This is Johanna Rothman’s January 2026 Pragmatic Manager newsletter. The unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this email. Many managers think they empower their teams to solve problems autonomously. Unfortunately, that autonomy only lasts when managers feel relaxed enough to “allow” that autonomy. When managers feel too much pressure, that autonomy vanishes. Under pressure, […]
The whole point of product management is to increase the product capabilities over time. Those capabilities will expand the customer base by offering new value. More customers means more revenue. That’s why the product vision for this release is so critical. That product vision requires strategic product leadership. The backlog is the tactical implementation of
I had a wonderful time discussing management myths, fake agility, and how to get to done with Kumar Dattatreyan. He runs the Agile Meridian podcast. You can also find the video here: https://www.youtube.com/live/_L4TnfDeQAs?si=SZs1oLuL6faYG7Bg Kumar was a terrific host—we had a delightful conversation. We discussed several of my books: The Modern Management Made Easy books (the
In Project Charter Part 2: Clarify the Project Driver, Boundaries, and Constraints for This Project, I explained how project risks can affect the team’s approach to the work. But project risks are not the same as product risks. Product risks are about the need for product innovation. The more innovation this product needs, the more
Let me set the context for this post about the project charter: By now, the team knows what it has to accomplish because they have a product vision. The next question is: How will the team manage their risks to achieve those outcomes? That’s where I recommend a team define its project driver, up to
I’ve been working with several supposedly “agile” teams and their managers. Everyone knows their project is in trouble. And they have no idea what to do about it. The team members say, “We’re on a death march. We have no predictability. Everything takes longer than we think it will.” The managers say, “We have no
Is your team ever surprised by how long things take? Do you hear things such as: Team members say, “I’ve been waiting for code review for more than 2 days.” (See Measure Cycle Time, Not Velocity to see the various durations for solo, cooperative, and collaborative work. Cycle time is a team-based measure of feedback
If you are like most people I know, you have way too many meetings. That leads to an overcrowded calendar and delayed decisions. Worse, it means the time you spend in meetings prevents you from doing “your” work, whatever that work is. That’s especially important the more responsibility you have. The greater your responsibility, the
I had so much fun recording a podcast with the Product Confidential people, Evie Brockwell and Michael Palmer. See the episode: The Essence of True Agility with Johanna Rothman. Check out the episode on Spotify and on Apple. Note: I do not use Spotify, nor do I use Apple, but I found the podcast in
This is the April 2025 Pragmatic Manager Newsletter, from Johanna Rothman. The Unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this email.Early in the agile community, people referred to the Product Owner as the “single wringable neck.” Somehow, if the product owner didn’t define the stories well, or create acceptance criteria, or even represent what someone