Nail Your Scrum Master Job Interview: Key Questions You Must Know in 2024

Become a World Class Agile Coach And Nail Every Interview

Breaking into the Scrum Master or Agile Coach field isn’t easy—but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. 

When companies raise the bar, it means they’re seeking world-class performance. I love asking the question: Is this world-class? 

Are you a world-class Agile Coach or Scrum Master?

Let’s see how you stand the test of a job interview.

In this article, I dive deep into the must-know questions for Agile Coach and Scrum Master job interviews! Whether you’re preparing for your first Scrum Master interview or looking to transition into an Agile Coach role, this video covers the key questions and answers you need to succeed.

I’ve gathered the most common and challenging interview questions to help you feel confident and ready when you walk into your next interview.

We’ll discuss what to focus on and how the interview might vary depending on whether you’re speaking with an Agile Lead, a VP of Engineering, or a CPO.

Lastly, I’ll guide you on how to craft your own questions to assess whether the organization is a good fit for you.

What You’ll Learn:

• The top Scrum Master interview questions that recruiters are asking in 2024.

• Common Agile Coach interview questions and how to structure your answers to stand out.

• How to handle behavioral questions like “Tell me about a time when you facilitated a difficult meeting” or “How do you handle team conflict?”

• Tips on demonstrating your knowledge of Agile frameworks such as Scrum, Kanban, and SAFe, and how to explain your experience with them during the interview.

• Insight into leadership and coaching questions that Agile Coaches often face, such as “How do you coach a team that is resistant to change?”

• The difference between a Scrum Master and an Agile Coach and how to show you’re ready for either role during the interview.

How to prepare for an interview  

When preparing for an interview, it’s crucial to understand who is interviewing you and who you’re being hired by. This will help you tailor your approach.

Ask the recruiter if the company has a community of practice or an Agile Practice group. You could also request a chat with someone already in your role to better understand the team’s dynamics and expectations.

For junior or entry-level positions, the interview questions will likely focus on foundational knowledge and basic practices. However, if you’re more experienced, the approach will be different.

As an interviewer, I don’t usually go through a list of questions about Scrum events or Agile practices for seasoned candidates. Instead, I prefer to keep the conversation open and fluid.

I like to ask about the candidate’s current situation at work and see if they can provide valuable insights. This helps me assess their ability to explain their experiences through examples or analogies. By discussing how they’ve handled specific challenges, I can gauge their depth of understanding of Agile practices without needing to ask directly about them.

Understanding Company Structure

Who leads the Agile Coaches or Scrum Masters differs between companies. It just depends on the need for some structure and process that can be expressed by different people.

In organizations with formal Agile practice, you might find titles like Head of Agile, Product Ops Lead, or Agile Evangelist. These folks bring a more structured approach, with common practices, regular sync meetings, and a Community of Practice (CoP) to keep everyone aligned. If you’re in this setup, expect a lot of collaboration and shared learning.

But that’s not the only setup out there. In fact, there are as many structures as there are companies! Sometimes it’s the VP of Engineering or Chief Technology Officer (CTO) who steps in to bring some order. In this case, Agile Coaches might report directly to them, and the focus is usually on the tech teams. It doesn’t mean other teams are ignored, but tech will be front and center.

Another twist? A VP of Product, Chief Product Officer (CPO), or even a Chief Product and Technology Officer (CPTO) could take the lead. While product folks can certainly champion Agile processes, it sometimes creates a bit of friction when trying to influence tech teams. After all, if you’re from the product side, how do you make changes on the tech side without stepping on toes? It can be done, but expect a few bumps along the way!

In short, no two companies handle Agile leadership the same way—so keep your eyes open for different structures and make sure you clarify the structure upfront with the recruiter.

Different profiles, different questions

Questions you get asked in a job interview depend not only on the profile of the company profile but also on the profile of the interviewer.

I was lucky to have Agile Practice Leads among the interviewers and I was also one myself. Those tend to ask about your understanding of Agile, different frameworks and challenges, and your agile growth.

Here are some sample questions you can expect from those people:

• What does Agile mean to you?

• What’s your favorite Agile principle?

• Who do you follow, and what’s your favorite Agile book?

• What changes have you recently tried to become better? How is it going?

• What did you collectively learn during your last retrospective? How did the team respond to that new knowledge? Did it result in any Actions or Experiments?

• How do you handle typical pitfalls or conflicts?

• Situational question: The whole team is in India—how do you handle team building?

• What frameworks do you know? (Unicorn learning, Kanban, Design Thinking, Professional Coaching) How do you emphasize that you know multiple approaches?

