Food for Agile Thought #118

Food for Agile Thought’s issue #118 addresses the not so apparent Scrum troubles: it is hard, expensive and utterly useless if implemented half-heartedly.

Jeff Patton explains a range of human flaws and failures during product discovery, which is the reason that AirBnB runs experiments diligently — learn from Jan how that works in detail.

Lastly, we cover once more the issue of brilliant engineers who also happen to be jerks, and the pointy-haired Boss finally reveals the purpose of predictions.

Have a great week!

🏆 The Tip of the Week

Jeff Patton: Thud: Why it’s not failure you should be afraid of

Jeff Patton explains in this video that we are equally great at celebrating our wild product successes as well as finding people to blame for catastrophic failures.

Source: Thud: Why it’s not failure you should be afraid of

Author: Jeff Patton

Agile & Scrum Troubles

John Cutler (via Hacker Noon): The Trouble With Scrum

Image from medium.com

John Cutler believes that Scrum needs to come with a warning label — it is HARD and yet not enough.

Source: Hacker Noon: The Trouble With Scrum

Author: John Cutler

Duncan Evans (via Scrum.org): Scrum is often a waste of money

Duncan Evans dives into the reality of half-implemented Scrum.

Source: Scrum.org: Scrum is often a waste of money

Author: Duncan Evans

Brendan Gregg: Brilliant Jerks in Engineering

Brendan Gregg distinguishes between selfless and the selfish jerks and describes their behavior in detail.

Source: Brilliant Jerks in Engineering

Author: Brendan Gregg

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From the Blog: The Overall Retrospective

After rebuilding an existing application on a new tech stack within time and under budget our team had an overall retrospective with stakeholders this week to identify systemic issues. We found more than 20 problems in total and derived eight detailed recommendation the organization will need to address when moving forward to the next level of agile product creation.

Read More: The Overall Retrospective.

Product & Lean

Jan Overgoor (via AirbnbEng): Experiments at Airbnb

Image from medium.com

Jan Overgoor details how AirBnB uses controlled experiments to learn and make decisions at every step of product development, from design to algorithms.

Source: Airbnb Engineering: Experiments at Airbnb

Author: Jan Overgoor

Dan Kaplan (via Hackernoon): The Complete Moral Bankruptcy of Manipulating Human Psychology To Turn Users Into Addicts

Image from medium.com

Dan Kaplan rejects Nir Eyal’s essay “Morality Of Manipulation,” claiming it solely exists on a spectrum from “highly immoral” to “absolutely, relentlessly evil.”

Source: Hacker Noon: The Complete Moral Bankruptcy of Manipulating Human Psychology To Turn Users Into Addicts

Author: Dan Kaplan

Roman Pichler: Sprint Review Tips for Product Owners

Roman Pichler shares tips for getting the most out of the sprint review.

Source: Sprint Review Tips for Product Owners

Author: Roman Pichler

One for the Road

Scott Adams: Predictions, Forecast, Accuracy, Blame Game

The pointy-haired Boss and Dilbert on the corporate purpose of failing at predicting the future.

Source: Predictions, Forecast, Accuracy, Blame Game

Author: Scott Adams

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Food for Agile Thought #118: Scrum Troubles, Brilliant Jerks, How to Experiment, Sprint Review for POs was first published on Age-of-Product.