How to Sabotage A Product Owner — 53 Anti-Patterns from the Trenches

TL; DR: How to Sabotage A Product Owner — 53 Anti-Patterns from the Trenches to Avoid

One of my favorite exercises from my Professional Scrum Product Owner classes is how to best sabotage a Product Owner as a member of the middle management. The exercise rules are simple: You’re not allowed to use any form of illegal activity. So, outsourcing the task to a bunch of outlaws is out of the question. Instead, you are only allowed to use practices that are culturally acceptable within your organization.

Read on and learn more on how to best sabotage a Product Owner from the exercise results of more than twenty PSPO classes. (I edited the suggestions for better readability.)

How to Sabotage A Product Owner — 53 Anti-Patterns from the Trenches — Age-of-Product.com
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Skipping Retrospectives? — Making Your Scrum Work #17

TL; DR: Skipping Retrospectives?

There are plenty of failure possibilities with Scrum. Given that Scrum is a framework with a reasonable yet short “manual,” this effect should not surprise anyone. One area where Scrum’s nature of being intentionally incomplete causes issues regularly is whether Scrum teams shall stick to the event schedule even if the team’s life is uneventful? For example, is skipping Retrospectives okay?

Join me and delve into the consequences of skipping Retrospectives in less than 90 seconds.

Skipping Retrospectives — Making Your Scrum Work #17 – Age-of-Product.com
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The Lack of Agile Leadership Qualities — Making Your Scrum Work #15

TL; DR: The Lack of Agile Leadership Qualities — When Change Agents Don’t Act as Role Models

There are plenty of failure possibilities with Scrum. Given that Scrum is a framework with a reasonable yet short “manual,” this effect should not surprise anyone. When Scrum becomes an element of an agile transformation, a lack of agile leadership qualities on the incumbents’ side may impede its overall progress significantly despite the best efforts of all other change agents.

📺 Join me and explore the consequences of a lack of agile leadership qualities and what you can do about it in less than three minutes.

The Lack of Agile Leadership Qualities — Making Your Scrum Work #15 — Age-of-Product.com

Update: Join the LinkedIn Poll: What leadership behavior have you noticed in the past that is impeding an agile transformation?

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The Frustrated Scrum Master — When all the Effort Leads Nowhere

TL; DR: The Frustrated Scrum Master — When all the Effort Leads Nowhere

There are plenty of failure possibilities with Scrum. Given that Scrum is a framework with a reasonable yet short “manual,” this effect should not surprise anyone. One failure symptom of a botched agile transformation is the frustrated Scrum Master.

📺 Join me and explore the consequences of a Scrum Master who has thrown in the towel in 92 seconds.

The Frustrated Scrum Master — When all the Effort Leads Nowhere — Age-of-Product.com
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Why Scrum Requires a Failure Culture — Making Your Scrum Work #10

TL; DR: Scrum Failure Culture: A Requirement to Be Successful

There are plenty of failure possibilities with Scrum. Given that Scrum is a framework with a reasonable yet short “manual,” this effect should not surprise anyone. To make things worse, a crucial success factor of every Scrum team is not even mentioned in the Scrum Guide: Any organization that wants to employ Scrum to learn faster than its competitors needs to have a solid failure culture.

📺 Join me and explore the consequences of not living a failure culture in less than three minutes.

Scrum Failure Culture: A Requirement — Making Your Scrum Work #11 — Age-of-Product.com
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Four Scrum Master Success Principles

TL; DR: Four Scrum Master Success Principles

Contrary to popular belief, the Scrum Master success principles are tangible, when we guide the analysis with an outside perspective.

Read on and discover four Scrum Master success principles: From when not to use Scrum to product quality to supporting the Product Owner to putting self-management at the center.

Four Scrum Master Success Principles — Age-of-Product.com
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