Food for Agile Thought #464: Rapid Prototyping with Claude, Ignoring Feature Requests, Sabotating Innovation

Welcome to the 464th edition of the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter, shared with 42,881 peers. I am Stefan Wolpers, offering hands-on, actionable advice to agile professionals.

This week, Henrik Kniberg showcases how AI tool Claude transforms sketches into fully functional apps in minutes, while Steve Blank outlines how innovators can defend against incumbent sabotage. John Cutler discusses using enabling constraints to manage rapid growth, and Adam Ard critiques the overuse of ‘Agile,’ advocating core practices to enhance agility. Also, Bob Galen addresses Agile coach burnout, emphasizing resilience and proactive leadership.

Next, Avi Siegel advises product managers to ignore most feature requests to prevent feature bloat and maintain focus on long-term value. Maarten Dalmijn critiques the unnecessary complexity that can arise with both Product Owners and Product Managers, urging a more streamlined approach, and Martin Eriksson explains why many company visions fail, offering tips to craft a vision that motivates teams and drives results. Moreover, Melissa Suzuno identifies 12 common challenges product trios face, providing solutions to improve collaboration and decision-making.

Lastly, Charles Lambdin delves into estimating the cost of delay, focusing on confidence intervals and structured conversations to prioritize work. Linus Dahlander and Francis de Véricourt explore how Lean Startup methods can be adapted for deep-tech ventures to mitigate technological uncertainty. Then, Gustavo Razzetti advocates for expanding your circle of influence by focusing on what you can control, and Diana Stepner encourages product leaders to adopt a “learn-it-all” mindset, using smart questioning to drive innovation. Finally, Corporate Rebels will feature Bayer’s transformation to self-management and Dynamic Shared Ownership (DSO).

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Join 350-plus peers for the FREE Hands-on Agile 2025 on Feb 4-6: Hands-on Agile 2025 Is Here: From Concept-Based to Context-Based Agility.

🏆 Tip of the Week

📺 Henrik Kniberg demonstrates how the AI tool Claude enables rapid prototyping, turning sketches into functional apps within minutes, generating design documents, backlogs, and implementation guides for both web and iOS apps: "Rapid Prototyping on Steroids - with Claude."

🍋 Lemon of the Week

Medium: The author wonders why product managers still use Agile, completely missing the point that Agile is not just for delivery but for adaptability across the board. Classically, the author confuses the tools with the mindset, claiming Agile doesn’t fit product management: "Why are product managers still using agile?"

➿ Agile & Leadership

• First Round Capital: Steve Blank unpacks the fierce battles innovators and founders face from incumbents who are determined to sabotage disruption, offering a survival checklist to navigate and counter these common roadblocks: "The Saboteurs That Threaten Innovation — And How to Handle Them."

• John Cutler explores how enabling constraints can help organizations sense and manage incoherence during rapid growth, using early warning systems to maintain balance before inefficiencies spiral out of control: "Using Enabling Constraints for Situational Awareness."

• Adam Ard highlights the overuse of the term ‘Agile.’ He offers three core practices—distributed decision-making, customer collaboration, and frequent releases—to assess an organization’s level of agility and improve it effectively: "How Agile Are You Really?"

• Bob Galen acknowledges the reality of Agile coach burnout, urging coaches to embrace resilience, take ownership of their influence, and navigate organizational challenges without waiting for authority to be handed to them: "Agile Coach Burnout."

🎓 Launch on January 27: Learn How to Master the Most Important Artifact for any Successful Agile Practitioner!!

👉 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 February 3, 2025!

🎯 Product

• Medium: Avi Siegel emphasizes that ignoring most feature requests is essential for product managers to maintain focus, avoid feature bloat, and deliver long-term value. This ensures a better product that users will appreciate later: "12 reasons to ignore your users’ feature requests."

• Maarten Dalmijn argues that Product Owners can sometimes create unnecessary complexity, especially when paired with Product Managers, urging organizations to streamline roles and empower teams to deliver real business value: "Are Product Owners Too Much Overhead?"

• Martin Eriksson explores why most company visions fail to inspire, offering practical guidance on crafting a clear, ambitious vision that motivates teams, empowers decision-making, and drives meaningful outcomes: "Why your (company) vision is blurry."

• Melissa Suzuno highlights 12 common hurdles product trios face, from decision-making dominance to lack of participation and time constraints, offering insights on overcoming these challenges to foster more effective collaboration: "12 Hurdles to Effective Product Trio Collaboration."

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

• Charles Lambdin explains how to facilitate conversations around estimating the cost of delay to prioritize work effectively, emphasizing confidence intervals, calibration, and structured group discussions to surface assumptions and assess value: "Estimating Cost of Delay."

• Harvard Business Review: Linus Dahlander and Francis de Véricourt explain that while lean startup methods don’t fully apply to deep-tech ventures, adapting aspects like proof of concept, strategic partnerships, and learning by thinking can mitigate technological uncertainty: "Do Lean Startup Methods Work for Deep Tech?"

• Gustavo Razzetti emphasizes expanding one's circle of influence by focusing on what one can control, fostering ownership, and empowering teams to influence outcomes rather than wasting energy on uncontrollable concerns: "From Powerless to Powerful: Expand Your Circle of Influence."

• Diana Stepner urges product leaders to shift from a “know-it-all” to a “learn-it-all” mindset, using smart questioning—focusing on “what” and “how”—to foster innovation, collaboration, and adaptability: "Beyond the Five Whys: The Power of Smart Questioning for Product Leaders."

🎶 Encore

• 📅 Corporate Rebels: On October 21, 2024, Corporate Rebels presents an exclusive live interview on Bayer’s radical shift to Dynamic Shared Ownership (DSO), self-management, 90-day cycles, and the journey of transforming a 100,000-employee organization: "Bayer’s Radical Transformation."

📯 Transformation to Agile Primitives

Undergoing a transformation to Agile Primitives from a botched [insert your failed agile framework of choice here] isn’t about adopting another framework; it’s about returning to core principles that empower teams and deliver real value. (Please note: If you haven’t read the article on Agile Primitives, please do so now.)

This journey requires leaders to model desired behaviors, embrace vulnerability, and foster a culture where failure is a learning opportunity. Middle management should be engaged as enablers, not obstacles. It’s not a quick fix but a commitment to genuine agility through people-centric practices.

By focusing on the Agile Primitives, organizations can reignite the spirit of agility and achieve meaningful, lasting transformation. Start today with this comprehensive sketch of what you need to address in your organization to overcome dysfunction, create value, and become competitive and profitable again.

👉 Learn more: Transformation to Agile Primitives: Rebuilding Agility from the Ground Up.

📅 Training Classes, Meetups & Events

Upcoming classes and events:

• 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 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)
• 🖥 🇩🇪 Dec 10-11 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German)
• 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 Dec 12 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Product Discovery and Validation Training (PPDV; German)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Feb 4-6, 2025 — Hands-on Agile 2025: From Concept-Based to Context-Based Agility

See all upcoming classes here.

📺 Youtube Channel

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