Food for Agile Thought #360: How Minds Change, Think Big & Work Small, Grassroots Movements, Elements of Agile Assessment

TL; DR: How Minds Change, Think Big & Work Small — Food for Agile Thought #360

Welcome to the 360th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 35,907 peers. This week, we have a fantastic interview with David McRaney on how minds change, rationalization, and belief. (If you are coaching other people, you should listen.) Also, we learn how teams can “experiment and learn, develop new markets, [and] outmaneuver the competition,” and we reflect on who may likely get ahead when encountering an impediment. Switching perspectives, we delve into the “best way to kill a grassroots movement at your company” and how to help it flourish instead.

Then, we point to the necessary “changes to how the product teams need to interact with customers” when an organization abandons a sales-driven approach, and Roman Pichler details his product model, from product vision to Product Backlog, including four artifacts and two templates. Moreover, we reflect on the perils of Think Small and Work Big, Think Big, Work Big, and Think Small, Work Small, and link mental models to building products, from Parkinson’s Law of Triviality to Conway’s Law to the Pareto Principle.

Finally, Mike Cohn shares a free assessment tool for your team’s mastery of 20 essential elements of a successful transformation. Also, we advocate using anti-personas to “help anticipate how products can be misused in ways that can harm users and the business.” Lastly, Phil Mistry tells the incredible story of an invention ahead of its time in a classic case of an innovator’s dilemma: How Steve Sasson invented Kodak’s digital camera!

Food for Agile Thought #360: How Minds Change, Think Big & Work Small, Grassroots Movements, Elements of Agile Assessment — Age-of-Product.com

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🖥 🇩🇪 Professional Scrum Product Owner Schulung für Fortgeschrittene (PSPO-A) mit PSPO II Zertifikat — 18. bis 21. Oktober 2022.


HoA #46: Engage the Agile Fluency® Model with Diana Larsen — Age-of-Product.com

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🏆 The Tip of the Week: How Minds Change

Russ Roberts and David McRaney (via Econlib): 🎙 David McRaney on How Minds Change

Russ Roberts interviews David McRaney on the psychology of change, rationalization, and belief.

➿ Agile & Scrum

James Shore, Mary Poppendieck and Tom Poppendieck: 📺 Optimizing Outcomes

James Shore, Mary Poppendieck, and Tom Poppendieck discuss how teams can “experiment and learn, develop new markets, [and] outmaneuver the competition.”

John Cutler: Drivers vs. Fixers

John Cutler reflects on who may likely get ahead when encountering an impediment—drivers or fixers—and why we need a balance between both.

Viktor Cessan: Grassroots movements at work: How management interventions affect agency

Viktor Cessan delves into the “best way to kill a grassroots movement at your company” and how to help it flourish instead.

🎓 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Professional Scrum Master Training w/ PSM I Certificate — Live Virtual Class: October 4-5, 2022

Discover Scrum’s four success principles in this guaranteed official Scrum.org Professional Scrum Master training class, leading to and including the industry-recognized PSM I certification. The training will be offered in English.

Professional Scrum Master Training w/ PSM I Certificate — Live Virtual Class: October 4-5, 2022 — Berlin Product People GmbH

Learn more: 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Professional Scrum Master Training w/ PSM I Certificate — Live Virtual Class: October 4-5, 2022.

“Great class. Probably the best training I ever attended. Extremely driven and productive class, with interactive exercises that challenge you to think in Agile manner. Keeps the focus on the point regardless of the remote session. Stefan for sure goes above and beyond to teach you how to be a real Scum master.”

(Link.)

👉 From time to time, we can offer last-minute seats for training classes at cost to individuals who do not have access to a corporate training budget. If you like to be notified about these opportunities, please register here.

🎯 Product

Marty Cagan (via Silicon Valley Product Group): Pledge To Customers

Marty Cagan points to the necessary “changes to how the product teams need to interact with customers” when an organization abandons a sales-driven approach.

Roman Pichler: My Product Strategy Model

Roman Pichler details his model, from product vision to Product Backlog, including four artifacts and two templates.

