Food for Agile Thought #498: AI Risks by Non-Doomers, 20y Hiring Product Managers, Vibe Design, Micromanagement Is Okay
Also: Optimize Up, Looming AI Disaster, Toyota-Style Problem Solving
Hello everyone!
Welcome to the 498th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,577 peers.
This week, Andrej Karpathy examines the shift from code to neural networks and large language models, urging developers to rethink tools for safe human-AI collaboration. Ken Norton reflects on evolving product management and the value of human judgment, while Taylor Dykes and Katie Sherwin highlight the potential and pitfalls of AI-generated review summaries. Also, Sean Goedecke and Simon Willison caution against looming AI risks such as disasters and security vulnerabilities.
Next, Maarten Dalmijn emphasizes conversation and shared understanding over perfecting Product Backlog items. Chidi Afulezi highlights the need for deep local insight when creating products for African markets. Then, Johanna Rothman urges leaders to reduce WIP and blame, and David Shapiro and Zvi Mowshowitz explore AI tools like o3-Pro for accelerating research, debating their power, cost, and practicality in complex analytical tasks.
Lastly, startup leaders rethink micromanagement as a balance of standards and empowerment. Christoph Roser details Toyota’s structured problem-solving, and a comprehensive Microsoft report warns of the focus-draining infinite workday. Pawel Brodzinski champions physical whiteboards for team clarity. Finally, Lior Neu-ner shows how engineers can leverage AI and design principles to deliver user-focused apps faster without designer dependencies.
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Did you miss the previous Food for Agile Thought issue 497?
🏆 The Tip of the Week
📺 Andrej Karpathy (via Y Combinator): Software Is Changing (Again)
Andrej Karpathy explores how software is evolving from traditional code to neural networks and now large language models, urging developers to embrace partial autonomy, rethink interfaces, and build tools that keep AI on a “leash” while enabling faster human-AI collaboration.
Source: Y Combinator: 📺 Software Is Changing (Again)
Author: Andrej Karpathy
🎯 Product
Maarten Dalmijn: Great Product Owners Write Awful Backlog Items
Maarten Dalmijn argues that great Product Backlog Items spark conversation and shared understanding rather than aiming for exhaustive detail, emphasizing collaboration and continuous refinement over perfection at the outset.
Source: Great Product Owners Write Awful Backlog Items
Author: Maarten Dalmijn
(via Nielsen Norman Group): AI Summaries of Reviews
Taylor Dykes and Katie Sherwin explore how well-designed AI-generated review summaries can help shoppers quickly assess product quality and fit but warn that vague or poorly formatted summaries waste time and risk eroding customer trust.
Source: Nielsen Norman Group: AI Summaries of Reviews
Ken Norton: A How to Hire a Product Manager Retrospective
Ken Norton reflects on his influential essay on hiring product managers, emphasizing how the role has evolved, the enduring value of human skills over automation, and the importance of questioning conventional advice.
Source: A How to Hire a Product Manager Retrospective
Author: Ken Norton
Chidi Afulezi (via Mind The Product): What I learned from building products in Africa
Chidi Afulezi shares that building products in Africa demands deep local understanding, ruthless prioritization, and collaboration, where success comes from knowing where to focus amid diverse, complex, and resource-constrained markets.
Source: Mind The Product: What I learned from building products in Africa
Author: Chidi Afulezi
🧠 Artificial Intelligence
Simon Willison: The lethal trifecta for AI agents: private data, untrusted content, and external communication
Simon Willison warns that combining AI agents with private data access, exposure to untrusted content, and external communication creates severe security risks, enabling attackers to exfiltrate sensitive data through prompt injection vulnerabilities.
Source: The lethal trifecta for AI agents: private data, untrusted content, and external communication
Author: Simon Willison
Sean Goedecke: The first big AI disaster is yet to happen
Sean Goedecke argues that the first major AI disaster is still ahead. It will likely be driven by autonomous AI agents mishandling high-stakes systems with minimal oversight, potentially causing harm comparable to early rail or aviation catastrophes.
Source: The first big AI disaster is yet to happen
Author: Sean Goedecke
Zvi Mowshowitz: o3 Turns Pro
Zvi Mowshowitz explores o3-pro’s strengths in deep analytical tasks, its frustrating slowness, modest improvements over o3, and whether the added compute justifies the cost and wait in real-world workflows.
Source: o3 Turns Pro
Author: Zvi Mowshowitz
David Shapiro: My Overpowered AI Research Stack — NotebookLM, Deep Research, Grok, Gemini, o3-Pro, OpenAI
David Shapiro describes building a vast post-labor economics knowledge base using AI tools like o3-Pro, Deep Research, and Notebook LM to generate, validate, and synthesize rigorous research at unprecedented speed.
