You Don’t Get Paid to Practice Scrum

TL; DR: Why Solving Customer Problems Instead Matters

Scrum is just a tool; your job is to solve real customer problems and deliver value. Stop focusing on perfecting frameworks and start prioritizing outcomes that matter. It’s time to reassess what truly drives your success, particularly given the challenging business environment.

You Don’t Get Paid to Practice Scrum but Solving Customer Problems within the Given Constraints — Age-of-Product.com
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Rookie Mistakes Scrum Masters Make

TL; DR: Top Five Rookie Mistakes by Self-Proclaimed Scrum Masters

Are you struggling with imposter syndrome as a new Scrum Master? Avoid five common rookie mistakes Scrum Masters make. Instead, discover how to set clear Sprint Goals, build trust, balance metrics, and empower your team to make independent decisions.

Don’t let early missteps define your journey. Learn from these mistakes and transform them into stepping stones towards mastery. By understanding and addressing these pitfalls, you’ll gain confidence, enhance your leadership skills, and truly embody the principles of Scrum.

This article provides actionable insights and practical exercises to help you grow from a beginner into an effective and respected Scrum Master.

Rookie Mistakes Scrum Masters make, from ignoring Sprint Goals to failing to empower the Scrum team — Age-of-Product.com
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Successful Scrum Masters

TL; DR: How To Spot Successful Scrum Masters

In this article, I unravel the secrets of what makes a Scrum Master not just good but amazingly outstanding. From regularly achieving Sprint Goals, delivering value to customers, and building stakeholder rapport easily, discover the traits that set apart successful Scrum Masters.

Moreover, we also shed light on the pitfalls to avoid if you want to keep the respect of your teammates and probably your job.

Successful Scrum Masters — Age-of-Product.com
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Product Backlog Refinement: 14 First Principles

TL; DR: Product Backlog Refinement First Principles

The Product Backlog refinement is a continuous process to create actionable Product Backlogs, enabling a Scrum Team to run Sprint Plannings at a moment’s notice. Consequently, refinement is about creating alignment among all team members about the Why, the What, the How, and probably even the Who regarding the upcoming work for the Scrum team’s Product Goal. As a result, Product Backlog refinement is a critical success factor as it drastically increases the team’s capability to deliver valuable Increments regularly.

The following 14 first principles describe in broad strokes the foundation of a successful approach to refinement.

Product Backlog Refinement First Principles — Age-of-Product.com
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Scrum Master Anti-Patterns — 20 Signs Your Scrum Master Needs Help

TL; DR: Scrum Master Anti-Patterns

The reasons Scrum Masters violate the spirit of the Scrum Guide are multi-faceted. Typical Scrum Master anti-patterns run from ill-suited personal traits to complacency to pursuing individual agendas to frustration with the team itself.

Read on and learn in this post on Scrum anti-patterns how you can identify if your Scrum Master needs support from the team.

Scrum Master Anti-Patterns — 20 Signs Your Scrum Master Needs Help
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The Dogmatic Scrum Master Anti-Pattern — Making Your Scrum Work #20

TL; DR: The Dogmatic Scrum Master Anti-Pattern

There are plenty of failure possibilities with Scrum. Since Scrum is an intentionally incomplete framework with a reasonable yet short “manual,” this effect should not surprise anyone. For example, how do we communicate with members of the Scrum team that take the Scrum Guide literally? What about a dogmatic Scrum Master?

Join me and delve into the effects of Scrum dogmatism in less than 120 seconds.

The Dogmatic Scrum Master? — Making Your Scrum Work #20 — Age-of-Product.com
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