When a Former Skeptic Calls to Say "Now I Know What You Did" — Defining Scrum Master Success | Juliana Stepanova

Summary

Summary of Podcast Episode

Podcast Details

• Podcast: Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast: Agile storytelling from the trenches
• Host: Vasco Duarte
• Guest: Juliana Stepanova
• Episode: When a Former Skeptic Calls to Say "Now I Know What You Did" — Defining Scrum Master Success
• Date: February 5, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into the elusive question of how to recognize and define success as a Scrum Master. Host Vasco Duarte and guest Juliana Stepanova explore real-world experiences, including memorable moments of skepticism and validation, and practical strategies for making the impact of a Scrum Master visible. Juliana also shares her favorite retrospective exercise and practical advice for setting measurable goals in Scrum Master roles.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Juliana’s Favorite Retrospective Format: The "Wedding Retro"

• [01:23–03:37]
  • Juliana introduces the "Wedding Retro," a fun, engaging format modeled after the well-known "stop, start, keep, continue" but with a unique twist inspired by the phrase “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.”
  • Main elements:
    • Something Old: Things that are working well and should be continued.
    • Something New: Opportunities for improvement or experimentation.
    • Something Borrowed: Good ideas or practices observed elsewhere that could be adopted.
    • Something Blue: Current blockers, issues, or risks.
  • Why it works: The playful theme of a wedding disarms participants, makes the retrospective more inviting, and sets a positive emotional tone.
  • Notable quote:

    “People really like when they hear this name, within retro, they already have positive emotions ... it's really like a classical exercise, but it's with another perspective... with a really funny name. I really like this exercise and use it all over the time.”
    — Juliana [02:16]

  • Resource: Juliana offers to share a link to a detailed description from Retromat (will be in show notes).

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2. How Scrum Masters Define and Recognize Success

• [04:52–07:00]

  • Juliana emphasizes that success for Scrum Masters is often intangible and difficult to measure directly.

  • She recounts a personal story:

    • A teammate, initially skeptical about Juliana’s role as Scrum Master, asked: “I don’t know, Juliana, for what you have your salary? Why are you doing this job?” [05:02]
    • After moving to a new company, the former skeptic called Juliana eight months later: “Juliana, now I know what you did that time. Now I understand, and it was so amazing work.” [05:40]

  • Key insight: The impact of Scrum Masters is often only appreciated in hindsight or when absent.

    "Sometimes the work of the Scrum Master, you cannot measure it in the real numbers ... Sometimes it depends on so many factors that it's not possible to really predict and measure the success of Scrum Master."
    — Juliana [06:16]

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3. Making Scrum Master Impact Visible & Overcoming Doubt

• [07:00–10:30]
  • Vasco highlights a common challenge: It’s easy for Scrum Masters to feel invisible or doubt their contribution, especially when questioned about their value.
  • Vasco observes:

    “You might be busy the whole day, but then it triggers this question of what am I doing that adds value? What am I doing that can be seen?” [07:27]

  • Juliana shares her method for self-assessing and making impact visible:
    • Set Clear, Short-Term Objectives: During interviews and in her role, Juliana asks, “How will you measure my success in three months or six months?”
    • Choose Focus Areas Based on Team Needs: For example, implementing and maintaining a robust "definition of done" across teams.
    • Track Progress & Revisit Goals: Regular check-ins with other Scrum Masters and teams to assess adoption and needed adjustments.
    • Limit Focus to Achievable Goals: Typically select three main improvement points for a three-month horizon, defined collaboratively with the team.
  • Notable quote:

    “Without this focus, it’s truly hard to see what you’re really doing.”
    — Juliana [10:19]

  • Taking deliberate steps to measure one's own progress helps make the invisible work of Scrum Masters tangible both to themselves and to their teams.

