The document outlines Jason Yip's perspective on effective product development culture, which consists of 3 core beliefs, 8 guiding principles, and 9 key practices. The 3 core beliefs are that teams should operate with the mindsets that they are "in it together," people are trustworthy, and performance comes from playfulness. The 8 guiding principles include consent over consensus, autonomy with clear intent, and thinking big while working small. The 9 key practices are aligned autonomous cross-disciplinary teams, test-driven development, continuous delivery, and developing T-shaped individuals.

1. “We’re in it together” and
other perspectives on
effective product
development culture (2023)
A presentation by Jason Yip
Principal at Reinvention Cycle LLC
Former Staff Agile Coach, Spotify
Former Principal Consultant, ThoughtWorks

2. Based on my experiences from
ThoughtWorks (14 years) and Spotify
(8 years), what would I say is effective
product development culture
today?
How might that be relevant to you?

3. What is “culture”?

4. 3 levels of culture
1. Artifacts: visible structures and processes,
observable behaviour;
2. Espoused Beliefs and Values: ideals,
values, aspirations;
3. Basic Underlying Assumptions:
unconscious, taken-for-granted

5. Culture as strategy
● A diagnosis that defines or explains the nature
of the challenge. (AKA basic underlying
assumptions);
● A guiding policy for dealing with the challenge
(AKA espoused beliefs and values);
● A set of coherent actions that are designed to
carry out the guiding policy

6. Jason’s version of culture for
product development
1. Core beliefs about the nature of reality
and people;
2. Guiding principles for how to approach
software product development;
3. Key practices that reflect the guiding
principles

7. TL;DR

8. TL;DR
● 3 core beliefs
○ We’re in it together
○ People are trustworthy
○ Performance comes from playfulness
● 8 guiding principles
○ Consent over consensus;
○ The basic unit is the team, not the individual;
○ Enable autonomy with clear intent and technical
excellence;
○ Cross-pollination over imposed standards;
○ Develop products by developing people;
○ Think big, work small;
○ Use quality to generate speed;
○ Limit the “blast radius”
● 9 key practices
○ Aligned, autonomous cross-disciplinary teams;
○ Test Driven Development;
○ Evolutionary design;
○ Pairing / Whole team programming;
○ Continuous Integration / Continuous Delivery
○ Heartbeat retrospectives and blameless
postmortems;
○ T-shaped people;
○ Decoupled architecture and gradual rollout;
○ Continuous Research, Continuous Design,
Continuous Delivery
Jason’s perspective on effective product development culture (circa 2023) | by Jason Yip | Medium

9. Effective product
development cultures have
particular “core beliefs”

11. 3 core beliefs
1. We’re in it together
2. People are trustworthy
3. Performance comes
from playfulness

12. Core Belief: We’re in it
together

13. Let’s imagine a team is blocked, delaying the
overall delivery. What’s the reflex?

14. Coworker

16. Core Belief: People are
trustworthy

17. What’s the reflex on
transparency?

20. Theory X and Theory Y - Wikipedia

21. Core Belief: Performance
comes from playfulness

25. 3 core beliefs
1. We’re in it together
2. People are trustworthy
3. Performance comes
from playfulness

26. Effective product
development cultures
follow particular “guiding
principles”

28. 8 guiding
principles
1. Consent over consensus;
2. The basic unit is the team, not
the individual;
3. Enable autonomy with clear
intent and technical
excellence;
4. Cross-pollination over imposed
standards;
5. Develop products by developing
people;
6. Think big, work small;
7. Use quality to generate speed;
8. Limit the “blast radius”;

29. Guiding principle: Consent
over consensus

31. Unilateral decisions lead to false progress

32. Consensus leads to slow decision-making

34. Guiding principle: Enable
autonomy with clear intent
and technical excellence

36. MindSpring Presents: "Greatness" by David Marquet - YouTube
Enable
autonomy
Technical
excellence
Clear
intent
Focus on
these

37. Guiding principle: Think Big
Work Small

39. TBM 4/52: Think Big, Work Small (Part 2) - by John Cutler (substack.com)

40. 8 guiding
principles
1. Consent over consensus;
2. The basic unit is the team, not
the individual;
3. Enable autonomy with clear
intent and technical
excellence;
4. Cross-pollination over imposed
standards;
5. Develop products by developing
people;
6. Think big, work small;
7. Use quality to generate speed;
8. Limit the “blast radius”

41. Effective product
development cultures use
particular key practices

43. 9 key practices
1. Aligned, autonomous
cross-disciplinary teams;
2. Test Driven Development;
3. Evolutionary design;
4. Pairing / Whole team programming;
5. Continuous Integration / Continuous
Delivery
6. Heartbeat retrospectives and
blameless postmortems;
7. T-shaped people;
8. Decoupled architecture and gradual
rollout;
9. Continuous Research, Continuous
Design, Continuous Delivery

44. Key practice: Aligned,
autonomous,
cross-disciplinary teams

47. Key practice: T-shaped
people

50. T-shaping adapts to varying demand

51. T-shaping means less people needed

52. T-shaping helps with communication

53. Key practice: Continuous
Research, Continuous
Discovery, Continuous
Delivery

57. 9 key practices
1. Aligned, autonomous
cross-disciplinary teams;
2. Test Driven Development;
3. Evolutionary design;
4. Pairing / Whole team programming;
5. Continuous Integration / Continuous
Delivery
6. Heartbeat retrospectives and
blameless postmortems;
7. T-shaped people;
8. Decoupled architecture and gradual
rollout;
9. Continuous Research, Continuous
Design, Continuous Delivery

58. Jason’s version of culture for
product development
1. Core beliefs about the nature of reality
and people;
2. Guiding principles for how to approach
software product development;
3. Key practices that reflect the guiding
principles

59. Questions? Relevance? Where to focus?
● 3 core beliefs
○ We’re in it together
○ People are trustworthy
○ Performance comes from playfulness
● 8 guiding principles
○ Consent over consensus;
○ The basic unit is the team, not the individual;
○ Enable autonomy with clear intent and technical
excellence;
○ Cross-pollination over imposed standards;
○ Develop products by developing people;
○ Think big, work small;
○ Use quality to generate speed;
○ Limit the “blast radius”
● 9 key practices
○ Aligned, autonomous cross-disciplinary teams;
○ Test Driven Development;
○ Evolutionary design;
○ Pairing / Whole team programming;
○ Continuous Integration / Continuous Delivery
○ Heartbeat retrospectives and blameless
postmortems;
○ T-shaped people;
○ Decoupled architecture and gradual rollout;
○ Continuous Research, Continuous Design,
Continuous Delivery
Jason’s perspective on effective product development culture (circa 2023) | by Jason Yip | Medium