Source: My Overpowered AI Research Stack — NotebookLM, Deep Research, Grok, Gemini, o3-Pro, OpenAI
Author: David Shapiro
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 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.)
➿ Agile & Leadership
Johanna Rothman: Three Ways to Optimize Up: Make Work Better and More Effective for Everyone
Johanna Rothman urges leaders to stop optimizing down for individual efficiency and instead optimize up by reducing WIP, conflicting processes, and blame to achieve overarching product and corporate goals for greater organizational effectiveness.
Source: Three Ways to Optimize Up: Make Work Better and More Effective for Everyone
Author: Johanna Rothman
(via First Round Capital): Is All Micromanagement Bad? Here’s How the Best Founders and Operators Balance Details and Delegation
Startup leaders argue that micromanagement is not inherently bad. Balancing details and delegation involves modeling standards, investigating anomalies, designing review systems, and empowering teams without losing quality, context, or customer focus.
Christoph Roser: Asking What — When — Where — Why — Who — How…[…] for the Toyota Practical Problem Solving
Christoph Roser explains how Toyota Practical Problem Solving uses ‘What When Where Why Who How’ to clarify problems, enabling structured analysis, root cause discovery, and targeted action through detailed questioning from multiple perspectives.
Source: Asking What — When — Where — Why — Who — How…[…] for the Toyota Practical Problem Solving
Author: Christoph Roser
📯 The Scrum Guide Expansion Pack: A Critical Reality Check
The Scrum Guide Expansion Pack represents a fascinating contradiction in the agile world. While attempting to cure Scrum’s reputation crisis, it may actually amplify the very problems it seeks to solve. Let me explain what this means for practitioners dealing with the aftermath of failed Scrum implementations.
Learn more: The Scrum Guide Expansion Pack: A Critical Reality Check.
🛠 Concepts, Practices, Tools & Measuring
(via Microsoft): Work Trend Index Special Report: Breaking down the infinite workday
The report highlights how the infinite workday fueled by meetings, messages, and notifications drains focus and energy, urging leaders to rethink work rhythms and use AI to enable smarter, outcome-driven collaboration.
Source: Microsoft: Work Trend Index Special Report: Breaking down the infinite workday
Pawel Brodzinski: A Love Letter to Physical Whiteboards — Pawel Brodzinski on Leadership in Technology
Pawel Brodzinski reflects on the enduring power of physical whiteboards, highlighting their flexibility, clarity, and ability to foster spatial memory and team engagement in ways digital tools rarely match.
Source: A Love Letter to Physical Whiteboards — Pawel Brodzinski on Leadership in Technology
Author: Pawel Brodzinski
(via PostHog): An engineer’s guide to vibe design (with prompts)
Lior Neu-ner outlines how engineers can use AI tools and clear design principles to quickly create polished, user-focused apps, bypassing traditional dependencies on designers and accelerating product delivery through vibe design.
Source: PostHog: An engineer’s guide to vibe design (with prompts)
📅 Training Classes, Meetups & Events 2025
Upcoming classes and events:
🖥 💯 🇩🇪 June 25 — Webinar: Als KMU jetzt mit KI durchstarten — trotz EU AI Act (German)
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 July 2 — Live Virtual Meetup: Hands-on Agile #68: How to Analyze Unstructured Team Interviews with AI (English)
🖥 💯 🇩🇪 July 8–9 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German)
🖥 🇬🇧 July 10 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Training (PSFS; English)
🖥 🇩🇪 September 2–3 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German)
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 September 4–25 — Live Virtual Cohort: AI for Agile BootCamp Cohort (English)
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 September 15–October 6 — Live Virtual Cohort: AI for Agile BootCamp Cohort (English)
🖥 🇬🇧 September 23–24 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master — Advanced Training (PSM II; English)
👉 See all upcoming classes here
🗞️ Last Week’s Food for Agile Thought Edition
📺 Join 6,000-plus Agile Peers on YouTube
Now available on the Age-of-Product YouTube channel:
Hands-on Agile 2025: Fabrice Bernhard: The Lean Tech Manifesto
Hands-on Agile 2025: Sandrine Olivencia: Restoring Agility through Lean Craftsmanship
Hands-on Agile 2025: Q& A with Product Leader Coach and Product at Heart Organizer Petra Wille
Hands-on Agile 2025: The 5 Obstacles to Empowered Teams — Maarten Dalmijn
Hands-on Agile 2025: The Top Reasons Why a Product Strategy Fails — Roman Pichler
Hands-on Agile 2025: How to Instill Agility, not Agile Practices — Johanna Rothman
Hands-on Agile 2025: Taylorism-Lean-Agile-Product Mindset — Jonathan Odo
Hands-on Agile 2025: Leadership Behaviors That Lead to Actual Agility — Cliff Berg
Hands-on Agile Extra: How Elon Musk Would Run YOUR Business mit Joe Justice
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