TL; DR: Agile Coaching, Swarming—Food for Agile Thought #226
Welcome to the 226th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 24,842 peers. This week, we address the state of agile coaching; we learn more about swarming for teams, and we go back in time to the origins of Scrum.
We also come back to the pitfalls of achieving product/market-fit; we declare backlog bankruptcy, and we check a mental model to assess whether a group of product managers is capable of handling their job.
Lastly, we embrace some unique cognitive human traits that will distinguish us from machines for all eternity. Hopefully.
Did you miss last week’s Food for Agile Thought’s issue #224 ?
The Tip of the Week
(via Agile Alliance): 
The Golden Age of Agile Coaching
Shane Hastie reflects on the role of the agile coach—from misunderstandings to skills and competencies.
Source: Agile Alliance: The Golden Age of Agile Coaching
Author:
Agile Coaching & Scrum
(via Scrum Inc): Swarming: How To Instantly Boost Your Scrum Team’s Productivity
Jeff Sutherland advocates that swarming is a simple but often overlooked way to boost the velocity of any Scrum Team immediately.
(via ScrumDesk): The History of Scrum: How, when and WHY
In this article, Veronika Lobellova delves into the creation of Scrum back in the 1980ies.
: working smarter
Harold Jarche points at the long-term skills can help us connect with our fellow humans to learn and innovate.
Professional Scrum Master Training PSM I + Liberating Structures — Berlin, February 18-20, 2020
This extended PSM class adds a third day to the Professional Scrum Master training that focuses on the application of Liberating Structures to Scrum Events such as the Sprint Retrospective or the Sprint Review — to apply the PSM training immediately to practical problems. The class will be offered in English.
For those who are interested in applying Liberating Structures as a Scrum Master, we made only the third day of the training class available.
Book your ticket right here:
Learn more: Professional Scrum Master Training PSM I + Liberating Structures — Berlin, February 18-20, 2020
.
Product & Lean
(via ProdPad): Finding Product/Market fit – Janna Bastow’s ProductTank talk, London 2020
Janna Bastow talks about the journey to finding Product/Market Fit: What to look for, how to measure it, and how not to be fooled along the way.
: A Sanity Test For Large Groups of PMs
Dan Grover shares a mental model that he uses when considering joining a large group of PMs to check if they have it together.
(via ProductPlan): Backlog Bankruptcy: When Is It Time to Press Delete?
Jim Semick advocates for ruthless prioritizing and limiting on what is allowed into the Product Backlog.
Product Mindset and Ownership in Scrum Teams
There is one product, one Product Owner, one Product Backlog — a simple rule. How is that supposed to scale, you might ask, isn’t that approach turning the Product Owner into the Scrum team’s bottleneck, impeding value creation rather than spearheading it? Well, cargo cult Scrum might end up in that dead-end. The trick to avoiding this fate is to start including the Development Team as early as possible in Product Backlog management which requires a product mindset.
Learn more about how to kick-off this process with an initial day-long product mindset workshop for your Scrum team .
More Training, Workshops, and Events
.tg {border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:0;}
.tg td{font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;padding:10px 19px;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;overflow:hidden;word-break:normal;border-color:black;}
.tg th{font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-weight:normal;padding:10px 19px;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;overflow:hidden;word-break:normal;border-color:black;}
.tg .tg-fymr{font-weight:bold;border-color:inherit;text-align:left;vertical-align:top}
.tg .tg-0pky{border-color:inherit;text-align:left;vertical-align:top}
@media screen and (max-width: 767px) {.tg {width: auto !important;}.tg col {width: auto !important;}.tg-wrap {overflow-x: auto;-webkit-overflow-scrolling: touch;}}
| Date | Class and Language | City | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
 Feb 18-20, 2020 |
Professional Scrum Master Training + Liberating Structures (PSM I; English) | Berlin | €1,499 incl. 19% VAT |
| Feb 20, 2020 |
Liberating Structures Scrum Master Training (English) | Berlin | €190 incl. 19% VAT |
| Mar 24–25, 2020 |
Advanced Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM II; English) | Berlin | €1,699 incl. 19% VAT. |
| Apr 17–18, 2020 |
Agile Camp Berlin — Berlin, April 17-18, 2020 (English) | Berlin | From € 129 incl. 19% VAT. |
| May 12–13, 2020 | Advanced Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM II; English) | Frankfurt/Main | €1,499 incl. 19% VAT. |
| May 18–19, 2020 | Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM I; German) | Berlin | €1,499 incl. 19% VAT |
See all upcoming classes here .
You can book your seat for the training directly by following the corresponding links to the ticket shop. If the procurement process of your organization requires a different purchasing process, please contact Berlin Product People GmbH directly.
Join 1,875-plus Agile Peers on Youtube
Now available on the Age-of-Product Youtube channel:
Do Not Miss Out and Learn about Agile Coaching: Join the 6,650-plus Strong ‘Hands-on Agile’ Slack Community
I invite you to join the “Hands-on Agile” Slack Community and enjoy the benefits of a fast-growing, vibrant community of agile practitioners from around the world.
If you like to join all you have to do now is provide your credentials via this Google form , and I will sign you up. By the way, it’s free.
Last Week’s Food for Agile Thought Edition
Read more: Food for Agile Thought #225: Pair Programming, Probabilistic Forecasting, HiPPO Training, Idea Generation 3.0 .
The post Food for Agile Thought #226: Agile Coaching, Swarming, Backlog Bankruptcy, PM Sanity Test appeared first on Age of Product .