Food for Agile Thought #506: Personal AI Productivity, Strategy Problem Diagnosis, Fooled by A/B Tests, Narcissistic Leaders
Hello everyone!
Welcome to the 506th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 40,541 peers.
This week, Jenny Wanger explores how cognitive biases like loss aversion and the planning fallacy can derail personal AI productivity, while John Cutler dissects poor strategy execution into structural problems of insight, clarity, and commitment. David Pereira critiques outdated stakeholder management, calling for a collaborative partnership instead. Justin Massa outlines a four-step method to evaluate AI models beyond the hype, and Mike Fisher dismantles the heroic leader myth, advocating for humility and systems that foster shared leadership.
Next, Aakash Gupta interviews Teresa Torres on how Continuous Discovery Habits apply to AI products, stressing thoughtful validation over speed. Phoebe Sajor reflects on building with AI tools as a non-coder, exposing risks beneath the empowerment, while Jing Hu reveals how persuasion tactics can manipulate AI safety mechanisms. Zvi Mowshowitz reviews GPT-5’s subtle but functional upgrades, and Mark Graban urges leaders to fix systemic blockers that daily Kaizen efforts alone cannot resolve.
Lastly, Bessemer’s 2025 State of AI highlights two startup archetypes and urges focus on memory, action, and private evaluations. Kevin Kelly examines AI as an insatiable resource feeding itself in endless loops, and Gergely Orosz warns of unsustainable workweeks in AGI-focused startups. Additionally, Torsten Walbaum and Kyle Poyar show how Deep Research can drive serious GTM gains. Finally, Louise North critiques misleading A/B tests and calls for deeper user insight and strategic boldness.
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🏆 The Tip of the Week
Jenny Wanger: Why Your Brain Is the Biggest Bottleneck in AI Productivity
Jenny Wanger shares how cognitive biases like loss aversion and the planning fallacy, not AI, sabotaged her productivity, turning a “free” project into a time sink and highlighting how mental models shape tool effectiveness.
Source: Why Your Brain Is the Biggest Bottleneck in AI Productivity
Author: Jenny Wanger
🎯 Product
John Cutler: Diagnosing Your Company’s Strategy Problem
John Cutler breaks down weak strategy execution into missing insights, unclear strategic games, and failure to commit, urging contributors to diagnose indecision as a structural issue rather than mere incompetence.
Source: Diagnosing Your Company’s Strategy Problem
Author: John Cutler
David Pereira: Why Stakeholder Management Fails (and What Works Instead)
David Pereira argues that stakeholder management is outdated in modern product work, urging product leaders to build partnerships, use clear language, and foster alignment through collaboration instead of collecting scattered requests.
Source: Why Stakeholder Management Fails (and What Works Instead)
Author: David Pereira
📺 Aakash Gupta and Teresa Torres: Teresa Torres’ Step-by-Step Guide to AI Product Discovery
Aakash Gupta interviews Teresa Torres on applying Continuous Discovery Habits to AI product development, covering validation, opportunity mapping, interview synthesis, and how AI can accelerate but not replace thoughtful discovery.
Source: 📺 Teresa Torres’ Step-by-Step Guide to AI Product Discovery
Authors: Aakash Gupta and Teresa Torres
(via Stack Overflow): A new worst coder has entered the chat: vibe coding without code knowledge
Phoebe Sajor explores “vibe coding” as a nontechnical user building an app with AI tools like Bolt, revealing both the empowerment and hidden pitfalls when code is generated without understanding, testing, or security in mind.
Source: Stack Overflow: A new worst coder has entered the chat: vibe coding without code knowledge
🧠 Artificial Intelligence
Justin Massa: Evaluating New AI Models
Justin Massa shares a four-step system for evaluating new AI models that cuts through hype and helps you spot meaningful improvements. The approach blends quick tests, signature questions, deep work trials, and stress tests.
Source: Evaluating New AI Models
Author: Justin Massa
Jing Hu: How Do You Negotiate With AI?
Jing Hu explores how classic persuasion techniques like flattery, urgency, and social proof can trick AI models into bypassing their safety rules, revealing how human-like vulnerabilities emerge from purely statistical training.
Source: How Do You Negotiate With AI?
Author: Jing Hu — 2nd Order Thinking
Zvi Mowshowitz: GPT-5s Are Alive: Synthesis
Zvi Mowshowitz outlines why GPT-5 is a steady, not spectacular, upgrade. Thinking and Pro modes improve writing and reduce hallucinations, but rollout flaws and overhype obscure otherwise solid usability gains across everyday workflows.
