Food for Agile Thought’s issue #111—shared with 11,775 peers—dives into slicing user stories, and asks: Is becoming an agile coach the only career goal for scrum masters?

We also apply the Team Culture model to high-performing teams, analyze the scrum master role with causal loop diagrams, and bust the myth that great products result from listening to your customers.

Lastly, Ken Norton pitches the idea of having a thirty-year plan, and we learn how the Design Sprint emerged as a concept.

Have a great week!

🏆 The Tip of the Week

Tobias Mayer and Jem Djelal : Episode 1: Why do ScrumMasters feel pressure to be an agile coach? Jem Djelal interviews in this first episode of his new podcast Tobias Mayer.

Agile & Slicing User Stories

Luis Mizutani (via ThoughtWorks ): Slicing your development work as a multi-layer cake Luis Mizutani asks: ‘What is the best way to break your work into user stories?’

Mike Cohn : Five common mistakes teams make when splitting user stories Mike Cohn analyzes five mistakes teams often make when writing user stories.

Simon Powers : A Model for High-Performing Teams Simon Powers looks at high-performing teams in a corporate environment through the lens of his Team Culture model.

Ilia Pavlichenko (via Scrum.org ): A Systemic View on the Role of the Scrum Master Ilia Pavlichenkolook suggests taking a look at the role of the Scrum Master with the help of causal loop diagrams.


HelloFresh Is Hiring Agile Coaches in Berlin

We’re hiring a couple of Agile Coaches (or enthusiast learners) at HelloFresh in Berlin. Over the past 6 months we’ve been undergoing an Agile transformation and have pretty extensively blogged about it.

Learn more about the position and apply here to become an Agile Coach for HelloFresh.

Note: We’ll also support visa applications with this role.

Are you interested in advertising a position in Food for Agile Thought? Let me know: Stefan at Age of Product.

Product & Lean

Marty Cagan (via svpg ): Customer Inspired; Technology Enabled Marty Cagan busts one of the most enduring myths that great products result from listening to your customers.

Ken Norton : Ants and Aliens: Why you need a thirty-year plan Ken Norton on why you need a thirty-year plan for disruptive products.

Janna Bastow (via ProdPad ): How To Work With User Personas When You're A Product Manager Janna Bastow explains how to use user personas to create visible patterns of behavior which you can use to build for growth.

Jake Knapp (via Mind The Product ): Design Sprints Jake Knapp shares in this video how he developed the Design Sprint, and how to do them well.

✋ Do Not Miss Out: Join the 2,125-plus Strong ‘Hands-on Agile’ Slack Team

I invite you to join the “Hands-on Agile” Slack team and enjoy the benefits of a fast-growing, vibrant community of agile practitioners from around the world.

If you like to join now 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.

