The Future of the Scrum Master Role In 2026
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Most Leadership Courses Are Broken... Mine's Not
Companies weren’t asking for more mentoring , they were asking for transformation. For someone who could walk into a room, change 12 minds, and walk out with measurable impact.
That’s why I created a system that supports leaders at scale based on where they are now, and what potential they can grow into.
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It's Okay To Start Again - Mental Health Episode
At the end of 2025, Maya felt like the year had wrung her out and left her on the floor.
She was sitting alone in her car in a grocery store parking lot, hands wrapped around a coffee that had gone lukewarm an hour ago, staring at the dashboard but not really seeing it. Her phone was full of unopened messages: friends checking in, her manager asking about a missed deadline, her mother sending another “Just making sure you’re okay” text.
She wasn’t okay.
In the span of twelve months, she had watched a relationship she thought would end in marriage quietly dissolve, lost a job she’d poured herself into, and moved back into a small, echoing apartment that felt more like a storage unit for her disappointment than a home. Every time she opened social media, it seemed like everyone else was posting highlight reels: promotions, engagements, babies, book deals. She felt like the only one stuck on repeat.
“I’m so behind,” she whispered to no one in particular, the words fogging up the windshield.
The week between Christmas and New Year’s stretched in front of her like a hallway she didn’t want to walk down. One night, she sat on the floor of her living room, surrounded by half‑unpacked boxes, and opened an old notebook. On the first page, in handwriting that looked a little more hopeful, she saw a list titled: “Goals for 2020.” It was a collage of big dreams—start a business, run a half‑marathon, travel more, learn another language.
Almost none of them had happened.
The familiar wave of shame rose in her chest: See? You never finish what you start. Something’s wrong with you. She almost closed the notebook, but something in her—small and stubborn—stopped her hand.
What if, just for one night, she didn’t treat this list as a report card? What if she treated it as a love letter from a younger version of herself who believed in her?
Maya picked up a pen and wrote, in darker ink across the top of the page:
“Begin again.”
She drew a line down the middle of the paper. On the left, she wrote “Things that ended in 2025.” On the right, “Seeds I’m carrying into 2026.” Under “things that ended,” she let herself name them: the relationship, the job, the version of herself who pretended everything was fine to keep the peace. There were tears as she wrote, but there was also relief in acknowledging that some chapters had truly closed.
She realized that even in a year that felt like wreckage, seeds had been planted. She’d taken a free online course in the evenings about content creation. She’d started sharing small posts about resilience and healing, just for herself, with a handful of followers who would quietly message, “I needed this.” She’d gone on evening walks to clear her head and noticed that, even on the hardest days, she always felt a little more like herself after twenty minutes under the sky.
They weren’t big achievements. They were gentle threads. But they were real.
On New Year’s Eve, instead of going out, Maya lit a candle on her kitchen counter and made herself a simple dinner. The apartment was still cluttered, and there were still unanswered emails and bills she didn’t know how she’d pay yet. Nothing external had magically fixed itself.
But at 11:50 p.m., she did something different. She pulled out another blank page and wrote one sentence at the top:
“In 2026, I will start small and start honestly.”
She chose three tiny beginnings—so small they almost felt silly.
Ten minutes each morning without her phone, just breathing, journaling, or looking out the window.
One honest conversation a week, where she told the truth instead of saying “I’m fine.”
One piece of creative work posted every week, whether or not she thought it was perfect.
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The Future of Agile in 2026 - My TOP 3 Predictions!
This video WILL BE the number ONE MOST listened to episode for 2026 and beyond! Here I make three predictions about the future of Agile in 2026 and beyond.
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The Top 5 Daily Standup Podcast Episodes of 2025
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Why Shipping One Thing Beats Planning Ten
Good processes don’t look impressive.
They quietly help you move forward.
And when you’re building real-world products,
that’s what actually matters.
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Finding Your Fit as a ScrumMaster
Here’s something nobody told me when I started as a Scrum Master: the most important interview isn’t the one where they ask you about impediment removal or sprint velocity.
It’s the one you have with yourself.
Everyone talks about whether you’re a good fit for the role. But what about whether the environment is a good fit for you?
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The Day After Christmas: Carry the Light Forward
Hey everyone, and welcome to today’s Agile Daily Standup.
If you’re listening to this on the Friday after Christmas, chances are things feel… a little quieter.
The presents are unwrapped.
The calendars are lighter.
The pace is slower.
And honestly? That’s not a bad thing.
Because the day after Christmas gives us something rare — space.
Space to breathe.
Space to reflect.
