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Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast: Agile storytelling from the trenches

Every week day, Certified Scrum Master, Agile Coach and Business Consultant Vasco Duarte interviews Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches from all over the world to get you actionable advice, new tips and tricks, improve your craft as a Scrum Master with daily doses of inspiring conversations with Scrum Masters from the all over the world. Stay tuned for BONUS episodes when we interview Agile gurus and other thought leaders in the business space to bring you the Agile Business perspective you need to succeed as a Scrum Master. Some of the topics we discuss include: Agile Business, Agile Strategy, Retrospectives, Team motivation, Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, Backlog Refinement, Scaling Scrum, Lean Startup, Test Driven Development (TDD), Behavior Driven Development (BDD), Paper Prototyping, QA in Scrum, the role of agile managers, servant leadership, agile coaching, and more!
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Now displaying: Category: Agile
May 10, 2023

Manuele Piastra: Measuring Progress in Agile Transformation Using a Maturity Tracker

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, Manuele talks about his experience as an external change agent in an organization. He shares some tips on how to start off an engagement the right way. First, he suggests having a conversation with the sponsor to evaluate the assignment. Next, he advises defining what is expected from the team, sponsors, and yourself. He emphasizes the importance of having the sponsor introduce you to the team and doing a boot camp with them. During the boot camp, he tells the team that he's not there to do their job. He recommends measuring progress by using a tool to track the team's movement towards agility, such as the Agile Reloaded Maturity Tracker. This helps identify pain points and what needs to change with the help of the coach. Finally, he advises having success criteria and looping and repeating the process.

 

[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, German and Portuguese.

 

About Manuele Piastra

Manuele Piastra moved to London in 2014, which was a life-changing experience for him. He gained access to more sources of learning, worked in fast-paced companies with complex technology stacks and ambitious goals, and developed open-mindedness, patience, and autonomy.

You can link with Manuele Piastra on LinkedIn and connect with Manuele Piastra on Twitter.

May 9, 2023

Manuele Piastra: Challenging the Team, The Scrum Master's Role as a Change Agent

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, Manuele discusses the role of the Scrum Master and the importance of being a leader rather than just a servant. He identifies several anti-patterns that can arise when a Scrum Master is seen as a personal assistant or secretary, such as being asked to write stories, move stories on the board, or run meetings for the team. Manuele emphasizes that the Scrum Master is a part of the team and their behavior can have a significant impact on the team's performance. He also discusses the importance of challenging the team and avoiding the temptation to please team members instead of helping them. Manuele recommends reflecting on whether your actions align with your role as a change agent and asks "What would be the reason for you not to do what you are asking me to do?" as a way to encourage the team to think critically about their approach. Finally, Manuele provides tips for how Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches can work together to drive improvement and disrupt the status quo. 

Featured Book of the Week: Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink

In this segment, Manuele recommends the book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink, which he found himself referring to in many situations. He mentions using the book's three key motivator factors when designing a workshop or considering what a team might be lacking. Manuele points out that OKRs follow two aspects of the Drive model, Purpose and Autonomy, and suggests that the Drive model is also useful for coaching Product Owners. Although Manuele read the book many years ago, he still finds it relevant and valuable. 

 

[IMAGE HERE] Do you wish you had decades of experience? Learn from the Best Scrum Masters In The World, Today! The Tips from the Trenches - Scrum Master edition audiobook includes hours of audio interviews with SM’s that have decades of experience: from Mike Cohn to Linda Rising, Christopher Avery, and many more. Super-experienced Scrum Masters share their hard-earned lessons with you. Learn those today, make your teams awesome!  

 

About Manuele Piastra

Manuele Piastra moved to London in 2014, which was a life-changing experience for him. He gained access to more sources of learning, worked in fast-paced companies with complex technology stacks and ambitious goals, and developed open-mindedness, patience, and autonomy.

You can link with Manuele Piastra on LinkedIn and connect with Manuele Piastra on Twitter.

May 8, 2023

Manuele Piastra: Fighting Against Your Team, The Danger of Blindly Implementing Scrum

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, Manuele discusses his experience working with a mobile team in a scrum environment. He points out that while scrum is a great methodology because it provides structure, teams may sometimes just go through the motions. As time goes by, teams may begin to drop aspects of scrum, leading to the loss of the entire process. Manuele identifies two ANTI-PATTERNS in which the leadership hires a scrum master without explaining the importance of Agile or Scrum to the team, and in which scrum or agile are superimposed on something else without that thing going away. Manuele failed to recognize the context of the team and was given specific goals to put the team on the path of scrum, leading to a fight between him and the team. He offers some tips for addressing this situation, including stopping the show and having an honest conversation with the team and stakeholders. Finally, he suggests doing personal reflection to determine if you are the right fit for the 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 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 helped The Bungsu, a hospital in Indonesia, recover from near-bankruptcy, twice! Using Lean and Agile methods to rebuild an organization and a team! An inspiring story you need to know about! Buy the book on Amazon: The Bungsu Story - How Lean and Kanban Saved a Small Hospital in Indonesia. Twice. and Can Help You Reshape Work in Your Company.

 

About Manuele Piastra

Manuele Piastra moved to London in 2014, which was a life-changing experience for him. He gained access to more sources of learning, worked in fast-paced companies with complex technology stacks and ambitious goals, and developed open-mindedness, patience, and autonomy.

