BONUS Creating Psychological Safety at Work With Mehmet Baha

Season Hughes: How To Be A Data-Driven Scrum Master Or Agile Coach Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. Season approaches Scrum Master success by regularly referring back to the Scrum Guide and measuring progress against its principles. She emphasizes the importance of collecting data and measuring key indicators like self-management, which she tests by occasionally stepping back from daily Scrum meetings to observe team autonomy. Season also stresses the value of one-on-one conversations to understand individual goals and assess team event effectiveness. Self-reflection Question: How do you measure the effectiveness of your role as a Scrum Master beyond just following ceremonies? Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: Lean Coffee Season recommends the Lean Coffee format for retrospectives as it puts control directly in the hands of participants who decide the discussion topics. This approach naturally increases engagement and ownership of the retrospective process. She emphasizes the importance of including warm-up activities to set the right mood and ensuring everyone speaks early in the session, while also following up on previous retrospective actions. [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends] 🔥In the ruthless world of fintech, success isn’t just about innovation—it’s about coaching!🔥 Angela thought she was just there to coach a team. But now, she’s caught in the middle of a corporate espionage drama that could make or break the future of digital banking. Can she help the team regain their mojo and outwit their rivals, or will the competition crush their ambitions? As alliances shift and the pressure builds, one thing becomes clear: this isn’t just about the product—it’s about the people. 🚨 Will Angela’s coaching be enough? Find out in Shift: From Product to People—the gripping story of high-stakes innovation and corporate intrigue. Buy Now on Amazon [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends] About Season Hughes  Season is a strategist and creator who empowers customers and teams to excel. From designing clever, fandom-inspired apparel at Tomorrowland Transit Authority to coaching high-performance teams, Season is passionate about delivering value and driving growth. Now focused on ecommerce success, Season's mission is to turn goals into epic adventures. You can link with Season Hughes on LinkedIn.

27 Feb 15min

Season Hughes: Understanding the "Why" Behind Agile Transformation Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. Drawing from her consulting experience, Season shares valuable insights about leading successful Agile transformations. Rather than simply implementing Scrum, she emphasizes the importance of understanding organizational motivations by asking crucial questions like "Why do you want this change?" and "What does success look like?"  She outlines a comprehensive approach that begins with foundational training using the Scrum Guide, followed by Liftoff workshops to establish team foundations, working agreements, and regular check-ins to support continuous improvement. In this segment, we refer to the Liftoff book, by Diana Larsen and Ainsley Niles. Self-reflection Question: What steps are you taking to understand and align with your organization's transformation goals? [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends] 🔥In the ruthless world of fintech, success isn’t just about innovation—it’s about coaching!🔥 Angela thought she was just there to coach a team. But now, she’s caught in the middle of a corporate espionage drama that could make or break the future of digital banking. Can she help the team regain their mojo and outwit their rivals, or will the competition crush their ambitions? As alliances shift and the pressure builds, one thing becomes clear: this isn’t just about the product—it’s about the people. 🚨 Will Angela’s coaching be enough? Find out in Shift: From Product to People—the gripping story of high-stakes innovation and corporate intrigue. Buy Now on Amazon [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends] About Season Hughes  Season is a strategist and creator who empowers customers and teams to excel. From designing clever, fandom-inspired apparel at Tomorrowland Transit Authority to coaching high-performance teams, Season is passionate about delivering value and driving growth. Now focused on ecommerce success, Season's mission is to turn goals into epic adventures. You can link with Season Hughes on LinkedIn.

26 Feb 15min

Season Hughes: Transforming Workgroups into High-Performing Teams Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. Season shares insights about a common anti-pattern she's observed across organizations: calling a group of people a team doesn't automatically make them one. She discusses how many supposed teams are actually workgroups - collections of independent contributors rewarded for individual rather than collective achievements. Season provides specific criteria to distinguish between workgroups and real teams, emphasizing the importance of shared goals and collaborative success metrics. In this segment, we also refer to the One-Team, One-Goal (OTOG) article by Vasco. Featured Book of the Week: The Scrum Guide Season emphasizes the fundamental importance of The Scrum Guide as essential reading for Scrum Masters. She stresses that since Scrum Masters are accountable for coaching Scrum, they should regularly revisit the guide and stay current with updates. She specifically highlights how many Scrum Masters might miss crucial elements like "product goals," demonstrating why continuous engagement with this foundational document is vital for effective Scrum coaching. Self-reflection Question: How often do you revisit and reflect on the fundamental principles in the Scrum Guide? [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends] 🔥In the ruthless world of fintech, success isn’t just about innovation—it’s about coaching!🔥 Angela thought she was just there to coach a team. But now, she’s caught in the middle of a corporate espionage drama that could make or break the future of digital banking. Can she help the team regain their mojo and outwit their rivals, or will the competition crush their ambitions? As alliances shift and the pressure builds, one thing becomes clear: this isn’t just about the product—it’s about the people. 🚨 Will Angela’s coaching be enough? Find out in Shift: From Product to People—the gripping story of high-stakes innovation and corporate intrigue. Buy Now on Amazon [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends] About Season Hughes  Season is a strategist and creator who empowers customers and teams to excel. From designing clever, fandom-inspired apparel at Tomorrowland Transit Authority to coaching high-performance teams, Season is passionate about delivering value and driving growth. Now focused on ecommerce success, Season's mission is to turn goals into epic adventures. You can link with Season Hughes on LinkedIn.

