Every product begins with a spark: a frustration, a market gap, or even an accident. But sparks aren’t finished products; they’re hypotheses waiting to be tested. In The Anatomy of a Product, we call this the Spark of Life: the messy, human moment that reveals a problem worth exploring. Scrum gives us the perfect framework to nurture sparks responsibly: observe before you build, frame the problem clearly, and prototype to learn. Not every spark will grow into a product, but every product begins with one.

A Scrum Team thrives when every voice is heard. Facilitators and Scrum Masters play a vital role in making space for quieter team members. With intention and a few well-tested techniques, we can shift the dynamic and bring more perspectives into the conversation. Sometimes the quietest voice in the room has the most important insight. From using silent writing and Liberating Structures to creating psychological safety and embracing silence, these ten approaches empower facilitators to create inclusive environments where all voices are heard. These strategies can help bring forward valuable perspectives that might otherwise go unnoticed, whether you're working with a reflective thinker or someone hesitant to share.

Verwenden Sie keine LLMs mehr für Probleme, die korrekte, reproduzierbare Antworten erfordern; KI liefert weder die erforderliche Genauigkeit noch die Reproduzierbarkeit.

Effective Agile-transformation needs: deep and narrow change, top-down and bottom-up support, and strict volunteer contracts — driving 2x–5x gains in speed and adaptability.

Learn the basics of AI in just 30 minutes with my free crash course "AI Quickstart For Agilists".

In diesem Artikel beschreibt PST Simon Flossmann, wie er seine Workshops mit KI verbessert.

Stop Using LLMs for Problems That Demand Correct Answers.

When I first started working with Scrum Teams, one of the things that struck me most was the Product Owner accountability. The Product Owner is accountable for maximizing the value of the product. It is simple but profound - they are ultimately accountable for the value that the product delivers.

“Aligned Autonomy” is a concept that aims to strike a balance between autonomous decision-making and alignment with organizational goals and values. What does Autonomy mean in a scaled environment with multiple teams? What does Alignment mean? How can we design an organization with aligned autonomy at scale?

Scrum doesn’t suggest—it asserts—that knowledge comes from experience. Not analysis paralysis, not over-planning, not theorizing. Real insight comes from doing. Here’s why that matters more than ever.

Wir haben das alle schon erlebt: Sie bereiten sich auf die nächste Retrospektive vor und bitten ChatGPT um Hilfe: „Ich brauche ein paar Vorschläge für die Retrospektive“, tippen Sie. Was bekommen Sie zurück? Allgemeine Retrospektivenmuster, die Sie schon hundertmal gesehen haben.

The article uses an example to illustrate how tying individual bonuses to the number of high-priority bugs leads to unhealthy behaviors, like manipulating bug priorities and avoiding accountability. The core issue is not software bugs themselves but the management practice that creates perverse incentives and damages collaboration and quality culture. It recommends focusing on collective learning, root cause analysis, and sharing knowledge, instead of linking personal targets to bug counts.

The article introduces the hierarchy of strategic foci — product, operational, and customer. By defining the top-5 organizational capabilities, leaders can identify the primary focus and build an organizational design aligned with strategy.

In diesem Artikel beschreibt PST Simon Flossmann 3 Template, um Sprintziele zu formulieren.

What a shame: We are often ignoring the benefits of Meta Prompting, or having a conversation with the AI, before proceeding to the task.

User stories are one way to describe Product Backlog items, but too often they’re misused or forced into every situation. The original intent, from Extreme Programming, was about sparking collaboration through the 3 Cs: Card, Conversation, Confirmation, not filling in a rigid template. Scrum doesn’t prescribe a single format, and alternatives like Job Stories or Hypothesis-Driven Development can be more effective depending on the context. At the end of the day, the value comes from the conversation, not the wording.

Lean thinking is foundational to Scrum—but too often, teams overload themselves with wasteful rituals and bloated backlogs. This post explores how Scrum encourages clarity, simplicity, and focus on what truly matters.

Ihr LLM-Tool denkt nicht. Es ist ein statistischer KI-Papagei: ausgeklügelt und mithilfe von Millionen von Gesprächen trainiert – aber dennoch ein Papagei. Teams, die mit KI scheitern, verstehen das entweder nicht oder tun so, als ob es keine Rolle spielen würde. Beide Fehler sind kostspielig.

In order to create valuable and useful products, it is necessary for the Product Owner to understand the needs and expectations of the customer. However, it is not always possible to have direct access to the end user. And that could create some challenges. In scenarios, where the Product Owner does not have a direct access to the end customer, they will have to rely on other approaches to build an hypothesis of the needs and expectations of the customer. In this article I explore one such approach - Personas.

If you’ve ever been a Developer on a Scrum Team, you’ve probably experienced this moment: you’ve completed all of the work you originally planned for the Sprint, and there are still a few days left. What now? It might seem like a good idea to just pull more work into the Sprint, but that sometimes causes more harm than good.

The article contrasts traditional and Agile organizations through Galbraith’s Star Model, showing how strategy, structure, processes, rewards, and HR policies shift to enable adaptability in uncertain environments.

In diesem Artikel beschreibt PST Simon Flossmann, die 4 Karrierepfade für Scrum Master.

Your LLM tool doesn’t think. It’s a statistical AI parrot: sophisticated and trained on millions of conversations—but still a parrot. Teams that fail with AI either don’t understand this or act as if it doesn’t matter. Both mistakes are costly.

Scrum is founded on empiricism. But what does that actually mean in practice? In this post, we unpack the true meaning of “empirical” and what it looks like in high-performing Scrum Teams—plus what to watch out for when teams ignore reality.

