 Should the product owner be at the retrospective? This is something that I get asked a lot and it's not a simple answer But for me, this isn't about rules. So I'm not going to refer to the scrum guide or the scrum framework Agile in general or any kind of Rule okay, what I'm interested in is is it helpful? Is it effective? Does it help us be better now in my experience without doubt? the best retrospectives that I've seen are ones where the product owner has been present and The worst retrospectives are ones where the product owner has been present So to me in my experience in my opinion without doubt It has a massive impact now I do get a lot of people who tell me that the developers just aren't going to be really honest if the product owner is there or It could turn into a you did this and you did that kind of argument and that's absolutely true It can happen. I've seen it, but I've also seen That even with just developers in the room or zoom call that can happen So it's not necessarily about the role being there You could say should Jeff be at the retrospective and my answer would pretty much be the same and Jeff could be a developer It could be a product owner. It could be a coach. It could be anyone. My answer would be pretty much the same With anybody attending a retrospective They're only going to add value and get value I think if there's a psychologically safe environment where they can share where they can learn and where there's Some kind of either explicit or implicit agreement where we're all going to participate openly and respectfully So in an ideal world, I think I would like to be in a position Where the product owner would want to be there? Where other people would want them there and where they could contribute and learn add value and Make this retrospective better So what can you do to increase the chances of getting yourself into that position where you could have a Product owner at a retrospective and it'd be better than if the product owner were not there I've got seven things for you to do. Okay. The first one is to set expectations Let everybody know what's to be expected of being at this retrospective Not just the agenda and the topic and the time box and all that kind of stuff But also how we're going to act with one another, right? So set some expectations. People are going to be there. We're going to talk openly. We're going to focus our conversation It's going to be respectful. It's not going to be recorded and all that kind of stuff So set some expectations and then start small would be my second tip start with a retrospective where, you know, it's not going to be too Risky, it's not going to be too Personal it's not going to be too touchy or sensitive a topic Just get used to having those kinds of conversations that reflection that learning that sharing as a wider group and my third tip is to practice some kind of Some kind of tool some kind of feedback tool that helps people communicate Constructively with one another. I've got a video on nonviolent communication Which is an example of that and I'll link to that in the comments Now that might seem a little bit formulaic or a little bit too structured or a little bit too formal But that's because you know, you're not used to it Well, you get used to talking that way and getting across those kinds of concepts in a similar way them less formal and the less awkward that feels But whatever it is being able to get across our point of view Constructively challenge each other constructively just practice some kind of tool for that My fourth tip is to use the past to focus on the future while retrospectives are Deliberately defined and set up the purpose is to look at what has happened But the real I think the real purpose is to use that learning to focus on the future So don't get stuck in what happened Acknowledge what happened capture what happened, but always bring it back to so how can we use that? How can we make the future better because of what we're doing? My fifth tip would be to get a facilitator that could be a scrum master It could be the scrum master from another team and agile coach anybody who's got good skills at bringing people into conversations Facilitating the flow of those conversations making sure that we can stick to our working agreements that we can remain respectful And that brings me on to my sixth tip which is actually to get some working agreements in place So how you're going to speak to one another how you're going to act how you're going to manage differences of opinions How are you going to make decisions? Get those working agreements in place So as an example encourage the use of we instead of you or no finger pointing Assuming good intent the prime directive of the retrospectives is a good place to start that and My seventh tip is to inspect and adapt. So you start small You learn you do a retrospective on that retrospective perhaps find out what were what didn't work How you could step up the levels of safety to step up the levels of sensitivity Inspect and adapt the feedback tools or the conversation structures that you're using the working agreements that you're using the facilitator that you're using Always look at how you can make it better So overall I think if you can get a product owner into your retrospectives your retrospectives are going to be richer You're going to be looking at looking at problems as a team you're going to be looking at solutions as a team continuous improvement as a team rather than Us and them But it needs to it needs to be a gradual process Okay, it needs to be a willing process We need to be open to this and work towards it perhaps step by step But give it a go and let me know how you get on