You can link with Manuele Piastra on LinkedIn and connect with Manuele Piastra on Twitter.

May 5, 2023

Cynthia Kracmer: The Visionary Product Owner, learning how to keep the vision alive through coherent decision making

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: Visionary Product Ownership: How to stay disciplined in your decisions

In this episode, Cynthia talks about an example of a great PO who was an expert in life sciences with over 20 years of experience. The PO was open-minded and willing to be challenged, listened well to the team, and collaborated effectively with the Scrum Master. They had a clear vision for their product/service and made disciplined decisions that aligned with that vision. The PO was proactive about sharing information and communicating risks to the clients/customers. Cynthia suggests that a great PO should share information beyond the team and keep them inspired.

The Bad Product Owner: The Role of Scrum Master in Helping Product Owners Succeed

In this episode, we learn about a PO that lacked the necessary skills and was not assertive, which affected their ability to lead and communicate effectively with clients. We also learn about the Scrum Master’s role in that PO’s poor performance, as the Scrum Master took up too much space, leaving the PO without the necessary influence. Cynthia suggest that when a new person is assigned to the PO role, they should be trained and given a clear understanding of their responsibilities. She also recommends having the new PO shadowing another PO to learn. Scrum Masters should also offer help and support (See our Coaching Your PO e-course for tips and models you can use when helping your PO). Finally, Cynthia advises paying attention to what POs expect from the Scrum master and making sure that these expectations align with the PO's task list.

 

[IMAGE HERE] Are you having trouble helping the team work well with their Product Owner? We’ve put together a course to help you work on the collaboration team-product owner. You can find it at bit.ly/coachyourpo. 18 modules, 8+ hours of modules with tools and techniques that you can use to help teams and PO’s collaborate.

 

About Cynthia Kracmer

Cynthia Kracmer is a Business Transformation & Human Capital Managing Consultant passionate about creating innovative, stimulating and ‘healthy’ organizations for people. She is Agile agnostic, and has worked as a Scrum master, agile coach and agile transformation lead in the Life Sciences area. She loves singing, traveling (she's been to 63 countries), cycling and running.

 

May 4, 2023

Cynthia Kracmer: When is a Scrum Master No Longer Needed? Tips for Measuring Agile Team Self-Sufficiency

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, Cynthia discusses the need to assess whether a Scrum Master is still necessary for a team that has become self-sufficient. She discusses several contributing factors to determine if a team is ready to work without a Scrum Master, such as clarity of purpose and roles, the ability to articulate value delivered to clients, readiness to address risks, and the team's commitment to reflection and learning. The importance of observing team behavior and identifying patterns of self-sufficiency is emphasized. The episode also provides tips to identify if the team is ready, such as observing how team members act during meetings and if everyone is part of the conversation.

Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: Being mindful of people, a key skill for Scrum Masters facilitating Agile Retrospectives

In this segment, Cynthia emphasizes the importance of starting by recognizing people and their contributions to the team. Ice breakers can be especially useful for new teams. The retrospective should include a gratefulness theme, a discussion on what is working well, what is not working, and what actions the team will take moving forward. Cynthia suggests making the retrospective a ritual and helping team members disconnect from other priorities and their busy schedules.

 

As a scrum master, it's important to show there is a process with several questions planned for the session, while also keeping track of time to ensure the retro finishes on time. It's crucial to create a psychologically safe space and be mindful of what topics are appropriate to discuss with the team.

 

[IMAGE HERE] Retrospectives, planning sessions, vision workshops, we are continuously helping teams learn about how to collaborate in practice! In this Actionable Agile Tools book, Jeff Campbell shares some of the tools he’s learned over a decade of coaching Agile Teams. The pragmatic coaching book you need, right now! Buy Actionable Agile Tools on Amazon, or directly from the author, and supercharge your facilitation toolbox! 

 

About Cynthia Kracmer

Cynthia Kracmer is a Business Transformation & Human Capital Managing Consultant passionate about creating innovative, stimulating and ‘healthy’ organizations for people. She is Agile agnostic, and has worked as a Scrum master, agile coach and agile transformation lead in the Life Sciences area. She loves singing, traveling (she's been to 63 countries), cycling and running.

May 3, 2023

Cynthia Kracmer: Early Adopters and Change Champions: Identifying Key Players for Agile Transformation

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, Cynthia emphasizes that her work is about change and coaching teams. When trying to change people, she warns that it is important to be careful and to tell a relevant story that answers the question of "what's in it for me?" She shares a story that highlights the need to consider different approaches for different contexts, and she advises paying attention to early adopters and change champions while avoiding the anti-pattern of not invented here syndrome (NIH). Instead, one should make the change “native” by finding someone who is already convinced on Agile adoption to help with the change by explaining why they think Agile is important for them.

Cynthia also reminds us that change takes time, and there is a cost to change in terms of time. Therefore, department leads need to be aware of that cost. She advises listening to those who ask a lot of questions since they might become the best change supporters. She recommends the Dragon Dreaming methodology as a resource. Finally, she suggests learning from the people who resist change by listening to what they say and ask about.

[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, German and Portuguese.

