Scrum Master - Why I Didn't Hire You

Topic 3:  Resume Bad Smells

At Scrum Day MN 2017 I delivered a talk entitled “Scrum Masters: Why I Did Not Hire You.”  As a visual for my slide deck, I created a word cloud by pulling the introductory paragraphs from twenty resumes I had recently reviewed. Interestingly, the largest words in the word cloud included “project”,” projects”, “Project (capital “P”)”, and “management”.  Included, but much smaller, were the words “agile”, “scrum”, and “Product”.

The majority of resumes that I receive are from people with a lot of project management experience, so it makes sense that would be featured heavily on their resumes. I don’t fault people for having PM experience. In fact, familiarity with the PM perspective can be very helpful to a successful Scrum Master who must teach the value of Scrum and agility to Project Managers as part of their group of stakeholders.

So how, as a hiring manager, do I know if a person’s PM experience is more likely to be a good fit or a bad fit for my open Scrum Master position? How do I know if this person wants to be a professional Scrum Master, or is just a PM in SM clothing? I’m looking at words on a page, but for me, those words can have “good smells” or “bad smells”, especially as they are aggregated across an entire document. What’s the big picture that’s being painted?

Here are the three biggest hits on my resume bad smells word list:

1.     PROJECT

The word “project” itself is fairly neutral, but it smells bad to me if all I see on a resume is the word “project” and the word “product” is never mentioned. I want to see evidence of “product thinking”. A great smelling resume represents past experience in a way that helps me see that the applicant is focused on increasing value and bettering product outcomes. For example, rather than tell me how great you are at delivering “on time”, tell me how you taught stakeholders to think differently and change scope in order to deliver value.

2.     MANAGE(D)

Be careful with the word “manage” and its relatives. Scrum Masters are not project managers, and they are not people managers. I understand you may have management experience, and wide experience is often useful to a Scrum Master. But I don’t want to hire someone who I think wants to be a “manager”.  I want to hire an un-blocker, an un-locker, an enabler, a facilitator, a lever for a team. I want someone who makes others great – not one who is great at directing others or doing everything themselves.

3.     DELIVER(ED)

“Proven ability to deliver on time and on budget”. I see this disappointing sentence on a large number of resumes, including a version of my own resume from way back when, before I learned better.  It’s a disappointing sentence because it is a cliché, but more than that, because it’s a lie. Possibly it’s a lie one tells to oneself and one believes, but a good Scrum Master would know better. How exactly, as a PM or SM, did you deliver anything? What does “on time” mean in the context of agile? What does “on budget” mean?  If I see this phrase on a resume, the resume immediately goes into the “NO” pile. 

I recommend that you review your current resume and look for ways to re-frame your experience in ways that highlight your understanding of the Scrum Master role and how Scrum and agile benefit the organization. Here’s a great example full of “good smells” that re-frame the ideas of “project”, “management”, and “delivery”:

“I taught the Product Owner to manage the product backlog so that the most valuable and important work was always prioritized, and I worked daily to enable the development team to deliver highest-priority items as efficiently as possible.  Our team produced valuable working software ready for release every two [or three, or four] weeks.”

To become an exceptional Scrum Master, check out our course schedule to take advantage of our upcoming opportunities!

 

Teri Bylander-Pinke Joins Collaborative Leadership Team

Minneapolis, MN, February 17, 2018 --(PR.com)-- Collaborative Leadership Team(CoLeadTeam), the midwest’s premier Agile consultancy, is pleased to announce the addition of Teri Bylander-Pinke who will be joining CoLeadTeam as an Agile Coach and Trainer in February.

In this role, Teri will help create learning teams and organizations through Agile assessment, coaching, and training services.

Teri brings over 10 years of experience to her new position including former positions with Land O’Lakes, Thrivent Financial, and H.B. Fuller. She has a diverse background starting as a litigation attorney before moving into business. Teri has focused exclusively on coaching Agile & Scrum for the last 5 years.

To read more .... 

Are you Current with the Latest Scrum Guide?

In November 2017 Scrum’s creators, Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber, announced updates to the official Scrum Guide.  CoLeadTeam has updated our free Scrum Reference Guide to reflect the minor changes available here.

What was changed?  Scrum tends to be easier done than said so a number of wording changes were made in an attempt to make things easier to understand.  And others to bust myths.  Such as the myth that Scrum is only for software.  Yes, Scrum’s early popularity was with software products.  Collaborative Leadership Team has all kinds of clients using Scrum to manage their work in information technology, hardware products, integrated products and event services companies.  In fact, CoLeadTeam uses Scrum to manager our work making us a living laboratory for our students and clients.

A stronger emphasis was also placed on Product in the new Scrum Guide (http://scrumguides.org/).  Customers can’t use your Projects.  They want your Products.  Scrum focuses on having a working Increment of product with each Sprint streamlining value to Customers more quickly than traditional project management approaches.

If you missed the free webinar outlining all of the changes from Ken and Jeff, please visit:  https://www.scruminc.com/scrum-guide-revision-webinar/

Check out our course schedule to take advantage of our upcoming opportunities!

