Three Mistakes I Made as a First Time Scrum Master

I was lucky to get the chance to try my hand as a scrum master for the first time this year. I have worked in Agile for a good few years, and have picked up some sprints when holidays happened, but this was my first chance to really take up the mantle myself.

And I made a lot of mistakes. Some bigger than others, some I still cringe at inside when I think of them in those few moments before sleep that all your embarrassing moments seem to find their way into.

I’m proud of the job I did, I learned a lot and my team and I faced a lot of challenges. But I still made mistakes, so now I shall share them so hopefully you can learn from my pain!

Listen to your Team

Especially if you are coming into an established team, they are the experts. Listen to them. Not just ‘official’ listening, like where their blockers are but also what they need from you. Every team needs something different from their Scrum master, every team has different challenges, characters and skillsets.

So assuming that after passing your PSM1 you are entirely qualified to do everything they need is a. egotistical in the extreme and b. not actually going to help them or you.

I was once told I needed to look at how I coached the team because it came off as ‘school-marm’-y. Now that is not something anyone wants to hear. But I didn’t know how else to coach.

My mistake was not letting my team teach me what they needed because I was too focused on trying to coach and mentor them on what I thought they needed.

So next time I’ll listen more carefully and with maybe a tiny bit more humility.

Book learning isn’t actually much of your role

Imagine my shock and surprise when I started my role and I realised that knowing Agile and Scrum and having all the right qualifications was only maybe relevant about 30% of the time.

I can recite Scrum.org verbatim, but I know very little about how to support my team when they are going through a restructuring consultation or have a sick child.

And that is part of the role. You are there to help your team be the best they can be, sometimes that’s thinking up new and…

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