 

About Cynthia Kracmer

Cynthia Kracmer is a Business Transformation & Human Capital Managing Consultant passionate about creating innovative, stimulating and ‘healthy’ organizations for people. She is Agile agnostic, and has worked as a Scrum master, agile coach and agile transformation lead in the Life Sciences area. She loves singing, traveling (she's been to 63 countries), cycling and running.

May 2, 2023

Cynthia Kracmer: Lessons learned from a team of Agile Coaches that failed to work as a team

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, Cynthia shares her experience as part of an agile center of excellence. The team was responsible for deploying agile coaches to help different functions achieve their objectives. However, the Agile Coaching team faced challenges in aligning and organizing themselves as everyone was convinced their way was the better way. The team had a young Scrum Master, but had high expectations and did not support that junior Scrum Master. Unfortunately, the Scrum Master failed and left the company, and the team missed an opportunity to help that Scrum Master improve, and improve themselves as a team.

Cynthia reflects on the importance of humility as a value of Agile and emphasizes the need to be open-minded and accept different ways of working. She also discusses the importance of leading by example when inspiring people through Agile principles. Additionally, they note that not all tools resonate with all team members, and it's okay to have different preferences. Cynthia emphasizes the importance of accepting ideas from others and being receptive to help, even from juniors. This episode highlights the need for a collaborative and open-minded approach to Agile and the importance of valuing and supporting all team members, regardless of seniority or experience.

Featured Book of the Week: Design Sprint, by Banfield et al.

In this segment, Cynthia recommended the book "Design Sprint: A Practical Guidebook for Building Great Digital Products" by Banfield et al. which helped her see that the creative process can be structured to increase creativity and help teams make decisions. Cynthia initially believed that creative work had no structure, but the book helped her understand the connection between creativity and structure. She highlighted the importance of using structure to help teams generate ideas, make decisions, and ultimately be more creative. Overall, the book provided valuable insights into how to approach creative work in a more structured way to achieve better results.

 

[IMAGE HERE] Do you wish you had decades of experience? Learn from the Best Scrum Masters In The World, Today! The Tips from the Trenches - Scrum Master edition audiobook includes hours of audio interviews with SM’s that have decades of experience: from Mike Cohn to Linda Rising, Christopher Avery, and many more. Super-experienced Scrum Masters share their hard-earned lessons with you. Learn those today, make your teams awesome!  

 

About Cynthia Kracmer

Cynthia Kracmer is a Business Transformation & Human Capital Managing Consultant passionate about creating innovative, stimulating and ‘healthy’ organizations for people. She is Agile agnostic, and has worked as a Scrum master, agile coach and agile transformation lead in the Life Sciences area. She loves singing, traveling (she's been to 63 countries), cycling and running.

May 1, 2023

Cynthia Kracmer: The need for Scrum Masters to adapt to the reality they meet, and not force Scrum on 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, Cynthia shared her experience as a training lead for an insurance company. When she started, she quickly realized that the team was not ready and that there were people with different levels of knowledge. The team was struggling with late deliveries and a lack of communication between the Product Owner and the developer. Cynthia recognized that the team needed a Scrum Master, and she reached out to the Product Owner to suggest this. Cynthia also emphasized the importance of identifying client needs and suggesting what might be missing. She believes that in large organizations, it's often best to jump in and help, remain open-minded, explore other frameworks, and focus on what is valuable for the company and the team.

Cynthia also discussed the importance of recognizing that every team and every client is different. She suggested looking beyond Agile and exploring other methods that might be interesting. Cynthia's tips for success include understanding client needs, being open-minded, and exploring other frameworks. She emphasized the importance of focusing on value and finding what works best for each unique situation. Cynthia's story highlights the need for effective communication, collaboration, and adaptability to ensure the success of a project.

[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 helped The Bungsu, a hospital in Indonesia, recover from near-bankruptcy, twice! Using Lean and Agile methods to rebuild an organization and a team! An inspiring story you need to know about! Buy the book on Amazon: The Bungsu Story - How Lean and Kanban Saved a Small Hospital in Indonesia. Twice. and Can Help You Reshape Work in Your Company.

 

About Cynthia Kracmer

Cynthia Kracmer is a Business Transformation & Human Capital Managing Consultant passionate about creating innovative, stimulating and ‘healthy’ organizations for people. She is Agile agnostic, and has worked as a Scrum master, agile coach and agile transformation lead in the Life Sciences area. She loves singing, traveling (she's been to 63 countries), cycling and running.

 

Apr 28, 2023

Johannes Lindman: Owning the Business, and being ambitious, key skills for great Product Owners

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 Ambition in a Great Product Owner

According to Johannes, a great Product Owner is someone who is ambitious on the business side, knows what they want, and is able to make decisions, and are given the mandate to do so. They show up to team stand-ups, have skills in the business, and are goal-oriented. We also discuss why it is so important for the team to have a great Product Owner as it's a set of skills they rarely can master themselves. Johannes also shares a story about a Product Owner who was annoyed that she didn't get what she wanted, but was able to be assertive and communicate her priorities effectively.