Scrum Masters – Why I Didn’t Hire You

Topic 2: The Screening Interview

As a hiring manager actively looking for Scrum Masters, I’ve read a lot of resumes and have said “No” to the majority of them. Are you guilty of committing any of the Scrum Master candidate mistakes that I see all the time? In this series of blogs, I’ll discuss my personal Do’s and Don’ts list, as well as address questions I’ve received from the Scrum Day MN 2017 audience that attended my talk on this subject. I’d love to hear from you and continue the conversation in the comments section below.

Scrum Masters – Why I Didn’t Hire You Topic 2: The Screening Interview

Looking over my notes, I typically receive about one hundred resumes for each open Scrum Master position, and I review every one of them, but I’ll move on quickly if I can tell that the person isn’t a good fit for my team (more on resume “bad smells” in another post). If I believe that there’s a possibility of a fit, my next step will be to schedule a thirty-minute phone interview. This is a “screening interview”, in which I’ll try to do two things:

·       Attempt to verify that the candidate actually understands the Scrum framework and the role of the Scrum Master

·       Gauge the candidate’s passion and energy for the work.

Something to keep in mind: it’s not as if I’m trying to screen people out – I truly come to each resume I review with a hopeful heart, willing this candidate to be a match for my team. However, my experience has been that only about 20% of the candidates submitting a resume receive a screening interview, and only about one-third of those screened make it to the next step.

This means that:

1.     Four out of five resumes are not hitting enough of the right marks for me to want to spend any time talking with the candidate

2.     Two-thirds of the candidates that I speak to do not successfully demonstrate that they understand the Scrum framework and the role of the Scrum Master

3.     Ultimately only about 6% of people applying for my Scrum Master jobs make it to a full interview.

I have found that the best way for me to gauge a candidate’s capability is not by asking questions, but by listening the questions that the candidate asks me.  In the screening interview, I spend time up front talking about the position and generally trying to establish a friendly and open conversation, but I’m working towards asking my main question, which is “What questions do you have for me?”

In response to my question, about half of the candidates I speak to tell me “I don’t think I have any questions at this point”.  I’m really disappointed when I hear this, because it usually means I have to drop the candidate because I don’t have enough information to move forward with. I understand that it can be difficult to think clearly when you’re put on the spot, so here are some questions to have on hand for your next interview. Note that I’m giving you the questions but it will be up to you to ensure you understand why these questions are meaningful, and to be prepared for any conversations they spark. Also note I’m starting with what not to ask.

Terrible Question Which I Am Often Asked: (Don’t ask this one!)

What is the velocity of the team that I will be working with?

Assuming I knew the answer, of what value would that information be to you?

Mediocre Question Which I Am Also Often Asked: (Don’t let this be your only question)

Does the team use [insert name of tool here]?

I’ll grant that familiarity with the team’s toolset can be a “nice to have”, but you want the questions that you pose to demonstrate that you get this Agile/Scrum thing. This question may provide you with some interesting information, but it does nothing for me as the interviewer.

Better Question:

How does the team manage its workflow?

By asking this, you indicate your awareness that this is an approach that varies from team to team, and the answer can give you better information about the team environment.

Good Questions: (These communicate a basic understanding of Scrum values)

•       How engaged is the Product Owner with the team?

•       Are all team members 100% allocated to this team?

•       Are QA skills included in the development team?

•       Is the team co-located or distributed? How many time zones separate development team members?

Great Questions: (I would personally be very interested in a candidate asking these questions, which I think indicate a deeper, nuanced understanding of the value of Agile and Scrum)

•       Is the team currently able to produce a Burn Up Chart? Do you trust the information it contains? Why or why not?

•       How was the sprint length determined?

And finally, here are a few great questions you could ask to interview your interviewer, and use the information to determine if this is an organization that you want to work for:

•       Who prioritizes work for the development team?

•       Who manages the development team members, from a people/HR perspective?

•       How often are development team members moved from team to team?

•       What interaction does Project Management have with the Development team?

•       Does your org employ “Dev Managers”? If so, what do they do?

•       Are there any formal metrics that the team is expected to report on regularly?

Want to learn more? Check out our course schedule to take advantage of our upcoming opportunities!

About our Guest Blogger:  Maclore Christensen is an Agile Delivery Manager with Thomson Reuters in Eagan, MN. Maclore leads the implementation of agile for the Risk Technology group and manages teams of ScrumMasters and Agile coaches in the USA, Canada and the UK.

Video Log: Where's the Project Manager in Scrum?

Scrum focuses on doing work differently.  When we are doing the work differently we need to think in terms of job security not role security.  We need to let go of old roles and old ways of doing work to make room for the new roles and the new way of doing work. This can be difficult. However, if we look to the Scrum Framework we can identify the roles in Scrum and where individuals may fit.

There are three roles in Scrum; Product Owner, Scrum Master and Product Development Team.  The greater company will still have other roles as well.  Individuals can decide where they fit best by examining their skills, talents, abilities, knowledge and interests. The goal is to help individuals, teams and organizations do work differently with people in the right roles for the best outcomes.

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