I was introduced to Agile by my friend Paul Klipp, the man behind Lunar Logic Polska and the AgileCE conference. When a colleague of Paul’s – Andy Brandt – came to Orlando, Paul connected us, and Andy showed me a presentation on Scrum. When I saw it I was floored, and my world hasn’t been the same since. Agile helped me transform my company, and the way I view not only projects, but teams, people, and business.
That was close to 3 years ago.
Fast forward to today.
I’ve got my MBA, the Certified ScrumMaster and Certified Scrum Professional certs, and have had the opportunity to work with a few teams. We’ve continued to make Scrum’d better, and I’ve gotten to learn how others have been successful with Agile. I’ve held a bunch of free webinars, put out a ton of blog posts, and lately started to speak at conferences. I’ve built up a worldwide network of friends and colleagues who I am able to bounce ideas off of. God knows I need the help.
I’ve done quite a bit, however none of it seemed to get me to far in terms of finding more Agile consulting and coaching jobs. Many thoughts ran around in my head on how this could be. Here’s a few fun ones:
- Am I impatient?
- Do people not like my straight forward and sometimes belligerent style?
- Am I not in the right clicks?
- Is it because I can’t certify people?
- Are people confused that my company does web development?
- Am I seen as too young to know anything?
- Does my experience running my own business rather than having a corporate job hurt me?
Hell, I thought that perhaps finding a full-time position with a company might help. I talked with Rally, but was told, “while you have a strong background there is not a complete enough match to the qualifications we are seeking.” Since we’re in the U.S. and people sue folks for breakfast, they couldn’t tell me what exactly that meant. Regardless, I love Rally – they have a lot of great and very smart people working there. Just not me.
Anyhow.
I was fortunate to have my friend Paul Klipp ask me to be a part of his AgileCE conference, both as part of the program committee and as a speaker (and I sponsored to complete the triangle). Paul told me that for years I’ve been working with distributed Agile teams made up of people from many parts of the world, and that would make a great talk. So I pitched him on it, and thankfully it seemed to go over well.
And while I was at Agile CE, speaking with the attendees and my fellow speakers, it hit me. I could help companies be more effective through my experience working with distributed Agile teams and clients. After all, many companies outsource and offshore development, and/or augment their internal teams with external teams. It’s these companies I can help.
So the question now becomes, how to go about it.
I have a few options, which include moving to different parts of the U.S., or Europe, or Asia. However as past moving plans have not come to fruition (people still ask me why I’m not in California), I’m not going to talk about that unless it happens.
What I do know is that after years of wondering where the hell I fit in, I believe that I have figured it out.
Now it’s time to make it happen.
And I need your help too. Do you have any advice for me? I could use it. I can always use it.
Thanks.
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This sounds right up your alley. No specific suggestions, but I'm glad you found your niche!
I agree this is a great niche to be in given your background. I also think you have a good chance of working on Agile with newer and developing markets. Especially in Asia.
excellent post man… lets chat soon on skype and I will share my thoughts with you.
Be brave and continue doing what you do
Siraj
Great post Robert,
From what I've experienced, there is definitely a need for some agile coaching when it comes to working with distributed teams. Doing distributed Agile is both hard work and difficult (IMHO), and I think a lot of organizations could benefit on getting advice from a coach with hands-on experience.
No concrete suggestions, but speaking at conferences and blogging about distributed agile will help you spread the word and hopefully put you in a position where you can help teams succeed.
Keep up the good work!
-Ketil
Thanks Ketil. I'll keep doing that.
Great talking with you sir. As always I appreciate your advice.
Great points. I am pretty partial to Asia