Scrum.org Community Podcast

Ask a PST with Ryan Brook - Agile Leadership, Leading as a Scrum Master, Coaching and More!

13 snips
Sep 17, 2025
Ryan Brook, a Professional Scrum Trainer and director of OptiLearn, shares his insights on agile leadership. He emphasizes the importance of vision-setting and accountability in new Agile teams. Listeners learn strategies for rebuilding trust with traditional managers and overcoming complacency among team members. Ryan also discusses managing change without burnout, the significance of clear communication in understaffed teams, and offers advice for breaking into Scrum roles without a technical background. His coaching experience enriches practical discussions, making agility approachable.
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ADVICE

Set Vision And Enforce Accountability

  • Set a clear product vision and hold the team to account for value delivery from day one.
  • Step back so the team can learn to own decisions and outcomes without you doing the work for them.
ADVICE

Design Teams Around Problems, Not Components

  • Form feature-based, time-zone-aligned teams after validating the problem space through discovery.
  • Encourage pair programming, documentation and discretionary learning to avoid knowledge silos.
ADVICE

Use Flow Metrics And Classify Work Types

  • Stop equating velocity across teams and use flow metrics or EBM when sizing is inconsistent.
  • Classify work as known, knowable, and unknowable to manage quick hitters and forecasting.
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