Understanding Team Expectations: The Key to Scrum Master Success | Mateusz Komander

Summary

Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast: Agile Storytelling from the Trenches

Episode: Understanding Team Expectations: The Key to Scrum Master Success | Mateusz Komander

Release Date: February 13, 2025
Host: Vasco Duarte
Guest: Mateusz Komander

---

Introduction

In this insightful episode, Vasco Duarte welcomes Mateusz Komander, an experienced Scrum Master, to delve into the critical topic of understanding team expectations as a foundation for Scrum Master success. The conversation explores various aspects of Agile retrospectives, defining success in the Scrum Master role, and fostering a collaborative and self-organizing team environment.

---

Favorite Agile Retrospective Formats

Timestamp: 02:20 – 05:18

Mateusz begins by discussing his approach to Agile retrospectives, emphasizing the importance of tailoring the retrospective format to the team’s unique needs.

• Adaptability Over Preference:
  “My favorite retrospective format is the one that suits the team best.” (02:35)
  Instead of adhering to a rigid structure, Mateusz believes in experimenting with different retrospective formats to find what resonates most with each team.

• Learning from Experience:
  Initially, Mateusz experimented with various elaborate retrospective methods. However, feedback from a team member highlighted the chaos caused by constantly changing formats. This prompted Mateusz to shift towards more consistent and straightforward approaches.

• Current Practices:
  For some teams, Mateusz has adopted the Lean Coffee format, which provides a balanced structure without overwhelming complexity. Conversely, other teams thrive with the traditional “What Went Well, What to Improve” format, proving that simplicity can be highly effective.

• Continuous Feedback Loop:
  Mateusz emphasizes the importance of soliciting feedback after each retrospective to ensure the format remains aligned with the team’s evolving needs. “Do you believe that this retrospective is for you? Good one. Can we try it one more time or would you like to experiment with different approach?” (04:50)
  This practice fosters a collaborative environment where the team actively participates in shaping their Agile practices.

---

Defining Success for Scrum Masters

Timestamp: 05:48 – 11:29

The conversation shifts to the multifaceted nature of success in the Scrum Master role, both for the practitioner and the team.

• Initial Team Expectations:
  Mateusz begins by regularly asking team members, “What do you expect from me as your Scrum Master?” (06:04)
  This question uncovers the team’s understanding and previous experiences with Scrum Masters, revealing whether expectations are rooted in best practices or affected by past anti-patterns.

• Evolving Success Metrics:
  Over time, Mateusz observes the maturation of teams based on how their expectations change. Initially, teams may see the Scrum Master primarily as a facilitator. As trust builds, they begin to seek deeper support, such as conflict resolution and coaching for self-development.

• Heartwarming Success Stories:
  An illustrative example Mateusz shares involves a team that, after six months, approached him to facilitate a session on creating a new architecture for their solution. Their request for facilitation methods and a structured approach demonstrated their trust and autonomy.
  “They came out of the session so happy and they showed me so, so huge insights they from that session that it was very, very heartwarming.” (09:30)

• Long-Term Success Indicators:
  Success is measured not just by immediate wins but by the team’s ability to self-organize and seek guidance when needed. When a team feels safe to ask for help, it signifies a healthy, collaborative environment.
  “They can come up to me to help them achieve better results.” (09:45)

---

Building Trust and Facilitating Autonomy

Timestamp: 10:09 – 11:02

Mateusz and Vasco highlight the importance of establishing trust within the team, enabling members to feel comfortable seeking assistance.

• Empowering Teams:
  Vasco comments, “Scrum Master shouldn't do that for us because we should know how to do it. But that's not the case. The Scrum Master is there to help with the things that teams perhaps don't feel so comfortable or don't have experience with.” (10:30)
  This perspective underscores the Scrum Master’s role in empowering teams to take ownership while providing the necessary support.

• Encouraging Open Communication:
  Successful Scrum Masters create an environment where team members feel safe to express their needs and seek guidance, fostering continuous improvement and collaboration.

---

Conflict Resolution and Maintaining Collaboration

Timestamp: 11:02 – 11:29

The discussion concludes with the critical role of conflict resolution in maintaining team cohesion.

• Essential Skills for Scrum Masters:
  Mateusz emphasizes that effective conflict resolution is a crucial skill for Scrum Masters.
  “Scrum Masters needs to focus on to be able to keep the team going and collaborative.” (11:10)
  By addressing conflicts promptly and constructively, Scrum Masters ensure a harmonious and productive team dynamic.

