How to Take Charge as Scrum Master & Own Your Project

What is a scrum master’s job? The scrum master’s job description includes overseeing a product management team’s sprints, facilitating communication, promoting problem solving and ensuring maximum value is delivered to the product owner. This, of course, without becoming overbearing and micro-managing operations. Responsibilities of scrum master therefore include making sure that the product management team is provided with an optimal work environment and all necessary resources, so that they can communicate and create, without being plagued by unnecessary distractions or deterrents.

Namely, agile scrum masters need to take charge and own their projects, on a higher level. Here’s how great scrum masters do just that, turning a veritable pain point, into a productive work model:

By being a good listener

With a short window in which product management teams must complete sprints (and their predetermined backlog), proper management and guidance of the entire product management team is key. To do so, great scrum masters listen to product owners’ AND team members’ needs and requests to help ensure they are met and enable a smooth and successful sprint progression.

By routinely checking in

It is the scrum manager’s job to ensure the product management team is not inhibited by any barriers or distracted unnecessarily. The scrum master is responsible for keeping the team focused and motivated. Checking in with team members on a regular basis and creating daily scoreboard to keep track of tasks and their completion are particularly effective methods they employ.

By being a master coach

Every great product management team must be led by a stellar coach. In the case of sprints, this coach is the scrum master, who builds the organic, self-organizing agile product management teams from the ground-up, implements simple, yet adaptable operational practices and rules, and ensures projects progress rapidly and reliably. Scrum masters support the team’s autonomy, while maintaining control over big picture production processes. And they monitor operations, providing feedback and instruction, whenever necessary.

By creating incentives for achievement

Top scrum masters celebrate their team’s achievements, to keep each member’s motivational juices flowing throughout even the most challenging of sprints. Incentives don’t need to be exorbitant – a celebratory lunch once the sprint has finished, a “silly” medal gifted to outstanding performers or any other symbolic gesture is appreciated.

By learning everything they can about their field

The best agile scrum masters have vast technical, market, and industry-specific knowledge – and continuously strive to learn everything they can to create better, smoother product management processes. That way, they can harness the latest in product management technology and practices to their benefit, taking charge, enhancing productivity and owning their projects, without causing disruptions, burn-out, or other related pain points.

At Craft, we aim to enable scrum masters to take charge and own their projects, by providing product management teams with the single and agile platform for goal-driven teams to create products together. Craft gives product managers a unified place to manage products, track tasks, collect market feedback and utilize the best possible software product. That way, scrum masters can focus on leading their teams to successful collaboration on sprint workflows.

Own your products with craft.io!