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Coaching

Top 10 Ways to be a Great Product Owner – Part 1

While there is some debate within the Scrum community, the Product Owner accountability is often described as the most difficult accountability in Scrum. In this two-part blog series, I want to highlight 10 ways to become a great Product Owner. The first five of these recommendations are as follows: 10.) Have a Product Vision –...
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Banning the T-Word

When we are young, we are taught not to use certain words. Our parents, teachers, and mentors showed us that while certain words make us feel better in the moment, they are often seen as a sign of immaturity and not welcome in professional speech. I am wondering if it’s time to add “transformation” to...
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How to be a Good Stakeholder

Much of the Agile and Scrum Training offered in today’s market is focused on a role or an accountability.  There are classes for Product Owners, Developers and Scrum Masters. People have even created training for leaders and managers working in an Agile environment.    One role that’s been underserved in the Agile training space is...
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Does a Scrum Master need to be Technical?

One of the most common questions that we get when teaching people about Scrum involves the Scrum Master.  Specifically, does a Scrum Master need to be “technical”? In order to answer this question, we first need to explore what it means to be “technical”.  Defining this word isn’t as easy as it seems.  First, everyone...
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How to Interview A Scrum Master

One of the common questions that we get at agilityIRL is, “How do we find good Scrum Masters?” One of the crucial steps in hiring for any role is the interview. In this blog, I want to provide you with some of my favorite Scrum Master interview questions and techniques. This entry is not intended...
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Making Yours a Great Place to Work – Part 3

Trust Among Co-Workers, Especially Among Management and Staff Third is trust. Communication is easy; trust is hard. I’ll bet next week’s grocery money that someone who you know and trust may have fumbled their communication about something to you, yet, because there was high trust between you, you still got their meaning.     The...
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Making Yours a Great Place to Work – Part 2

Appreciation When Work Is Done Well People want to feel appreciated when they do their work well. This is about so much more than money. In fact, unless you are working with mercenaries whose primary motivation is money (e.g., many sales people, just-passing-through CEO’s, etc.), money is not a motivator by its presence, but it...
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Making Yours a Great Place to Work – Part 1

The Covid-19 pandemic has cast into stark relief the fact that, in this increasingly VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) world, THE key to competitive advantage is the organization’s culture. So, what makes someplace a great place to work? Based on my experience, there are five things. And I don’t care what kind of organization...
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Never Give Up on People – A Message from Ben Franklin and the Surgeon General

As we begin Summer 2022, COVID continues to occupy a significant portion of our time and attention. While vaccines, therapies, and drugs have all had a significant impact on hospitalizations and fatalities, the disease remains a significant threat to many, particularly those who are immunocompromised. While a full description and debate of the successes and...
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Wayne the Scrum Master

Those of us who have spent way too much time watching the Hulu show, “Letterkenny”, have no doubt all had the same thought: “Would Wayne be a good Scrum Master?”  Fortunately, Wayne and the other residents of Letterkenny, Ontario give us a number of catch phrases to examine as we consider whether he would indeed...
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