Summary4 min read

Podcast Summary:

The Over-Communicator vs. The Over-Ambitious—Two Patterns Every Scrum Master Should Recognize
Podcast: Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast
Host: Vasco Duarte
Guest: Aliu Adewale
Date: July 10, 2026

Episode Overview

In this insightful episode, Vasco Duarte sits down with Aliu Adewale to dissect two crucial patterns Scrum Masters must recognize in their work with Product Owners: “the over-ambitious” Product Owner who says yes to everything and “the over-communicator” Product Owner who sets standards for clarity and alignment. Drawing on Aliu's real-world experiences, they explore how each pattern impacts team effectiveness, stakeholder satisfaction, and delivering true product value.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Over-Ambitious Product Owner (PO)

Pattern Overview:

This PO always says “yes” to every request from stakeholders.
Tends to constantly add features to the backlog without considering team capacity or value.
Fails to prioritize, leading the team to be overloaded and decreasing true value delivered.

Why Does This Happen?

Fear of disappointing stakeholders or leadership.
Job insecurity: “They want to keep their job.”
Belief that delivering more features equals delivering more value.

Impact on the Team:

Team overwhelmed, often feeling unable to push back due to company culture or probation period.
Important work delayed or lost amidst the noise of less critical features.

Key Quotes:

“Every yes to something unimportant is a no to what matters.”
— Aliu Adewale [03:30]
“More is just a noise... more features don’t equal to more values.”
— Aliu Adewale [04:39]
“Are these 200 features valuable? Some features are not even useful on your phone right now, Vasco, you probably don’t even use some features on some apps.”
— Aliu Adewale [06:16]

Memorable Moment:

Vasco humorously guesses he only uses 10% of the features on most apps, encapsulating how much unnecessary work can accumulate.
— [06:34]

2. The Role of Team and Scrum Master

Teams sometimes fail to push back due to hierarchy or job security fears.
Product Owner behavior is often rooted in broader organizational culture.
Scrum Masters are pivotal in coaching Product Owners to understand when to say “no” and in educating on value delivery.

3. Market & Value Focus

Delivering features late or focusing on quantity means missed opportunities for value extraction and adaptability in a changing market.
As Aliu notes:
“Focus on what matters right now. Things can change, governance can change policy tomorrow.”
— Aliu Adewale [06:56]

4. The Over-Communicator Product Owner

Pattern Overview:

Exemplifies proactive, transparent, and effective communication.
Makes use of recording explanations (e.g., via JIRA) prior to backlog refinement meetings (even before tools like Loom existed).
Clearly explains user stories, acceptance criteria, and end goals through video walkthroughs.
Invites feedback and is accessible for questions and collaboration.

Practice of Negotiation:

Never adds new work to the sprint without prior negotiation and team agreement.
Communicates potential impacts to stakeholders and negotiates scope, instead of forcing changes on the team.

Key Quotes:

“This guy has never had anything into the sprint without consulting the team first. Negotiate with them… He’s going to go back to leadership and say: if we add this, these are the consequences.”
— Aliu Adewale [09:27]
“This is a guy that over-communicates everything. That has been the best experience for me as a Scrum Master.”
— Aliu Adewale [10:09]

Impact on Team:

Team has time to prepare, clarify, and align before meetings.
Reduces confusion and frustration.
Empowers a collaborative, trust-based environment.
Sets clear expectations and enables fast, constructive feedback loops.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

“More features don’t equal to more value, especially if they delay... because when you delay, you prevent people from extracting value from what you could have delivered earlier.”
— Vasco Duarte [06:48]
“Focus on what matters right now. Things can change… what we had three months ago is different from what we have right now, and it’s going to be different in the next three months.”
— Aliu Adewale [07:00]
On practical over-communication:
“He would go into the JIRA board, pull out a story and record himself explaining the user stories, acceptance criteria, the end goal... then send it to the team two days before refinement.”
— Aliu Adewale [07:53]

Episode Timeline & Timestamps

[01:22] Episode intro & framing: discussing Product Owner patterns.
[01:42–06:34] Dissecting the “Over-Ambitious” PO: signs, causes, team impact, value consequences.
[06:34–07:19] Importance of prioritization and focusing on the present value.
[07:34–10:39] Lessons from the “Over-Communicator” PO: communication best practices and negotiation.
[10:39–11:57] Aliu’s book and website: “Agile in Plain Sight”—where to find him.
[11:57–12:17] Closing remarks.

