po perspective Archives - Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast

Mirela Mus: The Super Scrum Master, Blending Product Expertise and Coaching Skills

The Great Product Owner: The Super Scrum Master, Blending Product Expertise and Coaching Skills

In this episode, the focus was on a Scrum Master who went above and beyond the traditional role. This Scrum Master had extensive experience with the product side and demonstrated a highly personable nature with a coaching attitude. The phrase “it’s humans all the way down” encapsulated their approach, emphasizing the importance of understanding and dealing with people from a human perspective. The episode highlighted the multifaceted skills and perspectives that this Scrum Master brought to the role, emphasizing the value of combining product knowledge, interpersonal skills, and a coaching mindset to create a positive and effective team dynamic.

The Bad Product Owner: Unveiling a Scrum Master Anti-pattern, and what PO’s can do about it

In this episode, Mirela discussed a Scrum Master anti-pattern where certain individuals disrupted the entire team under cover of implementing Scrum. Mirela suggests that one way to avoid this anti-pattern is to have a mentor to support the Product Owner. In the mentoring sessions, Mirela questioned the PO about whether the work of the Scrum Master was causing disruption and noise, and whether they were escalating numerous issues. She advised self-reflection to identify any triggers for such behavior. Building positive relationships within the team was recommended. Mirela emphasizes that excessive escalation is detrimental to everyone involved.

The Ultimate Guide to Supporting Product Owners as a Scrum Master

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 Mirela Mus

Mirela is the founder of Product People, a Product Management Consultancy on a mission to help companies discover and deliver great products faster. They have 41 full-time Product Managers who help companies focus on product-led growth and/or profitability.

You can link with Mirela Mus on LinkedIn and connect with Mirela Mus on Twitter.

Mirela Mus: From Good to Great, Secrets of Successful Product Owners

In this episode, the focus was on what it means to be a successful product owner. The discussion began by considering the size and nature of the organization, whether it operates in a B2B or B2C environment, and the specific challenges the product owner (PO) needs to navigate. A tip was shared to create a list of requirements for success based on the product and organization context. Some PO hiring teams tips shared included looking for similarities between one’s own business and successful businesses to hire from those industries. The importance of cognitive flexibility as a key skill for POs was also highlighted. The episode also included references to Product People live stream events.

Featured Retrospective for the Week: The Asynchronous Agile Retrospective, a case study by a Product Owner

In this episode, Mirela shared her views on Agile retrospectives and provided practical tips. She recommended that all Product Owners (POs) ask Scrum Masters to host retrospectives. She discussed the benefits of asynchronous retrospectives and encouraged participants to write stories about improvements. Mirela suggested hosting a pre-mortem if a project or situation carries a high risk. She emphasized the importance of reflecting on what could have been done better with the available knowledge at the time. She mentioned the book Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts by Annie Duke, and highlighted the need to tune the frequency of retrospectives to address recurring issues effectively.

How can I, as a Scrum Master, supercharge my facilitation?

Retrospectives, planning sessions, vision workshops, we are continuously helping teams learn about how to collaborate in practice! In this Actionable Agile Tools book, Jeff Campbell shares some of the tools he’s learned over a decade of coaching Agile Teams. The pragmatic coaching book you need, right now! Buy Actionable Agile Tools on Amazon, or directly from the author, and supercharge your facilitation toolbox!

About Mirela Mus

You can link with Mirela Mus on LinkedIn and connect with Mirela Mus on Twitter.

Mirela Mus: The Product Owner’s view on Leadership Impact, Priorities, and Stakeholder Management for Scrum Teams

In this episode, Mirela discussed the challenges of change management and shared valuable tips. She emphasized that change can fail for various reasons and highlighted the importance of impactful leadership to drive successful change. Mirela recommended having a supportive group of people ready to assist in the change process and showcasing examples of successful changes to the team. Collaboration with Product Owners (POs) was emphasized, as they can greatly influence team performance. The ability of a PO to say “no” to higher-ups was discussed. Anti-patterns such as a lack of priorities or structure in prioritization were identified as potential problems at the team level. Mirela provided tips on mapping stakeholders, managing relationships, and helping the PO learn to influence people. In this episode, we refer to the book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. Managing oneself, leveraging asynchronous work, monitoring the PM’s meeting time, and deprioritizing as a cost-cutting measure were additional tips shared in the episode.

Want to Improve Your Change Management Results? Discover the Lean Change Management Approach Today!

As Scrum Master we work with change continuously! Do you have your own change framework that provides the guidance, and queues you need when working with change? The Lean Change Management framework is a fully defined, lean-startup inspired change framework that can be used as the backbone of any change process! You can buy Lean Change Management the book at Amazon. Also available in French, Spanish, German and Portuguese.

About Mirela Mus

You can link with Mirela Mus on LinkedIn and connect with Mirela Mus on Twitter.

Mirela Mus: The Product Owner’s View on Understanding and Overcoming Agile Team Self-Destructive Patterns

In this episode, Mirela discussed a team that self-destructed, highlighting various anti-patterns and providing helpful tips. She emphasized the negative impact of being overly focused on competition rather than individual work. Toxic personalities within the team and the acceptance of individuals who didn’t align with the team culture were identified as destructive factors. Mirela suggested ignoring disruptive behaviors selectively and being mindful of personal anxiety when starting work. Working “around” difficult team members was discouraged, while assuming good intentions and engaging in one-on-one discussions were recommended. The Nonviolent Communication (NVC) approach was mentioned, and open discussions in team channels were advised to address problematic behaviors transparently.

Featured Book of the Week: Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice by Clayton Christensen

In this episode, Mirela shared her recommended books. The first recommendation was “Competing Against Luck” by Clayton Christensen, which helps cut through the noise and understand the underlying factors in successful innovation. The next recommendation was “Thinking in Systems” by Donella Meadows, a book that aids in navigating organizations and comprehending incentives by emphasizing the impact of systems. Mirela humorously mentioned the phrase, “it’s because of the system, man!” Lastly, Mirela refers to the concept of “OODA Loop,” which is the cycle observe–orient–decide–act, developed by military strategist and United States Air Force Colonel John Boyd. These books provide valuable insights for understanding innovation, organizational dynamics, and the PO role.

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 Mirela Mus

You can link with Mirela Mus on LinkedIn and connect with Mirela Mus on Twitter.

Mirela Mus: The Product Owner’s view on the overprotective Scrum Master that lacked a focus on value

In this episode, Mirela discusses a Scrum Master failure in a classical scrum setup. The Scrum Master lacked understanding of the business and failed to protect the team. The client was struggling with a difficult subscription service and wanted to replace their old system, but the Scrum Master focused more on team-building activities. This caused panic and highlighted the importance of finding a shared goal and fostering team cohesion. Several anti-patterns were identified, including the Scrum Master feeling useless and prioritizing “showing value” without understanding the project’s objectives. We discuss some Scrum Master tips for addressing these issues, such as open communication, maintaining a clear focus on critical product aspects, and avoiding the application of frameworks solely for the sake of it.

The inspiring story of how a failing hospital turned things around with Agile and Lean

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 Mirela Mus

You can link with Mirela Mus on LinkedIn and connect with Mirela Mus on Twitter.