The Bad Product Owner: Overcoming The Proxy PO Anti-Pattern

In this segment, Johannes the PO anti-pattern that occurs when someone is put in the wrong position. The problem is not the person, but rather the fact that they might not understand critical aspects of the job. One such anti-pattern is having a proxy PO. To resolve this, Johannes advises supporting the product owner and giving them the basics. Scrum Masters should work to find the actual business owners and bring them into contact with the team and the proxy PO. It's important to be careful and aware of expectations and not to step on people's toes.

 

[IMAGE HERE] Are you having trouble helping the team work well with their Product Owner? We’ve put together a course to help you work on the collaboration team-product owner. You can find it at bit.ly/coachyourpo. 18 modules, 8+ hours of modules with tools and techniques that you can use to help teams and PO’s collaborate.

About Johannes Lindman

Despite many years of experience Johannes still learns new things every day in order to stay relevant. This aligns with his curiosity on life and people. 

You can link with Johannes Lindman on LinkedIn.

Apr 27, 2023

Johannes Lindman: Success Metrics for Scrum Masters. Monitoring Flow, Happiness, and Health

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.

Johannes believes that a Scrum Master is successful when they can leave a team and feel confident that the team is on a good trajectory. One of the best indicators of this is when the team wants to try alternating the Scrum Master role among themselves. Johannes emphasizes the importance of investing a lot of time in teaching and mentoring the team at the beginning. He also likes to track metrics such as team happiness and health, lead time, cycle time, and the number of dependencies and the size of tasks. He recommends using the team health check exercise to assess team health.

Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: Learning Matrix (with Kudos session)

In this segment, Johannes talks about his favorite Agile retrospective format, the Learning Matrix. He emphasizes the importance of starting with a Kudos session, which involves sharing kind thoughts about the other people in the team. Johannes believes that this opens up more creativity and positivity in the session, and it's the key to the success of the format.

By starting from a good point in the session with the Kudos session, the team can feel more motivated and energized to tackle the issues at hand. Johannes also recommends using Kudos to boost creativity when the team is feeling stuck. Overall, the Learning Matrix with the Kudos section is an effective way to facilitate retrospectives and create a positive team dynamic.

[IMAGE HERE] Retrospectives, planning sessions, vision workshops, we are continuously helping teams learn about how to collaborate in practice! In this Actionable Agile Tools book, Jeff Campbell shares some of the tools he’s learned over a decade of coaching Agile Teams. The pragmatic coaching book you need, right now! Buy Actionable Agile Tools on Amazon, or directly from the author, and supercharge your facilitation toolbox! 

About Johannes Lindman

Despite many years of experience Johannes still learns new things every day in order to stay relevant. This aligns with his curiosity on life and people. 

You can link with Johannes Lindman on LinkedIn.

Apr 26, 2023

Johannes Lindman: Introducing Mob Programming, and how to overcome resistance to new ways of working 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, Johannes talks about how he introduced mob programming to his teams as a new way of working and sharing competencies. One of the teams team tried it for a few minutes and gave up. Surprisingly, another team started at 9am and continued throughout the day, and eventually noted it was too draining. Johannes suggests limiting the time for mob programming and being adaptable in trying different tools. He also warns against falling in love with one tool and introduces the concepts of Shu-Ha-Ri and NoEstimates. Johannes emphasizes the importance of measuring progress and visualizing metrics to ensure that teams are driving towards their goals. Ultimately, Johannes achieved his goals with this new way of working, even with some resistant individuals who initially said "no" to the idea.

 

[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, German and Portuguese.

About Johannes Lindman

Despite many years of experience Johannes still learns new things every day in order to stay relevant. This aligns with his curiosity on life and people. 

You can link with Johannes Lindman on LinkedIn

Apr 25, 2023

Johannes Lindman: Lessons in Communication and Trust for Scrum Masters, helping teams overcome adversity

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, Johannes Lindman shares a story about a small team he worked with for a few months leading up to a major release. The team was focused on delivery and even had checklists to ensure that they were well-prepared. However, they encountered a problem that they had not anticipated and had to stop and acknowledge their failure. The team was surprised because they believed they had prepared well and were not sure how they missed the issue.

The team started to point fingers and look at one person who did not talk much. They realized that they were not talking about the problems they were afraid of and needed to be super honest with each other. Johannes notes that the team trusted each other as individuals, but they did not pick up on each other's signs. In the end, the team learned the importance of communication, honesty, and trust. They realized that they needed to work on their communication skills and ensure that everyone felt comfortable speaking up when there was an issue.

Featured Book of the Week: Extreme Programming Explained by Kent Beck

In this segment, Johannes shares the impact that the book "Extreme Programming Explained" by Kent Beck had on his career. Johannes explains that the book helped him in many ways, and he found so many valuable ideas in it. He recalls the mantra  "make it work, make it right, make it fast," which he believes summarizes the essence of the book's philosophy.

He credits the book with helping him to become a better developer and to embrace a growth mindset. 

[IMAGE HERE] Do you wish you had decades of experience? Learn from the Best Scrum Masters In The World, Today! The Tips from the Trenches - Scrum Master edition audiobook includes hours of audio interviews with SM’s that have decades of experience: from Mike Cohn to Linda Rising, Christopher Avery, and many more. Super-experienced Scrum Masters share their hard-earned lessons with you. Learn those today, make your teams awesome!  

About Johannes Lindman

Despite many years of experience Johannes still learns new things every day in order to stay relevant. This aligns with his curiosity on life and people. 

