Things I learned (and love) about SCRUM
It’s a mindset that can be applied to almost anything.
As a product writer, one of the most valuable things I’ve done is to get certified as a SCRUM master.
I know many loathe the almost cult-like following that the term ‘SCRUM’ seems to invoke. But hear me out: at its core, its concepts and values can be applied to many aspects of your life. It may not solve all your problems but if you take it as a simple thought experiment, you might be surprised at how many different situations you can apply it to.
This post is about what I learned about SCRUM and how it benefits me in my work as a product writer.
What is SCRUM?
There are so many good resources that can explain SCRUM better than I ever could. Personally, I feel you can’t look past the official SCRUM guide for its clarity and simplicity.
SCRUM is a framework that helps organisations solve complex problems in an agile fashion. A way to ‘slice’ the agile cake. SCRUM comes with certain ceremonies that you can choose to play in a way that suits your particular organisation. Because software (or any product or service) is a multi-layered cake from which true flavour is achieved through a mix of the different layers, these ceremonies help to bring those layers together. Importantly, it’s a framework that facilitates the evolution and growth of a product and the people who build it.
How has it helped me so far?
Simply put: it gave me a new perspective and a mindset I could apply to many aspects of my life, not just work.
As someone who once denounced routine, I was surprised by the amount of freedom the SCRUM framework gave me to not only plan but achieve my goals in a realistic and holistic way.
It helps you think holistically and expands your worldview
By design, SCRUM forces you to look at the bigger picture. SCRUM teams are made up of people from different disciplines. This allows the SCRUM team to deliver a product or feature end to end. It minimises the risks associated with dependency on other departments because all the parts needed to deliver on the feature or product exist within the team.
It’s not just the ability to deliver but the quality of work that SCRUM addresses. Because many functions come together to deliver on a common goal, teams will have discussions with others from different disciplines. A challenge on one end but an opportunity on the other.
As a product writer, I’m not always part of a SCRUM team but what it has taught me is to validate my ideas with people that work in a different discipline. The nature of product writing is that it is not always about the words but what’s under the hood — the technology or logic that supports an interaction. Even if I’m not working with a dedicated frontend or backend developer, I seek to look at the ‘problem’ from different angles.
It helps perfectionists stop being perfectionists
Check-ins and continuous improvements are built-in to help reach a state that I consider to be better than perfect — valuable. This means there’s no room for mulling over and overthinking because it helps bring out a fine balance between ‘done’ and ‘good enough’. What I’ve learned is perfectionism holds little value when the real data comes from how a feature or product is being used in the real world.
As they say, you need something in the hands of the customers to understand how to improve upon it and increase the value it brings. Similarly, I’ve learned to ‘let go’ and let others into my copy decks. As rough as it may be at the time, I know it’s never too early to get others to check my work. The earlier I do this, the earlier I can pivot and build on what I’ve already got.
Helps you embrace change
Many speak of the virtue of pivoting and it seems clear enough but the question is, how? SCRUM naturally facilitates working with change. It is a welcome known. It accepts that change is a constant! So rather than waiting to know everything (perfection), it accepts that there will be something to improve on and something to learn from what is released.
This is because it encourages incremental development, testing, and ultimately, learning. You work in a time-boxed sprint and because it’s time-boxed, you’re encouraged to really consider the effort required for each piece of work so that you can commit to it being done in any given sprint. Naturally, you can’t do everything within a time-boxed period and so you break up work into smaller, achievable chunks. This tendency to break things up into smaller chunks also works as a way to minimise the risk of overbaking and if a change is required, it’s easier to ‘pivot’ because work is planned according to smaller, achievable stories.
There is the cliche that the only constant in life is change and all the values I’ve learned from working in SCRUM teams have helped me tackle (or at least enhanced my mindset) change within my own life.
Facilitates shared understanding and buy-in
Getting stakeholder buy-in is an invaluable skill. I personally admire those who can make it look easy because as anyone who has to do this daily can attest to, it’s far from easy! Stakeholders come in all shapes and sizes and it’s definitely an art to get your proposals across in a clear, succinct way — let alone getting people excited and onboard.
I believe the art of getting buy-in is easier for some than others and I think SCRUM ceremonies help level the playing field in this regard. From sprint planning to stand-ups and retrospectives, SCRUM ensures that getting buy-in is part of the process. The SCRUM values of Transparency, Inspection, and Adaptation directly reflect this. It’s not to say you can do away with setting up specific meetings or conversations to get buy-in from stakeholders. It just means that if done correctly, the SCRUM team is constantly developing a shared understanding between themselves and key decision makers.
Makes huge goals achievable
The SCRUM ceremony of sprint planning and associated practices such as story breakdown sessions, assigning estimates and backlog grooming all encourage breaking up big goals into small, achievable pieces. Similar to my earlier point about SCRUM helping us embrace change, planning what’s coming in the next few sprints, breaking down work into small stories, estimating them, and then refining the understanding of this work through backlog grooming all help to make big pieces of work achievable and most importantly, getting it done.
Gives clarity and focus
Ideally, clarity about the task and the goal (including business requirements, how success will be measured, impact and value) are worked out before they are put into a sprint. This can be done across a number of sprint planning and backlog grooming sessions. Once this is clear, then a SCRUM team has enough understanding to assign story estimates and therefore, the power to commit to work in a sprint.
The best sprints are the ones where goals are shared — it keeps everyone focused and engaged in delivering a feature or piece of work. And adopting this to my own life, the most satisfying goals are the ones that are focused and clear. I realised that part of the challenge is distilling goals into something so clear it’s hard not to achieve!
A mindset and framework for life
Since I was introduced to the world of SCRUM and experienced working in this way, I’ve moved to many different teams. Each team with a varying understanding and application of SCRUM. I’ve even moved to teams where the concept was considered a swear word and where we practice what’s known in the industry as Water-scrum-fall.
But what I’ve learned from the framework has never let me down — it’s flexible and applicable to many aspects of life and even if you don’t plan on becoming a SCRUM master, I highly recommend getting to know this framework. It might help you figure out a way to solve a complex problem in work or otherwise.
Writer bio
I’m a product content specialist and collaborator who has SCRUM’d (officially and unofficially) her way through many different industries, including real estate, accounting, not-for-profit, and tech. I help create product experiences that are effortless and clear through language and design.
