“Success is when the team increases its capacity to notice, discuss, and solve the problems that stand between them and meaningful outcomes.” – Oluyomi Emmanuel
Oluyomi’s definition of Scrum Master success has changed over time. Today, he measures success by the team’s growing ability to notice, discuss, and solve the problems that stand between them and meaningful outcomes. One practical signal is when someone in the team says or does something he would previously have needed to prompt: a developer challenges an unclear requirement, a tester raises a risk before anyone asks, or a team member names a problem directly. Oluyomi calls the strongest indicator “constructive independence.”
That does not mean the team no longer needs support. It means the team’s mental model has matured enough that people act earlier, with more ownership and less dependency. To keep himself accountable, Oluyomi runs a small personal retrospective at the end of each workday. He starts the day with a few things he wants to measure himself by, then later uses Copilot as a reflection partner to compare intention with action.
Vasco notes that this is one useful way AI tools can help Scrum Masters maintain the discipline of reflection without relying only on memory.
Self-reflection Question: What would tell you that your team is becoming constructively independent?
Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: True or False Statements
Oluyomi does not pick a retrospective format before understanding the sprint. He watches patterns during the iteration: how work waits, how conflict is handled, whether decisions are revisited, and whether people ask for help early. One format he often uses is a set of true-or-false statements about the sprint and collaboration. For example: “We finished work before starting more work” or “We asked for help early enough during the sprint.”
Team members vote silently first, either on a Miro board or with physical cards. The value is not the majority answer. The value appears when different people interpret the same sprint differently. Instead of asking who is right, Oluyomi asks what each group observed that led to its answer.
Transform Your Agile Teams with Hard-Earned Lessons from Super-Experienced Scrum Masters
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 Oluyomi Emmanuel
Oluyomi is a Scrum Master, Agile Coach, and Product Lead with over seven years of experience helping teams work better and deliver meaningful digital products. Having worked across energy, consumer platforms, and fintech, he is passionate about building high-performing teams, creating clarity, and turning Agile principles into real business and customer value.
You can link with Oluyomi Emmanuel on LinkedIn.