25 Feb 20min

Season Hughes: How A Product Cancellation Tests a New Scrum Master's Growth Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. As a new Scrum Master, Season faced a challenging situation when her team learned their product would be canceled. Initially, she made the mistake of telling team members they could skip daily standups if they had higher priorities, leading to unexpected low attendance. During the retrospective, she transformed this challenge into a learning opportunity by helping team members reflect on their personal growth and lessons learned. This experience taught her the importance of maintaining team ceremonies while providing individual support during difficult transitions. In this segment, we talk about ORSC, a systems inspired team and relationship coach training. Self-reflection Question: How would you maintain team engagement and motivation when facing a product cancellation? [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends] 🔥In the ruthless world of fintech, success isn’t just about innovation—it’s about coaching!🔥 Angela thought she was just there to coach a team. But now, she’s caught in the middle of a corporate espionage drama that could make or break the future of digital banking. Can she help the team regain their mojo and outwit their rivals, or will the competition crush their ambitions? As alliances shift and the pressure builds, one thing becomes clear: this isn’t just about the product—it’s about the people. 🚨 Will Angela’s coaching be enough? Find out in Shift: From Product to People—the gripping story of high-stakes innovation and corporate intrigue. Buy Now on Amazon [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends] About Season Hughes  Season is a strategist and creator who empowers customers and teams to excel. From designing clever, fandom-inspired apparel at Tomorrowland Transit Authority to coaching high-performance teams, Season is passionate about delivering value and driving growth. Now focused on ecommerce success, Season's mission is to turn goals into epic adventures. You can link with Season Hughes on LinkedIn.

24 Feb 15min

Substack Week: AI in Product Management, Enhancing Product Development Through Artificial Intelligence with Toni Dos Santos In this Substack Week episode, we explore how artificial intelligence is transforming product management with Toni Dos Santos, co-author of The Product Courier newsletter. From automating routine tasks to enhancing strategic decision-making, Toni shares practical insights on leveraging AI to build better products faster and more efficiently. From Music to Banking to AI Product Management "I wanted to work in that area to find ways to put innovation to service to the consumers, and making it as invisible as possible." Toni's journey into AI and product management began in an unexpected place - the music industry. After working as a music producer, his interest in innovation led him to banking, where he discovered the untapped potential of data analytics. His experience working with machine learning and deep learning in banking laid the foundation for his current work with generative AI in product management. The launch of ChatGPT in 2022 sparked his deep dive into applying AI to product management challenges. Revolutionizing User Story Creation with AI "User stories are a big pain for many product managers, particularly junior ones... The idea is that you provide the AI with a PRD or description of the product, and it's going to write user stories based on best practices." Toni explains how AI can transform the process of writing user stories by automating the initial drafting while preserving the essential collaborative aspects. He emphasizes that while AI can handle the mechanics of writing, the real value comes from using it as a springboard for deeper discussions with the team. The technology can suggest edge cases, highlight potential gaps, and provide a structured foundation for further refinement. AI as a Tool for Understanding User Needs "Use all the transcripts, the feedback from user interviews that I have, feed it to AI and retrieve from it the key pain points, the major patterns that it identifies." Rather than replacing human insight, AI serves as a powerful tool for analyzing user feedback and identifying patterns. Toni shares practical examples of using AI to: Process and analyze app store reviews at scale Identify clusters of users with similar pain points Extract key themes from user interviews Validate qualitative findings with quantitative data Strategic Role of AI in Leadership "For product leaders, they should be the ones thinking how AI will affect their work because to define a strategy, to define a roadmap, AI can summarize tons of data, tons of information that you cannot do yourself." Toni challenges the notion that AI primarily impacts lower-level tasks. He argues that AI's ability to process vast amounts of information makes it particularly valuable for leadership roles. Leaders can use AI to: Prepare more effective meetings with relevant agendas Create alignment across different departments Practice important presentations and interviews Generate and evaluate strategic options Best Practices for Getting Started with AI "The best resource is to go into it... get ChatGPT, Gemini, whatever, and just dive into it and try and get learning and start practicing right away." For product managers looking to incorporate AI into their workflow, Toni emphasizes the importance of hands-on experience. He recommends: Starting with practical experimentation rather than just theoretical learning Understanding AI's limitations (20% error rate) and always double-checking outputs Treating AI interactions as conversations rather than one-off prompts Focusing on areas where AI can augment rather than replace human judgment Resources For Further Study BOOK: Bret King, Bank 3.0: Why Banking Is No Longer Somewhere You Go But Something You Do Toni’s Product Courier Newsletter The AI focused episode with Marshall Goldsmith AI Course by IBM: Armin Ries, free AI course by IBM [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends] 🔥In the ruthless world of fintech, success isn’t just about innovation—it’s about coaching!🔥 Angela thought she was just there to coach a team. But now, she’s caught in the middle of a corporate espionage drama that could make or break the future of digital banking. Can she help the team regain their mojo and outwit their rivals, or will the competition crush their ambitions? As alliances shift and the pressure builds, one thing becomes clear: this isn’t just about the product—it’s about the people. 🚨 Will Angela’s coaching be enough? Find out in Shift: From Product to People—the gripping story of high-stakes innovation and corporate intrigue. Buy Now on Amazon [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]   About Toni Dos Santos Toni is a seasoned B2B product strategist with 15+ years of experience, having guided over 250 SMEs and large enterprises. As a former SaaS founder, Toni specializes in accelerating time-to-market, driving sustainable product growth, and aligning product strategies with business goals. His tailored approach empowers leaders to prioritize impactful solutions and boost revenue. You can link with Toni Dos Santos on Substack.

