Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast

Kevin Hoey: The Product Owner as a Team Player in Agile Teams Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. The Great Product Owner: The Product Owner as a Team Player in Agile Teams Kevin highlights the qualities of an exceptional Product Owner who excels in communication, provides clear context, and uses inclusive language like "us" and "we". This PO effectively conveys the product vision, fosters team collaboration, and ensures everyone understands the impact of their work. Kevin underscores the importance of over-communication and listening, demonstrating how great POs drive team success. The Bad Product Owner: From Absent to Engaged, Removing the Absent PO Dynamics Kevin discusses the challenges of working with an absent Product Owner, which he identifies as a significant anti-pattern. He shares his experience of addressing the issue by understanding the PO’s pres

Kevin Hoey: Two Scrum Master Critical Tasks: Measuring Value Delivery in Agile Teams, And Aligning With Stakeholders Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. When it comes to success for scrum masters, Kevin focuses on people-centric approaches, continuous improvement, and value delivery. He emphasizes aligning with stakeholders' goals and measuring outcomes. Kevin discusses the importance of having a product roadmap and vision, conducting health checks, and striving for daily improvement. Removing unnecessary steps and making processes more efficient are key to achieving better outcomes for the team and the business. Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: Order Stories by Cycle Time Kevin emphasizes the necessity of retrospectives, especially for teams that claim to be too busy. He discusses the anti-pattern of avoiding retros, highlighting the benefits of exa

Kevin Hoey: How to Master Stakeholder Collaboration in Agile Environments During Change Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. Kevin discusses the constant nature of change in the scrum master role, highlighting the challenges of working with external stakeholders who often revert to command-and-control under pressure. He stresses the importance of coaching stakeholders on agile principles, prioritizing high-value items, and showing progress every sprint. Kevin shares tips on managing scope, meeting deadlines without compromising quality, and the value of incremental delivery to reduce risk and extract value.   [IMAGE HERE] As Scrum Master we work with change continuously! Do you have your own change framework that provides the guidance, and queues you need when working with change? The Lean Change Management framework is a fully defined, lean-startup inspired cha

Kevin Hoey: Fostering Agile Team Collaboration in Remote Settings Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. Kevin describes a team struggling with collaboration, where members worked in isolation and did not work towards a sprint goal. This led to over-the-wall work handoffs and blame in the team. Kevin emphasizes the importance of having cameras on during remote meetings to foster team connection. He shares that effective scrum masters unlock team productivity by focusing on people first, ensuring everyone is aligned and engaged in their work. Featured Book of the Week: Drive by Dan Pink Kevin shares that his greatest influence isn't a book, but the Agile podcasts such as this one and others. As a new scrum master, it was the insights from experienced professionals that shaped his journey. However, he recommends "Drive" by Dan Pink, which emphasizes intrinsic motiv

Kevin Hoey: How to Speedup Agile Team Deliveries With Better Story Splitting Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. Kevin reflects on his early career, sharing a time when his team of 12 struggled due to an anti-pattern of splitting stories by roles, causing an eight-week delivery delay. Kevin recognized the issue and initially approached the team with a focus on adherence to the Scrum guide, which didn't resonate. He later revised his approach, explaining the benefits, and managed to persuade the team to deliver one story in one go, although unsuccessfully at first. Through continuous effort, he introduced better story splitting, quick deliveries, and built trust with stakeholders, boosting team morale and productivity.   [IMAGE HERE] Recovering from failure, or difficult moments is a critical skill for Scrum Masters. Not only because of us, but also because the t

Stella Ihenacho: Agile Team Collaboration and Setting a Clear Product Vision, Two Critical Product Owner Skills Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. The Great Product Owner: Team Collaboration and Setting a Clear Product Vision, Two Critical PO Skills In the great PO segment, Stella highlights an exemplary Product Owner who, despite lacking deep technical knowledge, developed a clear vision and strategy for the product and communicated it clearly to the team. This PO regularly collaborated with subject matter experts and held frequent calls to align with team members on the roadmap. By fostering a shared product vision, this PO exemplified effective leadership and teamwork. The Bad Product Owner: Engaging the PO to Create Clarity and Purpose for the Agile Team Stella shares the story of a Product Owner who was present but not engaged with the team. This PO mis

Stella Ihenacho: Building Self-organizing Agile Teams and Measuring Success Through Delivery Metrics and Team Well-being In this episode, Stella explores the complex definition of Scrum Master success, focusing on team dynamics, agile principles, and sustainable delivery. She emphasizes transparency, ownership, and continuous improvement. Stella shares her approach to building self-organizing teams and measuring success through delivery metrics and team well-being.  Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: Start/Stop/Continue Retrospective Stella’s favorite retrospective format, Start/Stop/Continue, is simple yet powerful. Stella tweaks the format to always start with a gratitude exercise, setting a positive tone, and encourages openness about possible issues to be discussed. Stella explains how this format is accessible to any team and fosters continuous improvement. Listen in to find out what makes this format so effective, and how can it be implemented seamlessly. [IMAGE HERE] Retrospectives,

