Learning to Spot Team Performance Warning Signs Early As A Scrum Master | Somya Mehra

Summary

Episode Summary: Learning to Spot Team Performance Warning Signs Early As A Scrum Master | Somya Mehra

Podcast Title: Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast: Agile Storytelling from the Trenches
Host: Vasco Duarte, Agile Coach, Certified Scrum Master, Certified Product Owner
Guest: Soumya Mehra, Scrum Master at U-Blox
Release Date: August 11, 2025

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Introduction

In this insightful episode of the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast, host Vasco Duarte welcomes Soumya Mehra from Finland, a seasoned Scrum Master with nearly seven years of IT experience spanning India and Finland. Soumya shares her journey, challenges, and invaluable lessons learned in her role, providing actionable advice for Scrum Masters aiming to enhance team performance and dynamics.

Guest Background: Soumya Mehra

Soumya Mehra brings a diverse background with experience in both waterfall and agile methodologies. Currently a Scrum Master at U-Blox, she emphasizes a people-first approach, driven by her deep interest in human behavior and understanding the motivations behind team members' actions.

Key Quote:

"It's about the role choosing you to become." – Soumya Mehra [04:11]

Journey to Becoming a Scrum Master

Soumya began her career as a business analyst. Her interest in Scrum was piqued when her company experimented with Scrum ceremonies amidst a traditional waterfall framework. Observing effective teamwork and communication during refinements contrasted sharply with the waterfall model, sparking her curiosity.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, with ample time and limited job opportunities, Soumya pursued certifications in both Product Ownership and Scrum Mastery. Although she initially leaned towards the Product Owner role, unforeseen opportunities led her to embrace the Scrum Master position, a role she now thoroughly enjoys.

Key Quote:

"When I look back now, I feel like it's about not what you choose to become, it's about the role choosing you to become." – Soumya Mehra [04:17]

Difficult Moment Story: Declining Team Performance

Soumya recounts a challenging experience early in her Scrum Master career. She joined a seemingly balanced team comprising senior developers, mid-level developers, junior developers, a product owner, and a tester. However, shortly after her arrival, two senior developers left, disrupting the team's balance.

Timeline of Events:

1. Team Imbalance: Loss of senior developers reduced team velocity.
2. Hiring Attempts: Attempted to rebalance by hiring internally and externally, but velocity continued to decline.
3. Signs of Frustration: Middle and remaining senior developers became silent and frustrated.
4. Revelation: Upon individual conversations, Soumya discovered that the last senior developer was disengaged and not contributing effectively for two years.

Key Quote:

"I failed as a Scrum Master because I was observing the Velocity and the team mood, but I was not discussing it with anyone." – Soumya Mehra [08:17]

Lessons Learned

Soumya emphasizes the critical importance of proactive communication and early detection of team issues:

1. Regular One-on-Ones: Establishing consistent individual meetings with team members to gauge their sentiments and uncover underlying issues.
2. Transparent Communication: Encouraging open dialogues within the team to address frustrations and performance concerns.
3. Early Intervention: Acting promptly when warning signs are detected to prevent morale and velocity from declining further.

Key Quote:

"As a Scrum Master, what is the value of having one-to-ones with your team, listen to them? And even as a Scrum Master, if you think something is fishy or something is wrong, talk to your team. Do not wait for them to come to you." – Soumya Mehra [11:04]

Recommendations for Scrum Masters

Drawing from her experience, Soumya offers valuable strategies for Scrum Masters:

• Initiate One-on-Ones Early: From the outset, engage with team members individually to build trust and understand their perspectives.
• Evaluate Team Dynamics: When joining a new team, inquire about existing team dynamics and any pre-existing issues from previous Scrum Masters.
• Monitor Metrics with Context: While metrics like velocity are essential, they should be interpreted alongside qualitative insights from the team.
• Address Underperformance Tactfully: When dealing with underperforming team members, assign clear responsibilities and set expectations without resorting to blame.

