Have you ever been told your Scrum team is not as good as you think it is? I am the Product Owner of a team that is responsible for a system that sends emails and text messages to our insurance policyholders. My team excels at estimating the time needed to complete stories/tech tasks/etc. and we finish most, if not all sprints with no carryover to a subsequent sprint. Recently, each scrum team in my organization was assigned an Agile Coach and during my first interaction with this coach I informed him that he was selected to represent a highly functional team that finishes most, if not all sprints on time with 100% completion. I thought he would appreciate this information and be glad that he was assigned an easy team to work with. Instead, his response was “that is not possible.” The coach went on to say that if we are finishing every sprint without any carryover, it is because we are not accurately story pointing our stories, not accurately estimating the time it will take to finish stories or we are just flat out lying. I was SHOCKED! If you have encountered the same or a similar situation toward your team, here are my top tips for dealing with those people who want to bring your team down:
Bottom line is there will always be negative people who want to project their negativity on to you, but you can do everything in your power to project a positive image and that will go a long way in making your team look good! I love this saying; “I love haters. They keep me motivated!” My challenge to each of you is to do one thing in the next week to make your team look good!
Summer Hogan
Staff Product Manager
CSAA Insurance Group
Gilbert, Arizona
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