Scrum Team: The necessity of each of the 7 Roles

Welcome to the second article exploring the parallels between the Scrum methodology and the 7 Roles framework (you can read the first one here). I do not qualify myself as an expert agilist or scrum master (pun intended), but I do see the extreme value of a flat management approach where each person on the team has a distinct role, contributing to a team’s goals, and achieving success without any hierarchy.

In this blog, I want to talk about the 3 traditional Scrum roles, Product Owner, Scrum Master and Scrum Team and how specifically the 3 roles directly relate to and need the 7 Roles.

As a brief reminder from the previous blog, here is a breakdown of each Scrum role and to which of the 7 Roles their job descriptions likely relate. Please note these will slightly change if your team has an engineering manager and/or a technical lead but I am sticking to the core Scrum methodology here.

Product Owner

1. Prophet

• Setting product vision and sets the ‘north star’ for the team
• Market research to know issues with current product

2. Luminary

• Face of the product
• Connector between stakeholders, customers, cross functional teams..etc

3. Investor

• Negotiating with teams on time and resource management

Scrum Team

1. Conceptualizer

• Researches and validates ideas around the vision
• Pushes back on unrealistic expectations on product/design

2. Implementor

• Follows through on the product and technical design docs
• Breaks down the tasks to execute on engineering and product vision

Scrum Master

1. Team Builder

• Creates cohesive environment
• Builds camaraderie around team values and mission

2. Organizer

• Builds and enforces structure around teams’ working goals
• Helps the team scale their processes for highest efficiency

So what happens when one of these Roles is missing?

Product Owner

Low Prophet

Lacking vision and direction is the kiss of death for a product. If the PO doesn’t see the purpose and direction for a product, how will the team, stakeholders or customers? It can raise potentially disastrous questions on if the product itself is worth it, as it lacks the necessary direction. Additionally, without the Prophet Role, the team is likely to overcommit due to lack of protection surrounding fulfilling a singular vision.

Low Luminary

If unplayed, the product may not get the recognition it needs or deserves based on lack of visibility within the company. Additionally, cross functional work may be more challenging without someone being the ‘glue’ between teams.

Low Investor

As the Investor Role values the ROI above all else, they avoid cutting corners and rather focus on ensuring the satisfaction of all stakeholders and customers. If that role is missing or played too low, it can lead to broken or strained stakeholder and customer relationships, putting the long term impact of the product at risk.

Scrum Team

Low Conceptualizer

Without proper exploration and vetting of ideas, the team can sign up for something that literally isn’t possible, feasible or valuable. The super power of the conceptualizer is spending sufficient time around an idea and/or solution to understand every risk and dependency.

Low Implementor

The Implementor Role is crucial for actually getting the work done. If missing, it can mean a team over promises and under delivers, or, delivers very, very late. Additionally, regardless of how ‘good’ the Prophet vision is from the PO, if the Implementor Role is lacking, the vision can be nothing more than a vision without people to accomplish it as the Implementor Role breaks down the work into achievable tasks.

Scrum Master

Low Team Builder

The Scrum master is usually the facilitator in each scrum ceremony and thus bears the responsibility to set up a supportive environment implicitly, which makes playing the Team Builder Role essential. If left unplayed, the team can feel a lack of trust and camaraderie. Both necessary for psychological safety and open discussions and are crucial for the Implementor and Conceptualizer style tasks of the Scrum team.

Low Organizer

The scrum master is responsible for building, maintaining and enforcing team values, processes, and Scrum ceremonies. If the Organizer Role is lacking, there is a lack of oversight and intentionality around the Scrum methodology which can lead to chaotic and unproductive meetings.

One final note specifically on the Scrum Master is the Team Builder/Organizer Roles combo instils the value of doing Scrum in the first place. If lacking — teams will likely convey they ‘don’t see the point or value of Scrum.’ The root of this line could be that the ‘process’ of Scrum doesn’t pose followthrough or is overly prescribed/changed. If that is paired with low Team Builder, there likely isn’t enough psychological safety on the team or with the Scrum Master themselves, so no one can really communicate.

Upon reading this it might have instilled you with a sense of pride in your team because you and your team are perfect. But, if you’re honest with yourself, you may notice where your team has fallen into one of these traps. A big part of what we do at Lumiere is to increase the fluency of playing the Roles in which they are less comfortable, individually and collectively as a team. Roles aren’t personalities and each person (and team) is capable of working on and growing in their ability to play all 7 Roles as needed.

P.S.

If you want to learn more about the Roles — feel free to check them out at Myteamrole.com. Or if you want to bring the Roles to your teams, you can find us at Lumieresciences.com