Workbook

Make the Mission Yours

Role: Scrum Master

Use these activities to apply each principle to your current product, service, or project. These activities are a sample to get you started, not an exhaustive list. Adapt and expand them based on your team's context and needs. Capture your answers, share them with your team, and revisit them as you learn.

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Important: When Using AI Tools

When using AI-assisted activities, always double-check for accuracy and meaning each and every time. AI tools can help accelerate your work, but human judgment, validation, and critical thinking remain essential.

Review AI-generated content with your team, validate it against real user feedback and domain knowledge, and ensure it truly serves your mission and user outcomes before proceeding.

1) Shared Mission and Vision

Keep the mission visible in ceremonies and team habits.

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Learn More

For more information and deeper understanding of this principle, refer to the 1) Shared Mission and Vision section in the framework.

Workbook Activities (do now)

☐Start the next planning with a 5-minute mission/outcome refresh tied to the top epic.
☐Create a visible mission + top outcomes card in the team board and reference it in standup.
☐Ask each story owner to state the user outcome before estimation and capture it in the ticket.
☐In daily standup, prompt one person to restate how their work supports the mission.
☐At mid-sprint, re-check goals vs. outcomes and adjust scope to stay aligned.

AI Assisted Activities

☐Use AI to help draft mission refreshes or outcome mappings for ceremonies, but have your team review and refine them to ensure they reflect real user needs.
☐Ask AI to generate potential user outcomes for sprint planning, then validate each one against direct user feedback and domain knowledge during the planning session.
☐Use AI to help structure mission cards or outcome notes for the team board, but ensure human team members validate that each story truly serves the mission before committing.
☐Have AI analyze past sprint goals to identify mission alignment patterns, then use those insights in team discussions to improve how sprints connect to user outcomes.

Evidence of Progress

☐Team members reference mission/outcomes in planning without prompting.
☐Stories include the user outcome in their description or notes.

2) Break Down Silos

Facilitate cross-functional collaboration.

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Learn More

For more information and deeper understanding of this principle, refer to the 2) Break Down Silos section in the framework.

Workbook Activities (do now)

☐Pilot a cross-functional stand-up for one week centered on a single user story/outcome.
☐Run a 15-minute “ready to build” huddle with design/eng/QA to align on intent and risks.
☐Add a simple handoff checklist to the board (design assets, data, acceptance) for this sprint.
☐Schedule one live co-work slot this week for design+eng+QA on the riskiest story.
☐Capture and share one integration risk early from those sessions to prevent rework.

AI Assisted Activities

☐When AI generates meeting agendas or collaboration structures, have cross-functional team members review them together to ensure they serve users and enable effective collaboration.
☐Use AI to help draft handoff checklists or collaboration templates, but ensure all roles contribute their perspectives during the actual collaboration sessions.
☐Have AI analyze team communication patterns and handoff friction, then use those insights in cross-functional discussions to improve collaboration.
☐Use AI to help structure collaboration sessions, but ensure human team members make decisions together about what to build and how it serves users.

Evidence of Progress

☐Less back-and-forth during the sprint on the story you piloted.
☐Checklist items are completed before work starts, reducing blockers.

3) User Engagement

Bring user signals into team cadence.

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Learn More

For more information and deeper understanding of this principle, refer to the 3) User Engagement section in the framework.

Workbook Activities (do now)

☐Invite one team member per retro to share a user story or clip tied to current work.
☐Add a “user signal” section to sprint review with what we heard and what we’ll change.
☐Ensure this sprint has at least one direct user touch scheduled and visible on the board.
☐Highlight one user quote in standup to refocus the team on impact.
☐Pair a user signal with a current story and prompt the owner to adjust if needed.

AI Assisted Activities

☐Use AI to analyze user feedback, support tickets, or usage data to identify patterns for sprint reviews, but always validate AI insights through direct user engagement or observation.
☐Have AI generate questions for user interviews based on sprint assumptions, then use those questions in real conversations with users to build genuine empathy.
☐Use AI to help summarize user research findings for sprint planning, but ensure team members review the summaries and add their own observations from direct user interactions.
☐Have AI analyze user behavior patterns from telemetry, then discuss those patterns with actual users to understand the "why" behind the behavior before planning sprints.

