I wonder why a recruiting platform seems to have the potential to be causing a little shitstorm?
The internet is undoubtedly a special place! Everyone can be who or what they want and share their ideas and opinions within a heartbeat– I can’t think of any similar place.
This fantastic place also came with a new kind of dissent: the so-called “shitstorm”. The German Duden dictionary defines a shitstorm as a “storm of indignation in a communication medium of the Internet, which is sometimes accompanied by insulting statements.” Having been voted “Anglicism of the year 2011” in Germany, the concept of a shitstorm has undoubtedly become familiar to almost everyone that has ever been online by now.
Creating persistent waves of resentment about the behavior of public persons or institutions used to be the privilege of journalists with a passion for sensational headlines about stars getting caught cheating.
Today, however, everyone can start or become the subject of such an online storm in some of the many corners of the internet. Be it videos of people putting cats into trashcans or Instagram aiming to sell its users’ images without a fee — a potential outcry is always just around the corner. Are they always justified? Do we know enough to jump on the outcry-train, if we haven’t looked behind the scenes?
Thundery clouds forming ahead…
One of these local wrangles seems to be evolving around a new recruiting platform for Scrum Masters called “ScrumMatch”. I came across comments on social media criticizing the platform for its apparently degrading rating process that would evaluate people based on irrelevant skills and questioning the reviewers’ capability of assessing Scrum Master’s maturity. These comments got me thinking.
Now to make this very clear upfront: yes, I am biased. I am working for the company that develops ScrumMatch and yes, I do like the concept and aim behind the platform and no, this is not a commercially sponsored article.
Not too long ago, I was looking for a new job as a Scrum Master, but many times, I didn’t send out an application because I was worried that I would waste my time applying at a company that wasn’t serious about Scrum. I will give at least 150% to support the Scrum Team I am working with and improve the environment they are operating in. However, I expect a certain degree of openness toward change and improvement. Being a Scrum Master who is serious about the role’s accountability, I will definitely be ruffling some feathers, be it within the team or on a management level — and that’s not something every company is open to.
ScrumMatch aims to connect Scrum Masters and companies with matching expectations and I like that approach. It creates upfront transparency for both sides, something I was missing when job hunting. Now, does that mean I am not open to hearing critical voices? No. In fact, I find these the most interesting ones since they open the door to improvements. No product is perfect, and the platform is evolving and growing as I write these lines.
The ScrumMatch founders have many years of experience in the field and have gotten tired of Scrum and Agile being constantly perceived as “kindergarten-like funny-themed & fluffy” retrospectives by business managers.
Let me quickly use this example to show that I am not writing this to please someone: I am not against doing “fun” retrospectives. I do them myself, but I always do them intentionally to ensure the retrospective results in plans to improve the team’s effectiveness or the product’s quality, potentially delivering more value to stakeholders and customers.
Perspective and experience form our perception of things
Back to the people behind the breeze in our little corner of the World Wide Web, though. Being entrepreneurs who use Scrum to run their own businesses and help clients, they have found that the purpose of Scrum is to deliver more value sooner. Hence, the benefits of a Scrum Team and the Scrum Master must exceed their costs. Are they automatically correct? Definitely wrong? Neither. Their particular point of view is based on their experience and the value they find in the Scrum framework for their business and clients — it’s their own set of “perception glasses” that they look through.
To me, developing using Scrum is a great way to minimize the risk of developing a product customers will not need or like. Why? Because that happens to be my personal experience, it’s what shaped my “glasses”.
One of the most significant projects I worked on while still being an IT Project Manager turned out to be one most users hated. It made their workday far more complicated, and they avoided using the product that had been rolled out at all costs. Not exactly a great outcome…
Had some users gotten their hands on the product early in the process, it would have become apparent that we were on the wrong track. But it was already too late when people started using it, and changing it to meet the users’ needs became incredibly expensive.
Does it even matter why we chose to work within the Scrum framework?
The founders expect Scrum Masters to lead their team to deliver (more) business value (sooner). I aim to lead the team I work with to deliver the right product to our customers. And guess what the right product in the hands of our customers will generate? That’s right: the beloved Business Value!
Now, I haven’t read all the comments under all the posts; therefore, the following statement is not the result of objective scientific research. Some critical voices were based on personal experience with the platform. Still, the majority I came across were primarily based on assumptions. Conjectural statements like “The maturity model must be flawed” bother me as an agile practitioner that’s seeking evidence over assumptions.
In my everyday work life, I am constantly confronted with assumptions. We believe our customers have a specific need and aim to meet it. We think our customer has a particular problem and aim to solve it.
As Scrum Masters (and not waterfall fans in disguise), we must coach those around us to validate assumptions rather than take them as a universal truth. They are ideas, thoughts, or guesses at best. The only way to verify them is by creating a solution and giving it to our customers as early as possible. In my opinion, the same is true when it comes to ScrumMatch.
How can I form an opinion about the evaluation process without actually having experienced it? How can I judge the quality of the feedback applicants receive without having received some myself? I can’t. And by this, I literally mean I cannot because I have not gone through the evaluation process myself.
So far, I only have assumptions based on the hiring process I went through, which had similarities to ScrumMatch’s, which I liked because it was very transparent. The expectations for an applicant were made very clear upfront, which helped me to decide if I wanted to spend additional time pursuing the application process. I also found the feedback and advice I received helpful.
Do I know what the platform’s review process will feel or be like for me? No. What I do know, however, is that there is a reasonably easy way to get some actual insights: Experience it. It might confirm my assumptions; I might enjoy the process, find the feedback I’ll be receiving helpful, or hate the entire experience. Who knows.
There is no such thing as “one size fits all”
This recruiting platform is being built to serve the needs of its users. Just like I wouldn’t be the right Scrum Master for every company, it is not the right platform for every Scrum Master, which is perfectly fine. We’re all different and we approach this role differently.
Some of us were moved into this position whether we liked it or not, some of us hate working in this inherent uncertainty, and some of us just finished our first Scrum training yesterday. For some Scrum Masters, working within a Scrum Team is great, but implementing organizational changes is the scariest idea ever. Some of us need the comfortable certainty that using best practices provides.
In a nutshell, not everyone will meet the criteria the platform has to get their profile published on it. This does not mean the candidate is a bad Scrum Master; it just means that they can save some time by not going through an application process with a company that very likely wouldn’t be what they are looking for.
Last but not least, I would like to encourage everyone (especially those who doubt or hate the idea behind ScrumMatch) to validate their assumptions by giving it a try and providing feedback about their experience. We do the same when it comes to Product Development, don’t we? Make an assumption around potential value our product holds and validate it as early as possible. Let’s switch sides and, for once, and enjoy the luxury of being the customer whose needs should be met😉
