Sebastian Reverso Archives - Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast

Sebastian Reverso: The PO who as able to be the Voice of the Customer

In this episode, we discuss two very different Product Owner patterns. We talk about a PO that felt their role was to be the voice of the customer, and the PO who felt the team was merely a “service provider” and they were the “outsider” who would demand service.

The Great Product Owner: The voice of the customer

This Product Owner had faced real customers. The PO worked previously in customer services and had to face the customer regularly. As she started working with the team, she was able to convey her ideas clearly, and from the customer’s point of view. At the same time, she did not interfere with the team’s technical discussion, letting them decide how the team would implement those ideas in practice.

The Bad Product Owner: The “outsider” PO

This particular Product Owner was stuck with the idea that the PO is not part of the team. That led to several problems. For example, the team would end up reporting “status” to the PO in the dailies and ended up trying to push more stories into the sprints. In this segment, we discuss how we can help PO’s that have that “outsider” perspective and how to get to a point when the PO feels like they are part of the team.

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 Sebastian Reverso

Sebastian is from Tucuman, Argentina. He has been working as a software developer since 2012 and as a Scrum Master since 2017.

Among his favorite activities are mountain biking and football (soccer).

You can link with Sebastian Reverso on LinkedIn and connect with Sebastian Reverso on Twitter.

Sebastian Reverso: Liquid Organizations and how they help shape your Agile Retrospectives

Are you a Scrum mom? When assessing our own success as Scrum Masters, we must look not only at how the team performs but also how we get there. How we contribute to that team’s success.

In this episode, we talk about some of the questions you can ask to learn if you are transitioning from that initial Scrum Mom role to an approach that allows the team to grow and continue on their own when you are not available.

Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: Liquid organizations, and how to adapt

When we reflect on our success or actions, we often focus on the task, and its success (or not). However, the way people contribute to the team may often be ignored. For example, a team member that is focused on helping others succeed may feel they are “not contributing”. In this episode, we discuss a different approach to retrospectives. An approach inspired by the concept of Liquid Organizations by Stelio Verzera, and that focuses on recognizing the contribution of each team member to the common success. Team members evaluate their peers’ contribution, so that the person who was focused on helping, may feel they contribute, even if they don’t work on many stories.

About Sebastian Reverso

Sebastian is from Tucuman, Argentina. He has been working as a software developer since 2012 and as a Scrum Master since 2017.

Among his favorite activities are mountain biking and football (soccer).

You can link with Sebastian Reverso on LinkedIn and connect with Sebastian Reverso on Twitter.

Sebastian Reverso: Drawing people to change, instead of pushing change onto them

When introducing change to an organization, the way we present ideas and involve people become key aspects to our success. In this episode, we talk about how introducing ideas in different ways may have radically different results. We identify some approaches that have worked well, and we talk about the concept of “baby steps”, or relentless movement towards a direction. Finally, we discuss how to involve the team members directly in that process. As Scrum Masters we don’t need to tell the team what to do, they know. If they understand why the change is necessary, they can come up with the right steps.

About Sebastian Reverso

Sebastian is from Tucuman, Argentina. He has been working as a software developer since 2012 and as a Scrum Master since 2017.

Among his favorite activities are mountain biking and football (soccer).

You can link with Sebastian Reverso on LinkedIn and connect with Sebastian Reverso on Twitter.

Sebastian Reverso: The Treasure Island Retrospective as a way to help team members empathize

As Sebastian started to work with multiple teams, he started to note some patterns of behavior that might cause problems. In this episode, we focus on the “professional jealousy” that some team members showed towards each other. We discuss how to detect it, and what the possible consequences of that behavior might be. Learn to detect it, and listen in to learn how Sebastian helped the team move forward.

In this episode, we refer to the Agile retrospective format: The Treasure Island, and to Solution Focused Coaching.

Featured Book for the Week: Por Un Scrum Popular: Notas para una Revolución Ágile (Spanish Edition)

Por Un Scrum Popular by Mayer and Cyment is the Spanish edition of the popular: The People’s Scrum by Tobias Mayer.

Sebastian found especially informative the aspects of the day-to-day Scrum that the authors go through, and how they compare what work looks like when using Scrum and when not using Scrum.

In this segment, we also refer to the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast episode with Claudia Toscano where the book “Por un Scrum Popular” is discussed in more depth.

About Sebastian Reverso

Sebastian is from Tucuman, Argentina. He has been working as a software developer since 2012 and as a Scrum Master since 2017.

Among his favorite activities are mountain biking and football (soccer).

You can link with Sebastian Reverso on LinkedIn and connect with Sebastian Reverso on Twitter.

Sebastian Reverso: What to do when the Scrum team is facing big quality problems

When Sebastian took up the Scrum Master role, he did not expect to face the trial by fire he was about the experience. A few months into that new role, he was facing a situation where the application was blowing up everywhere. As the team pushed to release quickly, they didn’t account for all the technical problems or even some of the non-functional requirements they had to adhere to. As a developer-turned-Scrum Master, Sebastian had to learn the hard way how to help teams “divide and conquer” their work. We discuss how we can avoid similar problems in other teams, and some of the techniques Sebastian learned to help teams in that same situation.

In this episode, we refer to the Jassy’s episode where he also describes a transition from developer to Scrum Master.

About Sebastian Reverso

Sebastian is from Tucuman, Argentina. He has been working as a software developer since 2012 and as a Scrum Master since 2017.

Among his favorite activities are mountain biking and football (soccer).

You can link with Sebastian Reverso on LinkedIn and connect with Sebastian Reverso on Twitter.