Food for Thought’s issue #100—shared with 9,957 peers—focusses on how to figure out what to build. We learn how to apply continuous product discovery, how to achieve product-market fit, how to use empathy mapping, and why a hypotheses backlog helps to avoid cluttering the product backlog.

We also discover Scrum misconceptions by analyzing job ads for scrum masters, and what cross-functional means with regard qualifications of individual team members. Moreover, we understand ways to improve your Kanban—by Mr. Scrum Jeff Sutherland himself—, and how the principles of the agile manifesto can be matched to change management.

Finally, there is an entertaining interview with Atlassian’s head of R&D on messiness, anarchy, structure, and what all of this has to do with creativity.

Have a great week!

Product Discovery & Lean

Teresa Torres : 3 Best Practices for Adopting Continuous Product Discovery Teresa Torres shares in this video her definition of continuous product discovery.

Dan Olsen (via Mind The Product ): Dan Olsen shares advice on How to Achieve Product-Market Fit Dan Olsen, the author of The Lean Product Playbook, shares advice on how to achieve product-market fit.

Dave Gray : Empathy Map Dave Gray explains how to use empathy mapping for discovering insights about customers.

Mel Hambarsoomian (via Medium ): Use a hypothesis backlog to capture and refine your problems Mel Hambarsoomian describes her hypotheses backlog, a collection of opportunities to improve the product.

Scott Sehlhorst (via Tyner Blain ): Product Management Synapses Scott Sehlhorst shares some random thoughts inspired by a Rorschach test of product management concepts.

Brandon Chu (via Medium ): Making Good Decisions as a Product Manager Brandon Chu dissects how decision-making as a product manager is supposed to work.

From Hilarious to Sad: 22 Scrum Master Anti-Patterns from Job Ads

Job ads for scrum master or agile coach positions reveal a great insight into an organization’s progress on becoming agile. To gain these, I analyzed more than 50 job ads for scrum master or agile coach positions. Learn more about what makes job ads such a treasure trove with the following 22 scrum master anti-patterns.

Read More: 22 Scrum Master Anti-Patterns from Job Ads.

Agile & Scrum

Simon Powers : Here's the Thing About "T-shaped" People Lloyd Jones on cross-functional teams and common misconceptions about how they become high-performing.

Jeff Sutherland (via Scrum Inc ): How to Optimize Your Kanban Jeff Sutherland suggests some improvements—borrowed from Scrum—to Kanban to reduce the average cycle time.

Jason Little : A Manifesto for Agile Change Management Jason Little shares examples how his workshop participants matched the principles of the agile manifesto to change management.

The Essential View

Bob Sutton and Dominic Price (via Stanford ECorner ): Dominic Price: Constructive Chaos vs. Clusterf***s Bob Sutton interviews Dominic Price, the head of R&D and “work futurist” at Atlassian, on how to achieve a balance between structure and (creative) anarchy.

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