There’s a dint in my sprint
We recently had an interesting sprint. And by interesting, I mean it didn’t quite go to plan. It was like we had slipped into an Agile slumber. The good news is there are many useful learning points to share.
Context
Every year we offer a range of graduate programmes and placements. As part of the graduate journey, we support them in the transition from university to a professional work environment. In the first two years, there are two critical face-to-face events that take place, which help accelerate their development and build their network. We took on a sprint to design one of these events.
The Sprint goal
The sprint was split into two focus areas. Helping the new intake of grads in their first month and helping grads who were at the end of their programme. We had three weeks (a great amount of time, really!), four experienced sprinters, and permission to get creative. We wanted to design a high energy, relevant experience that enabled grads to practice and demonstrate a number of key skills.
Simple right? No.
Show me the money!
We knew we had a lot to do and didn’t “slow down to go fast”. We just went fast. Upon reflection, it was like we were on autopilot: four people who were used to getting the job done and succeeding at it. This mindset meant we didn’t consider all the options available. Instead, we grasped an initial idea, and it quickly grew arms, legs and three heads. Not once did we stop and ask: ‘How are we actually going to deliver this?’. We reassured ourselves with our oh-so familiar one-liner, “We’ve got this!”. As the idea grew bigger and bolder, so did the tasks required to make it happen. As a team, we may have been on autopilot in terms of the sprint process, but we were putting blood, sweat and tears into the work itself. We even had to extend the sprint a week. After we got to the end of four weeks, we had created a monster — with no way to actually deliver it.
Reflection 1 — Start with some good old fashioned questions: how much money, delivered by when, by whom? Turns out we had access to a bigger budget, but didn’t realise it. Why? Because we didn’t ask! This would have allowed us to share the design with one of our trusted external partners. Instead, our idea was inexpensive but demanded internal resource that wasn’t available. Our idea should never have made it past the first cut.
Press here for a creativity boost!
We know that one of the benefits of sprinting is drawing on different brains and perspectives. But we just weren’t getting that spark, that rhythm, that va va voom! We were more like a team of flatlining sloths. We were stuck and couldn’t generate the creativity to get started. Our Slack channel had dried up, tasks weren’t moving on the Trello board and our way of communicating involved regular long team calls. One call almost lasted a whole day! Why didn’t we flag it? Why were four very vocal, honest and skilled sprinters ignoring what was happening? Why was this behaviour becoming normal?
Reflection 2a and 2b — The long calls and work grinding to a halt were two big warning signs something was wrong. The key is to share concerns quickly and openly. Share any doubts you’re having with your team, share them with the Scrum master and share them with Product Owner or ‘Decider’. Avoid using positive talk to mask a problem, if it’s not in sync with how you really feel. If you’re stuck and can’t move forward, then hit that creativity boost button! Call on the Scrum master to help facilitate some exercises to unblock your thinking. One of our favourites is “Crazy Eights” from Jake Knapp’s book, Sprint.
The ‘Decider’ decides, right?
To recap from our other articles, we don’t really have Product Owners like they do in the software development world. Where it’s needed, we have adopted the role Knapp describes, which is ‘The Decider’. You would think the title is quite clear: “The Deciders role is to set the vision and be the ultimate decision maker or product owner”. This is something the team knew but had forgotten. We didn’t once share any of our ideas with our Decider, nor did we press the panic button that would have attracted her support. As a sprint team, the one rule we do know is ‘no surprises’ at the showcase. This means the Decider should be regularly updated throughout the sprint. Had we really forgotten this? Yes! We were too deep in the problem and couldn’t see the wood for the trees. And at showcase, oh boy was she surprised!
Reflection 3 — It’s not always a decision that’s needed. The output needs to be in line with the overall vision. The Decider can help bring you ‘back to reality’ pretty quickly. A recap of team roles and expectations at the start of a sprint won’t take more than 5 minutes. Make it part of the kick-off and planning session, so people know when to update or involve the Decider, and why. It’s too easy for a sprint team to become all-consumed with self organising they forget to be aligned and cohesive with delivering something useful. The Decider is there to help. A great way of keeping this front and centre is assigning an ‘update the decider’ task on the Trello board!
The decision is!…
You’ll be pleased to know we got that grad experience designed and delivered. To budget, on time and with the actual available resource! Thankfully I am writing this with a smile on my face as recent sprints have seen us back in top form. Actually, I would even say in better form thanks to this painful but necessary learning experience!
