Product culture is spreading.
The idea that making people awesome is at the center of success;
The idea that we should put all of our effort to build, test, and learn into achieving that outcome sustainably;
The idea that we need to entrust small, diverse teams with that effort and hold them accountable;
...these ideas are accelerating.
I’m seeing it in better questions from people in workshops. I’m seeing it when people say, unbidden, that a roadmap is a strategic communications tool (not a list of features). And I’m seeing it when CEOs find me at the bar after a talk with more questions.
I hope this short, weekly reminder of the awesome things happening in product culture helps. We are one year old this week! What else should we cover? Write in.
Death of Agile! Contest Winner
Kevin Decker said, in response to my question about whether Agile was dead, “In so many cases I think Agile is not dead. It just never really lived.”
He argued that many (perhaps most) Agile transformations were stillborn because they didn’t take on the whole organization. I think Kevin is right (and so he is our winner). As Terry Leach and Heber Eastman wrote in, if your org is not willing to delegate significant authority to cross-functional teams, then Agile is just process and not a culture change at all.
On the other hand, Willie N described an environment where teams can take matters into their own hands via retrospectives. And I’ve worked with companies leaping past tech-team Agile to whole-company re-thinking.
Long live Agile. Product culture is spreading. Kevin, claim your prize!
Jobs
My friends at IMImobile have ambitious plans to take the emerging cloud communication orchestration world by storm and they need an experienced product marketing VP to help them accelerate. Location is flexible for the right candidate. Ping me for more.