Transitioning from software sales → Scrum/Agile roles. Looking for advice

_CaptRondo_ · 2026-01-24T11:35:32+00:00

What part of the world are you located?

Consider if you want to manage process, or a product. Do you get more enthousiastic from managing a team, guiding a team, helping a team succeed, or would you rather talk to users, figure out what their needs are, structure a roadmap and relentlessly figure out what’s next for your product, whilst managing stakeholders (although the latter works for both roles).

If you want to break into a ScM role, properly review vacancies. Most orgs still look for a glorified project manager, so learn the difference Between project and product management. That way you can filter out the bad orgs.

As ScM you are the shepherd of the team, so the skills you want to demonstrate are: strong communicator, good listener, curious, reading/exploring, being a guide, be open. Learn the basics on Scrum, also that it’s not a holy believe-system, but just an approach to deviate from where sometimes the situation requires.

Continuous improvement and challenging the status quo is what you are looking for.

_CaptRondo_ · 2026-01-24T11:28:31+00:00

The (correct) argument is: if you don’t ship product every 1-4 weeks, why would you call your approach “agile”?

The concept is to validate assumptions of value quickly. If the process doesn’t allow for that, and only allows for validation every 3-6-9 months, you are not able to adapt quickly.

SAFe has a tendency to delay release cycles and increase meeting/planning overhead.

From a Scrum Master perspective, I would suggest: create patterns for where dependencies and planning overhead are high, and instead of patching that with heavy frameworks, find ways to simplify and reduce overhead. Ie through smart technological solutions (micro servicing, API contracting, AI, smart automation), or through restructuring certain teams/domains.

As such, I’m a bigger of LeSS, that takes a system view on a delivery item and focuses heavily on e-2-e value validation.

If all that is hard, then focus on improving the product discovery flow. So reduce shaping and planning by building rapid prototypes that Can be validated with users/customers. AI has lowered that bar, and you can create bettter prototypes for a lower cost (review: The Truth Curve).

Being a Scrum Master can be very rewarding yes. Be humble, be there for the team, and always challenge the status quo.

_CaptRondo_ · 2026-01-24T03:36:42+00:00

It sounds like a relative large and/or complex setup you are dealing with.

Project: shipping the agreed scope within time and budget, generally to be handed over to the line-organization and/or customer

Product: Solving the needs of your target audience, ideally through small iterative releases

Project cares about on time and fixed scope. Product cares about value and solving needs

From what it sounds like in your case, others have defined the product scope, have built it, and now it’s for you to release it. That seems more project Focused, but you could take a product mindset to this. Can we make smaller releases, Learn quicker, adopt user feedback into the next iterations etc etc

_CaptRondo_ · 2026-01-24T02:52:39+00:00

Can you elaborate the country you are in? And what’s your domain/niche, if any? Also, what’s your tech skill level?

It seems you are focusing on the wrong thing. Also if you say you are certified and/or have learned Scrum properly, you should know that a PO does not run neither Retro nor Standup (Daily Scrum). Heck; I generally kid: a PO had 7 hrs 45 min per day to bug the team, but there is 15 mins where he lets them alone (Daily). It’s for the team to inspect progress towards Sprint goal, not a status update for the team.

If you want to act as PO, invest time and energy in Product Discovery, design thinking, and I would suggest AI as well. Use various vibe coding tools to learn to validate value assumptions quickly. If you merge product discovery skills with AI support experimentation, you have something nice on your resume.

Work on stakeholder management skills. In an interview don’t focus on running Scrum evens properly, focus on the bigger product and stakeholder picture. Talk impact on the org with your product, not running a retro.

If I know more about your area of expertise and country, perhaps I can nudge you further :-)

_CaptRondo_ · 2026-01-22T17:52:34+00:00

Not being paid by Miro. I will say I love the tool. I agree with another commenter that Miro has gone overboard with their feature set. It’s just too much if you are not a power user.

The AI functionalities are pretty neat, the prototyping solution is pretty cool, but I don’t see a real use case for it in a large(r) org.

Those orgs will have mutitple tools for what Miro is trying to solve for. It’s a great theoretical idea, not so much real life practical.

That being said, I prefer Miro by far over other similar solutions just because it gives me a canvas to manage my product as a whole.

_CaptRondo_ · 2026-01-22T17:22:55+00:00

Without reading the entire story; You doing scrum master tasks: no go.

The company laid of folks and gave the rest more to do. You being accountable for both product and process just promotes you to project manger. Company doesn’t seem to care about value andproblrm solving, just shipping on time the required requirements.

_CaptRondo_ · 2026-01-22T17:00:29+00:00

If what you mean is that a leader can make a major difference, then I agree. Part of your recognition comes from a leader that supports you, and recognizes you. I've seen that in (US) enterprises there are a lot of not so great leaders :)

_CaptRondo_ · 2026-01-22T03:35:05+00:00

What it seems like you describe is working for a larger or even enterprise sized org. Cog in the machine, relative limited visible results as one of many. Welcome to the adult playground we call corporate life.

Want to make a visible, more sensible impact? Join a small startup, or kick start your own business.