Stella Ihenacho: How to Effectively Manage a Tool Transition in an Agile environment In this episode, Stella talks about her experience transitioning multiple teams from another system into JIRA as their work management tool. In this story, Stella emphasizes the challenges that any change can bring, even a simple tool change. Teams were initially resistant, fearing the new tool would disrupt their work. Stella highlights the importance of stakeholder engagement workshops, pilot projects, and finding tool champions. She provides practical tips on gaining leadership buy-in and establishing clear feedback loops. How can we effectively manage tool transitions in agile environments?   [IMAGE HERE] As Scrum Master we work with change continuously! Do you have your own change framework that provides the guidance, and queues you need when working with change? The Lean Change Management framework is a fully defined, lean-startup inspired change framework that can be used as the backbone of any change process!

Stella Ihenacho: Breaking the Blame Cycle in Agile Teams With Coaching and Customer Collaboration Stella shates the story of a high-stakes project team plagued by blame-shifting and management interference. The project’s tight deadlines and high complexity led to fear and blame culture in the team. Upon investigation, Stella became aware of some customer agreements made without team input. To overcome these anti-patterns, Stella’s strategy involved separate retrospectives for different groups and resetting customer expectations. Listen in to learn about fostering a blame-free culture and aligning team and customer expectations. Featured Book of the Week: Atomic Habits by James Clear Stella shows how transformative power of small, incremental changes helped her. She found out about that approach from the book "Atomic Habits" by James Clear. She explains how these principles apply to agile transformations, emphasizing that success is built over time, not through quick fixes. Stella shares tips on focus

Stella Ihenacho: From Project Manager to Scrum Master, The Critical Agile Ideas we Need to Adopt Stella talks about her journey from project manager to Scrum Master, revealing how she struggled to balance both roles. She learned the critical difference between the two, focusing on trust and empowerment for her teams. When it comes to a critical lesson she learned in the process, Stella talks about a developer who resisted support, highlighting the importance of early intervention and effective 1:1s. What can we learn from her transition and the lessons on team support?   [IMAGE HERE] Recovering from failure, or difficult moments is a critical skill for Scrum Masters. Not only because of us, but also because the teams, and stakeholders we work with will also face these moments! We need inspiring stories to help them, and ourselves! The Bungsu Story, is an inspiring story by Marcus Hammarberg which shows how a Coach can help organizations recover even from the most disastrous situations! Learn how Marcus

Esther Schmit: The Power of a Positive Product Owner in Agile Teams Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. The Great Product Owner: The Power of a Positive Product Owner in Agile Teams In this segment, Esther shares an inspiring story about a Product Owner who truly excelled in his role. This PO was a student who brought enthusiasm, a willingness to learn, and a supportive attitude to the team. Esther discusses how his positive energy and eagerness to help had a ripple effect, boosting the team's morale and performance.  The Bad Product Owner: Customer First, How to Avoid PO’s from Focusing on Technical Details In this segment, Esther shares how Product Owners who come from a technical background can become micro-managers for the team. She explains how these POs can sometimes get too involved in technical decisions, which can negatively affect the team's autonom

Esther Schmit: Setting and Achieving Goals with an Agile Approach to the Scrum Master Role Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. When it comes to defining Scrum Master success, Esther talks about the importance of setting personal goals and regularly checking in on them. She offers practical tips, such as defining your own success criteria, making your goals visible, and asking for feedback from teams and stakeholders. Esther also talks about the value of reflecting on each ceremony and how you can use metrics like Return on Time Invested (ROTI) to gauge effectiveness.  Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: Story Cubes Retrospective When it comes to retrospectives, Esther believes that varying retrospective formats helps to keep team members engaged. She shares practical tips, such as using Story Cubes and encouraging team members to talk about themselves t

Esther Schmit: Tips for Effective SAFe Implementation, Even if Teams are Already Using Agile Processes Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. In this episode, we discuss scaling in Agile, and the challenges of transitioning teams from Scrum or other team-level Agile processes, to SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework). Esther describes common anti-patterns and resistance to change. She also shares insights on how to support teams, managers, and Scrum Masters through Agile coaching and other support groups, like community of practice.    [IMAGE HERE] As Scrum Master we work with change continuously! Do you have your own change framework that provides the guidance, and queues you need when working with change? The Lean Change Management framework is a fully defined, lean-startup inspired change framework that can be used as the backbone of any change process! You can buy Le

