How COVID-19 kickstarted my Scrum Master journey — Part 1 (2020)
My personal journey as a Scrum Master in Thailand (2020)
I want to write down the journey I took to become a Scrum Master. I hope you enjoy the ride as much as I do and by reading this, able to gain some learning that you can apply to your Scrum Master journey.
2020… The year I accidentally fell into the Scrum Master role
What do you relate 2020 with? For me, it’s COVID-19, the pandemic that put our world at a standstill. This coincided with (more likely caused) me to accidentally fall into the scrum master role! Now I thank COVID-19 that this happened!
So a bit about who I was before I fell into the Scrum Master role. I was a management consultant for 3 years prior. I was super lost and frustrated with my job, pumping out meaningless (but lucrative) reports to the big companies which ended up as monitor stands (or trash) for their employees.
I quit my last management consultant job when I was on the brink of becoming one of the corporate zombies, toiling away my days without passion and soul.
I stepped into the tech world by joining a local tech consultancy firm, hoping to find a meaningful impact by implementing tech solutions that would serve some needs instead of pumping out reports.
Then… you guessed it! The pandemic hit. Less projects, and loads of project managers lying around. Luckily, that was when I met my first (and only) Agile coach who later became my dearest friend (and lifelong coach).
He assigned me to BE the SCRUM MASTER, while the other Project manager took on the Product Owner role.
I was clueless about what SCRUM is let alone what being a Scrum master means. My Agile Coach helped me and my Product Owner gradually learn Scrum and just get started doing it and coached us as we embarked on our Scrum journey.
The first AHA moment that transformed me into who I am today came during the first lockdown.
Our team COULD NOT operate at all on the first day of the lockdown. That was when I learned how I could be of service to my team, enabling them to agree on how we would communicate when working remotely for the first time.
The look on their faces and their sincerity when they thanked me for my service made me realize that THIS was the fulfillment I had been looking for all my professional life… Being of service to my team, my people.
And right then, I decided to pursue my career in being of service to those I serve…
BUT what do I need to DO? What exactly do I need to DO as a Scrum master?