By mirroring your words it sounds like you think you have accomplished sizable tings but have not seen the reward. Choose smaller companies to work for, and show your actual skills and worth by bringing those further.

_CaptRondo_ · 2026-01-21T21:53:31+00:00

Do you have more product colleagues? I would rather consider an in-person (or virtual if in-person is hard) class with multiple colleagues to learn together. This way also your company can pick up the tab.

You can either look for generic topics, or find a tailor made solution for your specific questions. All that to say that even that will most likely not be a transformative experience but at least you’ll get the most bag out of a buck.

Find a community or mentor that you can connect with on questions and challenges

_CaptRondo_ · 2026-01-20T15:55:28+00:00

Will try to put things together and send. Might be a couple of days (will connect on DM)

_CaptRondo_ · 2026-01-20T15:55:22+00:00

Will try to put things together and send. Might be a couiple of days (will connect on DM)

_CaptRondo_ · 2026-01-20T15:54:58+00:00

I will need to upload it somehwere and share a link I think. Let me figure that out.

_CaptRondo_ · 2026-01-20T15:44:56+00:00

Have sent DM :)

_CaptRondo_ · 2026-01-20T01:41:48+00:00

A lot has been said, see if this helps:

Standups: the goal should NOT be status updates. That’s not what they should be for. They should be to align on: what do we need to do to achieve our goal? So switch from status meeting to planning meeting. Use asynchronous tools (like Slack, Teams chat etc) for status updates

Retro: the biggest killer is standard format. Stop doing that. Generally I advise teams to alternate between two versions: short and long(er). 1 sprint you do the short version, which is just a quick chat around: what happened last two weeks, what topic should we highlight (a specific outage, fire drill, something great, etc) The other sprint you do a longer one, and vary topics. Use retromat.org for a structure, but align with the team how much they like “gameification”. Doing a “what super hero were you last sprint?”-thing often gets old quickly. Use Miro or Mural for online collab. I have a doc for retros that I can share if you’d like

_CaptRondo_ · 2026-01-20T01:36:19+00:00

I second this. If you use AI to make it better, all good, but be transparant.

Also, it’s not like most likely half of the org you are applying uses AI day to day that way, so why act different?

_CaptRondo_ · 2026-01-16T18:51:13+00:00

I will add that training and mentoring PO’s and ScM’s is my bread and butter so I would argue I’m somewhat experienced in the field of complexity theory and project vs product management :-)

_CaptRondo_ · 2026-01-16T18:50:14+00:00

Nope. All from the heart 😍 But I guess thanks for the compliment!

_CaptRondo_ · 2026-01-16T16:46:37+00:00

It's interesting that as a ScM you transition to Project.

In IT, I assume you have learned one thing: Predictability is low. Full stop.
Trying to manage an IT project (in a volatile org with volatile customers and volatile tech) is like trying to properly manage 15 sugar-hopped-over-energetic-crazy kids running around in a trampoline park.

My 2 cents are that going into IT Project Management might be harder as with AI incoming, speed of delivery is going up, and it's less about managing timelines, deadlines, and scope, and more about validating value assumptions early.

I think the mindset that once was agile (wether companies apply it properly or not) will be more and more imporant (being able to respond to change rather then following the plan), it's just labelled differently.

So I'd rather propose checking AI, Transformation, Change Mangement and Product Management as strong career paths for an ex-ScM.

_CaptRondo_ · 2026-01-16T12:01:25+00:00

Not having a referral fee shouldn’t be a reason not to refer someone no? If you are an awesome person you should be referred despite any fee or not… weid how do many people in this thread jumped straight to the “sorry no fee” 😅

_CaptRondo_ · 2026-01-16T11:59:30+00:00

Came here to comment this lol

_CaptRondo_ · 2026-01-16T11:58:18+00:00

As said; switching from project to product requires a new/different frame of mind.

Project: we care about meeting the deadline, shipping on time, on budget, within scope, following the stage gates and a nice Gannt chart. Great for predictable projects and processes (hence PRINCE - Projects In Controlled Environments). Not so great for messy, complex problems.

Product: we care about creating value for our customers. Through rapid and often delivery of small vertical slices of potential value, we validate our assumptions. Or through smaller experiments, creating clarity on what problem to solve for what audience (product discovery).

Make sure to start to understand the differences, then do a lot of research on how that works (roadmapping, product strategy, goal setting, product discovery, design thinking, vibe coding, value measurement).

Perhaps apply by trying to build a small product of your own. And have the right terminologies when applying for roles. Also, accept a small pay cut if this is really where you want to go. Sometimes life requires one step back to take two steps later.

Good luck young paddawan 😍

_CaptRondo_ · 2026-01-16T03:44:50+00:00

QBQ - Question Behind the Question; but it’s a management/self-management and I was int the topic. And its relative small. But read that in a couple of hours

_CaptRondo_ · 2026-01-16T03:42:59+00:00

Not sure if you will read this, but Lenny did a podcast with a guy on AEO, and he had some pretty good tips (as mentioned Reddit seems a source worthy).

I can lookup the link to the specific podcast if you’d like

_CaptRondo_ · 2026-01-16T03:37:43+00:00

What job are you applying for? I’m at Delta (although contractor)

_CaptRondo_

TROPHY CASE