Space to decide what we want to carry forward instead of rushing straight back into “busy.”
Christmas — no matter how you celebrate — is a reminder of something important:
That the most meaningful things in life don’t arrive with noise or urgency. They arrive quietly.
In Agile, we talk a lot about delivery.
But today is about direction.
Before the year accelerates again, ask yourself three simple questions:
What gave me energy this year?
What drained me?
And what am I ready to leave behind as we step into the new one?
This isn’t about resolutions. It’s about intentionality.
Great teams don’t just plan work — they create space for learning, gratitude, and renewal.
Great leaders don’t just push forward — they pause long enough to make sure they’re headed the right way.
So today, be kind to yourself.
Be patient with your team.
And remember that progress doesn’t always look like motion.
Sometimes, progress looks like rest.
As we move toward a new year, carry the best parts of this season with you — the gratitude, the generosity, the hope — and let those guide how you show up for the people around you.
Thanks for spending a few minutes with me today.
I’m grateful for you, for this community, and for the journey we’re all on together.
Until next time — stay kind, stay curious, and stay Agile.
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The Christmas Story - by V. Lee Henson
Merry Christmas from the team at AgileDad.
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Be Here Now - Mike Cohn
One of my favorite books is one I’ve never completely read. It’s called Be Here Now. A friend’s older brother was reading it when I was 10. He let me page through his copy.
The book caught my attention because it was square, an unusual shape for a book. Many of the pages inside the book were hand-lettered and illustrated.
I next came across the book when I was a college freshman. I read part of it then but never finished it because it’s a guide to Hinduism for Westerners, which isn’t my thing.
But the title of that book has always resonated with me: Be Here Now.
I think the ability to be here now is something too many of us are losing. We can’t just be in the moment and in the place. Everyone has to be constantly on their mobile phones. We multitask between what we should be working on and whatever else catches our eye, meanwhile listening for the assorted dings demanding attention.
(I admit to having paused once even while writing this to investigate the boing of a new email arriving. But I’ve so far withheld the temptation to look a second time.)
I witness the inability to be here now while training or working with teams. Once, during an in-person class, I was unable to make eye contact with any participant. Each was banging away on a laptop.
When they asked questions, they were like, “When does the sprint master help with the project backlog?”
Am I any better, though? I love music and grew up listening to the three-minute rock songs of the era. I remember listening to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony as a teen. It was OK (don’t judge me!) but I thought, “Who has time for a one-hour song?”
Now I hit skip halfway through my favorites on Spotify.
I worry about attention spans and the ability to focus. The inability to be here now must have an impact on innovation, productivity, and teamwork. I don’t have a solution.
I don’t have ”three quick tips to be here now.” I merely want to request that we each try to be here now a bit more often, a bit longer, and a bit more intensely each day,
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A Vision Should Be Actionable
Most companies have a vision statement. Few have a vision that actually matters.
Too often, a vision ends up as a vague slogan on a PowerPoint slide or painted on the office wall. Inspiring? Maybe. Useful? Rarely.
But a real vision isn’t decoration. A real vision is a service.
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When to Synchronize Sprints
Synchronizing sprints isn’t about control, it’s about rhythm.
And knowing when to bring teams into sync is what separates “we’re delivering together” from “we’re just drowning together.”
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The Christmas Tree With One Light
Snow fell in soft, quiet sheets over the small town of Willow Glen, covering rooftops and porches with a gentle white blanket. Every house on Maple Street shimmered with lights—blue, gold, red, and green—each one competing to outshine the next.
Every house… except one.
At the corner of the street stood Mrs. Alder’s home, dim and silent.
No garland.
No wreath.
No warmth in the windows.
Only a single, small Christmas tree sat by her front door—so simple, so worn, it looked like it belonged to a memory more than a season. And on that tree, barely hanging on, was one single working light.
Children passing by would whisper,
“Doesn’t she know it’s Christmas?”
“Maybe she doesn’t have family anymore.”
“Maybe she doesn’t care.”
But young Daniel, age eleven, didn’t just wonder—he worried.
He remembered Mrs. Alder from before her husband passed. She used to bake cookies for the neighborhood kids and tell stories from when she was a teacher. But lately, she barely opened her door.
Something inside Daniel tugged at him each time he saw that lonely tree.
Finally, on Christmas Eve afternoon, he took action.
He went door to door and asked his neighbors for “just one extra ornament,” nothing more. Some gave ribbons, others tiny bells, others a spare string of lights. One neighbor gave a silver star that had belonged to her parents.
By evening, Daniel had filled a grocery bag with bits of Christmas from the whole community.
