Moana Pledger Archives - Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast

Moana Pledger: 8 characteristics of a Great Product Owner

From some of the characteristics that make great Product Owners to two common anti-patterns that PO’s suffer from. In this episode, we take a deep dive into the PO role and why it is so critical for the success of the team and the product.

The Great Product Owner: 8 Characteristics of a Great Product Owner

In this segment, we explore some of the characteristics that make Product Owners great contributors to the success of the team. We also discuss how teams change when teams exhibit these characteristics.

The Bad Product Owner: The Project Manager PO, and the Absent PO

It is common that some Project Managers switch over to the PO role when their organization “goes Agile”. But there are some risks when that happens. In this segment, we talk about the possible anti-patterns of the PO that used to be a project manager, as well as about what happens when the PO is not available when the team needs.

Are you having trouble helping the team working 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 Moana Pledger

Mo started her career in education and program management before moving into digital delivery. She’s pretty sure she was a servant-leader before she had even heard the term. Her passion is to build healthy teams and foster the all-important relationship between business and team, which allows a safe space for the magic to happen.

You can link with Moana Pledger on LinkedIn and connect with Moana Pledger on Twitter.

Moana Pledger: Lean Coffee, the super flexible and effective Agile Restrospective format

In order to assess her success as a Scrum Master, Moana likes to look at the team members’ ability and willingness to take on the responsibility for learning and adapting to the challenges they face. But there are other signs like the team taking responsibility for preparing and hosting their own retrospectives. Finally, we talk about the idea of “swarming” and how teams that implement that approach ends up achieving more.

In this episode, we talk about the 3-amigo sessions, team health-checks and their role for Scrum Masters, a technique called Satisfactogram, and the “pats-on-back” technique, which is similar to the Kudos Box from Management 3.0.

Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: Lean Coffee

Lean Coffee, a format we referred to in several other episodes, is a good format to help teams explore what is critical for them at that time. Moana describes how this format is a safe format for team members to approach topics that may seem untouchable when using other conversations and retrospective formats. We should also note, that the Lean Coffee format is also very good at helping to discuss the “edge” topics, that could easily be forgotten otherwise.

About Moana Pledger

You can link with Moana Pledger on LinkedIn and connect with Moana Pledger on Twitter.

Moana Pledger: From Agile to Waterfall and back again, an uplifting story

When Moana was asked to help this organization, she found a common anti-pattern: the teams had reverted back to Waterfall after their previous Agile Coach left. This is a very common pattern, and we must learn how to deal with it. In this episode, we explore the context of that organization and also learn about the techniques that Moana employed to help that organization get back on the Agile adoption path.

In this episode, we refer to Lean Coffee, a technique you can use to help teams talk and open up about their situation.

About Moana Pledger

You can link with Moana Pledger on LinkedIn and connect with Moana Pledger on Twitter.

Moana Pledger: What happens when the Scrum Master leaves and the tech lead takes over

When all works well with a team, there’s the temptation for us as Scrum Masters to think that the “team gets it”, but even if that is the case, your role, and who you are is part of that system. When you leave things will be different. In this episode, we explore what happens when the Scrum Master leaves, and the previous technical lead takes over. In this story, we will hear the anti-patterns that can easily develop when the critical role of the Scrum Master is taken by someone else.

In this episode, we refer to Behavior Driven Development and “The New World Order” retrospective exercise, you can host a similar Agile Retrospective by using The Perfection Game exercise by Jim and Michele McCarthy, authors of the Core Protocols.

Featured Book for the Week: Time to Think: Listening to Ignite the Human Mind by Nancy Kline

In Time to Think: Listening to Ignite the Human Mind by Nancy Kline, Moana learned that it is critical to focus on improving our own performance so that we can help the teams we work with. In the book, she learned about the importance to focus on the quality of attention she gives to others when working with them.

About Moana Pledger

You can link with Moana Pledger on LinkedIn and connect with Moana Pledger on Twitter.

Moana Pledger: How to help Scrum teams stuck in a Waterfall organization

Not all teams have the benefit of working within an Agile organization. Some of the teams we work with are stuck between Waterfall and Agile. And as Scrum Masters, we very often get asked to work with teams that are struggling with exactly that problem. In this episode, we discuss how we can help teams that are in a similar situation, and what Mo learned from that story that you can use to your advantage.

In this episode, we refer to Martine Davos, and Agile Coach and Scrum trainer.

About Moana Pledger

You can link with Moana Pledgeron LinkedIn and connect with Moana Pledger on Twitter.