Food for Agile Thought #469: Disagree And Commit, Amazon’s Big Bet Leadership, Who Needs OKRs, PM Nightmares
Stefan Wolpers
🚀 I help Product Owners, Product Managers, Scrum Masters & Agile Coaches Grow w/ Classes, Courses, Books & Community. 📖 Author of the ”Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide;” 🏅Trainer at Scrum.org; ⬇️ Book a 1-on-1; talk chances!
Hello everyone!
Welcome to the 469th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,993 peers.
This week, Benji Portwin shares a leadership framework for balancing risks and outcomes to support ‘Disagree And Commit,’ 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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🏆 The Tip of the Week
Benji Portwin: Picking Your Hills to Die On: What to Do When You Can’t Disagree and Commit
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.
Author: Benji Portwin
🍋 Lemon of the Week
Spencer Thomason: I hate SCRUM! It is ridiculous! — Let’s use some real examples
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.
Author: Spencer Thomason
➿ Agile & Leadership
📺 Mike Cottmeyer (via Leading Agile): What to Do When Scrum Collides with the Reality of Your Organization
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.
Author: Mike Cottmeyer
Maarten Dalmijn: Sayonara to the Golden Age of Scrum
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.
Author: Maarten Dalmijn
Greg Satell: A Shared Language for Radical Change
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.
Author: Greg Satell
🎙 Shane Hastie (via InfoQ): Trends in Engineering Leadership: Observability, Agile Backlash, and Building Autonomous Teams
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.
Author: Shane Hastie
🖥 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Training w/ PSM II Certificate — December 18–19, 2024
Discover Scrum’s four success principles in this official Scrum.org Advanced Scrum Master training class, which includes the industry-recognized PSM II certification. The PSM II training class is designed as a live virtual class and will be offered in English.
Enjoy the benefits of a live virtual immersive class with like-minded agile peers from 09:00–17:30 CEST.
Learn more: 🖥 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Training w/ PSM II Certificate — December 18–19, 2024.
Customer Voice: “Dear Stefan, Thanks a lot for two intense and mindblowing days. Your way of teaching suites me perfectly. I must admit that all the positive feedback you have gotten is spot on! I would any time a day recommand your class to a Scrum Master who wants to add a whole new level to his/her scrum game. To all of you reading this. You have to experience Stefans class to understand how good it is.” (Source.)
🎯 Product
Roman Pichler: The Product Strategy and the Product Life Cycle
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.
Author: Roman Pichler
Liam Geraghty (via Intercom): How to practice Amazon’s ‘Big Bet Leadership’
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.
Author: Liam Geraghty
Recommended by LinkedIn
🎙 Lenny Rachitsky and Melissa Perri: Everything you’ve wanted to know about SAFe and the product owner role
In a recent episode of Lenny’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.)
Authors: Lenny Rachitsky and Melissa Perri
Maja Voje: How to build your GTM strategy from scratch
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.
Author: Maja Voje
📯 Product Washing: The Pitfalls of a Superficial Product Operating Model Transformation
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.) Which brings us to the problem of Product Washing.
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?)
📅 Hands-on Agile 2025 Is Here — Join 450-plus Peers: From Concept-Based to Context-Based Agility
I am thrilled to announce that Hands-on Agile 2025 is officially on the horizon and will be free to attend from February 4–6, 2025. This time, we will focus on how Agile needs to evolve from concept-based agility to context-based agility.
But before we discuss what that means, let’s take a step back and consider why Hands-on Agile 2025 is going to be a can’t-miss event for everyone in the agile community.
For those unfamiliar, Hands-on Agile isn’t just another conference. It’s an event built around the Barcamp model, meaning it’s a self-organized, community-driven gathering with one goal: Sharing knowledge and experiences.
From February 4 to 6, 2025, we will spend three energizing days engaging in sessions, practicing agile games, sharing war stories, and learning directly from each other. Hands-on Agile is all about creating a space for practitioners, coaches, leaders, and newcomers to connect in a truly hands-on way.
👉 Save Your Seat Now! 👈
Please note:
🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring
John Cutler: From Fluffy Concepts to Concrete Outcomes & Behaviors
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.
Author: John Cutler
🎙 Christina Wodtke: Not everyone needs OKRs: Christina Wodtke (Stanford & Author of Radical Focus)
Afonso Franco interviews Christina Wodtke on OKRs, covering misconceptions, prerequisites, psychological safety, strategic context, cross-functional collaboration, and challenges in large organizations.
Author: Christina Wodtke
Chris Matts: Value Streams and the Failureship
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.
Author: Chris Matts
Ian Vanagas (via PostHog): How we choose technologies
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.
Author: Ian Vanagas
🎶 Encore
Dean Peters: The Nightmares of Product Management
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.
Author: Dean Peters
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Karllestone Capital/Business Model & Design Thinking /Strategy/Fintech/Growth/SPC Business Agility Coach/Change&Transformation/Adjunct Prof.Keio Univ. Entrepreneurship & Startup/ New York Univ. Marketing & New Ventures
1moOKRs.. and more OKRs
Strategic Business Analyst | Systems Thinker | Process Engineer | Transforming Complexity into Clarity
1moI watched ' I hate SCRUM! It is ridiculous!' and I hated it. It was ridiculous. 😂 Not one of his critiques was about Scrum. All were about poor implementation. I commented heavily on the video itself.
Product Management Trainer, Consultant & Agile Coach, Mentor, Prompt Engineer, & Hakawati (حكواتي)
1moThanks Stefan Wolpers for putting wind in my sails. Hopefully it'll help my flight across the pond this coming week as I travel from the States to the London to teach product management.
Product Leader, Fractional CPO & Occasional Coach
1moAh thx! Feedback welcomed :)
Evidence-based Change Expert, International Keynote Speaker, Bestselling Author, Wharton Lecturer, Harvard Business Review Contributor, Podcast Host
1moThanks so much for including me Stefan!