The Eager Scrum Master Trap, Why Proposing Solutions Too Early Can Backfire

Summary

Episode Overview

Podcast: Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast: Agile Storytelling from the Trenches
Episode: The Eager Scrum Master Trap, Why Proposing Solutions Too Early Can Backfire
Host: Vasco Duarte
Guest: Junaid Shaikh, Agile Coach and Scrum Master
Date: March 9, 2026

This episode centers on a common pitfall for new Scrum Masters: the urge to quickly propose solutions, methods, or tools to teams before thoroughly understanding their context or needs. Through engaging storytelling and practical reflection, the episode explores why this well-intentioned eagerness can actually backfire and how Scrum Masters can develop more restraint, empathy, and effectiveness.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Junaid’s Agile Journey and Philosophy

[02:57]

• Junaid shares his background, from QA in India to Agile coaching roles in Swedish companies (Ericsson, ABB).
• He highlights his natural alignment to Scrum values: transparency, inspection, adaptation.
• Uses a Google Maps analogy to illustrate frequent inspection and adaptation:
  • “Whenever I have to take a journey, I always open the Google Maps, which is the transparency mode for me...and then accordingly adapt.” (Junaid, 04:28)

2. Early Scrum Master Mistakes: The Solution-First Trap

[05:49]

• Junaid recounts starting as a Scrum Master “full of passion and theory but not practical experience.”
• His first instinct was to point out what wasn’t “correct” and propose fixes upfront.
• Quickly learned that seeing problems as an outsider is not the same as understanding them as an insider:
  • “It’s an assumption…what you are looking [at] as a third person, maybe it’s an assumption that you feel like, oh, this is obvious, this is right.” (Junaid, 06:25)
• Realization: the Scrum Master’s role is to facilitate teams owning their solutions, not imposing answers.
  • “I started creating smaller tiger teams…ensuring that I facilitate the session in a way that they are the owners of their solution.” (Junaid, 07:14)
  • “Do not propose direct solutions. Stop assuming—that was a big [lesson].” (Junaid, 07:30)

3. Context Matters: Tools Aren’t One-size-fits-all

[07:35]

• Vasco and Junaid discuss the temptation to introduce new practices/tools (e.g., working agreements) just because they’re useful elsewhere.
• Junaid admits to proposing working agreements to a team without assessing the need, leading to pushback:
  • “I attended one event…where they were doing the working agreement. I was like, ah, this is nice, let me bring that to the team. But I did not realize that the team did not need this tool at this moment.” (Junaid, 09:12)
• Lesson: Tools are only helpful if they address real, current problems for the specific team.

4. Evolving the Approach: From Suggestion to Facilitation

[10:28]

• With experience, Junaid now approaches “solutions” by:
  • Building strong one-on-one relationships with team members and product owners.
  • “Sense checking” through informal conversations and note-taking to gauge the team’s real pain points.
  • Talking to close allies before floating ideas to the whole team.
  • “I have my closer allies in my teams. When I present them, like, okay, based on the situation I am proposing this. Do you also see that?...when I have this dialogue with a couple of them…then I go ahead and propose it to the full team.” (Junaid, 11:11)
• This helps confirm whether a solution is needed and increases buy-in.

5. Reflection & Core Takeaway

[11:31]

• Vasco emphasizes the balance between wanting to help and creating unintended friction:
  • “Sometimes by wanting, by doing something to help, we’re actually shooting ourselves in the foot…and making other people’s lives harder.” (Vasco, 11:33)
• Junaid’s journey highlights the transition from eager fixer to thoughtful facilitator—a necessary shift for Scrum Masters aiming for long-term team empowerment.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On thinking like a Scrum Master:
  “If you see the three pillars of scrum—transparency, inspection, and adaptation—I think they come sort of natural to me.”
  — Junaid Shaikh, [04:06]

• On early mistakes:
  “So initially what I used to do is when I used to join a team…I started proposing solutions right away.”
  — Junaid Shaikh, [05:55]

• On facilitating ownership:
  “You can enable and facilitate, you know, solutions. So, very quickly, I started creating smaller tiger teams…ensuring that I facilitate the session in a way that they are the owners of their solution. This, this led to a very high acceptance and…continuous improvements.”
  — Junaid Shaikh, [07:12]

• On avoiding unnecessary “agile tools”:
  “If it’s not needed, you shouldn’t propose that tool to the team.”
  — Junaid Shaikh, [08:14]