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4. Practical Advice from the Discussion

• [10:30–11:06]
  • Vasco summarizes Juliana’s approach as a simple, effective heuristic:
    • "Do I have a clear goal? Am I working towards that goal? Can I show what I’ve done towards that goal? Am I even measuring myself?" [10:37]
  • He emphasizes the importance of self-assessment and regular feedback cycles.
  • Juliana’s thanks underline the value of the discussion’s reflective process.

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Notable Quotes

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote | |-----------|-----------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:16 | Juliana | "People really like when they hear this name, within retro, they already have positive emotions..." | | 05:40 | Juliana | "Juliana, now I know what you did that time. Now I understand, and it was so amazing work." | | 06:16 | Juliana | "Sometimes the work of the Scrum Master, you cannot measure it in the real numbers..." | | 10:19 | Juliana | "Without this focus, it’s truly hard to see what you’re really doing." | | 10:37 | Vasco | "Do I have a clear goal? Am I working towards that goal? Can I show what I’ve done towards that goal? Am I even measuring myself?" |

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Episode Structure & Timestamps

• [01:11] Start of main content; guest introduction
• [01:23–03:37] Wedding Retro exercise
• [04:52–07:00] Personal story: defining and experiencing success as a Scrum Master
• [07:00–10:30] The challenge of making Scrum Master work visible; Juliana's strategy
• [10:30–11:06] Practical wrap-up: measuring and demonstrating impact

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Takeaways

• Scrum Master success often can’t be measured in hard numbers; it’s seen in cultural shifts and improved team performance, sometimes only recognized after the fact.
• Creating visible objectives and tracking progress is crucial for making a Scrum Master’s value apparent.
• Engaging, well-themed retrospectives can foster a positive team environment and disarm resistance.
• Regular self-assessment and feedback from the team can help Scrum Masters overcome doubt and clarify their own contributions.

The episode blends practical techniques and human insight into the realities of Agile coaching, leaving listeners with both actionable advice and encouragement.

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 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.

[B]

Hello everybody. Welcome to our Success Thursday here on the podcast. This week we have with us Juliana Stepanova. Hey Juliana, welcome back.

[C]

Hello. Hello everybody.

[B]

So Thursday Success Thursday here on the podcast, of course. But before we dive into what success means, let's take a detour and explore your favorite agile retrospective format, Juliana.

[C]

Actually I was thinking about this question what is my favorite format but format it's mostly like redefined like opening some brainstorm question and so on. So I focused on the 1 of exercises that I really like and I use it overall even outside my Scrum Master life. It's wedding retro and it's like very simple stuff. Yeah, I see you are smiling at the moment. So it's actually one of the points why I'm using it because the people really like when they hear this name within retro they already have positive emotions and behind it it's actually normal stop, start, keep and continue or to invent something new. And what is the main point there? It's something old that really like what's working like to continue to do it something new where we have an important really stuff that we can improve or start trying or experimenting something borrowed perfect area of investigation. If we saw some idea if we see a new method in another team what they used or taken from other area departments and we can identify this tool idea and try to implement in our team and something blue like blockers issues risk in the way of blocking us or something that we can improve. So it's really like classical exercise, but it's with another perspective of how we approaching it with a really funny name. I really like this exercise and using it really all over the time.

[B]

Do you have a blog post or an article that we could link to that explains the format?

[C]

I will send it from Retromat. I will put the link.

[B]

Yes, we'll add the link to the show notes that people can go and check it out. The reason why I smiled is because it's so surprising, right? And it is, as you said, it invokes positive emotions, but also curiosity and surprise. It's like, oh, how would that be? And I really like that. And that's a tool that we have when we host retrospectives, right? We can come up with themes, with topics that I think the word would be disarm, right? Like make people feel more at ease. If you laugh at the start of the retrospective, you are ready for a much better retrospective than if you're just tense and anxious and nervous as it starts. So definitely great idea, the wedding retro. And the link is in the show notes. But of course we do these retros because we want to help teams succeed. So, Juliana, when you think about your work as a Scrum Master, what does success mean for you?

