Food for Agile Thought #376: Product Team Performance, Injustice at Work, How to Lead Complexity, ChatGPT Prompts for Scrum
Stefan Wolpers
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TL; DR: Product Team Performance — Food for Agile Thought #376
Welcome to the 376th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 36,564 peers. This week, we listen to our two product heavyweights, Lenny Rachitsky and John Cutler, delving into the performance of product teams. We continue with suggesting abandoning the popular framing that Waterfall is the opposite of Agile and that moving from one to the other requires a transformation, and identify four roles, at least one which you will play in a moment of injustice: person harmed, upstander, the person who caused harm, or leader. Moreover, we learn how a major Toyota program was saved by descaling and applying Scrum.
Then, we enjoy Marty Cagan sharing his approach to how teams and companies “can best deal with the challenges of complexity.” Also, we explore “three popular models for product teams,” and point to stakeholder alignment factors, from not trapping yourself to not confusing roadmaps with release plans to treating stakeholders as customers. Moreover, the ProdPad folks compiled a comprehensive list of questions your team may engage in identifying what is worth building.
Finally, Petra Wille shares the first findings from her 2022 survey into what drives thriving communities of practices for product people. Next, JTBD Toolkit released the JTBD Canvas 2.0, and there are new ChatGPT prompts for Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and Developers. Lastly, Tami Reiss has a candid conversation with Rich Mironov on product ethics and the corresponding responsibilities of product managers and leaders.
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🏆 The Tip of the Week: Product Team Performance
🎙 Lenny Rachitsky and John Cutler: What differentiates the highest-performing product teams
Our two product heavyweights, Lenny Rachitsky and John Cutler delve into the performance of product teams.
Authors: Lenny Rachitsky and John Cutler
➿ Agile & Scrum
Charles Lambdin: Agile vs. Waterfall (And Other Obfuscation)
Charles Lambdin suggests abandoning the popular framing that Waterfall is the opposite of Agile and that moving from one to the other requires a transformation.
Author: Charles Lambdin
Kim Scott (via Radical Candor): Injustice At Work: 4 Effective Ways To Respond
Kim Scott identifies four roles, at least one which you will play in a moment of injustice: person harmed, upstander, the person who caused harm, or leader.
Author: Kim Scott
Nigel Thurlow: How Scrum Rescued a Major Toyota Program
Nigel Thurlow shares how a major Toyota program was saved by descaling and applying Scrum.
Author: Nigel Thurlow
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🎯 Product
📺 Marty Cagan (via Crisp): Leading Complexity with Context not Control
In this video, Marty Cagan shares his approach to how teams and companies “can best deal with the challenges of complexity.”
Author: Marty Cagan
John Cutler: Three Product Teams
John Cutler explores “three popular models for product teams” and points to the impossibility of reducing real life into three simple models.
Source: Three Product Teams
Recommended by LinkedIn
Author: John Cutler
Bruce McCarthy (via productboard): 5 Secrets to Stakeholder Alignment on Roadmaps
Bruce McCarthy points to stakeholder alignment factors, from not trapping yourself to not confusing roadmaps with release plans to treating stakeholders as customers.
Author: Bruce McCarthy
📯 ChatGPT Prompts for Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and Developers
Last week, I ran an “interview” with ChatGPT as an applicant for a fictitious Scrum Master position based on questions from Scrum Master Interview Guide. (See below.) While the overall results were broadly acceptable, I thought that changing the ChatGPT prompts might deliver better results. So, this time, I chose to present ChatGPT with three everyday scenarios based on more comprehensive prompts. Lo and behold, it worked very well.
Think twice if you still believe this technology is a fad or a toy. Instead, grab a cup of coffee and read for yourself.
🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring
Petra Wille: What I Learned from Surveying Over 100 People About Product Communities of Practice
Petra Wille shares the first findings from her 2022 survey into what drives thriving communities of practices for product people.
Author: Petra Wille
Fleur Sykes (via ProdPad): The 12 Most Important Product Discovery Questions
Fleur Sykes compiled a comprehensive list of questions your team may engage in identifying what is worth building.
Author: Fleur Sykes
(via JTBD Toolkit): JTBD Canvas 2.0
JTBD Toolkit released the JTBD Canvas 2.0, a tool “to help you scope out your JTBD landscape prior to conducting field research.”
Source: JTBD Toolkit: JTBD Canvas 2.0
🎶 Encore
🎙 Tami Reiss and Rich Mironov: Ethical Dilemmas in Product Management
Tami Reiss has a candid conversation with Rich Mironov on product ethics and the corresponding responsibilities of product managers and leaders.
Authors: Tami Reiss and Rich Mironov
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Food for Agile Thought 376: Product Team Performance, Injustice at Work, How to Lead Complexity, ChatGPT Prompts for Scrum was first published on Age-of-Product.com.
Thought Provoker / COO - AI / Edge Computing
1yThese were some pretty long articles, and you've taken quite some time to collect those gems. I like the "Agile vs. Waterfall Obfuscation" article by proximity of thought, because I fully agree with Lambdin's premise that the dichotomy is often used as character foils, which makes the terminology unhelpful for improving understanding and outcomes. I feel it's amazing that as an "Agile" community, we've spent two decades, and still struggle to articulate how specifically we want to "improve the world of work" beyond "Thou Shalt Not Waterfall ..." - which is about as un-specific as it can get. Yes. Strategy is still relevant in an Agile context (despite all claims to the contrary.) Yes. Portfolios are still relevant in an Agile context (despite all claims to the contrary.) Yes. Roadmaps are also still relevant. We need to learn about these things and how to use them properly in an Agile setting. Saying, "That's Waterfall" is not a solution - it's childish.