Slack time is not wasted time. It is the breathing room that allows teams to step back, adapt, and grow. Not to mention the ability to deal with any emergencies that happen to come up.

In diesem Artikel erklärt PST Simon Flossmann Coaching-Skills, die jeder Scrum Master haben muss.

Scrum isn’t about busywork—it’s about making outcomes more predictable. But many teams confuse predictability with fake certainty. In this post, we explore how Scrum really optimizes predictability, where teams go wrong, and what you can inspect today.

A simple 3-block framework to realign teams around: 1. Why We Exist 2. What We Do 3. How We Work

When a company tries to be product-, customer-, and operations-focused at the same time, it loses clarity and energy. Mixed strategic focuses create internal conflict, slow innovation, and weaken real competitive advantage.

Die agile Welt spaltet sich in zwei Lager: Diejenigen, die davon überzeugt sind, dass KI die Praktiker aus der Welt schaffen wird, und diejenigen, die KI als eine weitere Modeerscheinung abtun. Beide liegen falsch.

Artificial intelligence promises to supercharge software development, but it introduces a critical paradox: the ability to build the wrong thing with perfect efficiency is now greater than ever. This article delves into why human-centric frameworks like Scrum are not becoming obsolete, but are instead essential guardrails in an age of automation. It explores the new economics of amplified failure, the potential shift for developers from creators to curators, and why the most vital skill is no longer raw speed, but strategic wisdom.

Agile is often reduced to buzzwords about mindsets or methodologies, but its real value runs deeper. In this post, PST Robert Pieper explains how Agile as a strategy helps teams adapt, learn, and deliver meaningful results in a constantly changing world.

Taking a leaf out of fellow PST Sander Dur’s recent post, I would like to explore if Product Ownership and Product Management are mutually exclusive or inclusive. I personally like his analogy that the Product Owner and the Product Manager are just two different t-shirts. Now, different people have different PoVs on the two, I will be sharing my learning and experiences in this post.

When your backlog isn’t prioritized, even great teams can lose focus. In this blog, PST Jason Malmstadt explains how effective prioritization helps teams deliver faster, stay aligned, and build trust with stakeholders.

Most people don’t understand “leading” and “lagging” indicators. And that’s fine, because the terms are meaningless. They’re used by consultants to sound authoritative but lack consistent definition or practical value.

When you’re kayaking in fast whitewater, the boat tends to go wherever you look. That's because when you look at something, your whole body tends to lean that way without you even realizing it.

In diesem Artikel beantwortet PST Simon Flossmann die Frage: Welches ist das Wichtigste Scrum Event?

The Agile world is splitting into two camps: Those convinced AI will automate practitioners out of existence, and those dismissing it as another crypto-level fad. Both are wrong.

Scrum doesn’t guarantee predictability or remove risk. It helps you optimize both—if you treat it as an approach, not a process checklist. Discover how to make Scrum lead you somewhere meaningful.

Many companies water down the Scrum Master by splitting the accountability across teams, making it a side hustle, or rotating it each Sprint. It feels efficient but strips away the very impact that makes Scrum work. The Scrum Master isn’t about booking meetings, being a Jira jockey, or tracking velocity. Their true value is coaching, enabling team effectiveness, defending empiricism, protecting quality, surfacing dysfunction, and serving the organization. They don’t need to be full-time every minute, but they must be dedicated and focused. Cutting corners here is the most expensive "savings" you can make.

This article introduces four perspectives for structuring product groups and teams: frequency, criticality/uncertainty, operational dependencies, and cost of delay. Together, they help define the right scope of product groups and balance autonomy with efficiency.

Warum Produktspezialisten in die strategische Irrelevanz schlafwandeln, wenn grundlegende KI-Risiken ignoriert werden.

Show me your Review sessions and I'll easily tell you whether you're a process theater, feature factory, or product lab. How do you switch from a feature factory to a product lab? From an organization managing projects and plans to one focused on traction towards outcomes and business impact?

