Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

What makes a Product Owner successful in managing large teams? In this episode, Jaques shares an example of a Product Owner who managed a large team successfully by setting clear boundaries and saying "no" unless convinced otherwise. This approach led to a well-functioning team and better innovation. Jaques emphasizes the importance of clear communication and structured leadership.

How can Product Owners manage stakeholder expectations effectively? Jaques shares his experience with a Product Owner (PO) working with an unmanageable number of stakeholders and communication lines. The PO's habit of saying "yes" to everyone led to overwhelming challenges. Jaques shares insights on effective PO practices, including setting boundaries and creating smaller, more productive teams.

[IMAGE HERE] 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 Jaques Smit

Jaques is a seasoned Agile coach and Scrum Master with extensive experience in leading and transforming teams in the game development industry. His expertise lies in fostering team collaboration, resolving conflicts, and facilitating effective retrospectives. Jaques is passionate about continuous learning and empowering teams to achieve their full potential.

You can link with Jaques Smit on LinkedIn and connect with Jaques Smit through his website.

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

How can Scrum Masters harness conflict to drive team success? In this episode, Jaques explores the concept of conflict in teams and its role in growth. He emphasizes the need for Scrum Masters to manage team dynamics, facilitate decision-making, and promote effective feedback. Jaques shares tips on conflict resolution and the importance of continuous learning and adaptation for Scrum Masters.

Jaques introWhat retrospective techniques can enhance team understanding and growth? duces his favorite Agile Retrospective format: the Team Coaching Conversation. He explains the steps, starting with silent writing, followed by dot-voting and a coaching conversation led by team members. This format fosters understanding and growth, with actionable insights discussed later.

[IMAGE HERE] 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 Jaques Smit

Jaques is a seasoned Agile coach and Scrum Master with extensive experience in leading and transforming teams in the game development industry. His expertise lies in fostering team collaboration, resolving conflicts, and facilitating effective retrospectives. Jaques is passionate about continuous learning and empowering teams to achieve their full potential.

You can link with Jaques Smit on LinkedIn and connect with Jaques Smit through his website.

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

How can leaders effectively motivate and guide teams through significant changes? Jaques shares his journey in leading a traditional development team towards creating their own games. He highlights the challenges of facilitating change without sufficient coaching skills and the importance of creating a desire for change. Jaques introduces ADKAR, SCARF, and coaching techniques, ultimately leading to successful organizational transformation.

In this episode, we also refer to Constructivist Learning, and Adult learning theory.

[IMAGE HERE] 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 Jaques Smit

Jaques is a seasoned Agile coach and Scrum Master with extensive experience in leading and transforming teams in the game development industry. His expertise lies in fostering team collaboration, resolving conflicts, and facilitating effective retrospectives. Jaques is passionate about continuous learning and empowering teams to achieve their full potential.

You can link with Jaques Smit on LinkedIn and connect with Jaques Smit through his website.

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

Jaques shares the story of a long-term game development team's recurring issues despite changes in personnel. Several Product Owners had left because of burnout. However, with every new PO the team cycled through the same patterns, eventually leading to the PO’s leaving. Jaques realized the team was stuck in a Persecutor-Victim-Rescuer dynamic, and tried to help the team by bringing in outside assistance. Through this story, Jaques discusses the importance of addressing underlying conflicts, enhancing conflict resolution skills, and avoiding the drama triangle.

How can the language we use as leaders influence team dynamics? Jaques discusses "Leadership is Language" by David Marquet (David Marquet has been a previous guest on the show) and its impact on his approach to workplace challenges. The book helped him realize the importance of language in shaping behavior and leadership conversations. Jaques shares how the book helped him facilitate leadership discussions and improve team communication.

[IMAGE HERE] 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 Jaques Smit

Jaques is a seasoned Agile coach and Scrum Master with extensive experience in leading and transforming teams in the game development industry. His expertise lies in fostering team collaboration, resolving conflicts, and facilitating effective retrospectives. Jaques is passionate about continuous learning and empowering teams to achieve their full potential.

You can link with Jaques Smit on LinkedIn and connect with Jaques Smit through his website.

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

Jaques shares an experience with a game development team struggling to meet their goals. Despite his efforts to implement sprint goals and keep the team accountable, he faced resistance. Apparently lost with the process of setting goals, the Product Owner (PO) stepped back, pushing Jaques to take ownership and set the goals, which further re-enforced the team’s attitude of not taking ownership. Jaques reflects on the importance of coaching with an open mind and the challenges of directive leadership. He shares insights on enabling constraints and the Cynefin framework.

In this episode we also refer to Clinton Keith’s work as well as the #NoEstimates book.

[IMAGE HERE] 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 Jaques Smit

Jaques is a seasoned Agile coach and Scrum Master with extensive experience in leading and transforming teams in the game development industry. His expertise lies in fostering team collaboration, resolving conflicts, and facilitating effective retrospectives. Jaques is passionate about continuous learning and empowering teams to achieve their full potential.

You can link with Jaques Smit on LinkedIn and connect with Jaques Smit through his website.

