Scrum Success

Today I interviewed for a scrum position as a product owner for a local tech company.  It was a really good conversation with a sharp lady and the company is doing really good work and will be around for a while based on what I was hearing and how they’re continually adapting and solving client’s needs.  Needless to say I’m interested in the position if they feel the same way about me performing the work.

In most of my interviews I like to ask two questions typically.  First is to the hiring manager and is, “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?”  I like to ask this question cause I want to see how much buy in the manager has in their role there at the company, the company in general, and how I see myself working with them or not depending on where they see themselves in 5 years.

The next question I like to ask is something along the lines of, “Now that I have a general idea of what the job entails what I’m curious to find out is what it takes to really excel at this job.  I’m not interested in just doing the minimum, but really doing well.”  I do this cause it shows that you’re thinking ahead, want to shine, and isn’t a question that interviewers get asked a lot in my opinion so it helps me stand out. 

This person’s response to my second question was that I need to have the ability to influence without being a jerk or manipulative. Second she said that you really need to dig in and gain people’s trust by knowing what you’re talking about and just show that you care.  While there will always be new ways of doing things in scrum and other frameworks for completing projects this is something that will always be there, i.e. be nice to people, communicate, and follow through on your commitments.  I that, per the official scrum guide, that, “The Scrum framework consists of Scrum Teams and their associated roles, events, artifacts, and rules. Each component within the framework serves a specific purpose and is essential to Scrum’s success and usage” is important, but if you focus on what my interviewing person said you’ll be successful at anything you do. 

Product Owner: Value Maximizer

How do you maximize value in the workplace or as a business owner?

I’ll tell you what I’ve done.  I have a list of things that I’ve made for when I start a new business to get it off the ground and running.  Here is what that looks like.

Then in my trello list I’ve got over a 100 things to do and continue doing list for me and my team.  Not always are the things listed about making more money.  Sometimes it is a list of things to do to improve employee morale and smooth out processes for the production manager or appointment setter. 

I also like to set aside time once each week to focus on business development things so that at least once a week I’m focused on things outside of the day to day to improve how the company is run.  This same tactic is applied in scrum with the sprint reviews and should be done at least once every sprint so that the entire gets to benefit from the results of process improvement.

The scrum guide says that the product owner is a value maximizer.  I think the key to prioritizing what is most important first, second, and third is to ask the customer (stakeholder) and listen to what their biggest pain point is.  If you can key in on that, create actionable steps to solving it, and then either complete the actions needed to solve that pain point yourself or source it out to your team then you are on the right track for how to maximize the value you render to your stakeholder and make sure that everyone is successful.

Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care

So as I jump into a career pivot from developer to product owner, scrum master, project manager type roles and I’m interviewing and submitting resumes and a common task/assignment with the job is to interface with the customer (stakeholder for you scrum-ites) and take down their information/needs, formulate said needs into actionable bite sized pieces that can be done in a time boxes event of one month or less, and be in contact with the team performing the work to help where needed and update the client as needed.

As I interview though and ask what it takes to really excel at these jobs the common response more or less is to just jump in and get to know people, what their problems are, and show that you care and that is about it.  I don’t know if this is brought up because people just don’t do it or maybe we’re all just craving for someone to do that for and with us.  By the way I can and do totally do this for those who were wondering.  And because this is what it will take to be an outstanding product owner/manager I know that I’ll be quite good at this job.

As I run my business this is where camaraderie and growth among the team and with your clients happens.  It’s when you actually show them you care by asking how their dog is, family is, etc and then you actually follow up with that care whether that is through a text, call, email, or in person is where in my opinion real progress gets made.  The quote from Teddy Roosevelt, “Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care” applies in product owner management and any professional interpersonal relationship or personal relationship.  So yes learn all the latest agile and scrum and best practice techniques and certifications you can, sure.  But don’t let that get in the way of just being a good person and caring and helping when and where there is a need.