product ownership Archives - Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast

Gregory Miller: From High Performers to Demoralization, And How The Product Owner Role Can Destroy A Scrum Team

In this episode, Greg reflects on a team that self-destructed, causing him significant pain. The team, previously considered an exemplary high-performing unit, faced external factors and decisions that disrupted their dynamics. Leadership discussions about replacing their product, the removal of their Product Owner (PO), and a lack of support left the team directionless and demoralized. Greg recognizes the detrimental impact of removing the PO, highlighting it as an anti-pattern that ultimately led to the team’s disbandment. This episode serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of providing support, direction, and maintaining team cohesion to foster a thriving and motivated workforce.

Featured Book of the Week: “The Scrum Pocket Guide” by Gunther Verheyen

In this segment, Greg talks about his most influential book for Scrum Masters, which is “The Scrum Pocket Guide” by Gunther Verheyen, a previous guest on the podcast. He highly recommends this book, as it has been invaluable to him in his role. Greg frequently refers to it and even keeps it on his nightstand for easy access.

One aspect that stands out to Greg is Gunther’s emphasis on the values side of Agile. The book delves into why the Scrum values are significant and explores their importance in the context of Scrum. Greg appreciates this focus on values as a fundamental aspect of Agile practices.

For further exploration of the Scrum values, Greg suggests referring to the values section in the Scrum Guide. Overall, “The Scrum Pocket Guide” has had a profound impact on Greg’s understanding of Scrum and serves as a go-to resource for him as a Scrum Master.

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About Gregory (Greg) Miller

Greg is an Agilist and Coach who has been working in Agile software development for more than 10 years. He hosts The Agile Within podcast with Mark Metze (a previous guest), which promotes agile behaviors and mindset. He lives in Ohio with his wife and four children, two of which are twins.

You can link with Gregory (Greg) Miller on LinkedIn and connect with Gregory (Greg) Miller on Twitter.

Amruta Beri: Metrics and Goals, Driving Success with SMART Goals and Data-Driven Decisions

When it comes to Scrum Master success, Amruta highlights the importance of identifying the right problems to address, which allows for setting appropriate goals and using metrics to validate the effectiveness of the solutions. She suggests defining SMART goals that align with the product or company’s strategy, emphasizing the significance of goal alignment between problem goals and team goals. Amruta recommends taking action on goals by identifying critical metrics for the team and focusing on 1 or 2 goals at a time. She references resources such as the Product Institute and the HEART metrics framework. Using a real example of decreasing support call volume, Amruta illustrates the process of measuring the current level, categorizing calls, and defining possible solutions. Success, according to Amruta, lies in identifying the right problem and establishing achievable targets.

Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: Rotating Formats to Avoid Monotony, A Super Tip For Retrospective Facilitation

To keep retrospectives engaging, Amruta recommends incorporating different types of retrospectives to avoid monotony. She mentions the “Sailboat” and “Vegas” retrospectives as useful resources. Amruta provides several tips, such as starting the retrospective with an ice-breaker to lighten the mood, using appreciations to acknowledge team members’ contributions, reviewing action items from previous retrospectives, selecting a theme to facilitate discussion, defining action items for the current sprint, and concluding the retrospective by leaving the team with a thought on how Agile can benefit them. These strategies contribute to creating a productive and enjoyable retrospective experience for the team.

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About Amruta Beri

Amruta is an Agile enthusiast, artist, and environmentalist. She loves quiz shows, travel and sports, and is an engineer at heart.

You can link with Amruta Beri on LinkedIn and connect with Amruta Beri on Twitter.

Harri Tunturivuori: Helping Product Owners, and navigating conflicting priorities as a Scrum Master: A case study

In this episode, Harri discusses a challenging situation he faced while working as a Scrum Master on a product that had three internal customers in different countries with different needs. The biggest problem was getting an ordered backlog, which was difficult because they did not have a product owner. Instead, they agreed on a committee of product owners consisting of one representative from each country. However, it was difficult to get agreements on what was most important, so Harri ended up making the decision of what the team should work on. To shield the team from the confusion with the product owners, Harri only relayed the technical details to them. The team was happy with the work, but unfortunately, when they presented the product to stakeholders, it did not meet their expectations.

Harri’s personal failure as a Scrum Master in this situation was that he did not engage with customers and stakeholders enough. He emphasizes the importance of having a single product owner and engaging with customers and stakeholders to avoid similar issues. Harri also mentions that he loved the product, which made it easier to work with the team, but he should have focused more on meeting the stakeholders’ expectations. This episode serves as a great lesson for other Scrum Masters and product owners who may be struggling with similar situations, and Harri’s tips on engaging with stakeholders and having a single product owner can help them avoid similar failures.

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 Harri Tunturivuori

Harri is an experienced leader, Scrum Master, and Agile Coach who was introduced to the world of agile software development in 2010. Since then, Harri has had the pleasure of leading great agile teams in various forms.

Harri enjoys working in a fun environment where there is room for innovation, and Harri is driven by the challenge of growing a group of good people into a great team.

You can link with Harri Tunturivuori on LinkedIn.

Tinatin Tabidze: Building Trust in Agile Teams, Insights from a Scrum Master

Tinatin discusses the importance of the scrum values in a team and how well the team is living those values. She highlights the importance of team health checks to identify inefficiencies, which can often result from a lack of collaboration and trust between team members. Tinatin uses the example of the Spotify Squad health check (mentioned several times here on the podcast) that reveals a lack of trust between developers and testers, and offers tips for identifying a lack of trust in a team, such as monitoring levels of comfort among team members, monitoring communication, and observing meetings for signs of discomfort or silence.

Featured Book Of The Week: Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time by Sutherland

In Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time by Sutherland, the author describes how to optimize work through Agile methodology and Scrum principles. In this episode, Tinatin also refers to Scaling Lean and Agile Development by Craig Larman, and Bas Vodde. Bas Vodde has been a previous guest on the podcast. And she also refers to Strategize: Product Strategy and Product Roadmap Practices for the Digital Age by Roman Pichler.

About Tinatin Tabidze

Tinatin Tabidze is a Scrum Master currently working in Stuttgart, Germany. Originally she started out as a project manager. She has experience with multiple scrum and kanban teams, working with scaled agile frameworks.

You can link with Tinatin Tabidze on LinkedIn.