Food for Agile Thought #503: Navigating AI Tools, Oversimplifying Product Work, Leading with Clarity, Goals Take Practice
Also: AI 4 Agile Online Course, PRD by AI, Product Feedback, Your AI Co-Pilot
Hello everyone!
Welcome to the 503rd edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 40,612 peers.
This week, Korny Sietsma dissects the polarized hype around AI coding tools, urging a hands-on, context-aware approach to their use. Afonso Franco critiques the overthinking of product work, calling for grounded, agency-driven action, while Jason Evanish reminds us that customer feedback, though messy, is vital. Zvi Mowshowitz assesses ChatGPT Agent’s potential and risks, and Andy Cleff extends the Kantor model to enhance team dynamics.
Next, Itamar Gilad highlights the potential of generative AI to deepen thinking and enhance strategic decision-making, and Petra Wille urges product leaders to steer AI efforts with clarity and a user-centric focus. Zichuan Xiong warns of seven common agentic AI failure modes. John Cutler reframes goal-setting as an ongoing practice, and Johanna Rothman urges shifting from estimates to value-driven portfolio choices.
Lastly, Mistral AI highlights the environmental impact of LLMs and calls for more sustainable development. Tal Raviv demonstrates how to create a personalized AI copilot for strategic support. Joerg Niessing and Benni Lickfett offer a framework for scaling AI effectively. Jenny Wanger boosts product ops without authority, and Marc Abraham turns AI into a reliable PRD collaborator.
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Did you miss the previous Food for Agile Thought issue 502?
🏆 The Tip of the Week: Navigating AI Tools
Kornelis Sietsma: Clowns to the left of me …
Korny Sietsma reflects on the polarized discourse surrounding AI coding tools, pushing past both hype and cynicism to explore their actual utility, limitations, startup costs, and the need for contextual and responsible use. He advocates for a balanced perspective grounded in hands-on experience, acknowledging both real productivity gains and the environmental, ethical, and organizational risks associated with their use.
Source: Clowns to the left of me …
Author: Kornelis Sietsma
🎯 Product
Afonso Franco: The pill of perspective
Afonso Franco challenges the oversimplification and overintellectualization plaguing product work, offering a third path, the pill of perspective: Acting with agency, grounded in context, detached from hype, comparison, and perfection.
Source: The pill of perspective
Author: Afonso Franco
Jason Evanish: 5 Harsh Truths of Managing Product Feedback
Jason Evanish outlines five uncomfortable truths about customer feedback: it’s messy, noisy, labor-intensive, ambiguous, and essential. Ignoring it leads to missed opportunities, while engaging with it demands deliberate effort and prioritization.
Source: 5 Harsh Truths of Managing Product Feedback
Author: Jason Evanish
Itamar Gilad: Beyond Productivity: Gen-AI’s Deeper Use Cases
Itamar Gilad argues that generative AI’s real potential lies beyond productivity boosts, helping teams think deeper, apply frameworks better, and build collective memory to support smarter decisions, cultural insight, and strategic experimentation.
Source: Beyond Productivity: Gen-AI’s Deeper Use Cases
Author: Itamar Gilad
Petra Wille: Leading Through the AI Wave — With Clarity, Not Confusion
Petra Wille urges product leaders to guide their teams through AI with clarity, focusing on discovery, delivery, and learning, while resisting hype-driven decisions and building purposeful, user-centered, AI-enabled products.
Source: Leading Through the AI Wave — With Clarity, Not Confusion
Author: Petra Wille
🧠 Artificial Intelligence
Zvi Mowshowitz: GPT Agent Is Standing By
TheZvi explores the launch of ChatGPT Agent, noting solid gains in web automation and slide deck creation, but also flags issues such as slow performance, poor formatting, access limitations, and serious safety and security concerns.
Source: GPT Agent Is Standing By
Author: Zvi Mowshowitz
(via ThoughtWorks): The Dangers of AI ‘Agentwashing’
Zichuan Xiong outlines seven failure patterns in agentic AI, from overhyped agentwashing to cascading probabilistic errors, cognitive overload, and entrenched dysfunction, reminding us that automation scales both value and flaws.
Source: ThoughtWorks: The Dangers of AI ‘Agentwashing’
(via Mistral AI): Our contribution to a global environmental standard for AI
Mistral AI shares the first comprehensive lifecycle analysis of an LLM, revealing substantial impacts on training and inference, while calling for standardized reporting, efficient practices, and awareness of model size to guide sustainable AI development.