• Continuous Support:
  Through ongoing one-on-one sessions and team meetings, Scrum Masters can identify and resolve conflicts, promoting a collaborative and self-organizing team environment.

---

Conclusion

In this episode, Mateusz Komander provides valuable insights into the nuanced role of Scrum Masters in fostering successful Agile teams. By tailoring retrospective formats to team needs, defining success through evolving team expectations, building trust, empowering autonomy, and mastering conflict resolution, Scrum Masters can effectively lead their teams toward sustained success. Vasco Duarte and Mateusz’s conversation serves as a compelling guide for Scrum Masters seeking to enhance their practices and better support their teams.

---

Notable Quotes:

• “My favorite retrospective format is the one that suits the team best.” – Mateusz Komander (02:35)
• “Do you believe that this retrospective is for you? Good one. Can we try it one more time or would you like to experiment with different approach?” – Mateusz Komander (04:50)
• “They came out of the session so happy and they showed me so, so huge insights they from that session that it was very, very heartwarming.” – Mateusz Komander (09:30)
• “Scrum Masters needs to focus on to be able to keep the team going and collaborative.” – Mateusz Komander (11:10)

---

Stay Connected:

For more actionable advice and inspiring conversations with Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches worldwide, subscribe to the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast. Don't forget to rate and review the podcast on Stitcher or iTunes to support the community of Agile practitioners.

Transcript

[Pasco Duarte]

Hi there. Pasco Duarte here, your host. I wanted to share a story with you. You know how sometimes Agile just feels like following another checklist when like processes and frameworks feel more important than what we are trying to achieve and sometimes even like handcuffs. I was talking to a customer of the Global Agile Summit and he used a term that kind of stuck in my he said, I have Agile fatigue. And I've heard that a lot from people since then. But here's the thing, it doesn't have to be this way. So we started thinking and at the Global Agile Summit, which is happening this May, we're bringing together practitioners who've actually done that, who've broken free from this, you know, install the framework kind of mindset. We want to focus the summit on real life, first person stories of Agile, all succeeding that inspire you to action. We're talking real experiences, practical solutions, and of course, amazing insights from leaders like Gojkoacic, who will be one of the keynote speakers, and Jurgen Apelo, who will be one of the keynote speakers as well. If you're ready to leave the Agile fatigue behind, just join us in Dalit. The early birth tickets are now available@the globalagilesummit.com and mark your calendar. We will have workshops on May 18th, that's a Sunday. And then the conference itself will happen on May 19th and 20th of 2025 in Tallinn, Estonia. So let's make Agile exciting again. And remember, go to agile globalagilesummit.com that is, and get your early birth ticket. Now. It will only be available until early March, so grab it now. And now onto the episode.

[Vasco]

Hello everybody. Welcome to our success Thursday, the big question of the week, of course, this week with Mateusz Kommander. Hey Mateusz, welcome back.

[Mateusz Kommander]

Hello Vasco. Happy Thursday. Nice seeing you again.

[Vasco]

Happy Thursday everybody. It's already Thursday. All right, cool. So we'll talk about success in a second. But first, share with us Matthias, your favorite Agile retrospective format and why.

[Mateusz Kommander]

Well, here it might be a little bit idealistic phrase, but I would say my favorite retrospective format is the one that suits the team best. So early in my career I was experimenting with many elaborate and different ways of running the retrospective. But at some point one of the team, actually one of my colleagues in one of the team approached me and say, Mateusz, the fact that each time you are introducing different format of retrospective, it's a little bit chaotic for us. Like place, the stuff where we should put our ideas is changing places we don't exactly understand. Somehow sometimes the flow. Can you maybe stick with one approach or can you introduce something different? And I actually thought about this and went back into the mirror and took. Took a point of view, took a view into the retrospectives that I was running with that team and I saw that actually they are right, that there is a lot there. There might be a lot of chaos when you are first looking on it. When I was designing this, I was so happy. It was very engaging. It was very many different areas or aspects were mentioned around, around those retrospectives. But after a while I actually started introducing or finished with that specific team. I finished working with Lean Coffee because this was the retrospective format that was best for them. But on the other hand, currently I'm working with teams that are actually, that they are. They actually have the most beneficial approach with the most basic one, what went well, what we would like to improve or what didn't want. Well, and we would like to improve and decide about the action points and for them it works just perfectly. But I also have a team which very much likes the elaborate and different retrospectives each time. So I do try to experiment and I do mostly try to ask the team about the feedback. Do you believe that this retrospective is for you? Good one. Can we try it one more time or would you like to experiment with different approach? And this is the question that I'm asking at the end of each retrospective, the team and the team actually navigates me what should I search for for them for the next meeting?

