Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast

What you need to learn about being a Scrum Master, but will never get from a CSM course

No matter how many courses you attend, there are things that, as a Scrum Masters, you only really learn the important lessons on the field. Doing the work.

One of the reasons I don’t think certification courses are enough for Scrum Masters that certifications courses very often focus on the rules and regulations of the job, but not on the problems, the hardships and the obstacles we face, day-in, day-out when we try to do a good work as a Scrum Master.

So, what can we do when courses aren’t enough?

Continue reading What you need to learn about being a Scrum Master, but will never get from a CSM course

Meena Venkataraman: Knowing When to Step Back, a Scrum Master superpower

In this segment, Meena shares how, as a scrum master, she strives to step back once the team is self-sufficient.

Meena mentions that it is important to make sure that there is no unhealthy dependency between the team and the scrum master. To do this, the scrum master needs to ensure that they are not the only one who can resolve conflicts and that the team is communicating effectively with stakeholders.

The success of a scrum master is also measured by whether the team is delivering a quality product. Meena provides several tips for scrum masters, including making sure that it’s not about them, and observing the behaviors of the team to determine if they can self-manage.

Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: Simple and effective conversation focused formats

In this segment, Meena shares that when it comes to retrospectives, she prefers to focus on simplicity and creating conversations with the team. She emphasizes the importance of creating insights and actions with the team, rather than just generating data. Meena shares a tip to ask questions that crystallize insights and anchor them in the agile principles.

She also shares a story about observing a retro led by someone else where there was a lot of data but no actionable insights. Meena emphasizes that retros are great places for scrum masters to coach and that it’s not about the format, but rather about anchoring questions in the agile principles.

In this segment, we refer to a shared whiteboard tool named MURAL.

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About Meena Venkataraman

Meena is an Agile & Lean coach who helps organizations and teams transition to Agile ways of working. She is passionate about the neuroscience behind team dynamics and is interested in organizational design and the application of Agile principles across different business domains. Meena enjoys speaking at conferences and is an avid learner.

You can link with Meena Venkataraman on LinkedIn.

Meena Venkataraman: Coaching Stakeholders and product owners, a critical aspect of the Scrum Master role

In this episode, Meena shared her experience coaching a team where the Product Owner (PO) was hostile towards her. The PO had previously been a project manager with control over many aspects of the project, and had trouble adjusting to the new role in Agile. Meena observed that the team was using a mix of Scrum and Waterfall practices, and the PO was still using language like “resources” and moving team members around like Lego pieces.

Meena worked with the team to establish common vocabulary and practices through training and discussions, but found it challenging to help the PO understand the Agile approach. Meena emphasized the importance of working with early adopters in the team and coaching stakeholders outside of the team. Overall, the experience highlights the challenges of change management in Agile and the need for patience, education, and communication to help teams and stakeholders understand and adopt new practices.

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About Meena Venkataraman

You can link with Meena Venkataraman on LinkedIn.

Meena Venkataraman: Building Psychological Safety, lessons from helping an Agile team to share interpersonal feedback

In this segment, Meena shares her experience coaching a team that struggled to take off and was stuck in a cycle. Despite being nice to each other during scrum events, team members were not sharing feedback with each other, and psychological safety was not present in the team. Meena stresses the importance of having hard conversations and discussing the interpersonal topics in the team, and she suggests that teams should have the necessary tools to talk about difficult topics.

By highlighting the value that a team coach can bring to a team, Meena emphasizes the importance of psychological safety and how it plays a crucial role in team dynamics. She suggests that teams should be aware of the small things that can become big things and make sure that they are having hard conversations to address interpersonal issues. Ultimately, Meena’s experience coaching this team shows that building a successful team is not just about being nice to each other but also about creating a culture of openness, trust, and psychological safety.

We also discuss how using approaches such as non-violent communication can help the Scrum Master create an open environment that is also psychologically safe.

Featured Book of the Week: Sooner Safer Happier, by Jonathan Smart

In this segment, Meena Venkataraman recommends the book “Sooner Safer Happier: Antipatterns and Patterns for Business Agility” by Jonathan Smart as a valuable resource for scrum masters. She notes that as a scrum master, it’s important to have a holistic view of agile and to be “T-Shaped” – understanding the various facets of product development. Meena highlights that the book brings the 12 principles of agile to life and is a resource she refers to often.

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About Meena Venkataraman

You can link with Meena Venkataraman on LinkedIn.

Meena Venkataraman: Dealing with Dysfunctions in the Wider System, a story of Agile adoption

Meena discusses her lessons learned from her first experience in navigating agile adoption. She emphasizes how important it is for us to have a sponsor in our role as Scrum Masters, and notes that we should look out for anti-patterns such as agile being just a buzzword. Meena also highlights the importance of dealing with dysfunctions in the wider system and staying neutral while accepting when things don’t work. She suggests coaching managers and asking questions before accepting a job to understand how the organization works. Meena also suggests investigating conversations to find out more about people and aligning expectations with a sponsor as a coach or Scrum Master.

Overall, Meena’s lessons learned highlight the importance of navigating change with patience.

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 Meena Venkataraman

You can link with Meena Venkataraman on LinkedIn.

Mike Salogub: The ex-developer skills that help Product Owners excel at Agile software development

The Great Product Owner: The ex-developer skills that help PO’s excel with Agile software development

This segment describes an example of a great Product Owner who was also a developer before (like the anti-pattern example). However, this PO had a deep understanding of the product and the business, thought ahead and talked about opportunities with stakeholders. She made tradeoff decisions using her experience, talked to the team on their terms, and went to bat for the team. There was a great chemistry between the Scrum Master and the PO.

The Bad Product Owner: The ex-developer skills that destroy the PO’s performance

In this segment, Mike discusses Product Owner anti-patterns, including POs who think they are the boss, those who are clueless, and those with a development background who second-guess the team. The segment advises that POs should focus on overall aspects such as working with stakeholders, and recommends setting expectations on the role with each PO. The segment also emphasizes the importance of being deliberate about how we integrate our background in our future positions.

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 Mike Salogub

Mike’s an accomplished, committed and creative Scrum Master with over 10+ years of expanding horizons in the healthcare technology industry. Focused on continuous improvement using data to inform business decisions, and driving innovation to meet the needs of patients.

You can link with Mike Salogub on LinkedIn and connect with Mike Salogub on Twitter.

You might also be interested in...

Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: Simple and effective conversation focused formats

Featured Book of the Week: Sooner Safer Happier, by Jonathan Smart

The Great Product Owner: The ex-developer skills that help PO’s excel with Agile software development

The Bad Product Owner: The ex-developer skills that destroy the PO’s performance