Lean-Agile Thinking · SM Advanced
Scrum makes sense on paper.
Your context is harder.
You may be using Scrum fully, partly, or only some of its ideas. SM Advanced is about developing the judgement to work with that reality — not learning more framework.
For people who work with teams, products, change and organisational improvement — whatever their job title.
in your context
Does this move build the team's capability — or train dependency on me?
On paper
- a Sprint Goal
- a Product Owner who decides
- impediments removed
- a self-managing team
Your context
- the goal set upstairs
- the PO who waits for you
- the same impediment, 4th Sprint
- the team that waits
The gap. Not knowledge — judgement, under pressure, in your own context.
When Scrum meets the organisation
This is not failure. It is what advanced practice looks like from the inside.
The framework is not the hard part. The hard part is what happens when it meets people who were not in the room, structures that do not bend, and habits that are simply faster than yours.
- You become the person everyone depends on.
- You solve or absorb recurring problems, and they keep coming back.
- Facilitation has become the default response.
- You help the Product Owner so much that helping and taking over blur.
- You shield the team from organisational friction, and the organisation never feels it.
- Parts of Scrum work. The whole does not.
The shift
Advanced does not mean more Scrum. It means better judgement in an imperfect context.
Five movements participants describe. None of them is a technique. Each is a change in what you look at before you act.
From
Keeping things working.
To
Seeing why the system keeps needing you.
From
Solving the immediate problem.
To
Considering what the intervention does over time.
From
Using your strongest technique by default.
To
Choosing the stance that fits the situation.
From
Shielding the team from friction.
To
Making the friction visible enough for the wider system to respond.
From
Trying harder to make Scrum work.
To
Understanding what in the context helps or prevents coherent value delivery.
Proof
Ann started thinking — and acting — differently.
Ann ran the full programme. These are her own words, from her own reflection — not a testimonial she was asked to write.
Instead of jumping in to solve problems or provide quick fixes, I now consider whether my actions will increase, maintain, or reduce the team's capability in the long run.
Ann · Scrum Master · SM Advanced participant
“I now spend more time understanding root causes, creating transparency, and helping the team solve problems themselves. As a result, the team has more ownership.”
“I no longer feel responsible for defending the team. Instead, I focus on creating transparency and letting the data and evidence speak for themselves.”
Real participant work from an earlier SM Advanced run
Not notes from a course. Work that accumulated as Ann learned, applied, discussed, tried and reflected — in her own context, week after week.
Earlier board design · participant responses blurred for privacy
Why it is built around your real work
I kept watching good learning stop at the door. What was missing was never more content. It was time, repetition, somewhere to bring a situation that is actually yours, and someone to push back on your reasoning. So that is what this is.
Mads Troels Hansen · Professional Scrum Trainer · facilitates every live session
How the learning works
The same rhythm, every week. Your own work is the material.
A few hours a week on your own schedule, one live session as the fixed point — and your situation running through all of it.
Learn
Short videos and written material — guided, in pieces that fit a working week.
Reason
Dilemmas where several answers are defensible and one is better. Commit, then see why.
Bring your context
Name the thing from your week this lens touches.
Discuss
Live, online. Your case, three other systems, a facilitator who pushes on the reasoning.
Try a move
One move small enough to actually do — with what you expect to observe written down first.
Observe & refine
Next week opens on what happened — including when it did not work, which is usually the more useful case.
How your thinking moves through the programme
Your reasoning does not stop in the Form. What you notice, question and decide carries into the shared workspace — and returns as something to try and learn from.
Six lenses on the same reality
Not six topics. Six ways to look at the situation in front of you.
Each module hands you one more lens. The situation stays the same; what you can see in it grows.
Stances
Which stance fits here — and which one am I reaching for by reflex?
Team effectiveness
What is the team not doing because I am doing it?
Product & value
Is this costing value — or only comfort?
One situation · yours
The same impediment is back for the fourth Sprint. The team looks at you.
The obvious Scrum answer is not enough. Six lenses on it, then one deliberate next move — tried in your own context, observed, brought back.
Systems & impediments
Local or systemic? And who needs to feel it?
Change & influence
Who has to move, and what do I have that moves them?
Integration & mastery
What does this intervention do to capability over time?
Different lensesOne realityBetter judgementBetter next moveFaster learning, faster value
Is this for you?
It depends on your situation and your responsibility — not your title.
This may be for you if…
- You work close to real teams and organisations.
- You want to improve value delivery, not only Scrum events.
- You face recurring tensions where the answer is not obvious.
- You are willing to try things in your own context.
- You are open to questioning your own interventions.
Probably not for you if…
- You mainly want a Scrum introduction.
- You want a checklist of best practices.
- You expect one correct answer for every situation.
- You have no real context in which to try and observe.
- You mainly want more tools without examining judgement.
You do not need Scrum to be working perfectly already.
The programme may be especially relevant when some parts work, some do not, and the wider context is messy.
Practical
Before you say yes.
- Where
- Entirely online.
- Rhythm
- Six modules over roughly seven weeks. One facilitated live session each week, plus a few hours of guided material and your own work whenever suits you.
- Intake
- Up to four active participants. Modules rotate, so you join the one currently running — no start date to queue for. A short pre-flight refresher comes before your first module.
- Language
- English throughout. You should be comfortable discussing your work in English.
- Assessment
- One attempt at the Professional Scrum Master II assessment is included. A checkpoint, not the purpose.
- Facilitator
- Mads Troels Hansen, every week.
- Price
- 17,500 DKK excl. VATCovers the full seven-week programme: learning content, scenario practice, work in your own context and the weekly live sessions.