You can link with Johannes Lindman on LinkedIn.

Apr 24, 2023

Johannes Lindman: Failing Safely, Tips for Successfully Implementing Extreme Programming in a Team Environment

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 podcast episode, Johannes shares his experience with extreme programming and test-driven development. Johannes recounts his experience working with a team where he assumed a lot of things about their needs and desires. He quickly realized that his eagerness to bring his own value to the table was getting in the way of the team's success. Johannes learned that it is essential to listen and watch the team and to ensure that they are asking for help rather than assuming that he knew what they needed. He advises that it is essential to slow down, be humble, and not be pushy.

Johannes also shares several tips for helping teams to fail safely, turning up the volume on transparency, and showing small failures. He notes that it is important to reflect on what is happening and to determine if the possible failure is catastrophic or not. If it is not catastrophic, then it is best to let it go and be patient for the right moment. 

[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 helped The Bungsu, a hospital in Indonesia, recover from near-bankruptcy, twice! Using Lean and Agile methods to rebuild an organization and a team! An inspiring story you need to know about! Buy the book on Amazon: The Bungsu Story - How Lean and Kanban Saved a Small Hospital in Indonesia. Twice. and Can Help You Reshape Work in Your Company.

About Johannes Lindman

Despite many years of experience Johannes still learns new things every day in order to stay relevant. This aligns with his curiosity on life and people. 

You can link with Johannes Lindman on LinkedIn.

Apr 21, 2023

Harri Tunturivuori: Communicating the Product Vision, A Key Skill for Scrum Product Owners

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: Communicating the Product Vision, A Key Skill for PO’s

According to Harri, the best Product Owners have a clear and compelling vision for the product, and they are able to communicate this vision effectively to the team. They are also collaborative and include the team in decision making, and are not afraid to talk to customers and stakeholders to get their input. In addition, they are able to give a lot of feedback to the team and use personas to communicate the ultimate user and customer for the product. Finally, they communicate the roadmap to the team so that everyone is on the same page. All of these skills combine to create a strong, effective Product Owner who can help the team deliver a successful product.

We provide, FREE, an e-course that can help you facilitate a Vision workshop with your PO. You can our Create A Compelling Product Vision e-course here.. 

The Bad Product Owner: From Task Managers to Product Owners, Breaking the Anti-pattern

In the episode, Harri discussed the anti-pattern of Product Owners who act more as task managers rather than empowered decision-makers. When POs become overly focused on task lists and assigning work to team members, they lose sight of the bigger picture and fail to understand the product as a whole. In many cases, the actual PO is someone else, leaving the task manager PO without the necessary knowledge to answer questions from the team. This lack of empowerment and understanding causes agility to disappear and ultimately hinders the progress of the product. To avoid this anti-pattern, Harri emphasizes the importance of empowering POs and ensuring they are motivated to push the product forward.

 

[IMAGE HERE] Are you having trouble helping the team work well with their Product Owner? We’ve put together a course to help you work on the collaboration team-product owner. You can find it at bit.ly/coachyourpo. 18 modules, 8+ hours of modules with tools and techniques that you can use to help teams and PO’s collaborate.



About Harri Tunturivuori

Harri is an experienced leader, Scrum Master, and Agile Coach who was introduced to the world of agile software development in 2010. Since then, Harri has had the pleasure of leading great agile teams in various forms.

Harri enjoys working in a fun environment where there is room for innovation, and Harri is driven by the challenge of growing a group of good people into a great team.

You can link with Harri Tunturivuori on LinkedIn.

Apr 20, 2023

Harri Tunturivuori: Success is Fostering a Culture of Continuous Improvement as a 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 the episode with Harri we learn that success is all about helping the team to deliver a high-quality product and fostering a culture of continuous improvement. To achieve this, he believes that investing in psychological safety and leading by example are critical. Additionally, ensuring that team members feel heard, investing in soft skills, and promoting a sense of belonging are all key factors. Harri recommends using journey lines and other techniques to help team members know more about each other, particularly when the team is distributed, which can make it harder to achieve these goals.

Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: Lean Coffee

In this segment, Harri shared their favorite retrospective format, which is Lean Coffee. Harri highlights the importance of having multiple retrospective formats to adapt to different team situations and keep things fresh. The guest personally enjoyed Lean Coffee for its conversational focus, allowing for in-depth discussions on topics compared to other formats. 

 

[IMAGE HERE] Retrospectives, planning sessions, vision workshops, we are continuously helping teams learn about how to collaborate in practice! In this Actionable Agile Tools book, Jeff Campbell shares some of the tools he’s learned over a decade of coaching Agile Teams. The pragmatic coaching book you need, right now! Buy Actionable Agile Tools on Amazon, or directly from the author, and supercharge your facilitation toolbox! 

 

About Harri Tunturivuori

Harri is an experienced leader, Scrum Master, and Agile Coach who was introduced to the world of agile software development in 2010. Since then, Harri has had the pleasure of leading great agile teams in various forms.

Harri enjoys working in a fun environment where there is room for innovation, and Harri is driven by the challenge of growing a group of good people into a great team.