[Vasco]

And it's really important to ask that feedback because even with our best intentions, something might just not be fit for the team or at least not at that time fit for the team. So it's really important to collect that feedback. And it's also, I mean, we need to walk the walk, right? If we are constantly preaching feedback, we should definitely request feedback ourselves. So that's a great reminder. Thank you for sharing that.

[Mateusz Kommander]

Exactly. Yes.

[Vasco]

So next we talk about success because it is a very important self reflection aspect for us as Scrum Masters. So Matteo, share with us, when you think about Scrum Masters, how do you define success for them and for yourself?

[Mateusz Kommander]

Well, I do think there are many layers of that and from the perspective of making the team more self organized or more self managed to very small wins for a Scrum masterwork we can define as success. So but for me personally I do feel that so maybe different, but I will start differently. So usually now when I'm working with the teams, one of the first questions that I'm asking on the session with the team members is what do you expect from me as your Scrum Master? And actually the answers from the team members are very, quite often very eye opening because it can show you how they were working so far with Scrum Masters, sometimes with anti patterns, but sometimes they had a very great Scrum Masters so they know what to expect. And this is quite easy conversation then. But most often I meet with statements that they are expecting for me to facilitate the meetings to help them with the team spirit or team building approaches and maybe sometimes do some sort of managerial activities around the product and that really shows the maturity of the team, the answer for that question and the understanding of a Scrum Master. So and actually based on that question I've started maybe building for myself success story. So how they are answering this question when I'm entering the team and how they are answering this question let's say after a year of work is the answer for that question the same or is it different? And I do believe if they can answer a little bit more towards supporting them in terms of conflict resolution, supporting them in facilitating their own sessions or giving them facilitation approaches for their own sessions they have or coaching them in terms of how they can aim into self development or self develop or support their development itself, those are the answers that I'm looking long term. And one example that was for me very heartwarming was when I started with the team when most of the developers during the at the beginning answered this question. We don't know what's what to expect from Scrum Master really we don't know so far it was mostly facilitating the meetings but we don't know what else. And after working with them for approximately half a year, I really like that they came to me and asked me Matti, we would like to run within our development team session where we will be able when we would like to create new architecture for the new concept of the architecture of our solution. Can you give us facilitation methods and a very short walkthrough how we can make the most out of this? Because there is six of us and we would like to hear everyone, we would like to hear ideas from everyone. And I loved that because that gave me an opportunity to work with them, to introduce them to liberating structures. They have their own great ideas already but I was able to also give them some suggestions and they came out of the session so happy and they showed me so, so huge insights they from that session that it was very, very heartwarming. And for me personally that was a success that they knew that they can come up to me to help them achieve better results.

[Vasco]

Yeah, absolutely. And this is such a great story that they understood actually that you were there to help them achieve what they wanted with support, whether it is facilitation or coaching or whatever. In this case it was facilitation, but that was a great example of how through your actions you were able to show them what they could expect and they were able to understand that and verbalize it with the request for help. And I think just asking for help is a great example of what successful Scrum Master is. Right. Because they feel safe to come to you and ask for help with something that perhaps if you were somebody else, they might have thought, oh no, we should do this. I mean, the Scrum Master shouldn't do that for us because we should know how to do it. But that's not the case. The Scrum Master is there to help with the things that teams perhaps don't feel so comfortable or don't have experience with.

[Mateusz Kommander]

Exactly, exactly. And actually not only that, I think throughout the, the longer you work with the teams, throughout the one to one sessions, you, you are able to also recognize and support with conflict resolution. And this is also one of the skill sets and one of the aspects that Scrum Master needs. Scrum Masters needs to focus on to be able to keep the team going and collaborative.

[Vasco]

Yeah, that's a great self reflection question for us. Are the teams asking for help in anything? All right, thank you for sharing that, Matthaus.

[Mateusz Kommander]

Thank you. Thank you for having me today, Vasco.

[Pasco Duarte]

We really hope you liked our show and if you did, why not rate this podcast on Stitcher or itunes. Share this podcast and let other Scrum Masters know about this valuable resource for their work. Remember that sharing is caring.