Source: Mistral AI: Our contribution to a global environmental standard for AI
Tal Raviv: Build your personal AI copilot
Tal Raviv shares a hands-on guide to building a personal AI copilot that acts as a long-term thinking partner, helping product professionals sharpen strategy, structure complexity, and move faster with meaningful context.
Source: Build your personal AI copilot
Author: Tal Raviv
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 AI for Agile BootCamp Cohort #2 — September 15 — October 6, 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 #2 — September 15 — October 6, 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
Andy Cleff: Communication Currents: How to Read and Enhance Your Team’s Information Flow
Andy Cleff expands on the Kantor Four Player Model by introducing four communication currents and shows how observing, nurturing, and balancing them can foster healthier, more adaptive team ecosystems and improve collective decision-making.
Source: Communication Currents: How to Read and Enhance Your Team’s Information Flow
Author: Andy Cleff
Johanna Rothman: Want More Predictability? Ask About Investment and Value, Not Cost
Johanna Rothman explores how shifting from estimation to investment and value questions helps leaders make better portfolio decisions, accelerate meaningful delivery, and manage uncertainty without relying on false certainty.
Source: Want More Predictability? Ask About Investment and Value, Not Cost
Author: Johanna Rothman
Joerg Niessing (via INSEAD Knowledge): Six Steps to Create Customer Value With AI
Joerg Niessing and Benni Lickfett outline six steps for scaling AI to create customer value, emphasizing business impact, clean data, cross-functional collaboration, agile experimentation, and flexible architectures grounded in trust and real user needs.
Source: INSEAD Knowledge: Six Steps to Create Customer Value With AI
Author: Joerg Niessing
📯 Jim Highsmith, Fabrice Bernhard, and Sandrine Olivencia speaking at Hands-on Agile 2025
The fourth and last batch of videos of Hands-on Agile 2025 is in — and it’s a fitting finale. Jim Highsmith explores the future of Agility in an AI-driven world, challenging us to rethink productivity, leadership, and the meaning of adaptability. Sandrine Olivencia takes us back to Lean’s roots, calling for a return to craftsmanship and purpose in Agile practice. Fabrice Bernhard introduces the Lean Tech Manifesto, bridging Agile principles with the realities of large-scale organizations. Together, these sessions confront Agile’s growing pains and point toward a more courageous, contextual, and enduring form of Agility.
These industry veterans bring decades of enterprise transformation experience, providing actionable insights you can implement immediately. Watch the session recordings to transform how you approach agility.
🎓 Learn more: Jim Highsmith Q&A, Lean Tech Manifesto, Agility through Lean Craftsmanship — Hands-on Agile 2025!
🛠 Concepts, Practices, Tools & Measuring
John Cutler: Goals Take Practice
John Cutler reminds us that goal-setting is a continuous practice, not a quarterly ritual. OKRs help structure intent, but meaningful progress requires frequent, layered, and evolving goal-setting across all horizons.
Source: Goals Take Practice
Author: John Cutler
Jenny Wanger: Product ops without permission
Jenny Wanger outlines how product operations can gain traction without formal authority by surfacing hidden ops work, aligning with leadership’s strategy, piloting focused improvements, and framing the initiative as a strategic enabler, not a process cop.
Source: Product ops without permission
Author: Jenny Wanger
Marc Abraham: My Product Management Toolkit (67): Using AI to write a PRD
Marc Abraham shares a structured method for using AI to generate high-quality Product Requirements Documents. By crafting detailed system instructions and templates, AI becomes a reliable assistant rather than a shortcut.
Source: My Product Management Toolkit (67): Using AI to write a PRD
Author: Marc Abraham
📅 Training Classes, Meetups & Events 2025
Upcoming classes and events:
🖥 💯 🇩🇪 September 2–3 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German)
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 SOLD OUT: 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)
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 October 1–November 12 — Live Virtual Cohort: AI for Agile BootCamp Cohort (English)
🖥 🇬🇧 October — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner AI-Essentials Schulung mit PSPO-AIE-Zertifikat (English)
👉 See all upcoming classes here
🗞️ Last Week’s Food for Agile Thought Edition
📺 Join 6,000-plus Agile Peers on YouTube
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Hands-on Agile #68: How to Analyze Unstructured Team Interview Data with AI.
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: Taylorism-Lean-Agile-Product Mindset — Jonathan Odo
Hands-on Agile Extra: How Elon Musk Would Run YOUR Business mit Joe Justice
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