In this fast-paced world, we need Scrum more than ever. From the transparency created by artifacts to incremental delivery that keeps us on track, Scrum gives organizations a way to adapt and thrive. AI is a powerful tool, but instead of replacing Scrum, it makes the framework even more essential. Here are five reasons why Scrum is more relevant than ever.

Viele Meetings versanden in Konsensfloskeln statt in konkreten Vereinbarungen. Als Scrum Master kannst du das ändern: indem du vage Aussagen konsequent hinterfragst, kleine Schritte statt großer Lösungen priorisierst und mit einfachen Werkzeugen zu viel klareren Entscheidungen führst: Klartext statt Konsens!

In diesem Artikel teilt PST Simon Flossmann 3 Einsichten, wie er seine Liberating-Structures-Workshops in Zukunft verbessern wird.

AI is tremendously helpful in the hands of a skilled operator. It can accelerate research, generate insights, and support better decision-making. But here’s what the AI evangelists won’t tell you: it can be equally damaging when fundamental AI risks are ignored.

このブログでは、スクラムがプロダクトレッドグロース、マーケティングレッドグロース、セールスレッドグロースといった異なる成長戦略にどう適応するかを解説します。スクラムの基盤である「利用可能なインクリメントの提供」と「成果の検査と適応」は変わりませんが、価値の証拠、関わるステークホルダー、フィードバックループは成長モデルによって異なります。組織の戦略にスクラム実践をどう整合させ、効果と価値を最大化するかを学べます。

Many leaders I meet tell me the same story: “We’ve tried Agile. More than once. It never worked the way we were promised.” These conversations often lead to the bigger question of why Agile fails at scale—why the same methods that work well for small teams often break down when applied across an entire organisation.

One without the other? You’re either dreaming or gambling. Here’s how combining iterative and incremental turns Scrum into a value-delivery engine.

Organisationen scheinen bei ihrer KI-Transformation an denselben Mustern zu scheitern, an denen auch ihre agilen Transformationen gescheitert sind.

Is your Scrum team just going through the motions of Scrum without using it to focus on continuous improvement? Then coach the "fluffy" Scrum values to help turn them into a team focused on value.

Sometimes Scrum gets a bad rap. When I ask why an organization struggled with Scrum, I almost always hear something like “there was too much overhead.” But when I dig deeper, I usually find that the organization had imposed extra rules—rules that have nothing to do with Scrum. In other words, when Scrum “doesn’t work,” it’s almost always because the team wasn’t actually using Scrum well.

Wanting to collaborate better, gain control over an overloaded annual plan, increase job satisfaction and, in turn, reduce staff turnover: these are challenges almost every organization in every sector faces. However, the cultural industry differs significantly from the business world. It has its own unique challenges, working methods, and goals. That’s why Curious Culture, together with Scrum Facilitators, developed a two-day Professional Scrum Master training specifically tailored to the cultural sector. We spoke with Ziryan Salayi, owner of Scrum Facilitators, about what Scrum is and why it can be so effective for organizations in the artistic field.

AI Agents can take over repetitive tasks to free up our time for strategic work. However, we should learn what it is, how it works, and how we can build them. This blog shows you the starting step.

Many Scrum Teams fall into the trap of assuming there will always be another Sprint. This mindset leads to delay, complacency, and missed opportunities. Treating each Sprint like it could be your last helps teams focus on outcomes, improve continuously, and deliver real value, while they still can.

In Scrum, one of the most common misunderstandings is the difference between the Definition of Done and Acceptance Criteria. In this blog, PST Robert Pieper explains the key differences and how your team can avoid confusion.

The secret to a high-performing team lies not just in its processes, but in the ability to understand each individual. During a recent Professional Scrum Master training, we were introduced to a powerful concept from Process Communication®: the Energizer/Rebel personality type. This profile is a game-changer for team dynamics. When well-supported, these individuals are a true catalyst for collaboration and innovation. Their humor, spontaneity, and creative energy can significantly boost an entire team's engagement. However, if not properly guided, their strong personalities can also disrupt a group’s balance. For managers and Scrum Masters, understanding this profile is a unique opportunity to: Boost engagement and initiative Empower the team toward self-management Strengthen collective agility Discover how taking personality styles into account can transform your team's performance and help you fulfill the core responsibilities of a Scrum Master.

