New year, new role! After two years as a Product Owner I have made the exciting transition to full time ScrumMaster on gap intelligence’s product development team. Within our department the hat of the ScrumMaster has been passed around a bit, but as we continue to grow, 2020 felt like the right year to make it a one-woman job and I couldn’t be happier about this awesome opportunity. At the end of last year, I attended an Agile for All workshop to make things official and become a Certified ScrumMaster.
ScrumMaster-ing an Effective Team
The main priority for the ScrumMaster is to help the team perform at its highest, most effective level. As a new ScrumMaster, I’ve been thinking a lot about what elements and dynamics are involved in cultivating an effective team and found some really great resources from Google’s re:Work initiative. After a ton of research , the team at Google determined five main principles that are critical to team effectiveness (in order of importance): psychological safety, dependability, structure and clarity, meaning, and impact.
Researchers found that the most important factors for establishing and maintaining healthy, effective teams depend far less on who is on the team and much more heavily on how the team works together. Teammates should feel comfortable asking for and giving constructive feedback or sharing ideas during a brainstorm. They should communicate proactively about any impediments and everyone should assume the responsibility of helping one another. Everyone should feel confident regarding the expectations of their role and what the priorities are for the team as a whole. At the end of the day individuals should feel a sense of personal and professional fulfillment surrounding their work. Goals should be specific and focused on making meaningful progress as an individual, a team, and an organization.
While I feel strongly that gap intelligence already has a mighty productive development team, I am eager to step into this new role as ScrumMaster and continue to grow and cultivate an effective team that is going to do big things in 2020 and beyond.
For more than 16 years, gap intelligence has served manufacturers and sellers by providing world-class services monitoring, reporting, and analyzing the 4Ps: prices, promotions, placements, and products. Email us at info@gapintelligence.com or call us at 619-574-1100 to learn more.
