Ruta Hardikar Archives - Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast

Ruta Hardikar: The Product Owner that skipped the Sprint Reviews, and what that caused for the Scrum team

The Great Product Owner: The Customer advocate Product Owner

This Product Owner was very close to the customer, and listened to their needs as well as the struggles they had with the product. Through their work, the PO tried to focus on adding to the backlog stories that would help the customer directly, and would often act as the customer when talking to the team. They were able to focus on prioritization, and prioritized the work for the team. The PO was also able to create clear priorities and have conversations with the team about the 3 V’s: Vision, Value, and Validation.

The Bad Product Owner: The Product Owner that skipped the Sprint Reviews, and what that caused for the Scrum team

The processes we have in place influence the choices, and the focus of the Product Owners. In this segment, we talk about a team and their Product Owner that did not host a Sprint Review. Instead, the PO would focus on reviews with individuals, separate discussion with single stakeholders. However, that meant that other stakeholders would not know what the team had worked on during the Sprint. Furthermore, the team was not involved, and did not have the chance to show, and be proud of what they had accomplished during the Sprint. This was an anti-pattern that Ruta tried to overcome. Listen in to learn how Ruta tackled this anti-pattern.

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 Ruta Hardikar

Ruta has over 8 years experience with Agile, and has taken the roles of Agile Coach, Scrum Master, Release Train Engineer (RTE in SAFe), working with GM Financial.

You can link with Ruta Hardikar on LinkedIn.

Ruta Hardikar: Key Agile team behaviors that show how successful you are as a Scrum Master

Ruta shares some of the behaviors she wants to see in a team, to assess her own success as a Scrum Master. Behind the behaviors listed, we find the need to observe ownership and commitment on the part of the team. Listen in, to hear the list of behaviors, and how you can evaluate those for your team.

Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: The 4L’s with some customizations to help the team have fun in the retrospective!

Ruta’s suggestion for the week is the 4 L’s retrospective, with some customizations that help the team get into the mood of the Agile Retrospective, and add some fun to the retrospective.

In this segment, we refer to the interview with Robbie Ross and the concept of Relentless Improvement.

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 Ruta Hardikar

Ruta has over 8 years experience with Agile, and has taken the roles of Agile Coach, Scrum Master, Release Train Engineer (RTE in SAFe), working with GM Financial.

You can link with Ruta Hardikar on LinkedIn.

Ruta Hardikar: Creating and launching an Agile Release Train, a SAFe how-to!

Ruta was working with a group of Scrum Masters to create and launch an Agile Release Train. They looked at the process as a change that required certain steps to be successful. In this episode, we discuss the step-by-step process you can use to create and launch an Agile Release Train, prepare the first PI Planning event, and align all the teams!

About Ruta Hardikar

Ruta has over 8 years experience with Agile, and has taken the roles of Agile Coach, Scrum Master, Release Train Engineer (RTE in SAFe), working with GM Financial.

You can link with Ruta Hardikar on LinkedIn.

Ruta Hardikar: Building great Scrum teams, the how to!

As part of working with teams, we must learn to grow teams, to make them feel as a group that can perform and overcome the challenges they will inevitably face. In this segment, we talk about a team Ruta was working with, and how she helped them create a safe space to share and talk about “the hard stuff”, and how we can build in team building into the Scrum ceremonies with the goal of building a great team.

In this segment, we talk about the Tuckman model of group development, and the book The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team by Lencioni.

Featured Book of the Week: Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradberry

In Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradberry, Ruta found different aspects we need to develop as Scrum Masters. Scrum Masters work in a people-oriented job, therefore we need to actively study and learn more about people’s defining characteristics. The book helped Ruta learn to manage, and benefit from emotions, rather than be afraid of them.

In this segment, we also talk about Start with Why by Simon Sinek.

How can Angela (the Agile Coach) quickly build healthy relationships with the teams she’s supposed to help? What were the steps she followed to help the Breeze App team fight off the competition? Find out how Angela helped Naomi and the team go from “behind” to being ahead of Intuition Bank, by focusing on the people! Download the first 4 chapters of the BOOK for FREE while it is in Beta!

About Ruta Hardikar

Ruta has over 8 years experience with Agile, and has taken the roles of Agile Coach, Scrum Master, Release Train Engineer (RTE in SAFe), working with GM Financial.

You can link with Ruta Hardikar on LinkedIn.

Ruta Hardikar: Learning to take into account people’s personalities when implementing Scrum in an Agile team

Ruta started working with a new team that had recently adopted Agile. Many of the practices and processes were new to the team, but also to Ruta as the Scrum Master. As Ruta started to push for some changes, she noticed that the Product Owner and Business Analyst on the team wanted to control the Sprint Reviews very carefully, including who was invited to see the team’s deliverables. When Ruta started to ask about why they wanted to control the Sprint Reviews so carefully, she discovered something that helped her understand the why, but also the need to consider people’s personalities when implementing Scrum.

In this episode, we refer to the book The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph by Ryan Holiday.

About Ruta Hardikar

Ruta has over 8 years experience with Agile, and has taken the roles of Agile Coach, Scrum Master, Release Train Engineer (RTE in SAFe), working with GM Financial.

You can link with Ruta Hardikar on LinkedIn.