BONUS X-Matrix and Obeya: How to Make Strategy Visible and Actionable for Everyone | Jim Benson and Karl Scotland

BONUS: The Platform-as-Product Revolution: How to Turn Your Biggest Cost Center Into Your Secret Weapon With Alvaro Lorente In this BONUS episode we explore a topic that's creating a lot of discussion—and sometimes confusion—in the software community: Platform Teams vs DevOps. In this conversation, we dive into Alvaro Lorente's journey from delivery teams to platform leadership, exploring how to treat platforms as products, avoid common pitfalls, and build bridges between engineering and product leadership. The Evolution from DevOps Role to Platform Team "DevOps is a culture, not a role." Alvaro's journey into platform work began when he joined a company where the infrastructure team was left behind and struggling with traditional DevOps approaches. Initially, they had a single DevOps person who became a bottleneck rather than an enabler. This experience highlighted a fundamental misunderstanding that many organizations face—treating DevOps as a job title rather than a cultural shift toward collaboration and shared responsibility. The team experimented with a "DevOps buddy" approach, placing experienced individuals within each delivery team, before eventually consolidating into a dedicated platform team with the clear intention of treating it as a product-focused unit. Platform as a Product: A Scaling Strategy "Platform as a product is a scaling strategy. Look for common problems that you can then solve once, and serve many." The concept of treating platforms as products emerged from recognizing that feature delivery teams have continuity and ongoing needs that a platform team should serve. Rather than solving their own problems first, successful platform teams focus on making other teams' work easier and more comfortable while managing costs effectively. This approach requires identifying common problems across multiple teams and creating solutions that can be implemented once but serve many. The key insight is that platform teams exist to facilitate the delivery of value in a scalable way for other teams, not to pursue their own technical interests. Understanding Your Customer and Validating Value "I want to see platform team members talking to their customers. Understand their pains, and what they struggle with." Effective platform teams operate like any other product team by actively listening to their customer-teams rather than pushing ideas onto them. This means platform team members should regularly engage with their internal customers to understand pain points and struggles. Success requires defining clear KPIs for the platform and focusing on the quality of deliverables including release notes, demos, bug fixing processes, and feature prioritization. The validation comes from observing whether teams willingly adopt platform features rather than being mandated to use them. Building Bridges with Product Leadership "Focus on the key impact and value that the platform team can bring to the company." Making the case for investing product talent in platform teams requires demonstrating concrete business value. This includes quantifying how many incidents are being resolved faster or prevented entirely, and highlighting the money saved through internal platform development versus external solutions. Platform work offers excellent growth opportunities for Product Owners, serving as a training ground for product thinking and stakeholder management. The focus should always be on measurable impact rather than technical complexity. Avoiding Common Platform Team Traps "Don't just start working on what you think is important! Start with the Product process, listen to the client-teams, and help them directly." When standing up a platform team, several critical mistakes can derail success. The most important trap to avoid is immediately diving into what the platform team thinks is important without first understanding customer needs. Platform teams should resist delivery pressure that might compromise quality and never mandate adoption of their features—teams should want to use what the platform provides. Treating the platform as a genuine product with quality standards is essential, and leaders should view the creation of a platform team as the beginning of a change management process rather than just a technical reorganization. Resources and Continuous Learning "One size does NOT fit all!" For teams looking to improve their platform work, Alvaro recommends Camille Fournier's work on platform teams and resources focused on "The value of product thinking in platform teams." The key is to get experiments running within your team and recognize that there's no universal solution—each organization must find its own path based on its unique context and needs. About Alvaro Lorente Currently Director of Engineering at Voxel (an Amadeus company), Alvaro is a software engineer who has grown in the people leadership path, experimenting with everything from product development to startups and open source projects. He embraces the idea of being a jack of all trades, helping wherever needed to drive value and impact. You can connect with Alvaro Lorente on LinkedIn and follow his insights through his Substack newsletter titled Leads Horizons.