In this BONUS episode, we talk to Marjolein Pilon about her innovative approach of considering Planet Earth as a key stakeholder in software development. Through practical examples and actionable tips, she inspires teams to make meaningful changes towards a greener future.

"Frustration about climate change and wanting a better future for my children led me to explore the carbon footprint of our IT work."

Marjolein's passion for environmental sustainability began with personal frustrations about climate change. Feeling that she had done all she could at home, she extended her concerns to her professional environment by asking about the carbon footprint of IT. This led to the creation of a 'planet retrospective,' where her team brainstormed ways to reduce their environmental impact. This approach proved to be so effective that she began facilitating these retrospectives for other teams, spreading the importance of seeing the planet as a stakeholder.

"Taking a simple first step can break down complexity and build motivation."

Marjolein shares a story of a team that significantly reduced their carbon footprint by taking small, easy steps. Starting with the elimination of an unnecessary test environment, the team moved on to more substantial changes, such as optimizing database queries and shutting down unused applications outside office hours. Their efforts culminated in a 45% reduction in their carbon footprint, serving as an inspiration for other teams.

"We started looking at our software from the Planet Earth's perspective."

For Marjolein, considering Planet Earth as a stakeholder means incorporating environmental considerations into every stage of software and product development. This perspective shift encourages teams to think about the long-term impacts of their work on the environment.

"Use costs as a proxy to convince managers to run sustainability sprints."

Marjolein explains that measuring the environmental impact of software decisions can be straightforward. For on-premise servers, energy bills provide clear data, while cloud services like AWS and Azure offer carbon footprint dashboards. She advises teams to monitor metrics like disk access, memory versus disk usage, and query times to understand and reduce their carbon footprint.

"We include planet earth and climate impact in the sprint reviews and definition of done."

Marjolein emphasizes integrating sustainability into daily workflows, such as sprint reviews and definitions of done. This makes the concept of sustainability more tangible and actionable for smaller teams and startups. She explains how even small actions can have a significant collective impact.

"Simple steps can align innovation, speed to market, and sustainability."

Marjolein highlights the importance of balancing innovation, speed to market, and sustainability. By taking simple, actionable steps, teams can align these seemingly competing demands effectively.

Marjolein recommends the book "The Good Ancestor: How to Think Long Term in a Short-Term World" by Roman Krznaric

For teams looking to integrate long-term environmental considerations into their development processes, this book provides a framework for thinking beyond immediate goals and considering the impact on future generations.

About Marjolein

Marjolein is an enthusiastic freelance Scrum Master and Agile Coach, committed to making the IT community more carbon-efficient. With a passion for Planet Earth and a knack for facilitating creative teams, she embodies agile and scrum values, promoting team autonomy and continuous improvement. Marjolein shares her insights on her website https://theagileplayground.com/.

You can link with Marjolein Pilon on LinkedIn.

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

Kirsi highlights the qualities of an exemplary Product Owner who inspires and guides their team effectively. This PO was modest yet visionary, capable of simplifying complex requirements and fostering a collaborative environment. Kirsi shares how this PO encouraged experimentation and learning, creating an inspired and productive team. Discover the traits that make a Product Owner truly great and how they can positively impact their team's performance.

Kirsi discusses the anti-pattern of an indecisive Product Owner who lacks direction and decision-making skills. She explains how this leads to a lack of progress and team direction. Kirsi shares tips on how to coach Product Owners to make time for the team, avoid excessive meetings, and focus on the product vision. Learn the common pitfalls of an indecisive PO and how to overcome them.

In this episode, we refer to the Sprint Checklist, a tool you can use to help the PO better manage their time to be available for the team when necessary. You can download the Sprint Checklist tool for Scrum Masters, here.

[IMAGE HERE] 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 Kirsi Sahlstén

Kirsi is a wanna-be neuroscientist and full-stack developer who, in real life, ended up as an Agile coach. She is passionate about sparking and enabling learning and unlearning, working together across boundaries, and focusing on the essential. Her favorite question is "Why?" and she is fascinated by the complexity of simplicity.

You can link with Kirsi Sahlstén on LinkedIn.

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

In this episode, Kirsi defines success for Scrum Masters through her experience. She discusses the joy of seeing teams achieve their goals independently and the importance of psychological safety. Kirsi shares a story of how practicing prioritization techniques with Product Owners led to improved collaboration and decision-making. She emphasizes the need for Scrum Masters to create a safe environment for teams to practice and grow, ultimately leading to their success.

Kirsi shares her favorite Agile retrospective format, "Start/Stop/Continue." She explains how its simplicity leads to actionable results, especially when time is limited. Kirsi also highlights an anti-pattern where retrospectives run out of time for discussing improvement actions. She provides tips on how to open retrospectives with a focus on the team's ways of working to ensure meaningful outcomes.

[IMAGE HERE] 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 Kirsi Sahlstén

Kirsi is a wanna-be neuroscientist and full-stack developer who, in real life, ended up as an Agile coach. She is passionate about sparking and enabling learning and unlearning, working together across boundaries, and focusing on the essential. Her favorite question is "Why?" and she is fascinated by the complexity of simplicity.

You can link with Kirsi Sahlstén on LinkedIn.