Refinement: The Mise en Place of Great Scrum Teams

07/16/21 • 15 min

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Does refinement in your team feel like a slog? Do developers go there with lead in their shoes? Many Scrum Teams struggle with refinement, and understandably so. Yet, in many ways, this is where some of the most important work happens. And some of the hardest work.
In this episode, we offer a reflection on the purpose of refinement. And we offer recommendations to make the process more enjoyable and effective — many of which originate from a discussion we had with experienced Scrum Masters on the Discord server that is accessible to our patrons.
Check out the transcript here:
https://medium.com/the-liberators/refinement-the-mise-en-place-of-great-scrum-teams-78d7556a7952
The paper we wrote with Daniel Russo is available here:
https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.12439
Download the free cheatsheet with 10 breakdown strategies here:
https://shop.theliberators.com/products/canvas-10-powerful-strategies-to-break-down-product-backlog-items
Or try this fully prepared do-it-yourself workshop for refinement:
https://shop.theliberators.com/products/workshop-refine-tough-or-unclear-product-backlog-items-with-stakeholders

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We're building Columinity to help teams improve continuously based on scientific insights:
https://columinity.com
Check out our webshop for tons of powerful exercises and workshops to run with your team(s):
https://shop.theliberators.com
The music for episodes 91 and onward was written and produced for us by Basanite. The music for episodes 1-90 was acquired through Yummy Sounds. Post-production by Jasper Huiskamp.

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Previous Episode

From Largest Potential Product To Smallest Valuable Products

The biggest challenge in Product Development is to distinguish between what the product can become one day, and what it should incrementally become first to validate critical assumptions that clear the way towards that future.
This presents a major struggle for Product Owners, customers, users, and developers as they are all inclined to spend most of their time thinking about the “Largest Potential Product” instead of the “Smallest Valuable Product”.
In this podcast, Christiaan talks about product discovery, minimum valuable (or viable) products and offers many ideas on how to engage in product discovery.
Find a transcript here (requires a Medium-account):
https://medium.com/the-liberators/from-largest-potential-product-to-smallest-valuable-products-daa729080819

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Why Psychological Safety Improves The Effectiveness Of Your Team

"Professionals don't need psychological safety" is what someone recently told us. Perhaps you are on the fence about the need for psychological safety too. Or you get the point, but always struggle to make it practical.
In this podcast, we explore psychological safety from a scientific perspective. And we offer many practical recommendations for what psychological safety looks like in teams and how to develop it. You can also hear some great ideas and suggestions that were generated by our growing community of patrons.
Read the transcript here (includes references):
https://medium.com/the-liberators/why-psychological-safety-improves-the-effectiveness-of-your-team-7592d76f3c9b
Find many free do-it-yourself workshops to improve psychological safety (among other things):
https://shop.theliberators.com/collections/scrum-teams/improve-continuous

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