• What kind of scaled approach do you know? What did you do there and what was your responsibility?

Tech and Speed

When you’re interviewed by a VP of Engineering, expect the focus to be more on tech and speed. They’ll likely ask questions such as:

• What kind of teams have you worked with? Backend, infrastructure, frontend?

They want to understand the similarities and differences between your past experiences and their current context. Highlight your versatility and ability to work with various teams, profiles, and technologies. This is a great opportunity to showcase your ability to learn quickly and adapt.

• Can you explain the context of your previous work? How many teams were involved, what was the complexity, and what dependencies were in play?

This question aims to determine how adaptable you are and if your experiences align with their needs. Look beyond the question to emphasize your adaptability and how you can apply your skills in any environment.

• What challenges did you face in that environment, and how did you handle them?

This is your time to shine. Be prepared with a list of challenges you’ve overcome in the past and be ready to share stories about them. Focus on the challenges most relatable to the company’s context, based on what they’ve shared with you during the interview.

• And inevitably, they’ll want to know: How is your technical knowledge? What’s your technical background?

Here’s the inevitable question. Do you need to code to be a great Scrum Master? Of course not—but they might think so. They’re assessing if you can work effectively with their programmers, create rapport, and gain their respect. Explain your approach to working with technical teams, how you build allies and supporters, and how you progressively gain trust and buy-in from the team.

When preparing for an interview with a VP of Engineering, it’s essential to understand that their focus will likely be on the technical aspects of your experience and your ability to adapt to fast-paced, high-performing teams.

Expect questions that dig into the types of teams you’ve worked with, the complexity of the environments you’ve navigated, and the challenges you’ve overcome. It’s also important to be ready to discuss your technical knowledge, even if you’re not expected to code.

What they’re really looking for is your versatility, ability to communicate with technical teams, and how you gain their trust and respect.

Speed and predictability

You might also find yourself being interviewed by a VP of Product or a CPO, who are more focused on improving predictability, refining estimations, and ensuring the teams can deliver faster while providing accurate timelines.

In this case, expect questions like:

• How have you influenced a team’s velocity?

• What do you do to improve team predictability?

• How do you teach teams to estimate effectively?

You’ll likely encounter several questions about Scrum and the specific challenges the organization faces with it.

And then, you might get the occasional curveball, like:

• How do you contribute to KPIs?

Scrum Master or Agile Coach

Before we call it a day, let’s tackle the elephant in the room full of Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches. It is said that the Scrum Master works with the teams, as another team member and Agile Coach coaches the teams and the organization.

Some people openly disagree with the previous statement, take Barry Overeem in his article “From 50% Agile Coach to 100% Scrum Master”.
There are more people like Barry.

What does it have to do with anything? Well, we strive to prove without titles how important we are and expect to have at least a “Senior Agile Coach” or “Agile Evangelist” or “Agile Champion” in our role so we can boast it on LinkedIn. Been there, done that! Raise your hand who hasn’t!

My take on it is that it’s the least important of all things. Firstly, it depends on the company and their understanding of the role. So ask and investigate if what they are looking for is what you want for yourself. Secondly, your abilities and proactivity will determine the limits of your influence. And that requires time, patience, and consistency.

I would move away from the Scrum Master job title, just as the Product Managers move away from a Product Owner. As those are the accountabilities described in the Scrum Guide, those are not real jobs. An Agile Coach might be a Scrum Master if there is Scrum involved and so a Product Manager will play the role of a Product Owner in a team. I’d love to simplify the world of names and job titles and focus on the value these roles provide.

You can do this!

In summary, preparing for a Scrum Master or Agile Coach interview means understanding the different perspectives from which you might be evaluated. Whether you’re interviewed by a VP of Engineering, a VP of Product, or an Agile Evangelist, the focus will shift based on their priorities—be it technical proficiency, team dynamics, or process efficiency.

Be ready to discuss your experience working with various teams, your ability to influence velocity and predictability, and how you’ve tackled challenges using Agile practices.

It’s crucial to adapt your answers to the interviewer’s role and company context. From explaining how you work with tech teams to improve their processes, to addressing more product-focused questions about estimations and KPIs, the key is to be versatile. Have stories ready that demonstrate your adaptability, leadership, and deep understanding of Agile principles.

Ultimately, the interview is an opportunity to showcase not just what you know, but how you can contribute to the organization’s success by driving collaboration, fostering growth, and continuously improving team performance. With the right preparation, you’ll be able to confidently handle any question that comes your way.

I’d love to hear your job interview stories! Share them in the comments!

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