Food for Agile Thought #227

Stefan Wolpers
Food for Agile Thought
5 min readJan 31, 2020

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TL; DR: Agile Core Beliefs, Psychology of Feature Adoption — Food for Agile Thought #227

Welcome to the 227th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 25,021 peers. My name is Stefan Wolpers.

This week, we address agile core beliefs; we embrace the idea of a one-day Sprint, and we come back to agile coaching competencies.

We also learn how to move on as a product team, struggling with becoming data-informed; we explore cognitive biases in the adoption progress of new features, and we figure out how to speed up A/b tests without sacrificing accuracy.

Lastly, we appreciate the notion that we are not all designers — despite stickies, sharpie, and prototyping apps.

Did you miss last week’s Food for Agile Thought’s issue #226?

🏆 The Tip of the Week

Christina Wodtke (via Medium): Design’s Unsexy Middle Bits

Christina Wodtke rejects the idea that we are all designers, triggered by Design Thinking’s popularity.

Source: Medium: Design’s Unsexy Middle Bits

Author: Christina Wodtke

Agile Core Beliefs & Scrum

Geoff Goodhew (via The Startup): Thinking Agile: Core Beliefs

Geoff Goodhew explores the core beliefs that underlie Agile, from the Prime Directive to Kaizen to emergence.

Source: The Startup: Thinking Agile: Core Beliefs

Author: Geoff Goodhew

📺 Robert Pieper (via Scrum.org): What is the Best Sprint Length? Can a Scrum Sprint be Just One-Day Long?

In this short video, Robert Pieper advocates giving micro-Sprints a try by breaking down problems into micro-problems.

Source: Scrum.org: 📺 What is the Best Sprint Length? Can a Scrum Sprint be Just One-Day Long?

Author: Robert Pieper

(via InfoQ): Lessons on the Competencies of Coaching from Spotify and ICAgile

Rafiq Gemmail summarizes the learnings from two watch worthy videos on agile coaching.

Source:InfoQ: Lessons on the Competencies of Coaching from Spotify and ICAgile

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📅 Sponsor the Agile Camp Berlin, April 17–18, 2020

It is official: Agile Camp Berlin is sold out; 200 agile coaches, Scrum Masters, and Product Owners from 18 countries will meet in about 10 weeks at the Evangelische Schule Berlin Mitte.

These two energizing days in late April provide ample opportunity for companies and organizations that provide tools and services to meet with the movers and shakers of our industry.

While all the tickets are gone, there are still sponsoring opportunities available. So, don’t hesitate, download the ACB20 sponsoring brochure, and reach out to me.

📺 Learn more: Watch last year’s sponsor feedback and download the ACB20 sponsoring brochure.

Product & Lean

John Cutler (via Amplitude Analytics): 50 Questions I Ask PMs About Data and Their Teams

John Cutler shares 50 useful conversation starters for teams who want to be more data-informed but struggle to get there.

Source: Amplitude: 50 Questions I Ask PMs About Data and Their Teams

Author: John Cutler

Jonathan Senin (via Mind The Product): Overcoming Cognitive Biases That Reduce Feature Adoption

Jonathan Senin explores some of the users’ psychological reasons for rejecting your brand-new cool feature.

Source: Mind The Product: Overcoming Cognitive Biases That Reduce Feature Adoption

Author: Jonathan Senin

Oleg Yakubenkov: Why your A/B tests take longer than they should

Oleg Yakubenkov details how you can reduce the time required to get the signal on the change you are testing.

Source: Why your A/B tests take longer than they should

Author: Oleg Yakubenkov

📯 20 Sprint Planning Anti-Patterns

Sprint Planning is a core event, defining how your customers’ lives will improve with the next Product Increment. Learn more on how to improve its effectiveness by avoiding 20 common Sprint Planning anti-patterns.

Read more: 20 Sprint Planning Anti-Patterns.

Diagram source: Scrum.org.

🗞️ Last Week’s Food for Agile Thought Edition

Read more: Food for Agile Thought #226: Agile Coaching, Swarming, Backlog Bankruptcy, PM Sanity Test.

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Food for Agile Thought #227: Agile Core Beliefs, Psychology of Feature Adoption, Agile Coaching Competencies, Design’s Unsexy Middle Bits was first published on Age-of-Product.com.

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Stefan Wolpers
Food for Agile Thought

I have worked for 18-plus years as a Scrum Master, Product Owner, and agile coach. Professional Scrum Trainer (PST) with Scrum.org.