1 Tip I Would Give Someone Who Wanted To “Be More Agile”

Yesterday I talked a little about making shifts, and had several people message me about how to get started in the “agile world” — by which I assume most mean software and product development.

The traditional wisdom used to be to get a certification as a product owner or scrum master. You can certainly do that — it won’t hurt — but as Assata Shakur said, “Theory without practice is just as incomplete as practice without theory.” You don’t know how to be a scrum master after a two-day class. (Spoiler into a future post: I thought I did, and I was WRONG.)

So, here’s the 1 tip I would give you if you wanted to pursue a career path in agility:

Find ways to practice.

This can be done by shadowing others, by taking on a stretch role where you play the role a few hours a week, or even by practicing the theory on a complicated home remodel or project. There, you can apply theory — because in the real world, “by the book” doesn’t always work (and there is some hypocrisy in agility emphasizing responding to change, yet we “hard code” practices saying “this is how x framework says to do it”).

If I wanted to be a mechanic, I wouldn’t watch a YouTube video on changing spark plugs then apply for a job. Shifting into software or product development is no different — but not all roads start with coding (but you should have an understanding there too, a post for another day!).

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