Evidence of Progress

☐Sprint reviews include user signals, not just demos.
☐Upcoming sprints show scheduled user touchpoints.

4) Outcomes Over Outputs

Make outcomes part of the agile rhythm.

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Learn More

For more information and deeper understanding of this principle, refer to the 4) Outcomes Over Outputs section in the framework.

Workbook Activities (do now)

☐Add one outcome metric to this sprint goal and review it in retro.
☐Track a simple outcome per epic (e.g., task success rate) and post a midpoint check.
☐In retro, capture which practices moved/blocked the outcome, not just velocity.
☐Post a mid-sprint outcome check in the team channel and nudge owners if drift appears.
☐Tie one impediment to its impact on the outcome, not just schedule, and remove it.

AI Assisted Activities

☐When AI generates sprint goals or outcome metrics, define outcome metrics upfront and measure whether AI-generated work achieves intended user outcomes, not just story completion.
☐Use AI to help analyze outcome data from sprints and identify patterns, but have human team members interpret what those patterns mean for users and the mission.
☐Have AI help draft outcome definitions and success criteria for sprints, but ensure the team validates them against real user needs and business goals before committing.
☐Use AI to track and report on sprint outcome metrics, but schedule human team reviews in retrospectives to discuss what the metrics mean and how to adjust based on observed impact.

Evidence of Progress

☐Sprint goals include an outcome and are revisited in retro.
☐Outcome trends are visible alongside velocity/burndown.

5) Domain Knowledge

Make domain context accessible to the team.

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Learn More

For more information and deeper understanding of this principle, refer to the 5) Domain Knowledge section in the framework.

Workbook Activities (do now)

☐Facilitate a quick ecosystem mapping session for the next epic (front/back stage).
☐Maintain a living “domain cheat sheet” with terms, constraints, and key users; update it this sprint.
☐Invite a domain expert for a 15-minute brown bag; post the top three takeaways to the board.
☐Add domain constraints to the acceptance criteria of the current epic/stories.
☐Highlight one upstream/downstream dependency in planning and secure an owner/commitment.

AI Assisted Activities

☐Use AI to help summarize domain documentation or industry reports for team knowledge sharing, but validate AI-generated domain knowledge through direct engagement with domain experts.
☐Have AI generate questions about domain constraints or ecosystem relationships for team discussions, then use those questions in conversations with domain experts to build deep understanding.
☐Use AI to help draft domain cheat sheets or ecosystem maps, but ensure team members review them with domain experts to verify accuracy and completeness.
☐Have AI analyze past sprints or domain-related issues, then discuss those insights with the team and domain experts to identify patterns and prevent similar problems.

Evidence of Progress

☐Team uses the cheat sheet or map during planning.
☐Domain constraints are cited in story acceptance notes.

6) The Art of Storytelling

Use stories to align and motivate.

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Learn More

For more information and deeper understanding of this principle, refer to the 6) The Art of Storytelling section in the framework.

Workbook Activities (do now)

☐Open sprint review with a user-impact story from the latest completed item.
☐Coach two team members this sprint to give “story + outcome” updates instead of task lists.
☐Create a short “before/after” narrative for one epic and share at demo.
☐Add a user quote or data point to the demo script to make impact tangible.
☐Record a 60-second recap of the sprint focusing on user outcomes and share it with stakeholders.

AI Assisted Activities

☐Use AI to help structure or draft sprint stories and demo narratives, but refine them with real user anecdotes, emotions, and personal observations from direct user interactions.
☐Have AI generate different versions of sprint updates for different audiences (team vs stakeholders), but ensure each version includes authentic human stories about real user impact.
☐Use AI to help summarize sprint work in reviews, but lead presentations with human stories about real users, using AI-generated summaries as supporting material.
☐Have AI help draft sprint recaps or demo scripts, but always include real user quotes, data points, or anecdotes that connect the sprint work to human impact.

Evidence of Progress

☐Stakeholders recall the user story shared in review.
☐Team updates reference outcomes and user impact naturally.