A Day In The Life Of A Remote “Scrum Master” And Mom Of 3
Nada Mihovilovic works for PowerToFly from her home in Belgrade, the largest city in Serbia. She joined the team last summer as a business analyst. Her role has evolved into one with a super cool title, “Scrum Master.” Nada manages both the internal talent and algorithm/infrastructure teams. Her days are not only packed with virtual meetings, team oversight and strategy planning, her three young boys; ages 2, 5 and 8 also keep her active. She admits, “Having three kids is like riding a roller coaster, screaming included.” Here’s peek inside of Nada’s life as a dynamic remote employee and mom — full of Skype calls, home-cooked meals and playdates.
7:00 AM
Wake up! I’ve changed my alarm’s ringtone to “Life is good,” to get me motivated, but it doesn’t work this morning. I check my emails from last night, while still in bed (thank God for smartphones). Being part of a global remote team, I’m always amazed by how much work gets done by my teammates in other time zones, while I’m sleeping.
7:15 AM
It’s very quiet in my house. All three kids and my husband are still sleeping. This is my time, when I can use the bathroom without anyone kicking at the door and enjoy a cup of coffee before the day starts. I try to make the best of it.
7:45 AM
I open my laptop to prepare for my first stand up meeting of the day, (although I don’t actually stand during the call). Slack, Skype, GoToMeeting, JIRA, Gmail, everything is up and running. Aside from team status updates, I always try to learn something about my coworkers; how they spent their weekends or if are there any special events in their country. My team is very diverse and located in several different countries. You can hear about monsoon season in India, sand storms in Jordan and new snow in the Ukraine, all on the same call. I love this!
8:30 AM
Stand ups are done. Time to concentrate on my work. My team role is “Scrum Master,” but as I read somewhere a while ago, I act as a team servant. This is a great role for me because it’s all about helping each team member, helping to remove obstacles in their way, answering questions and helping them excel.
8:45 AM
I would like to skip this time of the day — getting three kids ready for daycare and school. Ouch! It consists of breakfast, getting dressed, packing things, preparing lunch boxes … Did I forget anything? I am sure I did, but I no longer allow myself to get upset about it.
9:00 AM
My kids are 2, 5 and 8. Because they’re not the same age, I drop them off at three different schools. BTW, when did they get so big?? Having three kids is like riding a roller coaster, screaming included. When they get sick I take them to my in-laws, so that I can still continue to work. It’s like an ace in the hole.
9:30 AM
Now I can finally work in peace. Emails, conference calls, slack-chats — this is what I need during my work day, plus I can take my office everywhere with me, as long as I have stable internet connection. Today is a very peaceful day. We just had a major software release couple of days ago, so the things are in the regular mode now. Days before the release are always full of adrenalin. I am so grateful for the team’s ‘do or die’ spirit.
11:30 AM
Time to stretch! Years of sitting at the desk in an office have made their mark on my back. Now I have the opportunity to exercise during quiet hours to reduce the pain. I can’t imagine doing this in an office.
12:00 PM
I check my email once again. I provide feedback to some questions and read more about the trends in project management and best practice strategies.The methodology that our team is using (scrum) is still the most preferred option for startups and fast growing companies. Although we just had a release, and did sprint planning for the next 2 weeks, we’re already discussing next month’s deliverables. This wheel never stops turning!
12:45 PM
I call my husband at work to make arrangements with him for later. He is in meetings, so he can’t speak long. He is always very busy. I used to be like him a couple of years ago. We are doing some last minute planning for a mountain getaway. It’s still skiing season here. This quick planning would be impossible in my previous life, because it was a mission impossible to get days off at the last minute and synchronize vacations for two very busy people. Now I can take the work with me.
1:00 PM
Good morning America! Team members in the U.S. time zone start their day, so it is an opportunity for us to catch up. We have Sprint Retrospective meeting to discuss the outcome of two weeks of development time, which ended with the release of new features. It’s an opportunity for the development team to talk about what worked well and what should be changed in future.
2:00 PM
Lunch time! I prepare lunch from scratch. I try to make my own meals. This is one of the big advantages of working from home. I plan my meals better and eat healthier.
4:00 PM
After couple of virtual meetings, my work day is finally over. It’s time to pick up the kids and see our friends. A couple of years ago we were meeting in coffee shops. Now we arrange play dates for our kids. We don’t get too much time to talk since most of the time somebody is running around. This is the joy of parenting, I guess.
5:00 PM
I drive to preschool for parents meeting. My middle child is going on a seven day trip with preschool. SEVEN days with ONLY TWO kids in the house! It’s like exercising without weights, you have to look forward to that!
8:00 PM
As the day comes to the end, everybody is together at home. The kids do their homework. We have dinner time and we all talk about how our days went. Our little sleepy heads get ready for dream land. Since we’re all social media addicts, which I’m not proud of, everybody grabs a smartphone or a tablet. We have a serious case of FOMOs (Fear Of Missing Out).
10:00 PM
The kids are finally sleeping and my husband and I can relax. We watch The X-Files. I’m a huge fan, although I’ve not been impressed with the storyline this season. As I struggle to stay awake to see how Fox Mulder will solve the next mystery, I also think about my to-do list for the next day. The week is flying by. I will try to get up earlier tomorrow. Maybe I’ll have time to fit the gym into my schedule.
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