Bernie Maloney Archives - Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast

Bernie Maloney: Problems vs. Solutions: The Great Product Owner Distinction

The Great Product Owner: The Strategic Problem Solver

Bernie describes an exemplary Product Owner from a stealth program sponsored by a CTO, where the company needed to create new intellectual property. This Great Product Owner understood that Agile operates in three dimensions: most organizations only focus on outputs and delivery (first dimension), some reach outcomes (second dimension), but the truly great ones operate in the third dimension of strategic or business agility – defining problems worth solving. This Product Owner knew that high-performing teams need to understand what problem is worth solving rather than just receiving solutions to build. They embraced the Mobius loop approach, focusing on discovering the right problems rather than jumping straight to solutions.

In this segment, we refer to the Mobius Loop, and to Steve Blank’s work on the job of a startup.

We also refer to the episode with Elliott Parker on the critical importance of the “startup mindset” to foster innovation in larger organizations.

The Bad Product Owner: The Backlog Jockey with Authority Issues

Bernie identifies the anti-pattern of Product Owners being treated as mere “backlog jockeys” by their organizations, which forces them into solution-building mode rather than problem-solving mode. These Product Owners don’t understand the importance of saying “no” and lack clarity about intent and goals. The worst case Bernie encountered was a team manager who also served as Product Owner, wielding positional authority that shut down team communication. This person would interrupt daily scrums, causing teams to revert to waiting for direction rather than self-organizing. The combination of unclear intent and positional authority creates a toxic environment that destroys team autonomy and psychological safety.

Self-reflection Question: Is your Product Owner focused on defining problems worth solving, or are they primarily managing a backlog of predetermined solutions?

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 Bernie Maloney

Bernie Maloney has helped teams grow businesses to beyond $4B / year, delivering products from consumer electronics to network infrastructure to services & payments. He helps clients achieve performance breakthroughs with their teams, organizations and themselves, and believes that leads both to outrageous effectiveness, and a whole lot more fun.

You can link with Bernie Maloney on LinkedIn, and visit Bernie’s website and YouTube Channel.

Bernie Maloney: From Permission-Seeking to Forgiveness-Begging—Agile Team Evolution in Self-Management

Bernie defines success for Scrum Masters as creating teams that can thrive and do their best work independently. His ultimate goal is to make himself unnecessary – developing self-directing teams that step out of waiting for direction and instead seek permission or even beg forgiveness when needed. Using the “Circles and Soup” framework, Bernie helps teams stretch their circles of influence and control. He recognizes that every manager wants teams to succeed but may lack the necessary tools, making it crucial for Scrum Masters to coach managers as well. Bernie recommends building a backlog of organizational impediments and focusing on the top priority that will move the ball forward most effectively.

Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: Sailboat

Bernie champions the Sailboat retrospective format for its simplicity and adaptability. While the basic format is straightforward, he appreciates that you can add layers of complexity as needed. Bernie tends to keep retrospectives simple and also mentions the “What the Duck?” technique as another valuable retrospective tool. He suggests incorporating creative elements like having people build LEGO representations of what they’re discussing, which helps teams visualize and engage with concepts more effectively.

To know more about LEGO Serious Play, check out the Serious Play book.

In this segment, we also refer to Dissociation in Psychology, which helps with “third position” coaching/thinking, and Bernie’s video on creative retrospective formats.

Self-reflection Question: How are you measuring whether your teams are becoming more self-directing, and what specific behaviors indicate they’re ready to operate with less guidance?

Transform Your Agile Teams with Hard-Earned Lessons from Super-Experienced Scrum Masters

About Bernie Maloney

You can link with Bernie Maloney on LinkedIn, and visit Bernie’s website and YouTube Channel.

Bernie Maloney: Mastering Complexity Through Systems Thinking and NLP Coaching

Bernie addresses the constant challenge of mid-sprint changes by asking the crucial question: “what do you want to trade in for that new request?” His approach centers on recognizing that everyone is trying to do their best with what they have, using techniques from NLP and the three coaching positions to help people see the whole system. Bernie emphasizes rapport building as a key skill for Scrum Masters and warns against the anti-pattern of becoming judgmental when challenges arise. He advocates for moving from a plan-and-predict mentality to sense-and-respond thinking, highlighting the importance of conducting retrospectives once challenges are solved. Bernie’s coaching philosophy revolves around helping people step into the “third position” – a dissociated perspective that enables better problem-solving and systems thinking.

In this episode, we refer to Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP), and to Instant Rapport by Michael Brooks, a primer on NLP.

We also refer to the plan-and-predict vs sense-and-respond mentality.

Self-reflection Question: How effectively are you helping your teams and stakeholders see the whole system when challenges arise, rather than just focusing on individual pain points?

Transform Your Agile Teams with Hard-Earned Lessons from Super-Experienced Scrum Masters

About Bernie Maloney

You can link with Bernie Maloney on LinkedIn, and visit Bernie’s website and YouTube Channel.

Bernie Maloney: The Triangulation Technique—Coaching Agile Teams Through Challenges

Bernie identifies critical patterns that cause teams to self-destruct, with lack of clarity about intention being the most common culprit. When teams are treated as mere “task workers” without clear vision, strategy, or goals, they become depressed and directionless. Some teams seek forgiveness after failed experiments, while others get stuck seeking permission without taking enough self-leadership. Bernie emphasizes that waiting for direction is fundamentally self-destructive behavior, and Scrum Masters must create safety for teams to reach high performance. He introduces the coaching technique of triangulation, where problems become a third point that coach and coachee examine together, side by side, rather than facing each other in opposition.

In this segment, we talk about “What the Duck”, a Lego Serious Play workshop.

Featured Book of the Week: Start with Why by Simon Sinek

Bernie champions “Start with Why” by Simon Sinek as essential reading for Scrum Masters working to transform team culture. He explains that compelling stories are how leaders truly influence others, following the sequence of Attention-Emotion-Reason. This book helps Scrum Masters understand that their job fundamentally involves changing culture, and leaders must demonstrate the change they want to see. Bernie connects this to the broader leadership challenge of developing coaching and mentoring skills within organizational structures.

During this segment, we also refer to the following books:

Self-reflection Question: What patterns of self-destructive behavior might your teams be exhibiting, and how could you help them move from seeking permission to taking ownership?

Transform Your Agile Teams with Hard-Earned Lessons from Super-Experienced Scrum Masters

About Bernie Maloney

You can link with Bernie Maloney on LinkedIn, and visit Bernie’s website and YouTube Channel.

Bernie Maloney: The Power of Psychological Safety in Agile Teams

Bernie shares a powerful story about learning what psychological safety truly means through both success and failure. Working in a high-pressure division with tight timelines and margins, Bernie discovered the transformative power of the mantra “always make a new mistake.” When he made a significant error and was met with understanding rather than punishment, he experienced firsthand how psychological safety enables teams to thrive.

Later, facing a different challenge where mistrust existed between management and teams, Bernie had to navigate the delicate balance of maintaining psychological safety while addressing management’s desire for transparency. His solution was innovative: conduct retrospectives with the team first, then invite managers in at the end with anonymized contributions. Bernie’s approach of framing changes as experiments helped people embrace newness, knowing it would be time-bound and reversible.

In this episode we refer to Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP).

Self-reflection Question: How might your current approach to mistakes and experimentation be either fostering or undermining psychological safety within your team?

Transform Your Agile Teams with Hard-Earned Lessons from Super-Experienced Scrum Masters

About Bernie Maloney

You can link with Bernie Maloney on LinkedIn, and visit Bernie’s website and YouTube Channel.