An agile team is midway through a 2-week sprint and lacks confidence in the product increment they are building. They want to validate it with the product owner now instead of waiting until the sprint end. What should the project manager do to mitigate this risk?

Arranging an interim demo with the product owner is the most proactive and effective solution. This allows the team to get early feedback, validate their understanding, and make necessary adjustments while there's still time within the current sprint. This mitigates the risk of building the wrong product increment and avoids wasted effort. Extending the sprint end date is generally discouraged in agile as it disrupts the rhythm and predictability. Addressing the concern during the sprint retrospective is too late; the issue needs to be resolved during the current sprint, not after it's completed. Asking the team to work overtime is a poor practice that leads to burnout and doesn't address the root cause of the uncertainty.