The #1 hardest question in a Scrum Master job interview

There are dozens of websites with interview questions for Scrum Masters. But from my point of view, there is only 1 interview question for Scrum Master’s that is crucial. And if you as an applicant know the answer, you might even get the damn job right on the spot! 

The question itself is so good that you should even try to bring it up yourself in every interview as an applicant. Because when I personally look at the questions that are suggested online for interviews: many of them are simply bad Scrum Master interview questions.

A Servant Leader knows that one should “Lead by asking questions.” Why not live that out as an applicant during the interview? So, if it doesn’t come up, you should bring this one question (including the answer, of course) into every Scrum Master interview. This would also answer the question of how best to introduce yourself at the beginning of the conversation - among other things, by teasing that you want to talk about this one question.

So, if you’re wondering how best to prepare for the Scrum Master interview: Look at the question including the answer. You can also integrate the answer into the question “Why should we hire you as Scrum Master?” But which question am I talking about now? 

We’ll get to that in a moment. Just one last note: The question can basically be asked in almost any context. No matter if you’re looking for managerial round interview questions for Scrum Master, scenario based interview questions for Scrum Master, or behavioural interview questions and answers for Scrum Master. In any regard, the topic of this blog post is relevant. It is only less likely to be considered a technical interview question.

Scrum Master interview questions

Interview question for Scrum Master: What is being evaluated?

Typically, interview questions for Scrum Masters evaluate candidates on four levels.

1. Personal fit: Can your potential colleague or manager imagine working with you successfully - looking at your personality, energy, presence?
   1. Rule of thumb that some recruiters use to decide between candidates: If this applicant would be my boss - would I myself like to work for her/him?
2. Skills: Do you have the necessary skills for the job (e.g., could you confidently facilitate a workshop, moderate conflicts…)?
3. Knowledge: Do you have the necessary knowledge for the job (e.g., do you know the Scrum theory etc.)? This is often the focus of Scrum Master Interview questions found online .
4. Cultural fit: Do you fit in with the company culture looking at your personality, attitude and values?

Scrum Master interview questions

Interview question for Scrum Master: What you can train for

I have deliberately arranged these 4 aspects in this order - namely according to the importance I assume. 

1. Personal fit: If your future manager for some reason doesn’t like you based on the impressions from the job interview, he will have decided against you within a very short time, possibly even within minutes.
   
   Is this something you can train, prepare for, as an applicant?
   no You can’t and shouldn’t practice this. Imagine you are pretending. And then your real personality comes out during work and your manager is completely surprised. Who would want to work with a manager who after a short time in practice no longer likes you?
   There’s only one thing you can customize: your appearance. Make sure you’re wearing the right clothes, your haircut is appropriate, etc. This may improve the first impression.
2. Skills: If you give the impression that you are very good at acting as a Servant Leader, you have achieved the next important milestone. This means you can convincingly demonstrate that you are a good facilitator, can resolve conflicts, or can solve typical challenges with agile working - ideally based on experiences that go beyond the textbook.
   
   Is this something you can train, prepare for, as an applicant?
   Yes. However, this is something that can only be trained through hands-on experience and will be difficult to practice for a Scrum Master interview within only a few weeks or days. The more experience you have in meeting facilitation, agile leadership, and an agile IT environment (if the Scrum Master job is in that context), the better.

What is actually being evaluated in the Scrum Master job interview? Various criteria which should have a different priority for you.

3. Knowledge: If you’ve convinced on the first two levels, honestly, I think you are already more than 50% through. After all, how important is it now that you have memorized and can recite the 5 agile Scrum values or the 5 phases of a retrospective? Let’s face it, it’s good to know - but it’s not going to be critical to get the job. This is why you should handle many online Scrum Master interview question suggestions critically as they are focusing on such questions. If you are asked interview questions for SAFe Scrum Master’s for example, not only knowing what SAFe is, but even more helpful if you have already gained experience in this scaled agile environment (“Skills” have a higher value than “Knowledge”). 

Can an applicant train for this, prepare for it?Yes. It is trainable, even in the short term. Many applicants focus on it. But you shouldn’t focus on details - rather go for the big picture. More on that below. 