This blog explores how Scrum adapts across different growth strategies — Product-Led, Marketing-Led, and Sales-Led. While Scrum’s foundation of delivering usable increments and inspecting outcomes remains the same, the evidence of value, stakeholders, and feedback loops shift depending on the growth model. Readers will learn how to align Scrum practices with their organization’s strategy to maximize effectiveness and value.

There’s no shortage of training and frameworks on decision-making, prioritization, or time management. But what if the real issue lies elsewhere? What if the challenge is not a lack of knowledge, but a cognitively overloaded leader? This article, based on a workshop I delivered to the Agile community in 2025, explores how leaders make decisions under pressure and how they can approach it differently. The topic fascinates me, and leadership happens to be my daily work.

Even in 2025, the difference between the Product Owner and Product Manager is misunderstood. Is it a career path? Is the PM a step up from the PO? Are they the same? This article puts this discussion to bed in an easy and straightforward way.

In diesem Artikel beschreibt PST Simon Flossmann, wie sich Liefertermin einhalten lassen.

Why Today’s Failures Look Uncannily Like Yesterday’s “Agile Transformations,” Or: Why This Time Won’t Be Different Either.

Across industries, teams are experimenting with Copilot, GPT, and automation. The result? Local productivity gains. But the big initiatives that matter for customers and strategy still stall. Why? The existing org design is not AI-ready and limits performance.

This AI-generated video shows you how far you can go with AI to step into a new level of productivity. So, learn and leverage it.

Scrum’s lean thinking isn’t about doing *everything* faster—it’s about focusing only on what truly matters. Learn how to cut through backlog bloat, process clutter, and competing priorities so your team’s energy fuels real outcomes, not busywork.

Scrum is all about creating a Done increment that generates value for its users. However, you might come across teams that do almost everything in the name of Scrum except creating a Done Increment. Spillovers almost every Sprint. Sprint Goals not achieved, at times they are not even defined.

One of the key aspects of Scrum is that each Sprint should result in a Done, usable increment of product. But what happens if your team struggles to achieve this? Here are ten practical ideas that your team may consider adopting to help improve your ability to get to Done.

AI is reshaping product management, and Product Owners can no longer ignore it. Building on the six preferred stances, the Orchestrator emerges as a seventh stance: treating AI as a digital colleague that automates repetitive tasks, reduces cognitive load, and frees time for strategy, vision, and customer value. Far from replacing judgment, AI amplifies the Product Owner’s impact across all stances — from Visionary to Influencer. Adopting this mindset shift allows Product Owners to focus on what matters most: delivering value with clarity and intent.

Discover the two critical decision types—One-Way and Two-Way Doors—that can transform how you tackle decision paralysis in agile teams. Packed with practical tips, coaching questions, and insights into empirical product development, this article from Pawel Rola empowers Product Owners and other Scrum professionals to drive innovation and agility.

In diesem Artikel erklärt PST Simon Flossmann, wie er 3 typische Probleme in hybriden Meetings löst

Digital.ai releases an annual 'State of Agile' report which I am eagerly anticipating. While I wait for the 18th report to be released, I want to take a moment to look at how we have talked about Agile has changed over time.

Many confuse operating models with organization design. Operating models, as defined by Jeanne W. Ross focus on daily operations, resources, governance, planning, performance but are too narrow to shape the whole org-design. Organization design, shown in the Star Model by Jay Galbraith, aligns strategy, structure, processes, rewards, and people. Confusing the two causes local fixes without systemic change — and culture quickly eats strategy when the system stays the same.

Waste hides in “the way we’ve always done it.” In Scrum, Lean thinking is about spotting waste—whether it’s defects, overproduction, bloated backlogs, or wasted talent—and making it smaller, less important, or gone. Here’s how to see it, reduce it, and free your team’s focus.