23 Aug 37min

Irene Castagnotto: Building Bridges—How Great Product Owners Create Team Alignment 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. The Great Product Owner: Building Trust Through Transparency and Purpose Irene emphasizes that exceptional Product Owners excel at building trust with their teams by consistently sharing the "why" behind decisions and features. They trust their teams completely and ensure that team members understand the purpose and reasoning behind every request. This transparency creates a foundation of mutual trust where teams feel confident in the Product Owner's direction. Great Product Owners use moments when features don't work as expected as opportunities to explore and reinforce the underlying purpose, turning potential setbacks into learning experiences that strengthen team understanding and alignment. The Bad Product Owner: When Stories Replace Truth Irene witnessed a Product Owner who, when facing difficult client conversations without positive information to share, chose to "make up stories" rather than being transparent about challenges. This lack of honesty led to delivering something the client couldn't accept, resulting in an angry client during the demo. This anti-pattern of using "good words" instead of honest communication ultimately damages client relationships and team credibility. The lesson learned: Product Owners must be transparent with clients about what is and isn't possible, even when the news is difficult to deliver. Self-reflection Question: How do you balance protecting your team from client frustration while maintaining the transparency necessary for successful product development? [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 Irene Castagnotto Irene, a Gen Z Italian Scrum Master, began her Agile journey at a young age. With a positive and passionate approach, she aims to help her generation navigate the world of work with confidence and serenity, while supporting teams in unlocking their full potential. You can link with Irene Castagnotto on LinkedIn.

22 Aug 16min

Irene Castagnotto: The Risk-Aware Scrum Master: Preventing Problems Before They Happen 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. Irene defines success for Scrum Masters as helping teams anticipate and manage risks before they become unexpected problems. She focuses on ensuring teams don't face surprise risks during sprints and don't start work with missing requirements. Her approach includes using user story mapping with Product Owners to visualize potential risks and maintaining team happiness as a key success indicator. For Irene, creating a positive team environment is a crucial deliverable that Scrum Masters must actively work on. She emphasizes the importance of listening to team feedback and regularly assessing whether the team feels supported and engaged. In this segment, we refer to W. Edwards Deming, and his famous quote “a bad system will beat a good person, every time!” Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: The Good/Bad/Risk Retrospective This retrospective format works particularly well with younger teams and uses humor to help teams discuss emotionally challenging topics. The format focuses on three key areas: what went well (Good), what didn't work (Bad), and what potential risks the team sees ahead (Risk). Irene recommends this approach because it helps teams surface risks that aren't visible to anyone else, creating opportunities to address potential problems proactively. By incorporating the language of risk into everyday conversations, teams become more aware of potential challenges and can plan accordingly. The humor element helps reduce the emotional intensity that often accompanies difficult discussions about team performance and challenges. In this segment, we refer to the book “How to Make Good Things Happen: Know Your Brain, Enhance Your Life” by Marian Rojas Estape. Self-reflection Question: How comfortable is your team with discussing risks openly, and what techniques could you use to make these conversations more approachable? [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 Irene Castagnotto Irene, a Gen Z Italian Scrum Master, began her Agile journey at a young age. With a positive and passionate approach, she aims to help her generation navigate the world of work with confidence and serenity, while supporting teams in unlocking their full potential. You can link with Irene Castagnotto on LinkedIn.

21 Aug 17min

Irene Castagnotto: Timing Is Everything - Learning When Agile Teams Are Ready for Change 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. Irene shares a powerful story about discovering team dependencies and proposing solutions that management initially rejected. When her team identified that Epics weren't organized to avoid dependencies between teams, they proposed using a single unified backlog to manage these challenges. Despite the logical solution, management wasn't ready to accept it. A month later, the same management team returned with the identical proposal. This experience taught Irene that timing is crucial in change management—you don't decide when the right time is; the people involved determine their own readiness. She emphasizes the importance of socializing changes early and often, collecting feedback before proposing major transformations, especially when those changes affect management structures. Self-reflection Question: How do you balance persistence with patience when you know a change is needed but the organization isn't ready to embrace it? [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 Irene Castagnotto Irene, a Gen Z Italian Scrum Master, began her Agile journey at a young age. With a positive and passionate approach, she aims to help her generation navigate the world of work with confidence and serenity, while supporting teams in unlocking their full potential. You can link with Irene Castagnotto on LinkedIn.