21 Feb 35min

Substack Week: The Shared Ownership Challenge, Understanding Clear Accountability in Engineering Teams With Rafa Páez Welcome to our Substack Week, where we interview thought leaders who publish newsletters on Substack to help you find inspiring voices that drive our community forward. In this episode, we explore the concept of shared ownership and its pitfalls with Rafa Páez, an experienced engineering leader with insights on creating clear accountability in teams. The Pitfalls of Shared Ownership In engineering teams, shared ownership often manifests as ambiguity in responsibility and accountability. Rafa shares a personal experience where assigning two engineers to lead an initiative resulted in nothing getting done, as each assumed the other would take action. This phenomenon highlights how shared ownership without clear accountability can lead to missed deadlines, poor quality deliverables, and team conflicts. "It might not be my fault because I thought the other person was available, I thought the other person had more time to actually work on that initiative." Understanding the Bystander Effect The bystander effect, a psychological phenomenon first identified by social psychologists, explains why people are less likely to take action when others are present. In a team setting, this manifests as members assuming someone else will take responsibility, leading to collective inaction. This effect can significantly impact team productivity and project outcomes. "Because there are more people there, someone thinks that someone else will take care of that thing, whether it's a project, initiative, or any other action." The DRI Framework: Creating Clear Ownership The Directly Responsible Individual (DRI) concept, popularized by Gitlab and Apple, addresses the accountability gap by ensuring one person is clearly responsible for each significant initiative. This framework emerged after a failed project launch where no clear ownership led to quality issues. The DRI approach creates clear lines of responsibility while maintaining collaborative team dynamics. "You can have multiple DRIs for different aspects, but at the end, it needs to be one responsible for the overall project." Implementing DRI Successfully For leaders implementing the DRI framework, several key considerations are crucial for success. DRIs should be assigned thoughtfully based on skills and experience, with senior team members often better suited for these roles. The framework must be supported by a culture that empowers DRIs to make decisions while maintaining team collaboration. "DRIs need to be empowered to make decisions. If they are not empowered to make decisions, this role is not going to work because they're going to feel frustrated." Avoiding Common Anti-patterns When implementing the DRI framework, leaders should be aware of potential anti-patterns that can emerge. These include DRIs becoming bottlenecks, erosion of team collaboration, and overuse of the framework for minor tasks. Success requires finding the right balance and ensuring the framework enhances rather than hinders team dynamics. "Another issue or anti-pattern is the erosion of collaboration - some people might get the wrong concept about DRIs and say 'I don't need to collaborate anymore.'" Building a Culture of Accountability Creating a successful culture of accountability requires clear communication about the DRI role and its implications. Leaders must ensure DRIs are supported while maintaining team collaboration and avoiding the framework becoming overly bureaucratic. The focus should be on enabling effective decision-making and clear ownership while preserving team dynamics. "Consider the skills when assigning DRIs, support people in this role, and remember that DRI is an organizational agnostic framework that adapts to the organizations we are within." Resources For Further Study The Gitlab handbook article about the DRI concept The book: Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink The Engineering Leader newsletter by Rafa Páez   [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends] 🔥In the ruthless world of fintech, success isn’t just about innovation—it’s about coaching!🔥 Angela thought she was just there to coach a team. But now, she’s caught in the middle of a corporate espionage drama that could make or break the future of digital banking. Can she help the team regain their mojo and outwit their rivals, or will the competition crush their ambitions? As alliances shift and the pressure builds, one thing becomes clear: this isn’t just about the product—it’s about the people. 🚨 Will Angela’s coaching be enough? Find out in Shift: From Product to People—the gripping story of high-stakes innovation and corporate intrigue. Buy Now on Amazon [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]   About Rafa Páez Rafa is a Software Engineer and Engineering Leader with over 20 years of experience, including more than 7 years in leadership positions within fast-paced startups. Based in Spain, he works remotely as an Engineering Manager for Remote. Previously, Rafa worked for companies such as Cabify and Funding Circle. He is passionate about leading high-performing teams and scaling platforms and engineering organizations. You can connect with Rafa Páez on Substack.