Jason Yip (via Medium): Guiding principle: Think Big, Work Small

Jason Yip reflects on the perils of Think Small and Work Big, Think Big, Work Big, and Think Small, Work Small.

Brian Bassett (via Simple Thread): Applying Mental Models to Building Digital Products

Brian Bassett links mental models to building products, from Parkinson’s Law of Triviality to Conway’s Law to the Pareto Principle.

📯 The Product Backlog: 14 First Principles to Help Your Scrum Team Succeed

Contrary to popular belief, the Product Owner does not have dictatorial powers regarding the composition and order of the Product Backlog. Instead, Scrum as a framework is based on a delicate system of checks and balances, collaboration, and joint decision-making to mitigate risk; for example, the Product Owner falling in love with their solution over the problem of the customers. Learn more about critical Product Backlog principles, from the size and growth of the Product Backlog to whether a Product Backlog is necessary in the first place. (Some lean practitioners dispute its existence is justified.)

Product Backlog Principles — Age-of-Product.com

Read now: The Product Backlog: 14 First Principles to Help Your Scrum Team Succeed.

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

Mike Cohn: Elements of Agile: An Agile Assessment Tool for Iterative Improvements

Mike Cohn shares a free assessment tool for your team’s mastery of 20 essential elements of a successful transformation.

Itamar Gilad: Dealing with Top-Down Projects

Itamar Gilad suggests using the GIST framework—Goals, Ideas, Steps, Tasks—next time a manager imposes an output goal.

Jeff Gothelf: The Truth Curve

Jeff Gothelf utilizes a simple visualization technique to determine where and when to spend on experimentation.

(via Nielsen Norman Group): Antipersonas: What, How, Who, and Why?

Sara Ramaswamy advocates using anti-personas to “help anticipate how products can be misused in ways that can harm users and the business.”

🎶 Encore

(via PetaPixel): How Steve Sasson Invented the Digital Camera

Phil Mistry tells the incredible story of an invention ahead of its time in a classic case of an innovator’s dilemma.


📅 Scrum Training & Event Schedule

You can secure your seat for Scrum training classes, workshops, and meetups directly by following the corresponding link in the table below:

Date Class and Language City Price
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 April 2-30, 2024 GUARANTEED: Product Backlog Management Cohort Class (English; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €499 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 April 9, 2024 GUARANTEED: Hands-on Agile #60: A Q&A on Dynamic Reteaming with Heidi Helfand (English) Live Virtual Meetup FREE
🖥 💯 🇩🇪 April 10-11, 2024 GUARANTEED: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1,299 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 April 23-24, 2024 GUARANTEED: Professional Scrum Master (Advanced) Training (PSM II; English; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1,299 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 May 7, 2024 GUARANTEED: Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Training (PSFS; English; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €749 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 May 7, 2024 GUARANTEED: Hands-on Agile #61: Toyota Kata Coaching for Agile Teams & Transformations with Fortune Buchholtz (English) Live Virtual Meetup FREE
🖥 🇩🇪 May 14-15, 2024 Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1,299 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 🇬🇧 May 28-29, 2024 Professional Scrum Master (Advanced) Training (PSM II; English; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1,189 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 June 6, 2024 GUARANTEED: Hands-on Agile #62: From Backlog Manager to Product Manager: From Outputs to Outcomes w/ David Pereira (English) Live Virtual Meetup FREE
🖥 🇩🇪 June 25-26, 2024 Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1,299 incl. 19% VAT

See all upcoming classes here.

Professional Scrum Trainer Stefan Wolpers

You can book your seat for the training directly by following the corresponding links to the ticket shop. If the procurement process of your organization requires a different purchasing process, please contact Berlin Product People GmbH directly.

📺 Join 4,000-plus Agile Peers on Youtube

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Download the free Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide by PST Stefan Wolpers — 160 ways to improve as a Scrum Team — Age-of-Product.com

🗞️ Last Week’s Food for Agile Thought Edition

Read more: Food for Agile Thought #359: UX & Engineering, Product for Truly Agile Teams, 4 Major Issues w/ Lean Startup, Discovery’s Toughest Questions — Age-of-Product.com.

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