Food for Agile Thought #287
TL; DR: The Systems Change Problem, Agile Death Spirals — Food for Agile Thought #287
Welcome to the 287th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 30,878 peers. This week, we address the systems change problem and that an ‘agile transformation’ is often no more than the first initiative to clear a path to introduce agile ways of working. Also, we explain the Haier Model — Rendanheyi, microenterprises, micro-communities, and ecosystems — in a short animation.
We then discuss the two first principles of continuous product discovery; we enjoy a war story from the trenches of product discovery at Victoria’s Secret, and we come back to the common idea that ‘prioritization’ is a trivial mechanical process run on autopilot. (Spoiler alert: it’s not that trivial.)
Lastly, we point at the elephant in the room: companies use unsuitable metrics to track their innovation efforts.
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🏆 The Tip of the Week: The Systems Change Problem
Kevin Starr (via Stanford Social Innovation): We’re Beating Systems Change to Death
Kevin Starr claims systems change is rather a destination than a journey and proposes an approach to getting there.
Source: Stanford Social Innovation: We’re Beating Systems Change to Death
Author: Kevin Starr
➿ Agile & Scrum
Jutta Eckstein, Eric Abelen, and Hendrik Esser (via Agile Alliance): Escaping the Death Spiral of Your Agile Transformation
Jutta Eckstein, Eric Abelen, and Hendrik Esser claim that an ‘agile transformation’ is often no more than the first initiative to clear a path to introduce agile ways of working.
Source: Agile Alliance: Escaping the Death Spiral of Your Agile Transformation
Authors: Jutta Eckstein, Eric Abelen, and Hendrik Esser
📺 (via Corporate Rebels): Video Animation: How Haier Works
Corporate Rebels explain the Haier Model — Rendanheyi, microenterprises, micro-communities, and ecosystems — in a short animation.
Source: Corporate Rebels: 📺 Video Animation: How Haier Works
Michael Sahota: Teal Organization: Do You Have What it Takes?
Michael Sahota reflects on Frederic Laloux’s idea of the ultimate high-performance organization and how to achieve that organizational success level.
Source: Teal Organization: Do You Have What it Takes?
Author: Michael Sahota
📅 🖥 Virtual Agile Camp Berlin 2021 — May 27–29, 2021
The Agile Camp Berlin 2021 will be a virtual event from May 27–29, 2021.
We will spend three energizing days from 1 pm to 7 pm CEST at a live virtual Barcamp using open space technology principles and practices. The general conference language is English; sessions in other languages are welcome!
Read on and learn about the organization of the virtual Agile Camp Berlin 2021, its preliminary schedule, from your session proposals to session planning to the essential technology to enjoy the best possible experience.
👉 Learn more: 📅 🖥 Virtual Agile Camp Berlin 2021 — May 27–29, 2021.
👉 Use the code Medium-vACB21–10 to save €10 during checkout!
🎯 Product
Teresa Torres and Hope Gurion: Why There’s No Single “Right” Way to Do Discovery: Part 3
Teresa Torres and Hope Gurion discuss the two first principles of continuous product discovery.
Source: Why There’s No Single “Right” Way to Do Discovery: Part 3
Authors: Teresa Torres and Hope Gurion
Jeff Gothelf: Selling underwear: How developers learned to love talking to customers
Jeff Gothelf shares a war story from the trenches of product discovery.
Source: Selling underwear: How developers learned to love talking to customers
Author: Jeff Gothelf
Rich Mironov: Prioritization Beyond Algorithms
Rich Mironov confronts us with the common idea that ‘prioritization’ is a trivial mechanical process run on autopilot.
Source: Prioritization Beyond Algorithms
Author: Rich Mironov
📯 App Prototyping with Absolute Beginners — Creating a Shared Understanding of How Empiricism Works
Yes, even absolute beginners can prototype an app. And learn a lot about agile product management, Scrum, empiricism, product design, and user experience along the way.
If you intend to live up to Scrum and agile product development’s full potential, creating a shared understanding of how empiricism works among all co-workers in your organization is essential. This low-cost exercise of creating clickable prototypes will significantly improve your organization’s agile transformation.
Learn more: App Prototyping with Absolute Beginners — Creating a Shared Understanding of How Empiricism Works.
🛠 Tools & Measuring
Barry O’Reilly: I’m Busting the Myths About Innovation Metrics
Barry O’Reilly points at the elephant in the room: companies use unsuitable metrics to track their innovation efforts.
Source: I’m Busting the Myths About Innovation Metrics
Author: Barry O’Reilly
Allan Kelly: ‘OKRs in Agile’ infographic
Allan Kelly shares Yoan Thirion’s infographic illustrating Allan’s book ‘Succeeding with OKRs in Agile.’
Source: ‘OKRs in Agile’ infographic
Author: Allan Kelly
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Food for Agile Thought #287: The Systems Change Problem, Agile Death Spirals, Talking to Customers as a Dev, OKRs in Agile Infographic was first published on Age-of-Product.com.
