Food for Agile Thought #216

Stefan Wolpers
Nov 1 · 4 min read

Food for Agile Thought’s issue #216 delves into the product-market fit concept with statistics, frameworks, and models; we discover the essential elements of high performing teams, and we kiss fixed-everything contracts good-bye.

We also learn from Spotify how to speed up user research by not focusing on running more user interviews, and we look behind the scenes of WeChat and its — by Western standards — unconventional approach to innovation.

Lastly, we enjoy the unpacking of “iteration” and question the language of our community.

Did you miss last week’s Food for Agile Thought’s issue #215?


🏆 The Essential Post: Product-Market Fit


📺 Rahul Vohra (via This Week in Startups): Superhuman CEO on Product-Market Fit

Rahul Vohra shares excellent insights and statistics from Superhuman’s journey to achieving product/market-fit.

Source: 📺 This Week In Startups: Superhuman CEO on Product-Market Fit

Author: Rahul Vohra


Agile & Scrum


Andy Cleff: Trust, Ownership, and Vision: Necessary for High Performance

Andy Cleff elaborates on the essential elements for high-performing, self-managing teams.

Source: Trust, Ownership, and Vision: Necessary for High Performance

Author: Andy Cleff


Henk van der Schuur (via Medium): Bye Bye Time & Materials: Entering the Era of Agile, Value-based Agreements

Henk van der Schuur suggests agile, value-based agreements instead of fixed-everything contracts.

Source: Medium: Bye Bye Time & Materials: Entering the Era of Agile, Value-based Agreements

Author: Henk van der Schuur


Charles Lambdin (via Medium): Words Matter: Unpacking ‘Iterate’

Charles Lambdin delves into language, distinguishing ‘iteration’ from ‘increment.’

Source: Medium: Words Matter: Unpacking ‘Iterate’

Author: Charles Lambdin


📯 Daily Scrum Anti-Patterns: 20 Ways to Improve

In my experience, the Daily Scrum is the Scrum event with the highest anti-pattern density among all events. Learn more about the Daily Scrum anti-patterns that threaten to derail your agile transition.

Read more: Daily Scrum Anti-Patterns: 20 Ways to Improve.


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Product & Lean


(via Notion Capital): Finding product-market fit: models and frameworks for SaaS companies

Stephen Millard and Joshua Olusanya introduce Notion’s PMF framework of how to understand where to allocate more capital.

Source: Notion: Finding product-market fit: models and frameworks for SaaS companies


(via epicpeople): Accelerating User Research: How We Structure Insights for Speed At Spotify

Sara Belt reflects on integrating research into the product development practice and speeding up organizations’ ability to learn and iterate overall.

Source: epicpeople: Accelerating User Research: How We Structure Insights for Speed At Spotify


Julian Birkinshaw (via Harvard Business Review): The Kind of Creative Thinking That Fueled WeChat’s Success

Julian Birkinshaw reports on the vision — or grand design — of WeChat, which is remarkably different from, for example, the design thinking approach to innovation.

Source: Harvard Business Review: The Kind of Creative Thinking That Fueled WeChat’s Success

Author: Julian Birkinshaw



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Food for Agile Thought #216: Product-Market Fit, Agile Contracts, Accelerating User Research, Daily Scrum Anti-Patterns was first published on Age-of-Product.com.

Food for Agile Thought

Best posts from last week on agile and lean methodologies, Scrum and product management. Manually curated, no robots involved.

Stefan Wolpers

Written by

I have worked for 13-plus years as an agile coach, Scrum Master, and Product Owner. Professional Scrum Trainer (PST) with Scrum.org.

Food for Agile Thought

Best posts from last week on agile and lean methodologies, Scrum and product management. Manually curated, no robots involved.

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