Your agile team has been working on a mobile application for six sprints. During the latest sprint review, the product owner suddenly realizes that a core feature the team built in Sprint 3 doesn't align with the evolving market needs discovered through recent customer interviews. The feature took considerable effort to build and is technically sound, but customer feedback indicates it provides minimal value. The product owner wants to remove it from the product and pivot to features customers actually need. Some team members are resistant, feeling their work was wasted. What should you do as the Scrum Master?

Question

Accepted Answer

The correct answer is A. Option A is correct because agile principles prioritize customer value and welcome changing requirements, even late in development (Agile Manifesto). As Scrum Master, you should protect the product owner's authority to maximize product value and help the team understand that sunk cost fallacy should not drive decisions. Removing low-value features is responsible product stewardship. Option B is the main distractor because it represents the sunk cost fallacy—keeping something simply because effort was invested, which dilutes product focus and wastes ongoing maintenance effort. Option C delays necessary action with unnecessary analysis when customer feedback is already clear. Option D undermines the product owner's role and creates decision-by-committee, which contradicts Scrum's defined accountabilities.

More Process Questions