As I see it, Agile is about people and interactions and not about processes and tools. This is the first line of the Agile Manifesto and the reason I was drawn to Agile in the first place. So why is it we end up talking only about processes and tools and not about people and interactions? Let’s talk about one of the things that happen between people: unpredictability. Unpredictability is one of the reasons Agile ways of working exist. Managing unpredictability is one of the goals of Agile ways of working.

There is one thing that separates great design from good design and that is the story the design tells. There are different levels of design. Nice design looks good. It’s aesthetic: pleasing to the senses. The next level is functional: the design solves a problem. But the apex of design is storytelling. If the design looks good and solves a problem, the designer is doing a good job. But if the designer managers to tell a story, design has the ability to change things.

Writing a good user story is a delicate art. It should be clear, inspiring, leave enough room for creativity, and embody the product vision. It should be a self-contained piece of work without describing the solution. The user story is about WHAT, the HOW is up to the scrum team to figure out. Thinking in questions is much more creative than thinking in solutions but every once in a while I fall into the trap of thinking in solutions. Then I write a user story that is too descriptive. The result is that opportunities are missed, thinking becomes too narrow, and solutions become sloppy.

One thing I didn’t understand until recently about how we organize ourselves in organizations is that authority is given. Authority is given to people so they can use it for good. Authority is the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience. Authority (noun) is the power…

I just read this nice piece about ChatGPT by Jan Scholtes. Very insightful piece with a couple of eye openers for me on how ChatGPT works. One of the myths that Scholtes debunked for me is that ChatGPT thinks or knows anything. Artificial Intelligence sounds like thinking and knowing. But…

The journey of a product owner with a product or service, is about gradually peeling the union of IT and organizational change. The product vision will uncover the areas in which the organization needs to change and set the requirements for the change. — Product ownership revolves around two questions: “Where do we need to go?” and “What does it take to get there?”. Oftentimes the answer to the second question takes some form of digital transformation in the organization. And what needs to change in the organization and IT depends on where the…

The current state of design thinking might seem gloomy. There is a lot of criticism and lots of things have gone wrong. But there are so many good things in design thinking that I believe the future of design thinking is bright and it will become more mainstream as more organizations adopt new technologies and practices. One of the things that design thinking needs to get through this slump is ownership.

There are a number of ways that anthroposophy can be integrated into business. One way is to use it as a way to rethink the way we work. Anthroposophy can help businesses to see work as a process of connection and collaboration. This can help to reduce the amount of stress that is often associated with work and create a healthy social order. Additionally, businesses can use anthroposophy as a way to improve business efficiency. By understanding how humans interact with their environment and each other, businesses can learn to better navigate complexity.

The difference between a product owner and a product manager is that a product owner is responsible for the overall product vision, strategy, and execution while a product manager is responsible for the day-to-day operations of a product. — One thing I find weird in a lot of discussions in the Agile development world is the hyper-focus on definitions of roles and the adherence to the rulebooks about all the ceremonies. I am all for having roles and responsibilities clear but I am amazed by all the discussions about…