A few years ago the buzz word in the Software Industry was #Agile, then came #Devops and now certainly the word that is ruling the roost is #AI. In these changing times where the lines are getting blurred and roles are evolving at a rapid pace; how can Product Ownership remain untouched by AI.

El refinamiento es una práctica saludable en Scrum para mejorar la transparencia del Product Backlog y la entrega de valor. Hay muchas prácticas, técnicas y herramientas para llevarlas a cabo, sin embargo, su ejecución debe llevarse a cabo teniendo en consideración algunos aspectos que se muestran a continuación:

If you are thinking about "saving money" by eliminating the Scrum Master, think again! They are the glue that holds the Scrum Team together. What are good communication, effective events and a focus on value worth, after all? A pretty penny, I'd say.

The Scrum Master role is at risk of fading away unless the profession changes. Too many organizations misunderstand the accountability, reducing it to administrative tasks instead of leadership. The Scrum Masters who will thrive are those who grow beyond facilitation, actively protect empiricism, influence at the organizational level, and focus on delivering real outcomes. This article explores the challenges facing Scrum Masters today and the skills they need to remain relevant in the years ahead.

There is an annual "State of Agile" report which has been produced by Digital.ai for the past 17 years. One of the most interesting questions that is asked in this survey is "Why did your company adopt Agile"?. What I find fascinating is that for 14 of the last 17 years, the answer has almost always been something along the lines of "Accelerate Time to Market" or "Accelerate Software Delivery". Last year, for the first time, the answer changed pretty significantly.

Why the Goldilocks Approach to Context Provision Works with Generative AI — An Experiment with GPT-5.

In diesem Artikel erklärt PST Simon Flossmann 7 Fragen, die Scrum Master beantworten müssen, wenn sie Scrum erfolgreich skalieren wollen.

Scrum isn’t built on tools or templates—it’s founded on empiricism and lean thinking. In this post, we dig into what that foundation really means and why ignoring it puts your entire implementation at risk.

Ich habe den neuen Agentenmodus von ChatGPT ausprobiert: Handelt es sich wirklich um einen agilen KI-Agenten, der selbstständig bemerkenswerte Signale im täglichen Kommunikations- und Datenrauschen erkennt?

In my 2 decades of IT career, I've seen how trends come and go. The latest to cause a stir is the fear that Artificial Intelligence will make many jobs obsolete, including that of the Scrum Master. Being a Scrum Master are you also worried about AI taking away your job? The answer is not a straight forward ‘yes’ or ‘no’. The answer is however - ‘it depends’.

In this blogpost, PST Joshua Partogi share his personal thoughts what does it mean for a Scrum Master to be a true leader who serves.

This blog explores the future of knowledge work with AI, arguing that teams will remain relevant due to technical debt and organizational resistance to change, even if AI tools lead to smaller teams. It also asserts that Scrum remains valuable for individuals, offering discipline, transparency, and empiricism to solve complex problems. It highlights the continued relevance of Scrum fundamentals, leading to the introduction of the new Professional Scrum Fundamentals course.

Let’s explore how a Scrum facilitator embodies each Scrum Value

In this blog post PST Joshua Partogi explains how to use Evidence-Based Management to measure organisation agility and the importance of it.

This post challenges teams that claim to be Agile by spotlighting one brutally honest metric: Days Since Last Release. Release frequency is a clearer indicator of agility than velocity or story points. By tracking how long it has been since the last release, and striving to keep that number at zero, Scrum Teams can drive better conversations, surface delivery obstacles, and stay focused on what really matters: delivering value frequently.

In the world of Scrum, we love to say that the Product Owner is accountable for maximizing the value of the product. But what we don’t say enough is how they actually do that. Spoiler: it’s not just by writing user stories and keeping the Product Backlog tidy, although those things don't hurt. A great Product Owner creates alignment—between strategy and execution, executives and developers, vision and reality.

Scrum revolves around products but what is a product, really? Learn why clear product definition is key to alignment, focus, and delivering real value in this blog by PST Robert Pieper.

Product Owner is an Experimenter. You can leverage AI to visualize your ideas quickly without the need for developers and validate them. But HOW?! Stay with me.

In diesem Artikel erklärt PST Simon Flossmann 3 mentale Modelle für Scrum Master.

I tried the new ChatGPT Agent mode, a valuable new tool for those who cannot program?

Agile practices are designed to push authority toward the Development Team, not away. Learn more in the latest video from PST David Sabine.

48 posts in, and we’ve only scratched the surface. This post wraps up our deep dive into the first two sections of the Scrum Guide—revealing just how much meaning lives in every word. Read the highlights, reflect on your learning, and get ready for Scrum Theory.

Explore the Scrum Values from AI as a Scrum Team perspective.

Scrum.org has launched "Professional Scrum Fundamentals," a new self-paced course. This course offers a flexible learning option for those new to Professional Scrum or looking to strengthen their existing capabilities, and it includes a complimentary attempt at the PSM I certification test upon completion. The motivation for creating this self-paced course came from community feedback, driven by the desire of digital natives for purely digital training and the need for professional development to fit into busy lives. This new course adds a fourth learning option for Professional Scrum, building on Ken Schwaber's mission to scale access to Scrum training and reflecting the continued relevance of Scrum in an increasingly complex and unpredictable world, especially with the rise of technologies like AI.

In the contemporary digital marketplace, the role of a Product Manager comes with great responsibility, as they must make critical decisions on a daily basis, often with limited data and in an ever-evolving environment. The pressure to select a feature, message, channel, design, or even a combination of all is at an all-time high. But what if there exists a far smarter approach to adaptively test and learn?

In this post, I share my own personal experience transitioning from traditional product development to agility. We explore the #1 challenge to being a great Scrum Master and the three ways it most frequently shows up. We also look at better approaches.