Podcast Summary

Podcast: Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast
Host: Vasco Duarte
Guest: Tom Molenaar
Episode: The Three Pillars of Scrum Master Success
Date: October 2, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode focuses on defining and achieving success as a Scrum Master, featuring Tom Molenaar’s practical insights. Tom shares his favorite retrospective format and outlines the "Three Pillars"—Purpose, Process, and People—that anchor Scrum Master effectiveness. The conversation dives into actionable tools, team engagement techniques, and how self- and team-assessment drive continuous improvement.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Creative Retrospectives: Drawing the Sprint

• Tom’s Approach:

  • Tom emphasizes the importance of retrospectives for team reflection, adaptation, and fun.
  • His favorite format involves drawing the sprint’s story—on digital whiteboards if remote—and then having teammates interpret each other's drawings.

• Benefits:

  • Encourages out-of-the-box thinking and empathy by seeing the sprint through another's eyes.
  • Leads to laughter, lightens the mood, and often surfaces underlying issues that may not be verbalized in a standard discussion.

• Memorable Moments:

  • Tom describes seeing “toddler-like” sketches, sparking joy and deeper conversations about shared experiences and interpretations.

• Quote:

  "Some can draw really good, others make really funny drawings like a toddler. So there's always space for a lot of fun... It brings them back to their childhood to just make a drawing of the last couple of weeks."
  — Tom Molenaar [03:06]

• Host’s Reflection:

  • Vasco expands on how this method taps into the non-structured experience, encouraging a more holistic team understanding.

  "We experience the plan through the world, which is a totally different perspective... I think that aspect of drawing... can be really a great way to tap into other people's experience."
  — Vasco Duarte [05:28]

2. The Three Pillars of Scrum Master Success

• Tom’s Framework:

  • Success for a Scrum Master is anchored in Purpose, Process, and People.
  • Purpose: The product goal—the outcome the team is working to achieve.
  • Process: Enabling agile ways of working, quick adaptation to change, and regular feedback.
  • People: Fostering team maturity, collaboration, and high performance.

• Balance of Focus:

  • Recognizes limited influence over product outcomes but significant impact on process and people.
  • Measures success by reflecting on team effectiveness in both process and interpersonal collaboration.

• Quote:

  "As a Scrum master, you can really focus on the process and the people... on how the team effectiveness is on the people side of things and the process side of things."
  — Tom Molenaar [07:23]

• Host’s Summary:

  • Vasco encapsulates the approach as the “Three Ps of Success.”

  "Purpose, process and people. We could call it the three Ps of success."
  — Vasco Duarte [08:31]

3. Mapping Success in a New Team

• Onboarding Steps:
  • Tom observes team results, collects data through surveys, and measures collaboration, planning, and refinement.
  • He uses both his own surveys and team self-assessments to gain a 360° view of team dynamics.
  • Critical to identify strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement from multiple perspectives.
• Utilizing Surveys:
  • Surveys are presented to the team to collect input on challenges, perceptions of progress, and potential "low hanging fruit."
  • This process helps establish common ground and avoids imposing an external agenda.
• Quote:

  "Instead of trying to solve things immediately... I always try to ask the team first, what is your problem or what is the next step, do you think? So having their inputs [and] my inputs, bundle it and share it... to see what is our common ground." — Tom Molenaar [10:41]

4. The Importance of a “Handshake”

• Learning from Experience:
  • Tom references a previous misstep, emphasizing the need to align on improvement goals (“handshake”) before moving forward.
  • Surveys and open dialogue create clear agreements, preventing wasted effort when vision and needs are misaligned.
• Quote:

  "If you see certain areas where you feel like this really needs improvement and the team thinks that we're doing fine... then you can immediately have that conversation before we start moving. And I think that that handshake is really necessary..." — Tom Molenaar [13:05]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "The retrospective is a really important moment for us as coaches and for the team to reflect, to adapt, to have the conversations that we need to have, but also to laugh and have fun together."
  — Tom Molenaar [01:40]

• "We experience the plan through the world, which is a totally different perspective."
  — Vasco Duarte [05:28]

• "Always handshake on what needs to be done."
  — Vasco Duarte [13:54]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:40] Drawing retrospectives for team reflection and fun
• [05:28] The value of non-verbal, experiential retrospectives
• [06:29] Defining the Three Pillars: Purpose, Process, People
• [08:31] Summarizing the Three Ps of Scrum Master Success
• [09:05] Tom discusses onboarding and early-stage team assessment
• [10:41] How self and team surveys inform shared improvement
• [13:05] Ensuring alignment through the "handshake" approach

Summary for Practitioners

This episode offers practical and concrete ways to deepen your effectiveness as a Scrum Master:

• Try more creative retrospectives, such as “draw the sprint,” to deepen team empathy and break through communication barriers.
• Anchor your work in the Three Pillars: constantly revisit purpose, optimize process, and invest in people.
• Use surveys both personally and with your team to establish a shared improvement agenda, avoiding misaligned goals.
• Prioritize an explicit “handshake” moment—mutual agreement—before driving change.

Tom’s stories and tools highlight how reflection, collaboration, and shared ownership are essential ingredients in agile team success.