Takeaways

Over-ambition can kill value: Saying yes to everything leads to overloaded backlogs, unclear priorities, and ultimately less value for both team and stakeholders.
Value is not in volume: More features ≠ more value. Teams and POs must focus on what matters now.
Communication is leadership: Proactive, transparent communication fosters trust, improves backlog refinement, and allows better decisions for the team and stakeholders alike.
Negotiation is essential: Skilled POs negotiate scope and set realistic, sustainable expectations—never resorting to “just add this in.”

Connect with Aliu Adewale

Website & Book: www.agileimplainsight.com
Book: Agile In Plain Sight (12 principles of Agile, day-to-day applicability)
Open to conversations on agile, leadership, and collaboration.

Closing Wisdom

“Let’s talk about agile. Let’s talk about leadership. Let’s talk about enterprise collaboration. Scrum. I’m open to conversation.”
— Aliu Adewale [11:46]

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Transcript25 lines

[00:04]
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. Hello everybody. Welcome to our Friday TGIF episode, this week with Aliu Adewale. Hey Aliu, welcome back.
[01:20]
B
Thank you, Vasco. Happy to be back.
[01:23]
A
So Aliu product owner is the focus of our Friday conversation and we'll talk about great product owners in a minute. But before that, share with us what might have been potentially the worst product owner anti pattern you've witnessed in your career.
[01:42]
B
Okay, I think the worst, should I say the worst? Because this product owner is not really like, I don't know if I should use the word worst but I would say is it was then it was over ambitious. You know like when a product owner just want to have everything. I think we talked about that earlier in the previous episode where people just want to have everything and they don't know when they need to prioritize. So this product owner always say yes to everything, everything that comes toward him from the stakeholders, from the business, he always want to put them in the backlog, always want to shuffle it to the thin throat all the time. So he's over ambitious. He never said no to anything at all and that really, really hindered the team. And this is a product owner that never consider and this was previous in like a few years ago and you know, he always comes and bring different features. He never said no to the stakeholders and this affect the team a lot. This is a product owner that never considered the size of the team, the capacity of the team.
[03:06]
A
Why do you think that happened? Like was it so that the team was not having planning conversations and raising the flags or was it that the product owner was blind to that, like, why was it that the product owner was not considering the capacity of the team?
[03:22]
B
I think he was blind to that. He was blind to that. And he, you know, we have many product owners, there are product owner that always want to say yes to the stakeholders, to the business. They never want to say no. And what they don't know is that every yes to something unimportant is a no to what is matter. You know, every guest. What is unimportant is a no to what matter. So. And that always affect the team.
[03:57]
A
So let me dig a little bit deeper into that. Was it so that the team wasn't communicating back to the product owner, hey, if we do this, then we can't do that? Or was it that they were communicating but it was being ignored?
[04:15]
B
So they were communicating and there were communication actually. And what always happen most of the time, team setups are important too. We have, we. You might have a team where someone just want to do their job and go. Someone don't want to say no to because it come is. It comes from the hop to top to bottom where product owner don't want to say no to the business that are funding it because they want to keep their job. And it comes down to the team where some of the team might be on a probation time, you know, and it's hard for them to say no at that moment. They just be like, okay, whatever, we can get done with this, that time frame, that's fine, let's just keep going. And most of the time as well, it lies on the scrum master to how you coach your product owner when they need to say no, when they need to say yes. You know, because sometimes more is just a noise. It's just a noise, you know, more features don't equal to more values. Most product owners don't know that. They believe like the more features they deliver, the more the stakeholders are going to be happy. The more the business are going to see them as being effective, as being like, oh, they, it delivered hundred of features for us within six months. Are they valuable? That should be the question. So sometimes more features don't equal to more values. Sometimes more.
[05:49]
A
Yeah, just like we, just like we talked about on Wednesday, right? Like it was the opposite. The more features we want to deliver, the later we deliver, the less value we can extract from what we could have delivered earlier.
[06:01]
B