20 Aug 12min

Irene Castagnotto: Three Toxic Conditions That Destroy Agile Team Effectiveness 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. Irene encountered a team where everything appeared perfect on the surface, but underneath lay a complete lack of transparency. The team displayed negativity while their manager prevented them from taking responsibility, asking them to complete tasks without explaining the reasoning. These three toxic conditions—negativity, lack of transparency, and micromanagement—combined to destroy the team's effectiveness. Initially hesitant to speak up, Irene ultimately chose to leave. Reflecting on this experience, she emphasizes the importance of addressing problems directly with leadership rather than simply escaping the situation. In this segment, we refer to the 5 monkeys experiment, as comment on conditioning that happens in groups. Featured Book of the Week: Switch by the Heath Brothers Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by the Heath Brothers focuses on understanding change and why it's challenging for people. According to Irene, change isn't difficult because people resist it, but because it creates internal conflict within us. The Heath Brothers explain the three essential elements needed for successful change: the rational rider (logical thinking), the emotional elephant (feelings and motivation), and the path (the environment and systems). The book provides practical guidance on how to facilitate change and help people navigate transitions effectively, emphasizing the importance of celebrating achievements throughout the change process. Self-reflection Question: What internal conflicts might be preventing positive changes in your team, and how can you address both the rational and emotional aspects of resistance? [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 Irene Castagnotto Irene, a Gen Z Italian Scrum Master, began her Agile journey at a young age. With a positive and passionate approach, she aims to help her generation navigate the world of work with confidence and serenity, while supporting teams in unlocking their full potential. You can link with Irene Castagnotto on LinkedIn.

19 Aug 16min

Irene Castagnotto: When Proactive Help Backfires - A Gen Z Scrum Master's Learning Journey 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. Irene shares a valuable lesson about the pitfalls of being overly proactive without proper communication. As a new Scrum Master, she observed Product Owners struggling with role changes and took initiative to help them understand and implement changes. However, she discovered that her well-intentioned proposals weren't aligned with what the POs actually wanted. The key insight: when people don't speak up during your proposals, it often means they're not on board but are avoiding conflict. Irene learned that asking questions and letting others express what changes they're ready for is far more effective than assuming what help is needed. Self-reflection Question: How can you better gauge whether your team is genuinely on board with your suggestions, especially when they remain silent during discussions? [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 Irene Castagnotto Irene, a Gen Z Italian Scrum Master, began her Agile journey at a young age. With a positive and passionate approach, she aims to help her generation navigate the world of work with confidence and serenity, while supporting teams in unlocking their full potential. You can link with Irene Castagnotto on LinkedIn.

