Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast: Agile storytelling from the trenches

BONUS: Thinking Like an Architect in the Age of AI-Assisted Coding How can engineers leverage AI to write better code—and think like architects to build systems that truly scale? In this episode, Brian Childress, a CTO and software architect with over 15 years of experience, shares hard-won lessons from teams using AI coding tools daily, and explains why the real challenge isn't just writing code—it's designing systems that scale with users, features, and teams. The Complexity Trap: When AI Multiplies Our Problems "Most engineering projects and software engineers themselves lean more towards complexity, and I find that...

Cristina Cranga: Coaching Product Owners From Output Obsession to Value Conversations Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. In this episode, we refer to the work of Esko Kilpi on conversations and episodes on Nonviolent Communication (NVC) on the podcast. The Great Product Owner: A People Person Who Clarifies Before Deciding "He was comfortable saying 'I don't know yet. What do you think?' It was a bi-directional...

Cristina Cranga: Decision Quality as the True Measure of Scrum Master Effectiveness Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. "A Scrum Master is successful when teams make better decisions, faster, with clear trade-offs—everything else is a side effect, not the job." - Cristina Cranga Cristina offers a refreshingly clear definition of Scrum Master success for 2026: increasing the team's decision quality under accelerating change. She emphasizes that success as...

Cristina Cranga: Why Speed Without Value Creates Chaos in AI-Accelerated Teams Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. "When output becomes cheap, value becomes harder to see. AI is amplifying this risk." - Cristina Cranga Cristina brings a timely challenge to the table: how do Scrum Masters stay focused on value when AI tools are accelerating delivery to unprecedented speeds? Teams are delivering faster than ever—AI provides co...

Cristina Cranga: Why Nice Teams Still Fail and the Power of Honest Conversations Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. "Sometimes you can change people by only listening to them. Not giving advice—don't become an advice monster." - Cristina Cranga Cristina shares her experience of sensing that something was off with a team but being unable to pinpoint exactly what it was. Instead of jumping to conclusions, sh...

Cristina Cranga: When Teams Stop Testing Reality and Fall Into Decision Hallucinations Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. "Over time, what I notice is that teams stop testing reality. They optimize execution around constraints that might no longer exist." - Cristina Cranga Cristina introduces a powerful concept she calls "decision hallucinations"—the perception of constraints and boundaries that aren't actually real or present. In her experience working wi...

Mohini Kissoon: The One Question That Transforms Messengers Into Product Owners The Great Product Owner: The Calm Navigator Who Shields the Team Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. "He said "no" often, but he did it with such clarity that people respected it. It's not just no—it's giving the reason why." - Mohini Kissoon Mohini has had the privilege of working with many great Product Owners, bu...

Mohini Kissoon: The Language Test That Reveals True Team Ownership Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. "When I see my team taking ownership of their work, taking ownership of the Scrum events, asking questions, challenging each other constructively without waiting for me—that's when I know I've done my job." - Mohini Kissoon Mohini defines success for Scrum Masters through three distinct lenses. First, she looks for te...

Mohini Kissoon: Beyond the AI Fear—Discovering What Makes Scrum Masters Truly Irreplaceable Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. "The real challenge isn't whether AI will replace Scrum Masters. It's whether we understand what parts of our work are actually irreplaceable—and whether we're spending our time on those things." - Mohini Kissoon Mohini is wrestling with a challenge that's coming up repeatedly in conversations with Agile coac...

Mohini Kissoon: When Politeness Becomes the Enemy of Team Growth—Escaping the Conflict Avoidance Trap Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. "Conflict isn't the enemy. It's when we're avoiding conflict that it becomes an issue for teams." - Mohini Kissoon Mohini shares a story about the worst self-destructive pattern she has witnessed: teams that are overly polite to avoid addressing conflicts. She worked with a team that pr...

Mohini Kissoon: How to Break the Cycle of Dominant Personalities in Agile Teams Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. "I confused silence with agreement. My silence as a facilitator had been giving the wrong impression to the team: that this kind of dynamic is acceptable." - Mohini Kissoon In her first year as a Scrum Master, Mohini was full of energy and deeply committed to doing Scrum...

BONUS: Saving Democracy—How AI Is Transforming the Battlefield for Our Minds In this very special BONUS episode, we speak with Anthony Vinci, former CTO and Associate Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and author of The Fourth Intelligence Revolution. Anthony has been at the frontlines of modernizing the intelligence community for the age of AI, and in this episode, he lays out a stark warning: we are entering an era where machines don't just augment intelligence—they transform it. But the real battlefield isn't just digital; it's cognitive, economic, and societal. From Startup Founder to Intelligence Mode...

Carmela Then: Why the Best Product Owners Let Go of What They're Best At The Great Product Owner: The Humble Leader Who Served His Team Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. "He was there, he was present, he was serving the team." - Carmela Then Carmela worked with a Product Owner at a bank who embodied everything servant leadership should look like. This wasn't a PO who...

Carmela Then: Why Teams Hate Agile (And How to Change That) Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. "They just hate it. They absolutely hate it. They had Agile fatigue." - Carmela Then Carmela describes what success looks like for a Scrum Master, and her answer might surprise you. Years ago, she might have pointed to metrics like cycle time. Today, she measures success by whether teams embrace...

Carmela Then: From Requirements Chaos to Story Mapping Success—How Planning Transforms Agile Teams Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. "We can't continue to do this. Something has to change." - Carmela Then Carmela shares a story of organizational chaos that will resonate with many Agile practitioners. She joined a company where teams would jump straight into writing requirements without pausing to understand what they were trying to...

Carmela Then: When Remote Teams Stop Listening—The Silent Killer of Agile Collaboration Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. "Two minutes into it, my mind's starting to wander and I started to do my own thing." - Carmela Then Carmela paints a vivid picture of a distributed team stretched across Sydney, New Zealand, India, and beyond—a team where communication had quietly become the enemy of progress. The...

Carmela Then: The Scrum Master Who Learned That Perfect Boards Don't Build Perfect Teams Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. "The failure part is, instead of leading the team to work toward a common vision, I was probably one of the persons that helped the divide." - Carmela Then Carmela shares a vulnerable story from her first Scrum Master role at a bank. Armed with training, certifications...

Steve Martin: Coaching Product Owners to Be the Voice of the Customer In this episode, we refer to Henrik Kniberg's "Product Owner in a Nutshell" video and Product Ownership by Geoff Watts. The Great Product Owner: Rob Gard's Customer Obsession Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. "The role of the PO really is to help the team empathize with the user, the customer of the product, because that's how...

Steve Martin: Making Scrum Master Success Visible with OKRs That Actually Work Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. "It is not the retrospective that is the success of the retrospective. It is the ownership and accountability where you take improvements after the session." - Steve Martin The biggest problem for Scrum Masters isn't just defining success—it's being able to shout it from the rooftops with tangible ev...

Steve Martin: Why Agile Fatigue Means We Need to Change Our Approach Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. "We teach transformation, we support transformation, we help change, but we don't really understand what they're changing from." - Steve Martin Steve believes Agile as a whole is on the back foot, possibly regressing. There's palpable fatigue in the industry, and transformation in its current form hasn't been the...