TL; DR: AI Success Framework for Organizations — Food for Agile Thought #494
Welcome to the 494th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,602 peers. This week, Ethan Mollick introduces a powerful Leadership-Lab-Crowd-based AI Success Framework for organizational change. Greg Nudelman boldly recommends replacing ego-bound product managers to boost innovation; guess what he suggests. Also, Aparna Chennapragada, CPO at Microsoft, tells Lenny Rachitsky why AI prototyping and NLX are reshaping the PM role, Dan Shipper reviews Claude 4 Opus, and Nick McGreivy reveals the limits of AI in scientific discovery.
Next, Andres Glusman tells Leah Tharin how failed A/B tests fuel SaaS growth. Aakash Gupta spotlights Andy Carroll’s no-code AI prototyping in a comprehensive video session, while Simon Willison warns of ChatGPT memory’s hidden trade-offs. Also, Brian Rain dissects why FAANG giants outgrew Agile, and Mark Levison debunks GenAI as a Scrum Master replacement, emphasizing its risks to team dynamics and core agile values.
Lastly, Pawel Brodzinski reminds us that autonomy without alignment breeds chaos, not progress. David Mack critiques AI-led interviews as a dehumanizing new trend, and Christina Wodtke urges a shift from metrics to meaningful outcomes. Finally, Johanna Rothman shares how goal-driven, networked, and supported autonomous teams fuel faster delivery and continuous learning.
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This week, the most popular discussion on LinkedIn was: Scrum Masters, are you working too much?
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🏆 The Tip of the Week: AI Success Framework for Organizations
: Making AI Work: Leadership, Lab, and Crowd
Ethan Mollick lays out a robust framework (Leadership, Lab, and Crowd) for turning AI’s individual productivity boosts into real organizational transformation. He argues companies must relearn how to innovate, adapt, and lead amidst accelerating change.
🎯 Product
: The End of Human Product Management (and It IS for the Reasons you Think)
Greg Nudelman argues that ego-driven, ineffective product management is holding teams back and makes a provocative case for AI PMs as faster, unbiased, data-driven replacements that deliver more innovative, leaner roadmaps.
: 🎙 Andres Glusman: Why Your A/B Tests Are Lying (and How to Fix Them)
Andres Glusman joins Leah Tharin to reveal why most A/B tests fail, why that’s valuable, and how embracing failure drives smarter testing, faster learning, and real SaaS growth.
: 🎙 Microsoft CPO: If you aren’t prototyping with AI you’re doing it wrong
Aparna Chennapragada tells Lenny Rachitsky why prototyping with AI is now essential, how NLX is the new UX, and why PMs must evolve into tastemakers guiding product vision in the AI era.
: 📺 Vibe Coding Tutorial in 72 mins, No Technical Background Needed (Windsurf)
Aakash Gupta features Andy Carroll, who demonstrates how non-technical creators can launch products fast using AI tools like Windsurf, showing practical no-code strategies, deployment tips, and how to build without writing code.
🧠 Artificial Intelligence
(via Every): Vibe Check: Claude 4 Opus
Dan Shipper puts Claude 4 Opus through its paces, praising its deep research, honest editing, and coding prowess, though he still prefers OpenAI’s o3 for daily tasks, thanks to memory stickiness.
: I got fooled by AI-for-science hype—here’s what it taught me
Nick McGreivy shares how his experience applying AI to plasma physics research revealed significant shortcomings and hype-driven overoptimism, urging scientists to rethink AI’s role as a revolutionary force in science.
: I really don’t like ChatGPT’s new memory dossier
Simon Willison critiques ChatGPT’s new memory feature, arguing it compromises user control by applying past context unpredictably, highlighting both the potential and the pitfalls of persistent personalization in AI tools.
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 AI for Agile BootCamp Cohort #1 — September 4-25, 2025
The job market’s shifting. Agile roles are under pressure. AI tools are everywhere. But here’s the truth: the Agile pros who learn how to work with AI, not against it, will be the ones leading the next wave of high-impact teams.
So, become the professional recruiters call first for “AI‑powered Agile.” Be among the first to master practical AI applications for Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, Product Owners, Product Managers, and Project Managers.
Tickets also include lifetime access to the corresponding online course, once it is published. The class is in English. 🇬🇧
Learn more: 🖥 🇬🇧 AI for Agile BootCamp Cohort #1 — September 4-25, 2025.
Customer Voice: “The AI for Agilists course is an absolute essential for anyone working in the field! If you want to keep up with the organizations and teams you support, this course will equip you with not only knowledge of how to leverage AI for your work as an Agilist but will also give you endless tips & tricks to get better results and outcomes. I thoroughly enjoyed the course content, structure, and activities. Working in teams to apply what we learned was the best part, as it led to great insights for how I could apply what I was learning. After the first day on the course, I already walked away with many things I could apply at work. I highly recommend this course to anyone looking to better understand AI in general, but more specifically, how to leverage AI for Agility.” (Lauren Tuffs, Change Leader | Business Agility.)
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👉 From time to time, we can offer last-minute seats for training classes at cost to individuals who do not have access to a corporate training budget. If you would like to be notified about these opportunities, please register here.
