PO collaboration Archives - Page 13 of 18 - Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast

Stacey Taurah: Putting people first, a Product Owner lesson that Scrum Masters can amplify!

The Great Product Owner: Putting people first, a Product Owner lesson that Scrum Masters can amplify!

Great Product Owners put people first in their decision making. Whether it is the team, or the customers, or the stakeholders, they focus on the interaction and the improvements they can deliver to those people. Great PO’s consider the input from everyone in the process, and help the Scrum Master make work fun, because teams that have fun, are more creative and more productive!

The Bad Product Owner: Why PO’s want to act as dictators, and how we can help Agile teams change the dynamic

Sometimes Product Owners behave like dictators. They want to tell the team exactly what to do, and sometimes even how to do it! This pattern can be promoted by a PO with technical background, but it hides a seriously negative dynamic! Listen in to learn why PO’s sometimes want to act like dictators, and what to do about it.

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 Stacey Taurah

A seasoned agile coach with a squiggly line into tech and delivery. From forensics to frameworks and all that’s in between.

You can link with Stacey Taurah on LinkedIn.

Paula Dunne: The conditions that create bad Product Owners

The Great Product Owner: Repetition as a communication strategy for Product Owners

This Product Owner was very clear in their communication with the team and stakeholders. The PO was able to regularly and consistently share their Vision for the product, the long term plan and their ambition. The PO understood that repetition was part of the communication strategy!

In this segment, we also talk about the Scrum Master – PO relationship, and how important it is to continuously work on that. To support you with the Scrum Master – PO relationship, we’ve developed a course you can take at your own pace. This course focuses on concrete aspects of coaching with PO’s that Scrum Masters must be aware of. You can find out more about that e-course at bit.ly/coachyourpo.

The Bad Product Owner: The conditions that create bad Product Owners

As Scrum Masters, we must be aware that Product Owners are not “bad” on purpose. Paula suggests that, if we find a bad PO, we look beyond the PO and understand what are the circumstances, or the missing knowledge that may be causing that outcome. Paula suggests we ask: “what are the Product Owner being asked to do?”, “are priorities clear for the Product Owner themselves?”. In this segment, we also discuss metrics, and how the metrics we have in our organization may help (or not) the PO’s.

About Paula Dunne

Paula is an Agile Coach with experience in large organization Agile adoption as well as in coaching product owners.

You can link with Paula Dunne on LinkedIn.

Paula Dunne: Adapting Scrum to the new world remote work, an Agile learning journey

When Paula joined this team, she noticed the team was not sharing the good (or bad) things that were happening. We discuss how teams in the new “remote world” become passive and do not follow-up on their agreements, and let things drop because the other person is not there, present by their side. In this segment, we talk about how important it is to work on the relationships between team members as well as between team members and stakeholders, especially in this remote work world!

Featured Book of the Week: The Art of Being Brilliant by Cope and Whittaker

In The Art of Being Brilliant: Transform Your Life by Doing What Works For You by Cope and Whittaker, is a book that helped Paula orient her career and learn about positive psychology which helped her feel and help others feel more confident in themselves. In this segment, we refer to Woody Zuill, a previous guest on the podcast and his mantra “turn up the good”.

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About Paula Dunne

Paula is an Agile Coach with experience in large organization Agile adoption as well as in coaching product owners.

You can link with Paula Dunne on LinkedIn.

Paula Dunne: Recovering from overload, helping a Scrum team limit their capacity and prioritize their work

Paula was working with a team that needed to learn about estimation and limiting their capacity. However, that’s a tough role to take on as a Scrum Master. As Scrum Masters, we want the teams to believe they can do well, and do more. Paula had to learn to be the source of bad news for the team, and become the person who insisted they prioritize their work together with the Product Owner.

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 Paula Dunne

Paula is an Agile Coach with experience in large organization Agile adoption as well as in coaching product owners.

You can link with Paula Dunne on LinkedIn.

Jill Stott: The Product Ownership perfect storm, and how to solve it with the help of the Scrum team

The Great Product Owner: Willing to learn, and ready to experiment, the secret to great newbie PO’s!

This PO had never heard about Scrum before they started their work as PO for a Scrum team. They were also new to Agile in general. However, the PO decided and took action on learning quickly what was expected, and sought out a strong collaboration with the team, participating in their retros, and by being willing to try new things that might have seemed confusing or even scary at first.

The Bad Product Owner: Unable to make decisions, and with low confidence, the PO perfect storm! And how to solve it!

This Product Owner was not empowered by their stakeholders, and therefore not confident. To add to the problems, the PO was also not available, and took a long time to be able to make decisions. This led to the team sometimes having very undefined and unclear requirements. When the team asked questions, the PO was often not able to answer their questions, nor did they take those questions forward to someone who could answer them. The scene was set for a disaster, but thankfully something happened that changed the dynamics. Listen in to learn how Jill and the teams were able to change things, and ultimately got to a point where they got what they needed from the PO.

About Jill Stott

Jill Stott is here to make friends! She’s worked in IT for too many years to count. She is passionate about assisting ScrumMasters to be successful and happy in their roles. Jill knows that there is no such thing as a perfect chocolate chip cookie and she isn’t afraid to use puppets.

You can link with Jill Stott on LinkedIn.