Esther Schmit: Bridging Communication Gaps Between Agile Teams, The Communication Challenge Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. In this episode, Esther shares a challenging experience with two teams that struggled due to poor communication and unwillingness to collaborate. She provides tips on facilitating retrospectives and one-on-one conversations to address communication issues and set clear expectations. Listen to learn a method to improve communication in your teams. Featured Book of the Week: Mister Mindset by Michael Pilarczyk Esther discusses "Master your Mindset, Live a Meaningful Life: A book about mental health and personal success" by Michael Pilarczyk, a book focused on changing your mindset to improve the quality of life. She explains how understanding and altering one's mindset can positively influence professional and personal lives, especially

Esther Schmit: The Power of Feedback, Lessons from a New Scrum Master Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. In this episode, Esther talks about her initial experiences as a Scrum Master, feeling overwhelmed when her colleagues sought her guidance even if she only had a few months on the job. She discusses the importance of seeking feedback and asking for help, even when feeling uncertain. Esther emphasizes starting our work from a place of curiosity and validating understanding among team members. How do you overcome the fear of asking for help and ensure effective communication within your team?   [IMAGE HERE] Recovering from failure, or difficult moments is a critical skill for Scrum Masters. Not only because of us, but also because the teams, and stakeholders we work with will also face these moments! We need inspiring stories to help them, and ourselves! The B

Milica Lubinic: Product Owner Anti-Pattern, The Renamed Project Manager Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. The Great Product Owner: Balancing Involvement and Authority in Product Ownership Milica highlights how great Product Owners involve their teams in decision-making while maintaining responsibility for final decisions. She discusses tools for prioritization and the importance of structured approaches to processing team input. Scrum Masters can help PO’s balance ownership and shared decision making with the teams and stakeholders. The Bad Product Owner: The Renamed Project Manager Milica discusses a common anti-pattern in Product Ownership: simply renaming project managers as Product Owners, without role clarity or team involvement. She shares tips for distributing cognition between PO’s and their teams. She also emphasizes the importance of clear role de

Milica Lubinic: Measuring Psychological Safety in Agile Teams Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. In this episode, Milica emphasizes the importance of team trust and psychological safety, which are difficult to measure. She suggests using surveys to initiate meaningful conversations and reflections about these critical aspects.  Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: Solution-Focused Retrospectives Milica introduces her favorite retrospective format, focusing on future goals and leveraging existing strengths. This approach contrasts with the root cause analysis engineers often prefer, offering more actionable solutions and a variety of choices. This approach is based on insights from Solutions-focused Coaching.   [IMAGE HERE] Retrospectives, planning sessions, vision workshops, we are continuously helping teams learn about how to collaborate in practic

Milica Lubinic: Consent-based Decision-making for Agile Organizations Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. Milica shares insights from her experience in a company undergoing Agile transformation. She highlights the misalignment in decision-making processes and the need for consent-based decision-making. By facilitating retrospectives with leadership and creating guides for new decision-making approaches, she navigated through various challenges.    [IMAGE HERE] As Scrum Master we work with change continuously! Do you have your own change framework that provides the guidance, and queues you need when working with change? The Lean Change Management framework is a fully defined, lean-startup inspired change framework that can be used as the backbone of any change process! You can buy Lean Change Management the book at Amazon. Also available in French, Spanish,

Milica Lubinic: How to Foster Long-lasting Change for Agile Teams Without Micromanagement Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. Milica tells the story of a team’s struggle with sustainable change. Despite good intentions, the team lead’s constant reminders about incomplete actions led to a lack of ownership. She emphasizes the importance of developing habits for sustainable improvement and allowing teams to maintain ownership of changes. How can teams foster long-lasting change without micromanagement? Featured Book of the Week: The Power of Vulnerability by Brené Brown Milica discusses Brené Brown’s "The Power of Vulnerability" (audiobook) and how it transformed her understanding of belonging versus fitting in. This distinction helped her foster true belonging in her teams, where members felt safe to be themselves and contribute their best. This book addresses

Milica Lubinic: Curiosity Over Assumption, How to Enter a New Agile Team or Company Without Triggering Resistance Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. In this episode, Milica tells the story of a pivotal failure from the start of her career. She entered a company that, at first sight, already practicing scaled Scrum and aligned with Agile values. Milica was eager to contribute. However, she quickly discovered underlying taboos and a lack of true transparency. Her push for more openness led to unexpected resistance, teaching her the importance of curiosity and avoiding assumptions. Listen to learn how we can navigate the current status of Agile adoption without making premature judgments.   [IMAGE HERE] Recovering from failure, or difficult moments is a critical skill for Scrum Masters. Not only because of us, but also because the teams, and stakeholders we work w