Food For Thought #74
Age of Product’s Food for Thought of January 15th, 2017 — shared with 5,934 peers — celebrates 21 years of Scrum with Ken Schwaber and covers Product Owner patterns such as the part-time PO, or how to embed the PO more effectively into the Scrum team’s daily work.
We also learn that Holacracy can add purpose to organizations that use Scrum, and that Scrum even works well at home with four Lil’ Rascals.
We then dive deep into risk-mitigation and how to avoid product failure, and ask ourselves: “Is there a plural of priority?” (Yes, I know, a lot of product roadmaps pretend there is one…) So, why not learn storytelling with Christina Wodtke, and turn ‘priorities’ into ‘priority’ again?
Last but not least: A brand new, free ebook from Hands-on Agile covering 42 interview questions for the Product Owner role is available:
📚 Download “42 Scrum Product Owner Interview Questions” here… 📚
Agile & Scrum Product Owner Patterns
Ken Schwaber: Scrum @ 21
Ken Schwaber looks back at the development and adoption of Scrum since it was started at the OOPSLA workshop in Austin, TX in October of 1995.
Source: Scrum @ 21
Author: Ken Schwaber
Stephen Frein (via TechBeacon): Why agile teams need to share the product owner role
Stephen Frein believes that building a special box around the Product Owner into which others should not venture is both unnecessary and unhealthy.
Source: TechBeacon: Why agile teams need to share the product owner role
Author: Stephen Frein
(via Scrum Alliance): No Part-Time Product Owner
Matteo Tontini points at a critical anti-pattern in moving to Scrum: the part-time Product Owner.
Frederik Vannieuwenhuyse (via Scrum Alliance): True Cross-Functional Product Development
Frederik Vannieuwenhuyse describes how the entire Scrum product development team can participating in product development without getting overwhelmed by staggered sprints.
Source: Scrum Alliance: True Cross-Functional Product Development
Author: Frederik Vannieuwenhuyse
Ben Linders (via InfoQ): Adding Purpose to Scrum with Holacracy
Ben Linders interviews Martin van Dijken and Jeff Kok on why Scrum needs purpose to be successfully applied, and why Holacracy can provide this kind of purpose for the organization.
Source: InfoQ: Adding Purpose to Scrum with Holacracy
Author: Ben Linders
Frank de Wit (via Medium): Scrum @ Home
Frank de Wit asks: “If Scrum with adults at the workplace works so well to get things done, would it work at home with kids?”
Source: Medium: Scrum @ Home
Author: Frank de Wit
New Ebook: 42 Scrum Product Owner Interview Questions to Avoid Agile Imposters
This second publication in the Hands-on Agile Fieldnotes series is focused on hiring for the Scrum Product Owner role.
This free ebook is not merely listing the 42 questions, but also contains a lot of additional content:
- Background information on why the questions are useful in the interview process,
- A range of appropriate answers to each interview question.
In our experience, two to three questions from each set will provide more than enough ground for an engaging 60-minute product owner interview.
📚 Download “42 Scrum Product Owner Interview Quesions” here… 📚
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Product & Lean
(via BetaNews): People, not technology, drive innovation
Robert Corace reminds us that disruption is not the automatic result of the arrival of new types of tech, but is based on human ingenuity, good fortune, and hard work.
Scott Sehlhorst (via Tyner Blain): Playing Whack-A-Mole With Risk
Scott Sehlhorst provides a framework for risk mitigation in product development: from assumptions, over hypotheses, to validation by experimentation.
Source: Tyner Blain: Playing Whack-A-Mole With Risk
Author: Scott Sehlhorst
Pásztor Dávid: The Single Biggest Reason Most Products Fail
David points at the ‘love the problem, not your solution’ issue: Products don’t fail because of technology issues, bad marketing or ugly UI. Products fail because they are useless.
Source: The Single Biggest Reason Most Products Fail
Author: David Pasztor
(via First Round): My Launch Lessons from 37 Minutes in an Amazon War Room
ibrahim bashir, the senior manager for Kindle back in 2011, shares his learnings on how to counteract turbulence on product launch day.
Source: First Round Capital: My Launch Lessons from 37 Minutes in an Amazon War Room
Andre Theus (via ProductPlan): Why “Product Roadmap Priorities” Doesn’t Mean What You Think it Does
Andre Theus asks whether your product roadmap really can consist eleven priorities?
Source: ProductPlan: Why “Product Roadmap Priorities” Doesn’t Mean What You Think it Does
Author: Andre Theus
Christina Wodtke: Story Secrets for Understanding and Communicating
Christina Wodtke on video, sharing her ideas on how to incorporate story telling into you work to make you more effective.
Source: Story Secrets for Understanding and Communicating
Author: Christina Wodtke
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