From Desk-Pounding to Harmony — How the Game of Go Transformed a Violent Product Owner, and Why Every Employee Should Think Like an Owner | Peter Merel

From Desk-Pounding to Harmony — How the Game of Go Transformed a Violent Product Owner, and Why Every Employee Should Think Like an Owner | Peter Merel

From Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast: Agile storytelling from the trenches by Vasco Duarte, Agile Coach, Certified Scrum Master, Certified Product Owner

May 8, 2026 · 19 min

About this episode

Peter Merel discusses how the Game of Go transformed a violent product owner and the importance of thinking like an owner in the workplace.

Peter Merel: From Desk-Pounding to Harmony — How the Game of Go Transformed a Violent Product Owner, and Why Every Employee Should Think Like an Owner In this episode, we refer to The Agile Way by Peter Merel and The Great Game of Business by Jack Stack. The Great Product Owner: The Real Estate Visionary Who Built Channels of Learning Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes . "When a product owner brings an attitude of learning together, it doesn't just create psychological safety — it creates an active experimental mindset and a network of trust relationships that support each other in the learning process." - Peter Merel The best product owner Peter has worked with is Ben White, one of three brothers and partners in Ray White — Australia's largest property management business, started by Ben's great-grandfather. Ben had a vision for transforming how property management works across the entire Australian industry. To realize this vision, he tried to bring an app to market — and failed. Not once, but twice, before succeeding on the third…

People in this episode

Host: Vasco Duarte

Guest: Peter Merel

Topics covered

  • Agile
  • Product Ownership
  • Learning Mindset
  • Game of Go
  • Psychological Safety
  • Business Transformation

Keywords

  • Agile
  • Product Owner
  • Game of Go
  • Learning
  • Psychological Safety
  • Business
  • Transformation

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Ray White

Books & works: The Agile Way, The Great Game of Business

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