Age of Product’s Food for Thought of May 14th, 2017 is shared with 8,493 peers. Again, we ask the heretic questions: (Why) Do engineers hate agile? Or, does “agile” need refactoring because of warring factions of the community? And is there indeed a schizophrenic dichotomy noticeable?

On the product side, we dive deep into continuous everything, from dual track development, to cost of delay and mental models of successful product creators. (If causal loop or Pareto efficiency are all Greek to you, maybe you should cancel lunch? #justsaying)

Lastly: We learn from Mr. Business Model Canvas—Alex Osterwalder—how to recognize a problem of a target market and address it with a product.

Scrum: Do Devs Hate Agile?

Allan Kelly : Why do devs hate Agile? Allan Kelly names three reasons why not all developers are enthusiastic about today’s agile practices.

Chris Murman : My Thoughts On Refactoring Agile Chris Murman points at trends in the agile community: frameworks created, certificates multiplied like rabbits, warring factions emerging.

James Shore and Diana Larson : The Agile Fluency Model Explained: A Brief Guide to Success with Agile Diana Larson explains the Agile Fluency Model in a 10-minutes animation by James Shore.

Dave Snowden : False dichotomies, reality avoidance Dave Snowden points at the “schizophrenic dichotomy in the Agile movement between highly structured, harmful, all-encompassing frameworks on the one hand, and mostly harmless, but inconsequential methods based on happiness and the like.”

John Yorke : Do you know ‘what’ your problem is? John Yorke believes that we focus far too much on what we are doing, and far too little on why we are doing it.

Product & Lean

Jeff Patton : Dual Track Development is not Duel Track Jeff Patton explains where “dual-track development” comes from, and what it means.

(via Leading Agile ): Cost of Delay. What does it mean? Prioritize your backlog and maximize ROI. Jim Hayden puts down the concept of Cost of Delay in laymen’s terms.

Luis Gonçalves and Andy Cleff : Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement & Experimentation Andy Cleff sketches a path how to create a culture of continuous improvement in your organization.

Alicia Shiu (via Amplitude ): The 9 Mental Models You Need to Build Better Products Alicia Shiu presents nine relevant mental models for product builders, from causal loops to Pareto efficiency.

Teresa Torres : Managing Product Teams for Success Teresa Torres explains why managing product teams by outcomes matters, and how to do so in practice.

The Essential Read