[C]

Tricky question. Really tricky question. I would give an example where I feel myself as a successful Scrum Master. I will start from this real example. I have a development team spread it all over the Euro. It was not collocated team. And I have one person working with me in the office. And each time, so he was respecting the Scrum and he was work performing very well. But each time he comments. So really, I don't know, Juliana, for what you have your salary, why are you doing this job? I don't see any of improvements and so on. And we have worked like for one and a half year altogether. So it was mostly like in the funny way, so not like really blaming me, but he was really not understanding where is my value. And afterwards he changed the company and we still keep in the contact with all of my team members. Actually, I am in the contact even after the years, as we speak, spread it through the companies. And after the like eight months he called me and said, Juliana, now I know what you did that time. So really now I understanding. And it was so amazing work. And that was my like, really success story. Because sometimes the work of the Scrum Master, you cannot measure it in the real numbers because the work of the Scrum Master is dependent on the persons who are working with the team. So it's leadership, but still it's servant leadership. It's enabling the team. And sometimes it depends on so many factors. That it's not possible to really predict and to measure the success of Scrum Master. It's for me, like to measure the success of the team itself and the company, how it's implemented, how it's used and it's not easy.

[B]

Yeah, absolutely. And when like, of course in this case you have a concrete measure of your success, right? Somebody who later on comes to you and says, oh my God, what you did was so important. Now I'm in this other company and nothing works and everything is upside down. That's kind of an obvious. Right? But I'm pretty sure, I don't know if it happened to you, but it definitely happened to me. And I'm sure many of our listeners that when people come to you and say, I don't know what you are doing here, I don't see any value whatever. It kind of puts us in this question of am I actually doing something right? Like, I mean, you might be busy the whole day, but then it triggers this question of what am I doing that adds value? What am I doing that can be seen? So when you think about these questions, how do you phrase it for yourself so that you can overcome these moments of doubt which are natural, right? Like anyone that wants to perform will have moments of doubt. Only the people who do not want to perform never have any doubts.

[C]

Right?

[B]

So how do you answer those questions for you? How do I add value? How do I make my work visible?

[C]

It's actually the great question I usually put in the interview. When I have an interview to the company for the new job, I actually ask exactly the question, how you will measure my success in three months or in six months that you know that I'm right person. For me, I answer it in this way. I'm choosing the focus areas of work depending on the needs from the team and company as well. For example, I would say we would like to have definition of done for all the teams and like an above alignment how this all teams which come into one release, what definition of done or which points or rules they will have if it's not done, for example, yet. And I said in me like an area of time where I will work on this with the team to have to measure the progress to see if it's to create definition of done. It's not so complicated. But to follow it constantly and to respect it. It's exactly the point of the Scrum Master and I've really tracking this progress. I have like a list of six teams and I'm just choosing connecting to another Scrum Master and asking could you please give me information or advice? Is it respected? Do you have problems? Do you need to adapt it? And we have like additional events checking up our definition of done, do we need it for some revision? And all over the time then I have this topic closed and I see this progress and usually I choose three main points for three months time horizont discussing with the team and asking what we really need to improve or what we really need to do. It's only one small part how Scrum Master can measure their work, measure their success. But without this focus, it's truly hard to see what you're really doing. It's for sure.

[B]

That's actually a very good point. It can be as simple as just having an objective and checking if you're getting close to it. Of course I would add to that getting feedback and sharing that with your stakeholders, like all of that stuff. But that's actually a very important kind of heuristic is do I have a clear goal? Am I working towards that goal? Can I show what I've done towards that goal? Am I even measuring myself? Right? Like it's not about others necessarily, although they will need to eventually, but also about us measuring our own work. So I really like that approach. It's very practical. Thank you for sharing that.

[C]

Thank you for this question.

[A]

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[B]

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