Food for Agile Thought #469: Disagree And Commit, Amazon’s Big Bet Leadership, Who Needs OKRs, PM Nightmares

Welcome to the 469th edition of the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter, shared with 42,993 peers. I am Stefan Wolpers, offering hands-on, actionable advice to agile professionals.

This week, Benji Portwin shares a leadership framework for balancing risks and outcomes, and Mike Cottmeyer tackles Scrum’s limitations with proactive orchestration, while Maarten Dalmijn critiques Scrum’s decline. Also, Greg Satell highlights fostering change through shared values, and we explore “Product Washing,” where superficial Product Operating Model adoptions hinder real transformation.

Next, Roman Pichler examines using the product lifecycle model to sustain value, and John Rossman shares insights on bold leadership and AI innovation. Moreover, Melissa Perri unpacks Product Owner and manager roles while critiquing SAFe, and Maja Voje offers frameworks for scalable go-to-market strategies focusing on positioning and systematic approaches.

Lastly, John Cutler focuses on actionable behaviors over abstract concepts. Chris Matts critiques misused value streams and SAFe, and Christina Wodtke discusses OKRs and collaboration. Finally, Ian Vanagas shares PostHog’s agile tech strategies, and Dean Peters humorously tackles product management ‘nightmares’ with sharp insights and actionable control tips.

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Check out the HoA2025 Live Stream Speakers, from Jim Highsmith to Johanna Rothman and Petra Wille to Fabrice Bernhard to Sandrine Olivencia.

🏆 Tip of the Week

Benji Portwin shares a framework for leaders to decide when to “disagree and commit” or stand firm. This framework balances emotions, risks, outcomes, and second-order effects and fosters thoughtful decision-making: "Picking Your Hills to Die On: What to Do When You Can’t Disagree and Commit."

🍋 Lemon of the Week

📺 The author takes a wildly misinformed swing at Scrum, confusing poor implementation with fundamental flaws. From calling the Daily Scrum “comedy sessions” to bashing Retrospectives as “gripe fests,” his critique hilariously ignores Agile principles while championing Kanban as the magical solution. It’s a classic case of blaming the tool when you clearly don’t know how to use it: "I hate SCRUM! It is ridiculous! - Let's use some real examples."

➿ Agile & Leadership

• 📺 Leading Agile: Mike Cottmeyer discusses overcoming Scrum's limitations in large organizations by introducing proactive orchestration, such as product owner teams, to address dependencies and deliver meaningful, value-driven outcomes: "What to Do When Scrum Collides with the Reality of Your Organization."

• Maarten Dalmijn predicts Scrum’s decline into niche status, critiques certification organizations for stagnation, and calls for reinvention amid falling adoption and the rise of more adaptable frameworks like Product Operating Models: "Sayonara to the Golden Age of Scrum."

• Greg Satell emphasizes that driving change requires meeting people where they are, avoiding insular tribal language, and building shared identity through shared values and purpose to foster meaningful transformation: "A Shared Language for Radical Change."

• 🎙 InfoQ: Shane Hastie interviews Chris Cooney on Agile backlash, the evolution of observability into team dynamics and business metrics, and fostering autonomy, alignment, and psychological safety in teams: "Trends in Engineering Leadership: Observability, Agile Backlash, and Building Autonomous Teams."

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🎯 Product

• Roman Pichler explores leveraging the product lifecycle model to develop, adapt, and evolve product strategies, addressing critical stages from launch to decline, ensuring sustained value and strategic relevance: "The Product Strategy and the Product Life Cycle."

• Intercom: John Rossman, former Amazon executive, discusses ‘Big Bet Leadership,’ emphasizing bold decision-making, leveraging AI in customer service, and navigating risks to deliver transformative customer experiences and drive innovation: "How to practice Amazon's ‘Big Bet Leadership.’"

• 🎙 In a recent episode of Lenny Rachitsky’s Podcast, Melissa Perri delves into the distinctions between Product Owners and product managers, critiques the SAFe framework, and offers strategies for enhancing product practices in large non-tech companies. (Stefan: The SAFe Product Owner should not be confused with Scrum’s Product Owner.) "Everything you’ve wanted to know about SAFe and the product owner role."

• Maja Voje, a seasoned GTM strategist, breaks down her proven frameworks for crafting scalable go-to-market strategies, emphasizing customer discovery, differentiated positioning, and systematic motions: "How to build your GTM strategy from scratch."

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

• John Cutler John Cutler emphasizes shifting from abstract concepts to tangible behaviors, using specific examples, discussions, and frameworks like COM-B to drive meaningful team outcomes, cultural change, and actionable improvements: "From Fluffy Concepts to Concrete Outcomes & Behaviors."

• 🎙 Afonso Franco interviews Christina Wodtke on OKRs, covering misconceptions, prerequisites, psychological safety, strategic context, cross-functional collaboration, and challenges in large organizations: "Not everyone needs OKRs: Christina Wodtke (Stanford & Author of Radical Focus)."

• Chris Matts critiques the misuse of value streams in ‘failureship’ cultures, highlighting the misalignment of team structures with customer value delivery, and how consultancies promote static, ineffective approaches like SAFe for profit: "Value Streams and the Failureship."

• PostHog: Ian Vanagas shares PostHog's approach to technology selection, emphasizing trust, fast iteration, solving critical problems, asynchronous decision-making, and continuous evaluation to scale while delivering impactful products: "How we choose technologies."

🎶 Encore

• Dean Peters humorously explores product management ‘nightmares’ like derailed roadmaps, hostage features, and legacy code zombies, pairing sharp insights with funny cartoons to turn chaos into actionable control tips: "The Nightmares of Product Management."

📯 Product Washing

By all means, the “Product Operating Model” (POM) has surged in popularity, especially among traditional organizations keen to prove their adaptability. (And, of course, among the McBostonians who, now that ”Agile” is dead, need a substitute to bill their junior consultants.)

On the surface, the product operating model promises a more customer-focused, outcome-driven approach. Empowered teams create value iteratively rather than following rigid, output-focused roadmaps. Best of all, they do so autonomously, well-aligned with the organization’s overall strategy and the possibly myriad other teams working on different initiatives. Think of SAFe done right.

Yet, for all its promise, the product operating model risks becoming another buzzword rather than an actual driver of transformation. Organizations that tout a “product-led” philosophy often do so without making the profound changes needed to live by it. This hollow adoption of product practices, or what we might call “Product Washing,” leaves companies stuck in the same old dynamics but with a new vocabulary: transformation by reprinting business cards. (Does this sound familiar?)

Learn more: Product Washing: The Pitfalls of a Superficial Product Operating Model Transformation.

📅 Training Classes, Meetups & Events

Upcoming classes and events:

• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Nov 19 — Live Virtual Meetup: Escape the Feature Frenzy, Build to Sell with Sandrine Olivencia (English)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Nov 21 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Class (PSFS II; English)
• 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 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)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Dec 18-19 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master - Advanced Training (PSM II; English)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Feb 4-6, 2025 — Live Virtual Open Space: Hands-on Agile 2025: From Concept-Based to Context-Based Agility

See all upcoming classes here.

📺 Youtube Channel

• Jeremy Willets and Tom Cagley: Mastering Work Intake: The Key to Sustainability and Flow.

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