Proving the Value of the Sprint Review

During a recent retrospective, my newly formed scrum team raised a concern that they weren’t “plugged in” with one another throughout the sprint. They were all working on stories which contributed to the goal, but they didn’t see the outcome of their work. An action item was raised for the following sprint: “Incorporate sprint reviews” which they all agreed was needed. 
 
As you are probably aware, the purpose of this event is “to inspect the increment and adapt the Product Backlog if needed”.  Therefore, I scheduled the review prior to their sprint planning and retrospective. The day before, I reminded them of the upcoming demo and requested they self-organize, keeping it contained to 45 minutes.
 
The day came and each team member demonstrated the results of their work. They asked each other questions and clarified various misunderstandings, but mostly it was smooth sailing.
 
At one point, the Product Owners ears perked up on a particular comment made by one of the Dev's. He recognized that something was amiss and probed for additional clarification. Apparently there was a security gate that hadn’t been considered for production. Following a lengthy discussion, the team ultimately changed direction -- adding 3 new high priority stories for the next sprint, in order to address the discrepancy.
 
The PO was astonished and questioned why this wasn’t raised earlier. Frankly, he was frustrated, which was understandable – I probably would have been too. However, as the Scrum Master, I was elated! I could barely contain my excitement -- this was precisely the point of the sprint review.
 
Due to this particular Scrum event, the team identified gaps which could then be immediately addressed.
 
They inspected.
They adapted.
 
… And in my eyes, that’s a major win. It’s what Scrum is all about.