Absolutely, absolutely. So it's more of like people want to keep their job. The way I see it, that's why they find it hard to say no in some sense. And Some are over ambitious too. It's blind their face. Like, okay, they have this tracker where they be like in six months I deliver 200 features. Are these 200 features valuable? Some features are not even useful on your phone right now. Vasco, you probably don't even use some features on some apps.
[06:35]
A
Wow. Yeah, like maybe 10%.
[06:38]
B
Yeah, maybe 10% of what you have on your app right now. You know, you have your bank app, you probably never ever use some features that day. So more features doesn't equal to more
[06:48]
A
value, especially if they delay. Because when you delay, you prevent people from extracting value from what you could have delivered earlier.
[06:57]
B
Absolutely. Absolutely. A market change. So as a product owner, I always tell my product owner like, you know, focus on what matter right now. Things can change, government can change policy tomorrow. What we have last three months is different from what we have right now and it's going to be different next three months. So focus on. On what matter right now.
[07:19]
A
Absolutely focus on what matters right now. And talking about that. What matters right now is what great product owners do. So Ali, you share with us. Great. The best product owner you've ever worked with. How did they work?
[07:35]
B
Oh, and this particular one is like great guy, great guy. And I worked with him a few years ago and this guy utilized, I'm not sure what the name of the tools he used, but he will go into the JIRA board, pull out a story and record himself and explain the user stories, acceptance criterions, the end goal when we need to deliver them one by one and record himself. Proud to backlog refinement. So then back then we used to have like refinement like twice a week. And this guy, we go in there a day, two or two days earlier just to share his thoughts on the user stories. Explain it, record like this was before Loom. You know, we have Loom now in JIRA and other Loom video. This was before Loom and he will record himself, talk about that. That was very helpful. So helpful for the team because the team had the opportunity back then to actually watch his video, have questions, add comments. It makes backlog refinement look like walking. And this guy, we also present, we also attend the refinement. Regardless, he already sent video in advance, right? He's still going to participate. He never miss a comment in, in JIRA section to add a comment, follow up collaborating. And apart from utilizing that tools, video tools to, you know, to support the team, to help, to be transparent, to tell them what they need to do, what the end goal look like. This Guy also have one thing I call negotiation skills. When done in the middle of a sprint, this guy has never had anything into the sprint without consulting the team first. Negotiate with them. Okay, if we had these two requests from the leadership, what's going to be the impact? Do we need to take something out like a scope creep? Right, so we need to take something out or can we accommodate it? If no, he's not going to force it to the team truth, he's going to go back to the leadership and say if we had this, this is going to be the consequences. Are you guys okay with that? This is a guy that over communicates everything that was the best like has been the best experience for me in
[10:16]
A
terms of you and, and I think that perhaps most obvious consequences of that willingness to communicate things up front and as you said over communicate is that it sets expectations and it allows for the feedback to come in and to help make the better the best decision possible in that context, Right?
[10:36]
B
Absolutely, absolutely.
[10:40]
A
So this was the great product owner. We're getting close to the end, Aliu, but before we go do share with us, where can people find out more about you and the work that you're doing?
[10:51]
B
People can find more about me on www.agileimplainsight.com and that's the title of my book by the way which I talk About Agile principles. 12 principles of Agile, one by one, chapter by chapter. And I mirror it to day to day life how people live in like some of us are actually living agile without even realizing it. We don't even know we live in agile because of the big, big name, big big vocabulary. We thought like this is big for me but we're actually living the life. So that's the title of the book, Agile in plain Sight and where people can actually find me is www.agileimplainsight.com. absolutely.
[11:35]
A
We'll put the link to that in the show notes. Make sure that people find alio there and there's I'm sure a feedback form that they can use to get in touch with you, right Aliu?
[11:46]
B
Absolutely, absolutely. My email is there, you can reach out to me. Let's talk about agile, let's talk about leadership, let's talk about enterprise collaboration. Scrum. I'm open to conversation.
[11:57]
A
Absolutely. And learn from each other because that's how we grow as a community. Aliu, it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much for your generosity with your time and your knowledge.
[12:07]
B
Thank you so much Vasco. I'm happy to be here and thanks. Thank you for the work you do for the community as well. Thanks so much.
[12:18]
A
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