20 Feb 32min

Substack Week: Engineering Strategy, Bridging Technical Excellence with Business Success With Aleix Morgadas In this Substack Week episode, we explore the critical intersection of engineering strategy and business success with Aleix Morgadas, an engineering strategy consultant focusing on sociotechnical aspects of high-stake business challenges. Aleix shares insights from his experience helping organizations align their technical capabilities with business objectives, while offering practical approaches to developing and implementing effective engineering strategies. The Genesis of Engineering Strategy Personal experience sparked Aleix's journey into engineering strategy when he joined a large company and found himself grappling with strategic decision-making in engineering. He identified a crucial gap: while strategy was well-established in product and business domains, engineering organizations often lacked strategic frameworks for participating in key decisions. This realization led him to start writing about his struggles and insights, helping others navigate similar challenges through his newsletter. "I found that engineering was missing a way to be part of the decision making process, and we needed to be clear on the problems and challenges that engineering organizations face." Breaking Down the Four-Step Process Drawing inspiration from Richard Rumelt's work on strategy, Aleix presents a comprehensive framework for developing engineering strategy. The process emphasizes the importance of understanding organizational context and identifying shared challenges before taking action. "Solve the shared pains - that's why we need to uncover those pains in the first place." The framework consists of four key steps: Context Understanding: Begin by defining your business context, as strategy must align with your specific environment and circumstances Problem Identification: Focus on understanding current organizational pains and creating alignment around which problems to solve Direction Setting: Break down larger goals into manageable increments while ensuring actions don't compete with each other Strategy Execution: Create space for teams to work on strategic initiatives while maintaining autonomy The Power of Bottom-Up Strategy Aleix challenges the traditional top-down approach to strategy development, advocating for a more inclusive process that brings together perspectives from all levels of the organization. This approach recognizes that teams and top-level management often have different visions that need to be reconciled for effective strategy implementation. "Strategy does not need to be designed top-down. Teams and top-level management have different visions, and we need to be able to bring those together." Implementation and Execution Success in engineering strategy requires more than just planning - it demands thoughtful execution and ongoing adaptation. Aleix emphasizes the importance of learning through action and starting with minimal effort initiatives to gain momentum. "By doing you learn, and doing is critical for strategy. Start with the least effort action you have in mind." Recommended Resources For Further Study The book: Good Strategy/Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt The blog post: North Star Framework Template & Activity Library The Jobs to be done Framework TEMPLATE: The engineering strategy template by Aleix VIDEO: Aleix’s Engineering Strategy Journey Talk [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends] 🔥In the ruthless world of fintech, success isn’t just about innovation—it’s about coaching!🔥 Angela thought she was just there to coach a team. But now, she’s caught in the middle of a corporate espionage drama that could make or break the future of digital banking. Can she help the team regain their mojo and outwit their rivals, or will the competition crush their ambitions? As alliances shift and the pressure builds, one thing becomes clear: this isn’t just about the product—it’s about the people. 🚨 Will Angela’s coaching be enough? Find out in Shift: From Product to People—the gripping story of high-stakes innovation and corporate intrigue. Buy Now on Amazon [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]   About Aleix Morgadas Aleix Morgadas is an engineering strategy consultant specializing in sociotechnical aspects to overcome high-stake business challenges. He regularly shares his knowledge through his blog while leading Teamperature, a SaaS product focused on assessing Team Cognitive Load for healthier teams. He also publishes the Engineering Strategy newsletter on Substack. You can link with Aleix Morgadas on Substack.

19 Feb 41min