Source: GPT-5s Are Alive: Synthesis
Author: Zvi Mowshowitz
(via Bessemer Venture): The State of AI 2025
Bessemer shares its 2025 State of AI, mapping a chaotic but clarifying universe where AI startups fall into two archetypes, Supernovas and Shooting Stars, and urges founders to focus on memory, action, and private evals over hype.
Source: Bessemer Venture: The State of AI 2025
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 AI for Agile BootCamp Cohort #2 — September 15 — October 6, 2025
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➿ Agile & Leadership
Mike Fisher: The Narcissistic Leader
Mike Fisher challenges the myth of the heroic leader by contrasting narcissism with real leadership, which thrives on humility, shared success, and building systems that empower others to lead and grow.
Source: The Narcissistic Leader
Author: Mike Fisher
Kevin Kelly: No Limit for Better
Kevin Kelly explores why artificial intelligence may be the first truly insatiable resource, as we shift from human use to AI agents consuming AI in endless loops, chasing betterment without a finish line.
Source: No Limit for Better
Author: Kevin Kelly
Gergely Orosz: New trend: extreme hours at AI startups
Gergely Orosz explores how AI startups are reviving extreme workweeks, with some pushing 80-hour norms driven by AGI hype, investor pressure, and dreams of wealth, despite mounting risks of burnout and attrition.
Source: New trend: extreme hours at AI startups
Author: Gergely Orosz
📯 The Benefits of AI Micromanagement
The Benefits of AI Micromanagement show up when you feed ChatGPT 5 progressively more context about your actual situation. I tested five prompts for a Retrospective design: from zero context to full team background with extended reasoning time. Case 1 produced generic “Scrum Oscars” nonsense. Case 5 delivered sophisticated root-cause analysis targeting chronic top-down thrash, dependency gridlock, and psychological safety erosion.
The difference? Strategic context curation. More context created better solutions, but only when that context was relevant and structured.
🎓 Learn more: The Benefits of AI Micromanagement.
🛠 Concepts, Practices, Tools & Measuring
Mark Graban: Kaizen Alone Isn’t Enough: Why Leaders Must Fix the System for Real Improvement
Mark Graban argues that daily Kaizen is necessary but insufficient when systemic flaws persist, emphasizing that only leaders have the authority to fix structures that frontline improvement alone cannot overcome.
Source: Kaizen Alone Isn’t Enough: Why Leaders Must Fix the System for Real Improvement
Author: Mark Graban
Torsten Walbaum and Kyle Poyar: How to use Deep Research for GTM
Torsten Walbaum and Kyle Poyar share how to turn Deep Research into a practical GTM force multiplier, offering workflows, prompt templates, and use cases that save hours and upgrade AI from toy to McKinsey-tier assistant.
Source: How to use Deep Research for GTM
Authors: Torsten Walbaum and Kyle Poyar
(via Webdesigner Depot): Your A/B Tests Are Lying to You! The Myth of Data Driven Design
Louise North argues that most A/B tests mislead more than they inform, especially for teams with low traffic, and urges designers to prioritize user insight, long-term thinking, and bold strategic choices instead.
Source: Webdesigner Depot: Your A/B Tests Are Lying to You! The Myth of Data Driven Design
📅 Training Classes, Meetups & Events 2025
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🖥 💯 🇩🇪 September 2–3 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German)
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🖥 💯 🇬🇧 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)
🖥 🇩🇪 October 21–22 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German)
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 November 6-December 4 — Live Virtual Cohort: AI for Agile BootCamp Cohort (English)
🖥 🇬🇧 November 10–11 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master — Advanced Training (PSM II; English)
🖥 🇩🇪 November 17–18 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German)
🖥 🇩🇪 December 9–10 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German)
🖥 🇬🇧 December 16–17 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master — Advanced Training (PSM II; English)
🖥 🇬🇧 December 18 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Training (PSFS; English)
👉 See all upcoming classes here
🗞️ Last Week’s Food for Agile Thought Edition
Read more: Food for Agile Thought 505: GPT-5, Building Product Sense, The ‘Just Ship It’ Issue, Future of Scrum Teams.
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Hands-on Agile 2025: The 5 Obstacles to Empowered Teams — Maarten Dalmijn
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Great roundup, as usual, Stefan-
A large number of interesting perspectives to get excited about here.