He trudged through the snow to Mrs. Alder’s home, heart thumping, and knocked.
After a long pause, the door opened a crack.
Her eyes softened when she saw him.
“Daniel? Is everything alright?”
He held out the bag.
“We… um… we thought your tree could use a little help.”
She looked puzzled. “My tree?”
Daniel pointed to the tiny, drooping thing by her steps—the tree with only one faint light blinking like it was tired.
Mrs. Alder blinked fast, and for a moment, Daniel thought she might close the door. Instead, she stepped outside into the cold, touched the tree gently, and whispered,
“I bought this tree with my husband our very first Christmas. It’s the last decoration we had together… I couldn’t make myself replace it.”
Daniel nodded. “You don’t have to replace it. But maybe… we could help it shine again?”
Mrs. Alder looked into the bag—at the ornaments, the ribbons, the star—and her chin trembled. She whispered,
“Let’s do it.”
So they decorated the tree together.
One neighbor, seeing them outside, stepped over and added a string of lights.
Then another came with hot cocoa.
Then another brought a blanket for Mrs. Alder’s shoulders.
Soon the entire street—families who had barely spoken all year—gathered around that tiny tree, each adding something of their own.
When they plugged in the final strand of lights, the tree glowed brighter than any other on Maple Street. Not because it was the biggest, or the newest, or the fanciest—
—but because every piece of it was given with love.
Mrs. Alder wiped her tears and said softly,
“Thank you for helping me remember what Christmas really means.”
And from behind Daniel, someone said,
“No… thank you for letting us be part of it.”
That night, the tree with one single struggling light became the tree that lit the entire neighborhood.
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How I Turn Around a Struggling Scrum Team in 90 Days
People often assume you can “fix” a struggling Scrum team by tightening ceremonies, updating Jira / Azure Devops, or pushing velocity. It’s a nice idea, but it’s not real. Teams don’t turn around because you run cleaner standups. They turn around because the system around them becomes clearer, more aligned, and more stable.
After coaching and leading delivery teams across banks, telcos, utilities, airports, insurers, and product companies, I’ve seen the same pattern repeat. A real turnaround takes time. Ninety days is the right horizon. Not because teams are slow, but because real change happens in stages.
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Why Teams Matter More Than Ever for Innovation - Mike Cohn
A few years ago, I worked with a product team that was stuck.
They were smart, experienced, and deeply committed to building something meaningful. But despite their talent, their work felt...flat. They were completing tasks, but they weren’t creating anything truly innovative. They weren’t challenging each other’s thinking. They weren’t imagining possibilities beyond the obvious ones.
Then something shifted.
During a planning meeting, someone asked a question that reframed the whole discussion: “What problem are we really trying to solve?”
That question sparked a debate — a lively one — and within minutes, the room was buzzing with ideas none of them had considered before. They envisioned possibilities, challenged assumptions, pushed each other, and built on each other’s thinking. By the end of the meeting, they had the beginnings of a breakthrough.
What changed?
Not the people. Not the tools. Not the process.
What changed was the team, acting like a team again — sharing purpose, curiosity, and creativity.
And that’s when I was reminded of a simple truth:
Real innovation happens when people think together.
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The Secret Ingredient Every Agile Team Needs
I still remember the sprint retrospective that changed everything.
One of our quietest developer, had been silent for three retrospectives straight.
But this time, she raised her hand. “I think our deployment process is broken,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “And I have an idea to fix it.”
The room went quiet.
In my previous teams, this would have been the moment when someone senior would have shut down the conversation with a dismissive “We’ve always done it this way.”
But not here. Not anymore.
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5 Agile Project Management Red Flags That Scream “You’re Doomed”
🚩 Red Flag #1: Nobody Knows Who Owns What
🚩 Red Flag #2: The Plan Lives in Someone’s Head
🚩 Red Flag #3: Deadlines Keep Moving… And Nobody Knows Why
🚩 Red Flag #4: Meetings = Group Therapy
🚩 Red Flag #5: “We Don’t Have Time” for Risks
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Light The World - Giving Machines
🌟 The Red Tag That Changed Everything
A Short Story Inspired by the “Light the World” Giving Machines
Emily had passed the red Giving Machine twice already that afternoon.
Once on her way into the mall for Christmas shopping, once again as she hurried out with bags on both arms. People were gathered around it—smiling, taking turns, scanning cards. It looked like a vending machine, but instead of candy or soda, pictures of goats, clean water kits, school supplies, and warm blankets flashed across the screen.
She wanted to stop.
