The Impact of Product Owner Pressure on Agile Team Morale | Richard Coplan

Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast: Agile storytelling from the trenches

Richard Coplan: The Impact of Product Owner Pressure on Agile Team Morale

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

In this episode, Richard shares his experience working in a toxic team environment at an insurance company. Brought in to replace a beloved Scrum Master, he found himself navigating a strained relationship between the Product Owner (PO) and the team. The PO's aggressive push for deliverables demotivated the team, and management sided with the PO, creating a vicious cycle of disengagement. How can a PO's leadership style make or break a team's performance? Richard explores this anti-pattern of PO-driven disengagement.

Featured Book of the Week: Lean Enterprise by Jez Humble, et al.

Richard reflects on how the book "Lean Enterprise" helped shape his approach as an Agile Coach, offering a holistic view of organizations. He also discusses "Team Topologies" and the importance of stream-aligned teams with CI/CD pipelines. What role does organizational agility play in the success of Scrum teams? Richard suggests that while many teams practice Scrum, organizations themselves are often not truly Agile.

[IMAGE HERE] Do you wish you had decades of experience? Learn from the Best Scrum Masters In The World, Today! The Tips from the Trenches - Scrum Master edition audiobook includes hours of audio interviews with SM’s that have decades of experience: from Mike Cohn to Linda Rising, Christopher Avery, and many more. Super-experienced Scrum Masters share their hard-earned lessons with you. Learn those today, make your teams awesome!

About Richard Coplan

Richard joins us from the UK. He has been a software developer for many years and later became data-centric, eventually transitioning into the role of Scrum Master. Over the past decade, Richard has specialized as a Scrum Master and Agile Coach, with a focus on collaboration tools like Miro and helping firms streamline their team structures.

You can link with Richard Coplan on LinkedIn.