After a tense Sprint on the 311 request portal, stakeholders tell the Product Owner to skip Sprint Retrospective and “let the team vent without product talk.” What should the Product Owner do?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
Retrospective is the whole Scrum Team’s pit stop, and the Product Owner is on that team. Skipping it because 311 got tense just postpones the same mess. Show up, talk about how product collaboration actually worked, and leave with a real improvement.
Full Explanation
The Sprint Retrospective is for the Scrum Team to inspect how the Sprint went and adapt its practices; the Product Owner is a Scrum Team member and participates. After a tense Sprint on a 311 request portal, stakeholders telling the Product Owner to skip Retrospective and let the team vent without product talk do not get to excuse the Product Owner from that inspection. Product-collaboration issues—ordering clarity, stakeholder noise, Done pressure—are legitimate Retrospective topics.
Skipping Retrospective because Product Owners are not Scrum Team members during improvement events invents a false exemption. Attending only to deliver a performance appraisal of each Developer, then leaving, turns improvement into evaluation theater. Sending a proxy analyst so product collaboration is never discussed removes the person accountable for Product Backlog collaboration from the improvement conversation.
Exam caveat: PSPO II includes the Product Owner in the Scrum Team for Retrospective; stakeholder discomfort after a hard Sprint is not a reason to skip.
Operational check: attend the 311 Retrospective, contribute on product-collaboration and process topics, and leave with at least one improvement the whole Scrum Team will try next Sprint.