Salum Abdul-Rahman: Learning to Communicate Value in Public and Non-Profit Sectors’ Product Development

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The Great Product Owner: The Systematic Value Communicator

Salum describes working with a Product Owner who had a PhD in data science on a public sector visualization project. This exceptional PO was extremely systematic in working with stakeholders and possessed a unique ability to bridge abstract concepts with concrete implementations. In the public sector, where monetary feedback is absent, this PO excelled at thinking about value achievement and communicating it effectively to the team. They had the magical capability to involve stakeholders while demystifying complex requirements, helping the team understand not just engagement metrics but how their work would change society and the world.

The Bad Product Owner: The Absentee Specialist

The most common anti-pattern Salum encounters is the absentee Product Owner - typically a specialist assigned to the PO role while maintaining their full-time job as a domain expert. With only 10-20% time allocation, these POs lack the capacity to fulfill their responsibilities effectively. They often don't have the time or knowledge to develop essential PO skills, requiring extensive hand-holding to understand even basic concepts like user stories. Salum's approach involves booking time directly in their calendar for backlog refinement sessions and providing comprehensive guidance to help them understand the role, though this intensive support is necessary due to their limited availability for skill development.

In this segment, we refer to the concept of ‘enshitification’ by Cory Doctorow, and refer to Tom Gilb’s bonus episode on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast. 

Self-reflection Question: How do you ensure your Product Owner has both the time allocation and skill development needed to truly serve the team and stakeholders effectively?

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About Salum Abdul-Rahman

Salum is an agile coach at Reaktor and experienced leader driving sustainable knowledge work. He is passionate about enabling teams to work with complexity and conflicts. Salum builds communities in and outside of work and has 18 years of experience working with software mostly as a consultant with the public sector.

You can link with Salum Abdul-Rahman on LinkedIn.

Download audio: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/scrummastertoolbox/20250829_Salum_Abdulrahman_F.mp3?dest-id=246429

About Frankie

Frankie Berkoben is an executive coach and sought-after speaker whose clients include engineering, product, and design leaders at Google, Airbnb, and the White House. 

Known for her work at the intersection of leadership and executive functioning, she helps intellectually brilliant professionals move from cycles of overwhelm and inconsistency to clarity, confidence, and sustainable success. Frankie’s process blends design thinking, the scientific method, positive psychology, and ADHD-specific expertise to help her clients do their best work (and scale their professional impact) without relying on grit, shame, or heroic acts of willpower. 

Executive functioning (the brain’s ability to prioritize, plan, and execute those plans) and systems thinking take equal billing in Frankie’s work. She translates the complexity of how our brains manage decisions, focus, and prioritization into practical tools that resonate with high performers. Taking a systems approach, she moves beyond quick fixes and productivity hacks, diving into neuropsychology and environmental dynamics in order to help clients understand the “why” behind not only what causes them friction and heartache, but also how to elegantly address those underlying needs. 

An unapologetic behavioral psychology nerd, Frankie combines intellectual rigor with a gift for making complex ideas accessible. She’s fascinated by how context (stress, social dynamics, or even internalized beliefs) shapes our capacity and impact, especially at work. These themes are woven throughout her coaching, speaking, and writing: instead of focusing on what’s wrong, let’s understand what makes it feel or go “right”, and optimize for conditions that make success more likely, rather than aiming for rigid definitions of success.

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Today We Talked About

• Fankie’s background
• ADHD
• Executive Function
• Phsychological Safety
• Prep-work
• Advocating for yourself
• Experiements
• Take an Iterative Approach
• Without Awareness you can’t change
• Reflection – We learn from reflecting on experience
• Imposter Syndrome
• Identity Shift
• Who am I to be here?
• ANTs – Automatic Negative Thoughts
• Focused on Solving Problems
• Working Memory
• What’s the thought?
• What is the belief that causes that thought?
• Blending Emotion and Strategy
• Coach the person… not the problem

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Connect with Frankie

• Website
• LinkedIn

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