She also wanted to pretend she didn’t see it.
Money was tight this year.
She had three kids at home, a car that always needed something, and a December calendar full of expenses. “Maybe next year,” she whispered to herself.
But right as she passed for the third time, she felt a tug at her coat sleeve.
“Mom,” her son Noah said, breathless, “can we look? Just look?”
She hesitated—but something in his face softened her worry. They walked slowly up to the Giving Machine together.
Noah’s eyes grew wide.
“Mom! You can buy a chicken for someone! Or shoes! Or medicine! Or… a whole WATER well?!” His voice was full of amazement, the kind that only eight-year-olds can summon.
He pointed to a $5 option—a hygiene kit.
“Someone could really use that, right?”
She nodded. Someone could.
Noah dug into his pocket and pulled out a crumpled handful of coins and dollar bills. His allowance from the week.
“Can I give mine? I want someone to feel good today.”
In that moment, something inside Emily melted.
She could give. Maybe not a well. Maybe not livestock. But she could give with her son.
Together, they tapped the screen.
A small card printed at the bottom: “1 Hygiene Kit – Donated.”
As the card slid into the tray, Noah held it like a treasure.
“Mom,” he whispered, “We actually helped someone.”
Emily swallowed hard.
The mall suddenly felt brighter, the world warmer—not because she’d spent money, but because she’d witnessed her child discover the joy of giving.
They walked out hand-in-hand, bags swinging, hearts full.
That night, before bed, Noah taped the little red donation card to his bedroom door. Beneath it he wrote in shaky letters:
“Next year: a chicken.”
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Definition of Done - More Than Just a Checklist
After one too many release debates (and a few emotional retros), I realized the problem wasn’t our process — it was our definition.
“Done” meant 10 different things to 10 different people.
Developers meant “code merged”.
QA meant “tests passed”.
Product meant “feature shipped”.
Ops meant “logs don’t scream”.
So I built a checklist — not to create bureaucracy, but to create peace.
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We’re doing Scrum. Why does everything take so long to finish?
For many teams, delivery bogs down because of the way individuals approach the work itself.
Most teams are still working in a sequence: one person finishes their part, hands it off, and then the next person begins. Designers wait for analysis to finish. Developers wait for designs. Testers wait for the code to be done. Everyone’s optimizing for their own efficiency — but the team as a whole slows down.
That might feel to individuals like the “right” way to work, but it comes with real costs:
Even when teams are doing “agile” on the surface, these large handoffs are the opposite of how an agile team works.
To deliver value quickly, team members have to learn to stop waiting for someone else to finish before they start–in other words, they need to overlap work.
When one type of task looks like it’s dependent on another type of task, teams accustomed to overlapping work find ways to begin the second task before the first is completed. Coders start coding while the designer is still designing. Testers start creating tests even while the coder is coding.
Why do teams cling to this outdated way of working?
When teams first try working this way, many team members resist it. They’re used to holding on to their work until it’s perfect and “ready.” They might find the idea of overlapping work to be too messy and inefficient.
Consider, for example, a tester. To be as efficient as possible, this tester would like to begin testing only after coding is complete. To test any earlier risks repeating work by re-running, or even re-designing, tests.
What these team members need to realize is that optimizing for the efficiency of any one role prolongs the amount of time it takes to complete each new feature.
Overlapping work is key to working in an agile way.
For example, imagine that a developer is building a search results page for an eCommerce site. The page allows users to filter results by product attributes such as size, color, and more. Results can also be sorted by price, popularity, rating, and so on. If a programmer develops all of that before handing it over to a tester then no work has overlapped.
If, however, the programmer handed it to the tester in pieces then testing could overlap with programming. The programmer could, for example, provide the tester with a version of the page without filtering or sorting. While a tester checks that, the developer adds filtering by size. Then color. Then sorting. The work overlaps — and everything moves faster.
Two simple ways to encourage this way of working:
Ask teams to shrink task size. Breaking big tasks into bite-sized pieces makes it easier for roles to overlap and collaborate. As handoffs get smaller, collaboration gets easier.
Try swarming. Swarming is an extreme form of overlapping work that helps teams learn to let go of a “my work, your work” mindset and sequential “finish-to-start” mentality. When a team swarms, the whole team focuses on just one (or maybe two) items at a time.
I’m not suggesting swarming as a long-term solution or the optimal way to work. It’s a temporary, artificial constraint on work in process designed to force teams to find new ways to collaborate and move faster together. The goal is to remove the limit later, and have team members continue to apply the lessons they learned when they were forced to over-collaborate.
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