• On checking assumptions before proposing solutions:
  “I always have a good connect with the team members and the product owner…when I have this dialogue with a couple of them…then I go ahead and propose it to the full team.”
  — Junaid Shaikh, [11:13]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:57] Junaid’s personal background and journey to Scrum
• [05:49] Early failures: jumping into solution-mode
• [07:35] The trap of introducing tools without context
• [10:28] Evolving towards a facilitative approach
• [11:31] Reflection on learning to help without imposing

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Episode Flow & Tone

The conversation is friendly, reflective, and rich with practical wisdom. Both Vasco and Junaid speak openly about mistakes and lessons learned, maintaining a candid and supportive tone throughout. The episode is filled with analogies (e.g., Google Maps), real-life anecdotes, and advice that resonates with both new and experienced Scrum Masters.

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Summary

This episode delivers a relatable and thoughtful exploration of how Scrum Masters can inadvertently cause friction when they propose solutions or tools too soon. By shifting from eager problem-solver to empathetic facilitator, Scrum Masters help teams take ownership of their process and solutions, resulting in more enduring and meaningful improvements. Junaid’s experiences and practical tips provide excellent guidance for anyone looking to refine their Scrum Master leadership style.

Transcript

[A]

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 warfree 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 the 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.

[B]

Hello, everybody. Welcome to one more week of the Scrum Master Toolbox podcast. And joining us this week from beautiful Stockholm in Sweden is Junaid Shaikh. Hey, Junaid, welcome to the show.

[C]

Hey, Vasco, thank you very much for having me here.

[B]

Absolutely. So let me tell you a little bit about Junette. He's an energetic, agile coach with a natural flair for agile and scrum, shaped by recent experiences at software giants like Ericsson and hardware leaders like abb. In his work, he champions collaboration, curiosity and continuous improvement. And beyond coaching, he brings the same passion to cricket, table tennis, Karom, and his newest sporting obsession, Padel. Now, Junette, I can totally see how you can play Padel in Sweden, but how do you play cricket in Sweden?

[C]

Well, I am in Sweden since the last 11 years, but originally I'm from India. And when you say India, cricket and India are very much relatable. So I carry that passion from my origin. I used to play a lot of cricket in India, but in Sweden it's, it's in bits and pieces. It's not as structured and organized as I was in India. Also, with, with the age and with the, with the time and the business, it has taken a backseat. But in the summers, we still play whenever we get a chance. But not as, as good as I was before, for sure.

[B]

Absolutely. I can imagine the, the gardens in Stockholm filled with cricket players. Maybe not field, but, but at least some cricket players. So, Junaid, tell us a little bit more about you and how did you end up becoming a Scrum Master?

[C]

Well, that's a very interesting question and it has been an interesting journey as well. Vasco. So originally in India, I started with quality assurance into software as desktop. And then very quickly in my career I was exposed to Agile and Scrum teams. So during that phase I was having a lot of good ideas about improving the ways of working or how can we structure the work and so on and so forth. And interestingly or coincidentally, I also did a CSM certification, a two day course. And from that I got a lot about what the Scrum Master does and stuff. So when I came back to the teams, I had even better suggestions. So a lot of product owners, you know, with the teams that I was working with, they said, junaid, why don't you start working as a Scrum Master as well? Not 100% maybe for some time. And I was like, yeah, okay, why not, I can try it. So then I tried it and it worked very well. It worked so well that I started liking this new passion. And then there were certain instances where, you know, some other teams also invited me to facilitate some of their sessions and, you know, it continuously grew from there. Now I, in retrospect, I try to find out what were the pillars. You know, it's basically, you know, I felt, I feel that I'm a natural Scrum person. So if you see the three pillars of scrum, transparency, inspection and adaptation, I think they come sort of natural to me. I need to have a good view of what I'm going to do or what I'm doing and then continuously inspect where I am and accordingly adapt. It's, it's like this example that I use with my teams of the Google Maps. You know, whenever I have to take a journey, I always open the Google Maps, which is the transparency mode for me. And based on the traffic situation and red and green, how much time does it take? I inspect and usually adapt to take a new route or something. So I think as a person, Agile and Scrum, they come a bit naturally to me. So that's how we identify.

[B]

I really like the maps analogy because that's what we are trying to do for our teams, right? Like we're trying to map out the options and helping them decide. But sometimes just like Google Maps and I do remember the initial GPS systems we used to have back in the early 2000s or late 90s. It doesn't always work setting the map for the team and we fail. And that's okay because we all learn from it and failure is not the problem, not learning would be the problem, but we want to learn from it here. So Jeanette Share with us that story of failure that of course left you with a very important lesson learned.