Key Quote:

"Not taking an action is also a decision." – Soumya Mehra [11:28]

Conclusion

Soumya Mehra's candid recounting of her early challenges as a Scrum Master underscores the pivotal role of communication and proactive engagement in fostering a healthy and productive team environment. Her insights serve as a valuable guide for Scrum Masters aiming to identify and address performance warning signs early, ensuring sustained team morale and efficiency.

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Transcript

[Vasko]

Hey there, agile adventurer, just a quick question. What if for the price of a fancy coffee or half a pizza, you could unlock over 700 hours of the best agile content on the planet? That's audio, video, E courses, books, presentations, all that you can think of. But you can also join live calls with world class practitioners and hang out in a flame war free and AI slop clean slack with the sharpest minds in the game. Oh, and yes, you get direct access to me, Vasko, your Scrum Master Toolbox podcast. No, this is not a drill. It's this Scrum Master Toolbox membership and it's your unfair advantage in the agile world. So if you want to know more, go check out scrummastertoolbox.org membership. That's scrummastertoolbox.org Membership. And check out all the goodies we have for you. Do it now. But if you're not doing it now, let's listen to the podcast. Hello everybody. Welcome to one more week of the Scrum Master Toolbox podcast. And this week, joining us from Finland is Somia Mehra. Hey Somia, welcome to the show.

[Soumya Mehra]

Thank you so much for having me in your chat.

[Vasko]

Absolutely. And it's very happy for us to have you here in this week of discovering your story and what you have learned. Let me introduce you Soumya, who's a Scrum Master at U Blox with nearly 7 years of IT experience across India and Finland, also with experience in waterfall and agile. She leads with empathy and a people first approach and she's deeply interested in human behavior and understanding the motivations behind people's actions. So Soumya, that was a short intro. Tell us a little bit more about yourself and how did you end up becoming a Scrum Master?

[Soumya Mehra]

Okay, so I started my journey as a business analyst. So in the company where I was a business analyst, that company was doing this, they thought of doing this experiment with Scrum though we were not doing the actual Scrum Scrum, we were having just Scrum ceremonies in like in Scrum ceremonies daily and refinement. It intrigued me like how during the refinement the whole teamwork was coming together and doing the communication, working together on tickets, how to do it like, because if you see in the traditional waterfall model, these kind of things does not happen. So I was intrigued and then I was reading a bit about this crumb. But then the big shift happened and I came to Finland right in the middle of COVID when like there was no jobs in the market. So I had ample amount of time to, you know, read on, read about Scrum. So I just thought of doing certain certification in Scrum. So I did two certification, like the first level certification in as a product owner and as a Scrum Master. To be honest, I was not looking for a Scrum Master role. I thought like because I'm a business analyst, the product owner role will be more likely to be integrated and helpful for me in my career. So but at the same time I also thought of doing the Scrum Master in C where you know, the destiny took me, takes me and then in the end I got the opportunity of get becoming a Scrum Master in one company and I just took it from both of my hands and that's how you know, I ended up being a Scrum Master. Now I'm enjoying it thoroughly. So when I look back now I feel like it's about not what you choose to become, it's about the role choose you to become.

[Vasko]

That's a great way to put it. The role chooses you, not you choosing the role. And Somia, of course when we are starting there are some difficult moments and today's Fail Monday here on the podcast. So we want to explore one of those stories, a story of a difficult moment. We do that not because we dwell on failure, but rather because there's a lot of lessons that we can learn from that. So Soumya, share with us that story story, that difficult story you had as a Scrum Master. We'll dive into the details and the takeaways later, but start with the story.

[Soumya Mehra]