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➿ Agile & Leadership
(via Medium): Beyond Agile: Why Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google, and Microsoft Didn’t Need Scrum
Brian Rain explores why tech giants like Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google, and Microsoft didn’t embrace Agile frameworks and instead built cultures, structures, and tooling that made formal Scrum unnecessary.
: Why AI Doesn’t Replace Your ScrumMaster (and probably never will)
Mark Levison explains why GenAI won’t replace your Scrum Master anytime soon, despite the hype. He highlights where it helps and where it harms team collaboration, psychological safety, and actual Scrum values.
: The Role of Alignment
Pawel Brodzinski emphasizes that genuine autonomy only drives results when teams are aligned around a shared purpose. Without alignment, increased autonomy amplifies chaos instead of momentum, making cultural clarity essential.
📯 Agile’s Quarter-Century Crisis: Why We’re Still Failing 25 Years After the Manifesto
The data couldn’t be more supportive: Despite 25 years of the Agile Manifesto, countless books, a certification industry, conferences, and armies of consultants, we’re collectively struggling to make Agile work. My recent survey, although not targeting Agile failure, still reveals systemic dysfunctions that persist across organizations attempting to implement Agile practices:
- Impediment #1: Leadership disconnect (33 % of respondents cite management issues).
- Impediment #2: Missing product vision (12 % of respondents can’t see the “why”).
- Impediment #3: Cultural resistance (12 % of respondents report mindset barriers).
Learn more: Agile’s Quarter-Century Crisis: Why We’re Still Failing 25 Years After the Manifesto.
🛠 Concepts, Practices, Tools & Measuring
: Metrics Are Easy—Impact Is Hard
Christina Wodtke challenges our obsession with metrics, urging leaders to shift from output-driven thinking to outcome-focused impact, asking not what we’re measuring but what we’re genuinely trying to change in the world.
: How Autonomous Teams Help Everyone Learn and Improve
Johanna Rothman explains that truly autonomous teams, guided by clear goals, supported by facilitative leadership, and connected through small-world networks, deliver faster, learn continuously, and drive broader organizational improvement.
(via Slate): Worst Interview Ever: An Aggravating New Barrier Is Making It Harder Than Ever to Land a Job. Candidates Are Pissed.
David Mack highlights the rising use of AI in job interviews, revealing how impersonal, glitchy bots leave candidates feeling dehumanized, misled, and disconnected, raising questions about efficiency at the cost of basic respect.
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🎶 Encore
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📅 Scrum Training & Event Schedule
You can secure your seat for Scrum training classes, workshops, and meetups directly by following the corresponding link in the table below:
| Date | Class and Language | City | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 May 14-June 11, 2025 | SOLD OUT: AI for Agile Practitioners: Pilot Cohort Program (English; Live Virtual Class) | Live Virtual Cohort | €199 incl. 19% VAT |
| 🖥 🇬🇧 May 26-27, 2025 | Professional Scrum Master Advanced Training (PSM II; English; Live Virtual Class) | Live Virtual Class | €1,299 incl. 19% VAT |
| 🖥 🇩🇪 July 8-9, 2025 | Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German; Live Virtual Class) | Live Virtual Class | €1,299 incl. 19% VAT |
| 🖥 🇬🇧 July 10, 2025 | Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Class (PSFS; English; Live Virtual Class) | Live Virtual Class | €599 incl. 19% VAT |
| 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 September 4-25, 2025 | Guaranteed: AI for Agile BootCamp Cohort #1 (English; Live Virtual Cojort) | Live Virtual Class | €499 incl. 19% VAT |
See all upcoming classes here.
You can book your seat for the training directly by following the corresponding links to the ticket shop. If the procurement process of your organization requires a different purchasing process, please contact Berlin Product People GmbH directly.
📺 Join 6,000-plus Agile Peers on Youtube
Now available on the Age-of-Product YouTube channel to improve learning, for example, about an AI Success Framework for Organizations:
- Sandrine Olivencia: Restoring Agility through Lean Craftsmanship.
- Q& A with Product Leader Coach and Product at Heart Organizer Petra Wille.
- Maarten Dalmijn: The 5 Obstacles to Empowered Teams.
- Roman Pichler: The Top Reasons Why a Product Strategy Fails.
- Johanna Rothman: How to Instill Agility, not Agile Practices.
- Cliff Berg: Leadership Behaviors That Lead to Actual Agility.
- Peter Merel: the agile way — Hands-on Agile 2025.
- Dr Lynn Kelley: Change Questions: The Keys to Implementing Organizational Change—Hands-on Agile 2025.
- Hands-on Agile EXTRA: How Elon Musk Would Run YOUR Business with Joe Justice.
✋ Do Not Miss Out — Learn more about AI Success Framework — Join the 20,000-plus Strong ‘Hands-on Agile’ Slack Community
I invite you to join the “Hands-on Agile” Slack Community and enjoy the benefits of a fast-growing, vibrant community of agile practitioners from around the world.
If you like to join 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.
Help your team to learn about Automated Companies by pointing them to the free Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide:
🗞️ Last Week’s Food for Agile Thought Edition
The post Food for Agile Thought #494: AI Success Framework for Organizations, Impact over Metrics, Prototyping Has Changed, Beyond Agile with FAANG appeared first on Age-of-Product.com.