4. Cultural fit: Here, perhaps, the HR glasses come out - do you also fit culturally into the company? An example: The company you are applying to has the corporate values “Openness, Innovation and Customer Orientation”. (How close was I with my assumption?).
So you could think of examples in advance that show that you fit into the corporate values of your target employer - “Name a situation in which you have shown openness in the workplace, e.g. by introducing a new tool? Name a situation in which you have thought outside the box and been innovative…”. But yes, don’t prepare too much for this question. It is very rarely the decisive factor. In my experience, it’s like this: If the interviewers like you, they will also argue that you are a cultural fit for the company. See halo effect.

Is this something you can train, prepare for, as an applicant?
A little. See my example in the paragraph before this. Generally, the same applies as for “Personal Fit” above. Any cultural question will not be the most important one from all the interview questions for a Scrum Master role.

As you can see, you can train your skills and knowledge. However, skills are typically trained through experience. And you can hardly catch up on these just one week before the Scrum Master interview - or can you organize 10 retros in one week to gain experience in them?

Right, that will be difficult. That’s why this article focuses on point 3 and tries to provide you with knowledge and a specific approach. Because you can acquire this knowledge in a very short period of time and possibly cover up some of your weaknesses (in case you have such 😉).

Interview questions and answers for Scrum Master role

Interview questions for Scrum Masters: The hardest one

To be honest, I don’t even know if it’s the most difficult interview question for Scrum Master’s. But it is the most important interview question from my point of view. It is the Scrum Master interview question where you have to deliver. Which simple question is it?

Well, it’s only logical: How will you successfully coach your two agile teams? What is your concept, your agenda, your plan to make the teams even more successful - possibly in the context of other agile teams or an agile transformation?

Interview questions and answers for Scrum Master role

Answering the question - Part 1: Customer centricity and openness to methods.

To answer this question, we will start with the following rationale that you can adapt as you like: 

This is not about Scrum. It’s not about agile methods. It’s about delivering a product or a product increment to the customer so that the customer is as satisfied as possible - and with them all other stakeholders. That’s why the word “customer benefit” or “value” should fall very often in your Scrum Events.

Whether Scrum, Kanban or some other method is best suited for this needs to be found out - in a completely agile way. Even if your interviewer claims that it is already clear “we will definitely do Scrum”, you can certainly bring this view into the conversation.

Questions for Scrum Master interview

Interview questions Scrum Master: Focusing on value

By the way, Cesario Ramos on Scrum.org goes so far as to say that too little focus on “value” can be the reason for boring Sprint Reviews with little participation.

Maybe they even ask a “trick question” on this - “why is Scrum always the best framework?”. Then you know - it isn’t. There are situations where waterfall is the best. They will expect you to tell them that Scrum is just a framework within agile working methods and not necessarily the solution for everything. From experience, sharing these reflections openly leaves a positive impression in job interviews with HR or other executives.

So: You should understand the complexity around customer, team, product, and company value. If you don’t consider the customer value and only focus on the team (e.g. team satisfaction), management will soon call you a “tree hugger” (experienced several times…). 

So this is a common pitfall that can be avoided and part of how you should answer the hardest question from all the interview questions for a Scrum Master position: How will you successfully coach your agile teams?

Questions for Scrum Master interview

Answering the question - Part 2: Don’t be afraid of KPIs

Now after you underlined that you see your Scrum Master role as someone who creates the perfect conditions for the teams to create value, the next question is, how to proceed? My suggestion: Continue through outlining an approach any leader in your new organization and a professional Agile coach would love. Show them how you will successfully coach your agile teams by proposing 4 clear KPIs, clear success metrics for your own work.

Questions for Scrum Master interview

A note in advance

Briefly in advance: Yes, we know that success metrics for Scrum Masters are controversial in the agile community. But put yourself in the situation of other roles: Whether sales, marketing or HR - all functional areas can be measured using key figures. And here, too, of course, key figures never tell the whole story, but they are at least an indicator and starting point for constructive discussions.

So no matter which interview questions for a Scrum Master position you will encounter, don’t make the mistake of saying “There are no KPIs for my role and I refuse to continue that thought” but be open to making your goals as a Scrum Master measurable and demand and encourage a constructive approach to success metrics.

If you can show your interviewer a clear methodology according to which you work and how you (and he) can evaluate you later, you are ahead of most of your competitors. Especially if you are looking for questions that a management team potentially asks you, an answer based on key figures is suitable - even if you initially name these key figures as a hypothesis that needs to be verified.

