Somya Mehra Archives - Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast

Somya Mehra: When Technical Expertise Becomes Product Owner Micro-Management

The Great Product Owner: The Clear Communicator and Dependency Master

Somya worked with an exceptional Product Owner on a project with multiple team dependencies. This PO excelled at clear, direct communication with both stakeholders and the team. They were proactive in stakeholder communication and maintained strong focus on what was needed and why. Their backlog management was exemplary, creating proper epics with comprehensive information including dependencies, enabling the team to easily know who to contact. This approach led to a much more motivated team.

The Bad Product Owner: The Technical Micro-Manager

Somya encountered a technically strong Product Owner whose knowledge became a liability. While technical strength can be beneficial, this PO used their expertise to control the team, telling developers exactly what solutions to implement. Initially, developers accepted this direction, but it escalated to every feature and task. The developers became uncomfortable voicing their perspectives, creating an unhealthy dynamic where the PO’s technical knowledge stifled team autonomy and creativity.

Self-reflection Question: How do you help Product Owners leverage their technical knowledge without falling into micro-management patterns?

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 Somya Mehra

Somya is a Scrum Master at u-blox with nearly 7 years of IT experience across India and Finland. With experience in Waterfall and Agile models, she leads with empathy and a people-first approach. Somya is deeply interested in human behavior and understanding the motivations behind people’s actions.

You can link with Somya Mehra on LinkedIn.

Somya Mehra: Why Collaboration Should Be An Agile Team’s Primary Goal

Unlike technical roles where success is tangible, Scrum Master success can be harder to measure, especially for those transitioning from tech roles. Somya defines successful Scrum Master performance through team behaviors: when teams trust and respect each other, and when collaboration becomes their goal. She emphasizes the importance of observing behaviors and discussing them with team members early enough to foster the right behaviors within the team.

Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: The 2 Pillars Retrospective

Somya recommends the 2 Pillars retrospective format, which she intentionally varies to keep teams engaged and curious. Her core structure focuses on two essential questions: “What went well?” and “How can we improve?” She notices that using the same retrospective format repeatedly leads to team boredom, so she adds variety while maintaining these fundamental pillars. In specific cases, she includes a gratitude section to ensure team members feel appreciated.

Self-reflection Question: How do you measure your success as a Scrum Master when the results aren’t as tangible as in technical roles?

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 Somya Mehra

You can link with Somya Mehra on LinkedIn.

Somya Mehra: From Top-Down to Collaborative—Reimagining Organizational Restructuring

During a business unit split and reorganization focused on creating smaller teams, Somya and her fellow Scrum Masters were invited to create the new structure process. After hearing feedback that teams felt excluded from previous changes, they decided to include teams in the reorganization process to give them a sense of control. They started by asking top management for constraints, then applied them to see what was possible. They facilitated workshops with Product Owners to divide the product portfolio and determine team assignments, ensuring people felt involved in the change process.

Self-reflection Question: When leading organizational change, how do you balance the need for structure with giving teams meaningful input into decisions that affect them?

Transform Your Agile Teams with Hard-Earned Lessons from Super-Experienced Scrum Masters

About Somya Mehra

You can link with Somya Mehra on LinkedIn.

Somya Mehra: How Upper Management Can Destroy a High-Performing Agile Team in Minutes

While working as a business analyst at a startup building an exam evaluation product for universities, Somya witnessed a well-functioning team with good collaboration and timely delivery. However, upper management began challenging the team lead and Scrum Master, accusing the team of padding story points. When leadership confronted the team, the tech lead threw the entire team under the bus, breaking all trust. The CEO’s declaration that he could detect padding in estimates shattered the relationship between developers and leadership, leading team members to want to leave.

Featured Book of the Week: Agile Retrospectives by Larsen and Derby

Somya recommends “Agile Retrospectives” by Larsen and Derby because doing Scrum right means doing retrospectives right. As someone who wanted to excel as a retro facilitator, she found this book invaluable due to its excellent reviews and practical examples. The book provides several examples of how to facilitate retrospectives effectively, making it her go-to recommendation for Scrum Masters wanting to improve their retrospective facilitation skills.

Self-reflection Question: How do you maintain trust between your team and leadership when management questions the team’s estimates or performance?

Transform Your Agile Teams with Hard-Earned Lessons from Super-Experienced Scrum Masters

About Somya Mehra

You can link with Somya Mehra on LinkedIn.

Somya Mehra: Learning to Spot Team Performance Warning Signs Early As A Scrum Master

At the start of Somya’s Scrum Master journey, she joined a well-organized and balanced team. However, after two senior developers left the company, the team faced unexpected challenges. Despite hiring new people, velocity didn’t improve. Somya discovered that a remaining senior developer had been stepping back and wasn’t contributing actively to the team. Through conversations and giving specific tickets to the senior developer, Somya learned valuable lessons about early intervention and communication.

Self-reflection Question: How quickly do you address performance concerns with team members, and what signals do you watch for to identify when someone might be disengaging?

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 Somya Mehra

You can link with Somya Mehra on LinkedIn.