[C]

Yeah, I think in my journey, in my career, always, if you are, like I said, if I am a Scrum person, I am also bound to retrospect a lot. So in the retrospectives that I've done, I think I have some very good learnings. So in my initial days of being a Scrum Master, where you have the passion, you have the theory with you, but not the practical experience, experience, you end up, you know, counter. Countering the effect of being the Scrum Master somehow. So initially what I used to do is when I used to join a team as a Scrum Master, I used to go like, ah, no, this is not how you should do it. This is. So I started proposing solutions right away. And then I, I mean, at that moment it felt, isn't it quite obvious that you are not doing it the correct way? And. But sooner I. So very soon I realized that, you know, it's an assumption, you know, what you are looking as a third person, maybe it's an assumption that you feel like, oh, this is obvious, this is right. But you need to understand the pulse of the team, pulse of the process. And only then you can still not suggest direct solutions. You can enable and facilitate, you know, solutions. So I, very quickly, I started creating smaller tiger teams involving the affected people and ensuring that I facilitate the session in a way that they are the owners of their solution. This, this led to a very high acceptance and, you know, really continuous improvements. So one of the first things was do not propose direct solutions. Stop assuming that was a big.

[B]

Facilitate them to propose themselves the solution.

[C]

Right. Exact. Exactly. Exactly. Also, when you're new in your journey, you are exposed to a lot of tools, fancy tools, and then you want to say, ah, this is nice. Let me go back to my team and have a session. I felt that was also a lesson learned, that I shouldn't do that because like I said, agile, sometimes, especially depending on the majority of the teams, it becomes an enabler or sometimes an overhead. So as a Scrum Master, you cannot directly go to your team and say, hey, let's sit for two hours and utilize this tool. If it's not needed, you shouldn't propose that tool to the team. I remember one of the teams, I proposed working agreements, for example, and there was a pushback from the team, like, why do we need working agreements now? We have been working so well since the last two years and stuff. So I realized, you know, okay, maybe I saw something fancy there Was I should analyze myself better before I bring the tool to the team.

[B]

Actually, that's a great point because I mean, intuitively, most people would say, yeah, it's great to have working agreements, but. But what was it like? Because of course, now you have the benefit of hindsight. So when you were thinking about, hey, I should propose that we create working agreements, what was it that you were trying to achieve that later on when you did propose it, you figured out maybe this wasn't the right way to achieve it.

[C]

Yeah, like I said, it was my lack of experience. So I was exposed to this working agreement. I attended one another event of another Scrum team where they were doing the working agreement. I was like, ah, this is nice, let me bring that to the team. But I did not realize that the team did not need this tool at this moment.

[B]

So your perspective was this is a tool that would be useful for my team, but you weren't necessarily trying to give them or help them solve a specific problem.

[C]

Exactly.

[B]

Yeah, that's actually a great insight. Right, like tools, all tools are useful in some context. I mean, this is why the podcast is called the Toolbox, right? Because we have to have many tools in our toolbox, but not all tools are appropriate at that time for those people. Right. Sometimes that time with different people would be a good idea to propose working agreements. Sometimes a different time with the same people would be a good idea to propose working agreements. But at that time with those people, maybe that wasn't the right proposal. So these days when you reflect in your role as a Scrum master, how do you go through that process of thinking? I'm thinking of a solution. Is this the right time and the right people to propose the solution to?

[C]

Well, that's a very good question. What I do with my experience now, I always have a good connect with the team members and the product owner to have those one to ones. And I do a sense check. When I have the sessions with them, I do question them and I make, make notes for myself and then I analyze, okay, what's the overall situation, what's happening? What is the, what are the needs of the team? And based on that, I still do not go big bang. You know, in a session, I directly go and present that tool. I have my closer allies in my teams. When I present them, like, okay, base, I'm seeing the situation and I am proposing this. Do you also see that? And then they say, yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree this is a problem that we are facing and this tool might help. So when I have this dialogue with a couple of them. Then I'm like, okay, you know, my, I'm not assuming my, my analysis is in the right direction. Then I go ahead and propose it to the full team.

[B]

Absolutely. And that's a great way to, I think, balance because we all have, and like you said, we have passion, we want to help, but sometimes by wanting, by doing something to help, we're actually shooting ourselves in the foot and sometimes making other people's lives harder. That was a great story. Thank you for sharing that with us, Junaid.

[C]

Thank you, Osko.

[A]

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[B]

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