CSM Service to the Product Owner Practice Question
The Product Owner is having difficulty getting stakeholders to agree on the product priorities. What should the Scrum Master do?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often select options where the Scrum Master makes the decision for the stakeholders, failing to realize the goal is to facilitate a consensus-building process based on objective data.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Facilitate a session where stakeholders use objective criteria to prioritize the product backlog.
The Scrum Master should serve the Product Owner by facilitating techniques that help resolve conflict and reach consensus among stakeholders. By focusing on data-driven decision-making and the product's overall strategy, the Scrum Master can help the Product Owner navigate competing interests and achieve a transparent, defensible order of work that serves the business's goals.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Take over the responsibility of setting the priorities to resolve the stakeholder conflicts quickly.
Why it's wrong here
The Scrum Master is not responsible for setting product priorities. That is the Product Owner's role. If the Scrum Master takes over, they are not serving the Product Owner effectively; they are disempowering them. This prevents the Product Owner from learning how to manage stakeholders and leads to an unhealthy dependency.
- ✓
Facilitate a session where stakeholders use objective criteria to prioritize the product backlog.
Why this is correct
Facilitating objective, data-driven sessions removes personal bias and personality conflicts from the prioritization process. This helps stakeholders focus on what is best for the product and the business. The Scrum Master's role is to guide the process, ensuring everyone is heard while maintaining a focus on the shared goal.
- ✗
Tell the Product Owner that they should ignore the stakeholders and follow their own intuition.
Why it's wrong here
Ignoring stakeholders is a recipe for failure. The Product Owner must understand the needs and concerns of their stakeholders to be successful. While the Product Owner has final say, they should make informed decisions based on stakeholder input. The Scrum Master should help the Product Owner manage these relationships effectively.
- ✗
Advise the Product Owner to rotate the priority list every week to keep everyone happy.
Why it's wrong here
Rotating priorities destroys the team's ability to focus and maintain flow. It creates a 'flavor of the month' mentality that prevents the completion of any significant work. This approach is detrimental to the product's value and prevents the team from gaining the experience and learning necessary to deliver successfully.
Visual reference
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every CSM question from scratch — 312 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Scrum Alliance exam blueprint
This CSM practice question is part of Courseiva's free Scrum Alliance certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CSM exam.