experience and market trends: "US Product Manager Salaries 2024."

🎶 Encore

• david pinsof presents 30 thought-provoking concepts on how “bullshit” operates in social, political, and personal contexts, dissecting manipulation, self-deception, status games, and the underlying incentives that drive human behavior: "30 Useful Concepts about Bullshit."

📅 Training Classes, Meetups & Events

Upcoming classes and events:

• 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 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)
• 🖥 🇩🇪 Nov 6-7 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German)
• 🖥 🇬🇧 Nov 18-19 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master - Advanced Training (PSM II; English)
• 🖥 🇬🇧 Nov 21 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Class (PSFS II; English)
• 🖥 🇩🇪 Dec 4-5 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM I; German)

See all upcoming classes here.

📺 Youtube Channel

• David Pereira: From Backlog Manager to Product Manager.

Don’t Miss Out: Join the 20,000-plus Strong ‘Hands-on Agile’ Slack Community

I invite you to join the Hands-on Agile Slack team and enjoy the benefits of a fast-growing, vibrant community of agile practitioners from around the world.

If you want to join now, you will need to send your credentials through this Google form, and I will sign you up. By the way, it’s free.

How Would You Rate this Issue?

Just click one of the following links and maybe even leave a comment:

• 😍 You made my day!
• 😐 Okayish
• 😞 You can do better!

If you like the newsletter, please forward it to a friend or colleague—it would mean a lot to me! 🙏

Last but not least, if you are a first-time reader of this newsletter, click here to subscribe and join 42,798 peers.

Best,