You can link with Harri Tunturivuori on LinkedIn

Apr 19, 2023

Harri Tunturivuori: How To Help Your Team Embrace Scrum Values and Principles

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, Harri shares his experience as a Scrum Master who was hired to work with a team that had tried to implement Scrum before his arrival. He discovered that although the team had changed roles and adopted some practices from Scrum, they were not following the values and principles. The Product Owners were command and control oriented, and the team members were not engaged in the work. Harri took a step back, talked to all team members 1-on-1 and as a team, and communicated with the rest of the organization about Scrum to explain the contract with the Scrum team. He was able to get buy-in from around the organization by creating a shared image of what Scrum is and showing what's in it for the rest of the organization.

Harri shares three tips for change leadership in this situation: first, educate the team on Scrum and the practices; second, communicate with the rest of the organization about Scrum to get buy-in; and third, hold a retrospective regularly. He emphasizes the importance of holding retrospectives to create a continuous improvement culture, and the need to get support from the manager to implement Scrum effectively. This episode is a great resource for anyone who is struggling to implement Scrum effectively in their organization and wants to learn more about change leadership.

[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, German and Portuguese.

 

About Harri Tunturivuori

Harri is an experienced leader, Scrum Master, and Agile Coach who was introduced to the world of agile software development in 2010. Since then, Harri has had the pleasure of leading great agile teams in various forms.

Harri enjoys working in a fun environment where there is room for innovation, and Harri is driven by the challenge of growing a group of good people into a great team.

You can link with Harri Tunturivuori on LinkedIn

Apr 18, 2023

Harri Tunturivuori: When Suggestions Sound Like Orders, The Cost of Micro-Management 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, Harri recounts a challenging experience he had while working with a team that had a new manager. The manager was promoted from within the team and was a high-performing team member, but lacked good leadership skills. He couldn't let go of the technical skills and ended up micro-managing the team. 

The manager would step in and give suggestions to the team members, but it came out as an order. He even wrote the solution in the user stories, which resulted in the team disengaging because the manager was bossing them. 

Some team members quit their jobs, and others became demotivated. Harri felt helpless in the situation and eventually came up with tips to deal with it, including having a conversation with the manager, preparing for the conversation, and being understanding. The team's feedback was collected, and facts were presented to the manager on how this behavior was affecting the team. 

This episode is a must-listen for anyone dealing with anti-patterns in their team dynamics.

Featured Book of the Week: Scrum Mastery by Geoff Watts

Harri's most influential book is Scrum Mastery by Geoff Watts, who has been a past guest on the podcast. The book offers many practical tips and advice for Scrum Masters, emphasizing the importance of being a servant leader. Harri found the book funny, which made it a pleasant read. He appreciated the tips provided in the book, which can help Scrum Masters go from being good to great. Geoff Watts is a well-known author in the field of Scrum and agile software development, and his book has been highly recommended by professionals in the industry. If you are a Scrum Master looking for practical advice to improve your leadership skills, Scrum Mastery is definitely worth checking out.

 

[IMAGE HERE] Do you wish you had decades of experience? Learn from the Best Scrum Masters In The World, Today! The Tips from the Trenches - Scrum Master edition audiobook includes hours of audio interviews with SM’s that have decades of experience: from Mike Cohn to Linda Rising, Christopher Avery, and many more. Super-experienced Scrum Masters share their hard-earned lessons with you. Learn those today, make your teams awesome!  

 

About Harri Tunturivuori

Harri is an experienced leader, Scrum Master, and Agile Coach who was introduced to the world of agile software development in 2010. Since then, Harri has had the pleasure of leading great agile teams in various forms.

Harri enjoys working in a fun environment where there is room for innovation, and Harri is driven by the challenge of growing a group of good people into a great team.

You can link with Harri Tunturivuori on LinkedIn

Apr 17, 2023

Harri Tunturivuori: Helping Product Owners, and navigating conflicting priorities as a Scrum Master: A case study

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, Harri discusses a challenging situation he faced while working as a Scrum Master on a product that had three internal customers in different countries with different needs. The biggest problem was getting an ordered backlog, which was difficult because they did not have a product owner. Instead, they agreed on a committee of product owners consisting of one representative from each country. However, it was difficult to get agreements on what was most important, so Harri ended up making the decision of what the team should work on. To shield the team from the confusion with the product owners, Harri only relayed the technical details to them. The team was happy with the work, but unfortunately, when they presented the product to stakeholders, it did not meet their expectations.

Harri's personal failure as a Scrum Master in this situation was that he did not engage with customers and stakeholders enough. He emphasizes the importance of having a single product owner and engaging with customers and stakeholders to avoid similar issues. Harri also mentions that he loved the product, which made it easier to work with the team, but he should have focused more on meeting the stakeholders' expectations. This episode serves as a great lesson for other Scrum Masters and product owners who may be struggling with similar situations, and Harri's tips on engaging with stakeholders and having a single product owner can help them avoid similar failures.

[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 helped The Bungsu, a hospital in Indonesia, recover from near-bankruptcy, twice! Using Lean and Agile methods to rebuild an organization and a team! An inspiring story you need to know about! Buy the book on Amazon: The Bungsu Story - How Lean and Kanban Saved a Small Hospital in Indonesia. Twice. and Can Help You Reshape Work in Your Company.

