How to grow your career as a Scrum Master (or Agile Coach)
This article explores the different options to progress your career as a Scrum Master or similar roles
Years ago the common advice for Scrum Masters was to “make yourself redundant”. The intent is not to get fired, but to do such a good job that you are not needed anymore — and then move on. Whilst this can be a useful piece of advice, it is slightly misguided. To grow your career in agile, you have more options than that.
The first option is vertical growth. That starts with you looking after one team, then a few, and later have a team of agile folks doing the work for you.
The second option is diagonal growth and dip your toes outside the agile space.
Let’s explore these options.
Vertical growth
Vertical growth is like climbing the corporate ladder.
1 team
You start your career with one team. Teach them all things agile. You coach them in delivering small and regular product increments. You help them become cross-functional and autonomous. Once you have achieved these goals, it’s time to move on.
That could mean helping another team in the same company. Or you can explore opportunities elsewhere.
2+ teams
It’s common for seasoned Scrum Masters to coach 2 to 4 teams at the same time. The challenge, and fun here, is to increase your impact at the company level. A great way to achieve that is also by optimising the end-to-end flow of work across teams.
Team of Scrum Masters
The final natural progression is to have your team of Scrum Masters. That means your job title would become the likes of Head of Agile or Transformation Lead. Your role is to define the agile processes for the whole organisation. And manage C-level expectations.
You will have a small army of Scrum Masters to implement agile for you. OK, not really for you, but with you. You would usually set a framework, incorporate feedback, and quantify the results.
Diagonal growth
To explore your options we have to understand the kinds of roles out there. All projects need people to address three broad areas: directing, building, and organising.
Let’s briefly explore these needs:
Directing is what says on the tin. It involves either setting a technical direction such as the software architecture. Or giving product direction, like defining new features and setting priorities.
Building is about transforming the direction into a usable product. And there are many areas of specialty to choose from.
Organising takes shape around running the project smoothly. You could work as a Scrum Master and teach the ways of Scrum. Or as Delivery Manager (e.g., coordinating work), or Project Manager (e.g., creating gantt charts — yuck!)
So, what does moving diagonally mean? It means stepping out of your agile remit. You might want to dip your toes into Product Ownership or start coding something on the side.
Most companies are understaffed in one area or another. And you can find opportunities to pick up some slack.
For example, if you are keen on data, you could start generating reports yourself. Or, if you love products, you step in and help the Product Owner to shape some areas of the product.
Growing diagonally will expose you to different company realities. That can make your CV more appealing or even help you find more fulfilment in your role.
Finally, moving diagonally could also help you do a career transition into that new area — if you decide to.
Your path will be your own
Career growth is not exact science. For all the planning you do, a lot of it is down to chance and taking on new opportunities. Having clarity around vertical/diagonal growth will allow you to better understand the trade-offs of your choices.
Now it’s down to you, what path will you take?
You might also find useful:
- Why a fresh backlog will make your product better
- 5 helpful ideas to crush running remote retrospectives
Want to connect? LinkedIn
