App Prototyping with Absolute Beginners – Creating a Shared Understanding of How Empiricism Works

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TL;DR: App Prototyping with Absolute Beginners

Yes, even absolute beginners can prototype an app. And learn a lot about agile product management, Scrum, empiricism, product design, and user experience along the way.

If you intend to live up to Scrum and agile product development’s full potential, creating a shared understanding of how empiricism works among all co-workers in your organization is essential. This low-cost exercise of creating clickable prototypes will significantly improve your organization’s agile transformation.

App Prototyping with Absolute Beginners – Creating a Shared Understanding of How Empiricism Works — Berlin Product People GmbH (more…)

Product Backlog Defense – Common Patterns of Stakeholder Interference

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TL; DR: Product Backlog Defense

Make no mistake: Your Product Backlog is the last line of defense preventing your Scrum Team from becoming a feature factory; hence Product Backlog defense is vital: Figure out a process that creates value for your customers. Moreover, have the courage — and the discipline — to defend it at all costs.

Product Backlog Defense – Common Patterns of Stakeholder Interference — Berlin Product People GmbH (more…)

Scrum Master Interview Questions (4): From Agile Metrics to Scrum Kick-off to Scrum Anti-Patterns

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TL; DR: Scrum Master Interview Questions (4)

Some time ago, someone on Reddit asked whether there would be any other profession that requires attending a 2-day training class and would then pay as well as a Scrum Master job. This attitude is precisely why the 47 Scrum Master Interview Guide exists: Prevent imposters from slipping through the hiring process and causing damage.

If you are looking to fill a position for a Scrum Master (or agile coach) in your organization, you may find the following 47 interview questions useful to identify the right candidate. They are derived from my fourteen years of practical experience with XP as well as Scrum, serving both as Product Owner and Scrum Master as well as interviewing dozens of Scrum Master candidates on behalf of my clients.

So far, this Scrum Master interview guide has been downloaded more than 19,000 times.

Scrum Master Interview Questions (4): From Agile Metrics to Scrum Kick-off to Scrum Anti-Patterns — Berlin Product People GmbH (more…)

Product Backlog Anti-Patterns Q&A

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TL; DR: Product Backlog Anti-Patterns Q&A

A few weeks, Scrum.org hosted a webinar on Product Backlog anti-patterns with me, which left several questions unanswered as we ran out of time. Hence please find following my answers to the additional 18 questions I could not answer during the webinar Product Backlog anti-patterns Q&A session.

Product Backlog Anti-Patterns Q&A — BErlin Product People GmbH (more…)

📅 🖥 Virtual Agile Camp Berlin 2021 — May 27-29, 2021

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TL; DR: The vACB21’s Schedule, Session Proposals, Technology, and Workshops

The Agile Camp Berlin 2021 will be a virtual event from May 27-29, 2021.

We will spend three energizing days from 1 pm to 7 pm CEST at a live virtual Barcamp using open space technology principles and practices. The general conference language is English; sessions in other languages are welcome!

📅 🖥 Virtual Agile Camp Berlin 2021 — May 27-29, 2021 — vACB21 — Hosted by Berlin Product People GmbH

Read on and learn about the organization of the virtual Agile Camp Berlin 2021, its preliminary schedule, from your session proposals to session planning to the essential technology to enjoy the best possible experience.

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Peer Recruiting: How to Hire a Scrum Master

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TL; DR: Peer Recruiting

Peer Recruiting is the new hiring: Shortly, all creative, technology-based organizations will need to abandon the command & control structures that served the industrial world of the 20th century so well. Instead, they will reorganize themselves around autonomous teams to deal with the complexity and pace of innovation of the 21st century.

In such an agile world, recruiting will become a team decision, and the “human resources” department’s role will change into a supportive one. Recruiters will need to become servant leaders or facilitators, guiding the peer recruiting process.

The following guide to peer recruiting is based on my experience in participating in recruiting Scrum Team members over the last ten years. This first article will cover the Scrum Master role.

Peer Recruiting: How to Hire a Scrum Master in Agile Times — Age-of-Product.com (more…)

📖 🔈 Download the Audiobook of the Scrum Guide 2020 Reordered for Free

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TL; DR: Welcome to the Scrum Guide Reordered Audiobook

The Scrum Guide Reordered audiobook is based on about 95 percent of the text of the Scrum Guide 2020, extending its original structure by adding additional categories, for example, on self-management, commitments, or accountability. The audiobook of the Scrum Guide 2020 Reordered is a 22-minute long MP3 file. We are planning to make it available on other platforms, too.

The audio version of the SG 2020 Reordered allows you to get a first understanding of Scrum-related questions in a convenient manner—by listening to the content. For example, SG 2020 Reordered audiobook is good at relating specific topics—say “stakeholder”—with Scrum first principles such as Scrum Values, or empiricism.

📖 🔈 Download the Audiobook of the Scrum Guide 2020 Reordered for Free — Berlin Product People GmbH (more…)

20 Questions New Scrum Masters Should Ask Their Teams to Get up to Speed

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TL; DR: 20 Questions a New Scrum Master Should Ask

Twenty questions for you — the new Scrum Master — that fit into a 60 minutes time-box. Start learning how your new Scrum Team is currently delivering the product and get up to speed: from Product Backlog forensics to metrics to team challenges and technical debt. Download a printable template for your convenience.

Do you need to talk to your Product Owner? Here you go: 20 Questions from New Scrum Master to Product Owner.

20 Questions New Scrum Masters Should Ask Their Teams to Get up to Speed — Berlin Product People GmbH (more…)

Product Discovery Anti-Patterns

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TL; DR: Product Discovery Anti-Patterns

Scrum has proven to be an effective product delivery framework for all sorts of products. However, Scrum is equally well suited to build the wrong product efficiently as its Achilles heel has always been the product discovery part. What product discovery part, you may think now. And this is precisely the point: The Product Owner miraculously identifies what is the best way to proceed as a Scrum Team by managing the Product Backlog. How that is supposed to happen is nowhere described in the Scrum Guide. Consequently, when everyone is for themselves, product discovery anti-patterns emerge.

From sunk costs, HIPPO-ism, my-budget-my-features to self-fulfilling prophecies — learn more about the numerous product discovery anti-patterns that can manifest themselves when you try to fill Scrum’s product discovery void.

Product Discovery Anti-Patterns — Berlin Product People GmbH (more…)