Food for Agile Thought #387: Culture & Methods Trends 2023, The Introverted Product Manager, Spotify’s Way of Working, Users Lie to Us
Stefan Wolpers
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TL; DR: Culture & Methods Trends 2023 — Food for Agile Thought #387
Welcome to the 387th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 45,893 peers. This week, Shane Hastie introduces the Culture & Methods Trends 2023 report, from culture handbooks to LLM-supported development to scaling frameworks entering the Late Majority. Moreover, we learn from an interview with Brendan Marsh about Spotify and its way of working, the obvious question being: Is there a ‘Spotify Model?’ Also, we list three critical issues leading to less effective Retrospectives, from inconsistency to a lack of contributions to failure to follow up on action items, and point out that SAFe may not be ideal, but applying it may lead to a higher level of business agility, depending on the environment and context.
Then, Maret Kruve remembers her challenges when starting as a product manager, being an introvert, and how she coped with them. Also, we learn suggestions for encouraging engineers to involve themselves more effectively in the ideation process. In a shocking revelation, Michalina Bidzinska explains why “listening to users is less important than observing their actions,” as they all lie to us.
Finally, we reflect on issues and challenges when using NPS beyond its intended purpose as a consumer research tool and ask ChatGPT to help us with OKR design. Speaking of metrics, Tendayi Viki dissects the idea of return on investment for innovation, distinguishing two realms: the “innovation team lives in Explore, whereas the executive board lives in Exploit.” Lastly, we explore how Chinese companies “prioritize autonomy at scale, internal digital platforms, and a clear project focus.”
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🏆 The Tip of the Week
📈 Shane Hastie (via InfoQ): Culture & Methods Trends Report March 2023
Shane Hastie introduces the latest trends in engineering, from culture handbooks to LLM-supported development to scaling frameworks entering the Late Majority.
Author: Shane Hastie
🍋 The Lemon of the Week
(via UX Collective): Scrum is just as bad as SAFe — adopt it at your own risk
In another round of Scrum bashing, Henrik Ståhl claims that “Scrum is just as bad as SAFe. Adopt it at your own risk,” without adding much insight to the discussion than unsubstantiated claims.
➿ Agile & Scrum
🎙 Brendan Marsh: What really happened at Spotify
In this podcast, Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson interview Brendan Marsh about his time at Spotify and its way of working.
Author: Brendan Marsh
Enrico Teotti (via Agile Alliance): Why your retros don’t work and how to fix them
Enrico Teotti lists three critical issues leading to less effective Retrospectives, from inconsistency to a lack of contributions to failure to follow up on action items.
Author: Enrico Teotti
📺 Mike Cottmeyer (via Leading Agile): On Managing Expectations of Methodologies & Frameworks
Mike Cottmeyer delves into SAFe’s shortcomings; however, he also points out that applying SAFe may lead to a higher level of business agility, depending on the environment and context.
Author: Mike Cottmeyer
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🎯 Product
Maret Kruve (via Medium): How I Survived the Lifestyle of a Product Manager as an Introvert
Maret Kruve remembers her challenges when starting as a product manager, being an introvert, and how she coped with them.
Author: Maret Kruve
Recommended by LinkedIn
Teresa Torres: Product in Practice: Getting Engineers Involved in Brainstorming
Ellen Juhlin asked Teresa Torres’ community for suggestions on encouraging engineers to involve themselves more effectively in the ideation process.
Author: Teresa Torres
Michalina Bidzinska (via uxdesign.cc): Everybody Lies. Your Users Too.
Michalina Bidzinska explains why “listening to users is less important than observing their actions.”
Author: Michalina Bidzinska
📯 Workshop Design with ChatGPT
The following article explores whether we can use ChatGPT-4 to create workshops for agile practitioners; for example, Scrum Masters. While Liberating Structures have simplified the task, workshop design with ChatGPT may provide an alternative.
As you will learn, and despite being prone to lapse into project management speak, ChatGPT is remarkably capable of doing so, provided we feed it suitable prompts. Whether this requirement gives ChatGPT an edge over manually creating workshops remains to be seen.
👉 Learn more: Workshop Design with ChatGPT.
🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring
(via Mind The Product): The 9 ugliest truths about NPS in B2B
Paula Stürmer reflects on issues and challenges when using NPS beyond its intended purpose as a consumer research tool.
Tim Herbig: I asked ChatGPT to write your OKRs
Tim Herbig shows “the impact that context through strategy can have on OKR design using a mechanical sparring partner.”
Author: Tim Herbig
🎶 Encore
Tendayi Viki (via Strategyzer): ROI for innovation
Tendayi Viki dissects the idea of return on investment for innovation, distinguishing two realms: the “innovation team lives in Explore, whereas the executive board lives in Exploit.”
Source: Strategyzer: ROI for innovation
Author: Tendayi Viki
(via Harvard Business Review): How Chinese Companies Are Reinventing Management
Mark J. Greeven, Katherine Xin, and George S. Yip explore how Chinese companies “prioritize autonomy at scale, internal digital platforms, and a clear project focus.”
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Food for Agile Thought 387: Culture & Methods Trends 2023, The Introverted Product Manager, Spotify’s Way of Working, Users Lie to Us was first published on Age-of-Product.com.
Product Manager & Product Coach | B2B SaaS Specialist | Driving Product Success from Inception to Market
1yWhat a pleasure to be mentioned in the same newsletter as Tim Herbig. Thank you, Stefan Wolpers, for highlighting my article on Mind the Product
I take the risk out of your software development projects and make them valuable, efficient, and predictable.
1yReferring to the Lemon, I'm not sure there's value for the author to contrast the Scrum Guide with the Agile Manifesto. This is a rookie mistake - assuming Scrum is a "way to become agile" just like other ways to become agile. Scrum is an approach to developing product that allows the product to be adapted in response to complex environments. The words "agile" or "agility" don't even occur in the Scrum guide. It's an approach to developing products in a particular market environment. It's not an approach to agile software development, at least not in the sense the Manifesto is describing. There's definitely some overlap, but the critiques only make sense if Scrum is a generic way to become agile. It isn't. It's actually not a good fit for a decent chunk of software development endeavors. Convincing the market that Scrum was the same as agile software development is the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled.
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1yYep, I saw that lemon and it’s classic misunderstanding of Scrum. I read it as a big article that says “I have no idea what I am doing”. Its like saying “hammers are the worst tools ever, because they cannot cut metal. Don’t buy or use hammers. ”
Thought Provoker / COO - AI / Edge Computing
1yI'm not so sure that your Lemon is such a lemon. It has valid impulses. Here's one statement that should make people think, if they're doing it: "Raise your hand if you believe eight-hour meetings are effective." Yes, if you do Scrum the way the Guide says, you might have 3-hour, 4-hour and 8-hour meetings. Or, "events." Po-tay-to. Point is, there are tons of ineffective and even failing teams doing very well on executing the mechanics of Scrum. Is it okay based on the Scrum Guide to split Sprint Planning over multiple days? Yes. But it's often considered ineffective. So why provide people guidance that is a red herring, when the thing people truly need is something simple to understand that won't have quirky side effects when done as instructed.