We’ve produced a lot of content over the years. And in 2023, we made a concerted effort to release more and more useful content. We shipped a newsletter and a Humanizing Work Show episode (audio, video, and transcript) every week except for a couple of holiday breaks. Not to mention a whole new online course with about 3 hours of fresh video. That’s a lot of content!
We assume most people haven’t had time to read and watch all of it. So, in this newsletter, we want to highlight some of the most popular pieces (and key takeaways) over the past year in case you missed them.
All Time Top Content
The Humanizing Work Guide to Splitting Stories
The Humanizing Work Guide to Splitting Stories
With almost 100,000 views in 2023, our comprehensive guide to splitting features and user stories remains our most popular content. Working in small increments of value is the keystone habit that makes all of the other Agile practices work as intended. If you’re not already doing this on your team, the Guide to Splitting Stories is a great way to ramp up on that essential skill.
Laloux Model Update 2022
Years ago, Peter made an explainer video for the model described in Frederic Laloux’s Reinventing Organizations (the source of the phrase teal organization). We weren’t really on Youtube at the time, so he let someone else publish it. And it went viral (marketing failure bow). We’ve found ourselves using the Laloux model directly less and less, but parts of it still have some utility. This video has Peter’s 2022 reflections on how he thinks about the model now.
Top Content Created in 2023
New Manager Mistakes
New Manager Mistakes
A Humanizing Work Show listener asked us: “I just got promoted from developer to development manager, and I want to do my new role well. What should I be thinking about? What should I avoid?” We though the question was important enough to warrant both a newsletter and an episode. If you’re a manager, this episode can help you ensure you’re giving attention to the right things. If you’re an individual contributor, it can help you know what to ask for from your manager (who probably wants to do the right thing, but who, like most managers, probably hasn’t had much training for their actual job).
Hack Your Daily Scrum
The purpose of the Daily Scrum (or the equivalent daily team meeting in another method) is to figure out how the team will collaborate today based on what we now know about our work. Unfortunately, the most common way people run a Daily Scrum fails to achieve this purpose reliably. This newsletter shared a small change you can make that’ll increase your odds of an effective Daily Scrum and, therefore, a more effective day for your team.
Business as Usual Product Ownership (and why it doesn’t work anymore)
2023 was a hard year for a lot of organizations, and Product Ownership needs to look different in difficult economic times. In this newsletter, we shared the three things great Product Owners and Product Managers do to win in tough times. If you’re a PO, check this one out and adopt these practices in 2024. If you’re not a PO, pass it along to someone who’d benefit from it.
These Six Things Improve How Teams Work
The health of teams has a direct impact on organizational results as well as on individuals’ happiness in their work. In this episode, we outline the 6 conditions that researchers J Richard Hackman and Ruth Wageman have discovered are critical for a team to be healthy and effective. And we cover what you can do to contribute to those conditions, whether you’re a leader or a junior team member.
Dealing with Interruptions on a Scrum Team
In this episode, Richard answers the question: “Our team is trying to use Scrum, but we get a lot of interruptions, a lot of work that pops up mid-sprint. How do we handle that kind of thing well?” He explains how to borrow a couple of concepts from Kanban to accommodate emergent work on a Scrum team in a healthy way.
What Do I Focus On As a New Product Owner?
In this episode, Richard answers the question: “What should I focus on as a new Product Owner?” Being a Scrum Product Owner is a big job, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed, so Richard breaks down what’s most important to focus on in the early days and in what sequence.
We Want to Hear From You!
What was your favorite newsletter or show episode we shared in 2023? What difference did it make for you and your team?
We plan to keep shipping newsletters and Humanizing Work Show episodes every week. What would you love to hear us talk about in 2024?
Email us and let us know!
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