Product development structures as systems (Changelog Interviews #507)

This week we’re talking about product development structures as systems with Lucas da Costa. The last time we had Lucas on the show he was living the text-mode only life, and now we’re more than 3 years later, Lucas has doubled down on all things text mode. Today’s conversation with Lucas maps several ideas he’s shared recently on his blog. We talk about deadlines being pointless, trajectory vs roadmap and the downfall of long-term planning, the practices of daily stand-ups and what to do instead, measuring queues not cycle time, and probably the most controversial of them all — actually talking to your customers. Have you heard? It’s this newly disruptive Agile framework that seems to be working well.

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Featuring:

• Lucas Fernandes da Costa – Website, GitHub, X
• Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X
• Jerod Santo – GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

Show Notes:

• Useful engineering metrics and why velocity is not one of them
• How finishing what you start makes teams more productive and predictable
• How high capacity utilisation hurts a team’s performance
• How and why exploiting uncertainty makes products more profitable
• Why tall hierarchies slow organizations down and how to fix them
• Talking to your customers: a disruptive Agile framework
• Why your daily stand-ups don’t work and how to fix them
• Why long-term plans don’t work and how to fix them
• “Planning Is Guessing” at Startup School by David Heinemeier Hansson
• Actionable Agile Metrics for Predictability
• The Changelog #488: Mob programming deep dive (with Woody Zuill)
• The Changelog #340: All things text mode (with Lucas da Costa)

Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!