 

About Harri Tunturivuori

Harri is an experienced leader, Scrum Master, and Agile Coach who was introduced to the world of agile software development in 2010. Since then, Harri has had the pleasure of leading great agile teams in various forms.

Harri enjoys working in a fun environment where there is room for innovation, and Harri is driven by the challenge of growing a group of good people into a great team.

You can link with Harri Tunturivuori on LinkedIn

Apr 15, 2023

BONUS: Helping Scrum Masters build empathy towards team members with J.B. Rainsberger

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.

 

About J.B. Rainsberger

JB is a seasoned software developer, consultant, and trainer based in Canada, known for his expertise in Test-Driven Development (TDD). With his extensive knowledge and experience in the field, he authored the acclaimed course "The World’s Best Intro to TDD" and actively contributes to the community through his blog "The Code Whisperer." JB is a sought-after speaker and has been invited to present at numerous events worldwide. In addition to his passion for software development, he is also a skilled Bowling player. JB's diverse set of skills and experiences help him inspire and empower fellow developers through his work.

You can link with J.B. Rainsberger on LinkedIn, visit his home on the net at JBrains.ca, and even ask him questions at ask.JBrains.ca

If you want to know more about his offer, and get support from JB, you can visit experience.JBrains.ca.

Apr 14, 2023

Daniel Westermayr: Trusting Your Team, The Foundation of Great Product Ownership

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: Trusting Your Team, The Foundation of Great Product Ownership

In this segment, Daniel discusses the importance of the "leap of faith" that great POs take by letting go of control and trusting their team to deliver. By believing in their team, great POs are able to motivate and focus their team's efforts. Daniel also mentions the NoEstimates movement and the idea that a forecast is a range rather than a single number. Great POs do not second guess their team or the data, and are willing to accept the team's delivery even if they don't fully understand it.

The Bad Product Owner: How to Help Your Product Owner Succeed by Saying “No” When Necessary

In this segment, Daniel discusses the tendency Product Owners have to say "yes" to everything in order to appease or please others, even if it means not properly prioritizing tasks. Daniel emphasizes the importance of understanding the PO's perspective and using forecasting to help the PO say "no" when necessary. He also highlights the crucial role of Scrum Masters in helping the PO prioritize and say "no." The ability for organizations to hear and accept "no" is also a key factor in mitigating this anti-pattern. Daniel encourages POs to say "no" when necessary and reassures them that it is possible to change their mind later.

 

[IMAGE HERE] Are you having trouble helping the team work well with their Product Owner? We’ve put together a course to help you work on the collaboration team-product owner. You can find it at bit.ly/coachyourpo. 18 modules, 8+ hours of modules with tools and techniques that you can use to help teams and PO’s collaborate.

 

About Daniel Westermayr

Daniel is a Kanban Trainer with a knack for all things Lean and Theory of Constraints. He wants to help teams achieve and measure their continuous improvements.

You can link with Daniel Westermayr on LinkedIn

Apr 13, 2023

Daniel Westermayr: Connecting data with emotions, the key to triggering 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.

In this episode, Daniel emphasizes the importance of understanding the success of a system and how it is constrained by the way it has been set up. He explains that the ultimate goal of Scrum is the success of the product or organization, and that the key to successful Scrum is to look at the success of the system. We also discuss how the process and system of software development, broadly, has not yet been fully understood by the very software industry and community.

Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: Connecting data with emotions, the key to triggering change

In this segment, Daniel focuses on the importance of connecting data with emotions in retrospectives. Daniel shares his preference for retrospectives that collect data with the emotions of people. He emphasizes that not everyone sees the same thing in the same data or events and that different perspectives can help understand positive things. Emotions are a driving force for change among the people we work with, and understanding them can help drive change management efforts. Daniel mentions the Timeline retrospective and the importance of using emotional intelligence to improve teamwork and product development.

 

[IMAGE HERE] Retrospectives, planning sessions, vision workshops, we are continuously helping teams learn about how to collaborate in practice! In this Actionable Agile Tools book, Jeff Campbell shares some of the tools he’s learned over a decade of coaching Agile Teams. The pragmatic coaching book you need, right now! Buy Actionable Agile Tools on Amazon, or directly from the author, and supercharge your facilitation toolbox! 

 

About Daniel Westermayr

Daniel is a Kanban Trainer with a knack for all things Lean and Theory of Constraints. He wants to help teams achieve and measure their continuous improvements.

You can link with Daniel Westermayr on LinkedIn

Apr 12, 2023

Daniel Westermayr: Moving Beyond Roadmaps, and Using Data to Drive Decision Making for Agile Product Development

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, Daniel emphasizes the importance of collecting data from day one in product development. He discusses how data can help assess the capability of the system in place and create forecasts to assess delivery dates. He mentions the NoEstimates movement and suggests counting the product backlog items that can be finalized in one sprint as a useful metric. Daniel also provides tips for helping teams accept the data, and continuously updating forecasts. He emphasizes the need to work in hypotheses rather than requirements, as it allows for acceptance that they may be wrong. Finally, he notes that data gives us information on how to act and change over time.

 

[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, German and Portuguese.

 

About Daniel Westermayr

Daniel is a Kanban Trainer with a knack for all things Lean and Theory of Constraints. He wants to help teams achieve and measure their continuous improvements.

