First meeting I participated was their sprint planning. It was their first planning meeting with current setup: 5 development team members in Finland, 1 tester in India and 3 (three!) business developers as Product Owners. Wau - that is interesting setup. And I just have to use this kind of separation of roles because they seem to make it themselves very clear.
Before this meeting I was told that tester never participate these meetings since they prefer to have them conducted in Finnish. This time tester was also on vacation so I am still under the impression that she is not participating. Also two out of three POs were on sick leave so from that angle I didn't get any experience. But for me it was surprise that there was "fourth business developer" from other business area. And so that things get really messy there was "fifth business developer" who is going to cover one Product Owner during her maternity leave.
You can just imagine that how confused I was after the meeting. I really didn't have any idea how to move forward. But then I thought that I don't have to move forward - yet. I can be confuced for a while and if needed for longer time. So let's continue in observation mode.
Two days later I observed their daily standup. This time neither all team members were present but one manager visited this meeting. The setup was little bit bizar - even it happened naturally - four members of development team were sitting in the middle and others were standing around them. Only ones telling what they have done and what they will do were development team members and the impression was - to be honest - like they were examined.
I was horrified but I decided to take first contact with the team and had short discussion with some of the development team members after the meeting. Not immediately because I just had to gather myself and think what to say. And then I just did it. I went to them and said "Hi team - can we have short talk."
I asked them how I see and feel their meetings. Within few minutes I got feedback - why they conduct these meetings like they do, what they want to keep, what they thought could be tried to be done differently and also what have they tried already. We also discussed that maybe we could organize in near future "scrum refereshment" meeting.
Yes - I did it. No one died. Sky didn't fall. I have no idea whether I handled this good or poorly but for me it was a huge step. I took my first baby step to come closer to the team and really started my journey "agile coach to be".
Later on me and my colleague had a meeting with two "business managers" who originally asked our team to support them in their business area. I showed them my notes and asked whether they see that this kind of documentation would serve them to understand where we are. They were impressed (now I decided not be modest here) and said big yes. Later on I also shared these notes with the team. Let's see what they have to say here.
One thing I need to practice is my sketchnotes technique. I draw all the people to look angry and that is not my intention.
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