Interview questions for experienced Scrum Master

Interview questions Scrum Master: The 4 Metrics for Scrum Master Performance

I hereby propose 4 KPIs based on my experience & knowledge as a psychologist and Scrum Master. Ultimately, these metrics are not about the metrics metrics themselves. Of course, that would be a big mistake. Rather, they are about getting clear on your most important goals (!) and measuring their level of achievement in the best possible way.

1. Customer Value: This is the most important result that your team delivers - and therefore also an important metric for you. Is the customer being delivered the value he wants? Is his problem or pain solved? This can be measured using various variables

   1. Customer Satisfaction: whether it’s Net Promoter Score (NPS) or some other scale, it doesn’t matter. It should be measured as objectively as possible, how satisfied the (external or internal) customer is with the product or feature that your teams have delivered. 
   2. Other objective metrics: Usage statistics, support requests, revenue etc…

The next question (after that core question we already talked about twice now) is basically: what framework do YOU need to create, so that the team can deliver the best possible customer results in the shortest time, sustainably and predictably?

2. Continuous improvement: The second most important target is “Continuous Improvement”. No matter how bad the team’s work is. If it is good at improving itself - then there is hope that it will get better.

   Continuous improvement is more of a characteristic than a metric. It can be measured by various things - Is customer satisfaction moving in the right direction? How is subjective productivity developing, how is team satisfaction developing, how quickly are challenges mastered? Are there regular success experiences?

3. Psychological Safety & SatisfactionHere we would be at a precondition for being able to contribute ideas in order to continuously improve. Only when I feel psychologically safe and satisfied can I be sustainably productive and improve. This should be one of your key metrics and it is definitely something you can work on and sustainable be productive and improve myself. You can improve this variable very well and also measure, for example through the Echometer tool.

4. Goal achievement: This is about building sustainable trust on the part of the customer and on the part of the stakeholders. If I want a feature - can I also assume that it will be delivered on time in an agile way, as I imagined it? Certainly not easy to achieve, but it is the ideal. There are some sub-metrics that I can use for this.

   1. Predictability: So how predictable are we with our increments? Are we getting better at estimating?
   2. Burn up & Burn Down charts: these also help very well in retrospectives to reflect specifically on causes for current performance. 

By the way, these four levels come from the article “ Scrum Master Performance %E2%80%9D, in which you will find even more in-depth information. I also have a post about “25 agile metrics - and which one is the most important%E2%80%9D written.

So this is how you prepare for a job interview as a Scrum Master - take a close look at this or another approach to making agile teams successful. And if you are asked why you should be hired as Scrum Master? Then part of your answer could be that you believe you have the best, data-driven approach to solving the current challenges.

Basic Scrum Master interview questions

An example of how to use this model

Hopefully, you can also see why this approach is relevant in both behavioral and scenario questions. You should always consider your core goals in the first step. For example, if the question comes up of how you resolve team conflict, you take out the model and ask the counter-question: What are the consequences of this team conflict on our metrics? Okay, consequences on team satisfaction. At the same time, however, the customer currently seems particularly satisfied. Strange - perhaps the fact that the two quarrelsome colleagues are challenging each other extremely intensively leads to the quality of the output being better? They ask as many challenging questions as never before - and that has a positive effect! Then this team conflict should be resolved differently than a purely destructive relationship conflict.

Questions for Scrum Master interview

Interview question for Scrum Master: Conclusion

Do you now know how to impress your interview partner? I hope so. Namely by discussing with her/him what the core goals of Scrum Masters actually are and how to best make them visible. That is the most important interview question for Scrum Master’s. Instead of checking out more “Interview questions Scrum Master”, you should make sure to be able to answer this question. 

If you discuss this, then you will have a good interview, you will impress your interview partner. You will have a lively conversation at eye level instead of a one-sided “hearing”. 

As I said, I recommend that those looking for inspiration on the questions of “how to present yourself as a Scrum Master in an interview,” “how to prepare for a Scrum Master interview,” or “Why should we hire you as a Scrum Master,” consider this question, including the answer.

You could hopefully form your opinion based on what I said. And thus drastically increase your likelihood of getting your dream job! If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me.