18 Aug 15min

BONUS: Rob Gallaher Reveals The Management Revolution Transforming Company Culture and Employee Engagement In this BONUS episode, we dive deep into the transformative power of profit sharing with Rob Gallaher, CEO of Gallaher Co. Rob shares his journey from an overworked entrepreneur sacrificing family time to building a thriving business model that aligns employee success with company growth. Through practical insights and hard-learned lessons, we explore how monthly profit sharing can revolutionize workplace dynamics and create genuine shared success. The Genesis of a Profit Sharing Revolution "I was an entrepreneur, working long hours and sacrificing family time. I realized my situation in life was not so good anymore, and even my health was suffering." Rob Gallaher's journey to profit sharing began with a personal crisis. As a successful entrepreneur, he found himself trapped in the classic founder's dilemma - working endless hours while his health and family relationships suffered. This realization prompted him to seek alternative business models from other successful owners. His discovery of profit sharing wasn't immediate magic, but rather a methodical approach to solving the fundamental disconnect between business success and employee engagement. Since implementing it in 2015, Rob has refined his approach through real-world application, leading him to document his learnings in his book after others began noticing the remarkable success of his companies. Defining True Profit Sharing "Take the company's financial success and share it with individuals that make it happen. The main thing: it must be monthly." Rob's definition of profit sharing goes beyond traditional annual bonuses or stock options. His approach centers on taking actual company profits and distributing them to the people who directly contribute to generating those profits. The cornerstone of his system is monthly distribution, recognizing that people manage their personal finances on a monthly basis, not quarterly or annually. This frequency ensures that profit sharing becomes integrated into employees' monthly budgets and thinking patterns, creating immediate behavioral impact rather than distant, abstract benefits. The Power of Immediate Impact "No one manages quarterly their personal life. The profit sharing needs to adapt to that monthly reality. If we don't affect people's monthly budget we don't affect how they think." The monthly frequency of Rob's profit sharing system creates tangible, immediate impact on employees' financial lives. Unlike equity or long-term bonuses that feel distant and uncertain, monthly profit sharing becomes part of employees' regular financial planning. This immediacy changes how people approach their work, leading them to ask "what can I do to get it" and investing more personally in company success. Rob emphasizes making the amounts substantial - recommending four-digit numbers that genuinely affect people's monthly reality rather than token gestures that get lost in regular paychecks. Rethinking Performance Management "I don't like the word 'review'. I prefer the word 'reflection', we do it every 6 months. I wanted to change the tone and what was happening in those meetings." Traditional performance reviews create antagonistic dynamics where employees feel anxious and stressed, often leading to negotiations that feel like battles. Rob has completely reimagined this process by separating profit sharing from performance evaluations and changing the language from "reviews" to "reflections." This shift eliminates the transactional nature of traditional reviews where employees feel they must fight for raises and promotions. Instead, profit sharing operates independently of individual performance metrics, creating a more collaborative and less stressful environment for genuine performance discussions. Strategic Implementation Framework "You need a business that makes a profit, you need to have accurate accounting, and you need to be a leader - you need to have the respect and trust of your leadership." Rob outlines three fundamental prerequisites for successful profit sharing implementation. First, the business must be genuinely profitable - you cannot share what doesn't exist. Second, accurate accounting systems are essential to track and calculate profits transparently. Third, leadership credibility is crucial because profit sharing requires employees to trust that leaders will follow through on commitments. Rob recommends starting with a flat rate and minimum amount, such as $1,000, and focusing on decision-makers who directly affect company profitability rather than attempting to include every employee from the start. Targeting Decision Makers "Who are the people who make decisions that affect the profit of your business? Share the profit with the decision makers that affect profit." Rather than implementing company-wide profit sharing immediately, Rob advocates for a targeted approach focusing on employees who make decisions directly impacting profitability. This strategic selection ensures that profit sharing reaches the people whose daily choices most influence company success. By identifying and rewarding these key decision-makers first, companies can create a focused impact that generates measurable results before expanding the program to additional team members. Getting Started: First Steps for Implementation "Figure out your average profit." For companies interested in profit sharing but unsure where to begin, Rob recommends starting with fundamental financial analysis. Understanding average monthly profits provides the baseline for determining sustainable sharing amounts. This analysis helps leaders set realistic expectations and design a program that won't compromise business stability while still providing meaningful benefits to employees. The key is ensuring that profit sharing enhances rather than threatens the company's financial foundation. About Rob Gallaher Rob Gallaher, CEO of Gallaher Co., leads five companies across industries. Since founding his construction firm in 2010, he's championed profit sharing as a catalyst for growth. His book, Profit Sharing: The Power of Shared Success, and upcoming course reflect his passion for aligning employee and company success. You can also learn more about Rob’s Profit Sharing strategy with his online course at Profitx.co. You can link with Rob Gallaher on LinkedIn, and connect with Rob Gallaher on facebook.

16 Aug 45min

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

15 Aug 16min