You can link with Daniel Westermayr on LinkedIn

Apr 11, 2023

Daniel Westermayr: Group Mentality vs. Creating Real Agile Product 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, Daniel discusses the overuse of the word "team" and the importance of true teams in product development. He highlights the need for preconditions for a team, and notes that sometimes teams don't even have a shared goal. Daniel also warns against the "it's done, just needs to be tested" anti-pattern and explains how it can lead to problems with team collaboration. We discuss the use of Causal Loop Diagram to find hypotheses, and mention a talk by Jeff Patton on the client-vendor anti-pattern. Finally, Daniel emphasizes the need to remove the notion that one party needs to own the game in the client-vendor relationship.

Featured Book of the Week: Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

In this segment, Daniel Westermayr discusses the importance of data-driven decision making in product development. He references the book "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman, which highlights the biases and faulty intuitions that can arise in decision making. Daniel emphasizes the need to use data to inform decisions and cites the book "Out of the Crisis" by W. Edwards Deming as an important resource. He also provides a link to a talk by Russell Ackoff about Deming's approach.

 

[IMAGE HERE] Do you wish you had decades of experience? Learn from the Best Scrum Masters In The World, Today! The Tips from the Trenches - Scrum Master edition audiobook includes hours of audio interviews with SM’s that have decades of experience: from Mike Cohn to Linda Rising, Christopher Avery, and many more. Super-experienced Scrum Masters share their hard-earned lessons with you. Learn those today, make your teams awesome!  

 

About Daniel Westermayr

Daniel is a Kanban Trainer with a knack for all things Lean and Theory of Constraints. He wants to help teams achieve and measure their continuous improvements.

You can link with Daniel Westermayr on LinkedIn

Apr 10, 2023

Daniel Westermayr: The problem with cluttered backlogs and how to declutter them, coaching Product Owners

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, Daniel Westermayr discusses his belief in the importance of the Scrum Master role in helping companies achieve their product goals. He shares his experience of encountering a cluttered backlog with items that were years old and how he cleaned it up, only to face complaints from someone in support. Daniel emphasizes the need for Scrum Masters to clarify why a large backlog is a problem, and why the company wants to keep all items. He also advises that Scrum Masters should understand what they stand for and constantly question why certain practices are being implemented. Finally, he suggests that, in order to avoid fears of losing important information, the older requirements can be stored in a safe location. Daniel also mentions an article on how to declutter product backlogs.

 

[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 helped The Bungsu, a hospital in Indonesia, recover from near-bankruptcy, twice! Using Lean and Agile methods to rebuild an organization and a team! An inspiring story you need to know about! Buy the book on Amazon: The Bungsu Story - How Lean and Kanban Saved a Small Hospital in Indonesia. Twice. and Can Help You Reshape Work in Your Company.

 

About Daniel Westermayr

Daniel is a Kanban Trainer with a knack for all things Lean and Theory of Constraints. He wants to help teams achieve and measure their continuous improvements.

You can link with Daniel Westermayr on LinkedIn

Apr 7, 2023

Oguz Ozyurt: The Power of Partnership between Product Owner and Scrum Master in support of the Agile Team

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 Partnership between PO and SM in support of the Agile Team

In this segment, we discuss the need to focus on, and develop a great partnership between a Product Owner (PO) and Scrum Master (SM). Oz shares the example of such a partnership, where the conversation between PO and SM focused on the value that the team can deliver. The PO was new to Agile but had an open mind and was an expert in the product domain. The PO was a natural leader and encouraged the team to pull stories from the backlog. He also asked the team to bring their perspective into the prioritization of the backlog. The PO acknowledged the team at every opportunity and brought an appreciation culture into the team. Oz highlights the importance of having a great partnership between the PO and SM, which is the main requirement for a successful Agile team.

The Bad Product Owner: The Importance of Empathy in Product Owner-Scrum Master Relationships

In this segment, Oz discusses the challenges of working with a product owner who lacks a product mindset and is more focused on tasks than the product vision. This can lead to them "making up" work and not prioritizing tasks effectively.

Oz suggested a few tips for dealing with bad POs. First, he recommended asking about prioritization and trying to understand the PO's background. He also advised having a 1-on-1 coaching session with the PO to help them develop a better understanding of their role and how to prioritize tasks effectively.

Additionally, Oz emphasized the importance of focusing on empathy between the PO and the team. By fostering a positive relationship and working collaboratively, the PO and team can work together to ensure that the product is delivered effectively and meets the needs of stakeholders. Overall, Oz's advice for dealing with this type of POs is to approach the situation with understanding and empathy, while also providing coaching and support to help the PO develop a product mindset and prioritize tasks effectively.

[IMAGE HERE] Are you having trouble helping the team work well with their Product Owner? We’ve put together a course to help you work on the collaboration team-product owner. You can find it at bit.ly/coachyourpo. 18 modules, 8+ hours of modules with tools and techniques that you can use to help teams and PO’s collaborate.

 

About Oguz Ozyurt

Oz came from a technical background, and has worked across multiple industries, applying agile practices toward the technical and non-technical areas. He is passionate about agile, he has leveraged his passion for delivery value and agile practices by coaching, teaching, mentoring many teams to transform from traditional software development life cycle to Agile principles and practices.

You can link with Oguz Ozyurt on LinkedIn.

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