Okay, so it happened actually very recent like in the very early time of my Scrum Master role where I was just exploring it in my first company. So when I joined it, I joined as a Scrum Master for a, for a team who was pretty balanced. So I just want to let you know like what a balanced team look like in a Scrum, A set of developers who are where you have senior devs, mid level devs, junior devs, then a product owner, then a tester in it. And I myself as a Scrum Master. So I was very happy like, okay, it's a balanced team and it will be easier for me to have like in the start of my career to have such a balanced and senior people working over there. So it will be easier for me to learn the process. But immediately like after a short time I got like, okay, the two senior devs are leaving the company and now we are left with one senior dev and one mid level dev. So we thought of like what to do next. So then we thought, okay, maybe we can hire more people to fill out the gap for time being. So then we hired one person, move that person internally from the organization and we hired the new person thinking that, okay, now it will balance it out. But still, the velocity of the team was not that good. But I was giving it a benefit of doubt, like, okay, we have few new devs, so maybe three, four months they might require to, you know, adjust and learn how the things are happening. And middle level dev and the senior dev is working fine in the dailies here, here and now. I used to have these things coming from the senior dev that he's not feeling well. So that was another benefit of doubt I was giving to the senior dev that, okay, he might not be feeling well. So this is not the right time that I am in and the team is in. So that is. That might be impacting the Velocity, but the Velocity was going down. But then I started seeing the frustration in the middle level dev and even the senior dev who has internally moved into the organization and they were going more and more silent and frustrated. And then I had a talk with them, like, what's wrong? And then I got to know that the senior dev, which was like, we were thinking like, he might be contributing a lot. He's not contributing into the team. And it's been a long time. He's not. So for two years he's not doing it and nobody, you know.

[Vasko]

And this was the last senior dev you had on that team and. And that senior dev was not contributing.

[Soumya Mehra]

Wow. So that was something which was like, from where I thought, like, okay, there is a miscommunication, not miscommunication, lack of communication happened. So that's how I think. I think, like, I failed as a Scrum master whenever, because I was observing it in the Velocity and the Tomb mood, but I was not discussing it with anyone. It took me way too long. And when the teams morale was already gone at that time, I started taking action. So it was like too long.

[Vasko]

Wow, that was really, really shocking how these things develop, right? Like we're there with the team every day, every day, discussing and talking with the team. But eventually we figured out that actually we are not seeing really what is happening. And one thing that you said which was really interesting, is that you saw the metrics, you saw how you talked about the Velocity, you saw how the Velocity was being affected, you saw how the team was not feeling well, but it still wasn't clear why things were happening. And it is only when we actually start talking, start hearing what the team members have to say that we figure out what was happening. So what eventually happened to the team?

[Soumya Mehra]

Eventually. Then we started having a talk within the team. We start like I had a talk with in my one to one with the team members who were first frustrated. I started having regular talks with them and see how their mood is and assured them that I'll be talking to the senior guy and see what can be done. I had a talk with the senior guy, I gave like I and the team decide like, okay, let's give one more month to this guy if he does something. Because now we all are saying to him in the dailies. Also not like attacking him, but giving him tickets. Like okay, this was a ticket you were doing, so maybe when are you going to complete it? I'm working on some other tickets. So giving him the responsibilities of the tickets, we started giving him the responsibilities of tickets. Rather than two or three people doing one single ticket by dividing the subparts and he being okay, I can escape. We tried doing that. So what happened was team saw like I and the product owner are now actually looking into this matter and trying to improve it. And it also gave the senior dev kind of warning or something like that. I would say in a good way that okay, now it's the time for you to perform, otherwise things can go bad way. So basically what I learned from this experience was how important it is to have a communication with your team. As a Scrum Master, what is the value of having one to one with your team, listen to them? And even as a Scrum Master, if you think something is fishy or something is wrong, talk to your team. Do not wait for them to come to you. Like not taking an action is also decision. That's what we say. So that was a decision I took which cost very high to the team. Obviously we tried to improve it later on, but yeah, it costed somewhere. So now whenever I join a new team or I'm working with any team, I make sure the first thing that I'm doing is having one to one with my team members. And then whenever I'm taking a new team, I always ask the Scrum Master how the team dynamic is. Because if I would have known it from the previous Scrum Master that this is the case, this old senior dev is not working that well. I would have taken actions before things went down.

[Vasko]

Absolutely. Those are two great tips, right? Like have these one on ones more relaxed, more private conversations so that you can explore what people are really feeling and how they see the team and then also ask the previous Scrum master, how was the team feeling? What were the issues that you were already aware of? Those are great recommendations. Thank you for sharing that story with us. Soumya.

[Soumya Mehra]

You're welcome.

[Vasko]

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