A very important lesson from Scrum and Sprints

It always amazes me how sometimes taking a broader view and getting perspective is tough when you’re going through challenging times.

After a few weeks of being absent here, I’ve resumed writing and that’s what inspired me to discuss this topic - alongside a very good conversation and post from Kimeshan Naidoo a couple of weeks ago that also mentioned this briefly.

I led countless sprints - honestly, I stopped to estimate this number as I was writing this article and after 5 years I can proudly say I’ve led roughly something between 130-150 sprints with the usual shifts from 1 to 2-week routines as I’ve changed teams. One would think that, after so many routines, Scrum principles should shockingly be ingrained in my subconscious.?

In some ways, it is! The sprint routines and refinements, weekly iteration of the roadmap, juggling prioritisation and requests from different stakeholders, and constantly weighing the ROI and effort/impact of each feature or workstream that’s going to take precedence over another are already part of my personal decision-making framework. I can’t help but usually try to prioritise my own time also with a similar mindset.?

However, I also realised over the last couple of weeks how easy it is to take for granted one key thing that’s also an inherent part of my Sprints and Product routines that have been done seamless at work for so much time: the value and power of breaking huge problems and tasks into smaller pieces!?

I do it every week, we have a business goal and metric to achieve, and we break it down into smaller epics and workstreams, which then are broken down into features and tasks, which then turn into subtasks or smaller items. Seems magical how easy it becomes to work in big groups, to achieve things simultaneously and then deliver a huge result through smaller challenges and milestones. And by the way, to also feel engaged and have the “job done” feeling as you complete each daily step.?

Nevertheless, when I stopped to reflect on some big life goals and ambitions I had in the past and still have now and for my future and how I usually feel about it before I actually start acting on them, what I’ve always felt and for way longer than I should is being overwhelmed.

Whenever something is very big, uncertain, the path is blurry or you never saw someone you know (or someone like you) that has done it, the natural way for me it’s to always overthink it, stress about it, give more weight to the obstacles and challenges, and sometimes delay action. It probably has also to do with the fact I usually tend to like very detailed and well-backed plans but it shows I’m failing to bring my work and product learnings to my life at times - or at least being slower than I should in making this connection. People talk lots about transferable skills and I can’t think of a better example.?

When things feel too hard, too overwhelming, too distant or even impossible to reach, usually what I lack is to figure out a way to break the huge scary problem and goal into small actionable items that could be done daily!?

This is why I started with perspective though. It does take oftentimes to get some distance and? to step away, talk to someone, focus on other activities and things that inspire you and then have courage enough to start taking action and do one thing every day!?

Consistency has never been a problem for me and I like to joke that once something makes my to-do list it will find a way to be accomplished, no matter how hard. It always amazes me how true this is though, as I keep adding increasingly difficult goals on that board. Thanks Todoist by the way for having the easiest and best tool to manage tasks I could have asked for and have ever used, in my humble opinion.?

What sometimes is challenging though is to actually be reasonable with timelines and face these bigger challenges one step at a time - as I do so well when I’m launching a Product. Many people use the marathon and not a sprint analogy too and, yeah, I guess if the outcome is a super huge goal which is more like a marathon, it does take the effort to both break problems into actionable items, spreading them into weeks and months (same as sprints) - and even rushing with some of them to not lose timing, but also it requires the ability to balance your life around all of that, to take the time to breathe and get inspiration from your daily achievements and smaller victories.?

Mostly, it requires you to start! And that’s my most important piece of advice and hopefully inspiration: start today! Nike’s “Just do It” slogan didn’t become famous because of an unjustifiable hype or because of fame. It’s because it works and because most times the hardest part is to start; once that’s sorted, you get feedback and keep iterating and adjusting your approach the only thing it can lead to is closer to whatever goal you are pursuing. Even if it doesn’t feel like it, especially if you’re failing a lot because that means you have tons of things to learn in the process, and mainly because starting early and consistency usually always pays off!?

Hopefully, this inspires more people to achieve their goals and keep on track on them!

Have another motivation advice that works for you? I’d love to hear any comments or feedback!?