My mission as a Professional Scrum Trainer is to help individuals and teams achieve success in their Agile journey.
I never thought that I would end up in the Agile community, but I definitely am happy that I did.
To be honest, even when I started doing Agile (yes, exactly, doing!), I never thought that I would get so passionate about it, that I would want to be come an expert.
I learn so much about it every single day, and my curiosity and willingness to learn never runs out.
Before I jumped head first into this field, I was so far away from it, you have even no idea.
Coming from a university where everyone was dreaming about becoming a consultant, with a degree in Project Management, I knew exactly towards where my path goes: Program or Portfolio Manager in a big IT company.
When there were no Scrum Masters...
What I Learned
I started out as a consultant in Procter&Gamble and then moved to PayPal as a Content Manager. Seemed way far from my main goal. But I knew what I was after.At that time PayPal was going through an Agile transformation, as many companies at the time, and here is what I learned during it:
- Project Managers were frustrated because now there is no plan at all, we had no idea when something is going to be completed (no joking, this is literally what someone said during a meeting we had).
- Agile trainings were very fun to attend, but didn’t teach me anything about Agile.
- We needed to start having regular status updates and work in 2 week sprints.
- We needed a Scrum Master.
I didn’t know at the time how all of this things come together, but I definitely knew that getting the Project Manager job was way out of my league, however, getting the Scrum Master one was totally possible… because no one really had the skills or knowledge to say that I am not ready to take it on, if I had the proper certification.
This is the path I took at the time – getting certified was tough, and I can’t say I understood everything back then. It was enough for me to pass the test at 96% and get the job title of a Scrum Master.
It took me a couple of years to really understand my role.
I won’t lie: the first year and a half I was not a Scrum Master. I was more of a Project Coordinator, who lead meetings, and was working herself to a burnout.
The people in my teams didn’t understand what my role was, my manager didn’t know what it was, and I didn’t have anyone to coach or mentor me.
What I learned is how NOT to be a Scrum Master, and it was a good thing in the long run.
After my first experience as a Scrum Master, I got lucky enough to join a new team in a new company and a new country for that matter.
I got even luckier to have a mentor to teach me.
This is where I really started to learn the job and become a true Scrum Master and an Agile Practitioner.
A job turned into passion.
Working with teams the way I was supposed to – as a coach, a teacher, a facilitator – just came naturally. I started to enjoy my work more and more, and I started to become good at it!
Scrum Master role allows me to do what I love doing and what I am good at.
The values of Agile align with my personal values.
The skills and knowledge required to be successful in this job aligns with my personal interests.
It is a win-win situation.
CREATIVITY
COLLABORATION
COMMUNICATION
AGILE CONSULTING
