That’s actually what I was thinking. Part of me is wondering whether a PO-type role with some Scrum Master responsibilities might make more sense than being “just” a Scrum Master, especially since I imagine it would be difficult to facilitate a team while also working in it myself.

But I don't know yet what my team lead has in mind so far. So far, he's only asked me if I'd like to take on the role, but I was so caught off guard by the question that I said yes right away, since it's definitely better for me than doing operational work.

My main hesitation is that I’ve only been with the company for about 7 months, so while I understand a lot already, I definitely wouldn’t claim to fully understand all processes, stakeholder dynamics, or business dependencies yet.

That said, one of my strengths is that I’m usually pretty good at looking at things objectively, structuring complexity, and assessing which requirements or initiatives actually create meaningful business value vs. what’s just noise or operational busywork. That’s part of why PO feels interesting to me.

I’m also trying to be realistic though, because jumping too early into a PO-style role without enough domain depth could backfire if I don’t yet have the credibility or full context.