From Corporate to Startup—Navigating the Scrum Implementation Gap | Simina Fodor

Summary

Episode Summary: "From Corporate to Startup—Navigating the Scrum Implementation Gap" featuring Simina Fodor

Podcast Information

• Title: Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast: Agile storytelling from the trenches
• Host: Vasco Duarte, Agile Coach, Certified Scrum Master, Certified Product Owner
• Guest: Simina Fodor
• Release Date: May 12, 2025

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Introduction

In this engaging episode of the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast, host Vasco Duarte welcomes Simina Fodor from Transylvania, affectionately referred to as the land of vampires. Simina introduces herself with humor, mentioning the iconic elements of her homeland, which sets a light-hearted tone for the deep dive into her professional journey.

Simina Fodor’s Career Journey

Simina's path to becoming a Scrum Master is anything but traditional. As Vasco highlights, she is "a career rebel with a passion for bold moves from HR to agile delivery," embodying fearless pivots and genuine passion for her work.

Key Points:

• Diverse Background: Simina transitioned from roles in customer support, HR, and training before finding her way into Agile and Scrum.
• Serendipitous Discovery: Her introduction to Scrum was accidental. While binge-watching a "Scrum Crash Course" on YouTube, terms like "stand-ups" piqued her curiosity, leading her down a "rabbit hole" of Agile exploration.
• Organic Transition: Unlike many who pursue Scrum Mastery through formal education, Simina was discovered by Agile methodologies through her existing career roles and interests.

Notable Quote:

"I didn't grow up dreaming to be a Scrum Master. I don't think anyone does, actually." – Simina Fodor ([02:14])

Implementing Scrum in a Traditional Organization

Simina recounts her early days within a traditional, waterfall-driven organization. Her approach was grassroots, leveraging her communication and negotiation skills honed in HR and training to introduce Scrum concepts informally.

Key Points:

• Planting Seeds: She initiated "lunch and learns," sharing insights from various Scrum resources to familiarize her colleagues with Agile principles.
• Networking and Informal Advocacy: Simina connected with professionals from other companies undergoing Agile transformations, gaining insights and support for her initiatives.
• Patience and Persistence: It took three years of consistent effort before the organization began officially adopting Scrum practices, demonstrating the importance of persistence in organizational change.

Notable Quote:

"I was unofficially promoting Scrum. So I was doing lunch and learns with the information that we find from different videos and trainings." – Simina Fodor ([04:25])

Transition to a Startup Environment

Simina’s most significant challenge arose when she transitioned from a corporate setting to a startup. Driven by her passion and armed with extensive corporate experience, she anticipated a seamless implementation of Scrum in the agile-driven startup culture.

Key Points:

• Full-Throttle Implementation: Upon joining the startup, Simina applied her corporate Scrum knowledge aggressively, expecting rapid structural improvements.
• Underestimating Team Readiness: The startup team consisted of young developers inexperienced with Scrum, leading to resistance and confusion when introduced to complex Agile practices too quickly.
• Mismatch of Expectations: The leadership's demand for speed and rapid deliveries conflicted with Simina’s structured approach, resulting in friction within the team.

Notable Quotes:

"I went in thinking that I knew better." – Simina Fodor ([08:07])

"Instead of building the team first, I went into full delivery mode. Way too fast." – Simina Fodor ([11:33])

Challenges Faced and Lessons Learned

Simina candidly shares her mistakes and the valuable lessons she gleaned from her experience in the startup.

Key Points:

• Lack of Patience and Discovery: Simina admits that she rushed into implementing Scrum without fully understanding the team’s readiness or establishing a foundational understanding of Agile principles.
• Overemphasis on Structure: Introducing roles, meetings, and processes prematurely overwhelmed the team, many of whom were new to Agile methodologies.
• Insufficient Communication: She recognized that she failed to adequately communicate expectations and gather feedback from the team, leading to a disconnect between her vision and the team’s capabilities.

Key Takeaways:

1. Start Small and Listen: Begin with a discovery phase to understand the team’s current state and readiness before implementing new frameworks.
2. Build the Team First: Focus on team cohesion and understanding before introducing complex Agile practices.
3. Manage Expectations: Clearly communicate the roles, responsibilities, and benefits of Scrum to align the team’s understanding and commitment.

Notable Quote:

"I did everything wrong. But I learned." – Simina Fodor ([10:03])

Reflection and Growth

Simina reflects on how this challenging experience was instrumental in her growth as a Scrum Master. She emphasizes the importance of adaptability and patience in Agile implementations, especially in diverse organizational cultures.

Key Points:

• Self-Reflection: Acknowledging her errors was crucial for personal and professional development.
• Adaptability: Understanding that different environments require tailored approaches rather than a one-size-fits-all methodology.
• Continuous Learning: Commitment to ongoing learning and improvement is essential for effective Scrum Mastery.

Notable Quote:

"I should have spent more time in that discovery phase... rather than going in full force." – Simina Fodor ([10:36])

Conclusion

Vasco wraps up the conversation by highlighting the parallels between Simina's experience and the typical challenges Scrum Masters face. He underscores the importance of "sowing the seeds," understanding team dynamics, and patiently guiding Agile transformations.

Key Insights:

• Empathy and Understanding: Successful Scrum Masters need to deeply understand their teams' needs and readiness.
• Gradual Implementation: Introducing Agile practices gradually ensures better adoption and minimizes resistance.
• Leadership Support: Having support from leadership while implementing changes is vital for a smooth transition.

Final Quote:

"If we try to build the product without building the team, we're kind of doing things in the wrong order." – Simina Fodor ([11:50])

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Summary

In this insightful episode, Simina Fodor shares her unconventional journey from corporate roles in HR and training to becoming a Scrum Master in both traditional and startup environments. Her candid reflection on the challenges faced during Scrum implementation in a startup underscores the critical importance of patience, team readiness, and tailored approaches in Agile transformations. Listeners gain valuable lessons on the necessity of starting small, building team cohesion, and managing expectations effectively. Simina’s story serves as a powerful reminder that successful Agile adoption requires empathy, continuous learning, and adaptive leadership.

This episode is a must-listen for Scrum Masters and Agile professionals seeking real-world experiences and practical advice on navigating the complexities of implementing Scrum across diverse organizational landscapes.

Transcript

[Host]

Have you ever wondered what it really takes to make Agile work?

[Simina Fodor]

Well?

[Host]

At the Global Agile Summit, we're bringing you real life first person stories of Agile succeeding out there in the real world that will inspire you to take action. Whether you're a leader, a product innovator, a developer, you. You'll hear practical insights from those who've done it. They'll be telling their own stories from the stage. I'll tell you more about this at the end of this episode. So stay back and listen to the full detailed description of what we have in store for you at the Global Agile Summit. But if you can't wait, you can go right now to globalagilesummit.com and check out our full schedule for now onto the episode. But I'll see you at the end of this episode with more details on the Global Agile Summit. Talk to you soon.

[Podcast Host]

Hello everybody. Welcome to one more week of the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast. And this week, joining us from Transylvania, yes, you heard it from Transylvania. Is Simina Fodor. Hey, Simina, welcome to the show.

[Simina Fodor]

Hey, glad to be here. And hi everyone. I'm speaking from the land of the vampires where we have of garlic and.

[Podcast Host]

And a lot of castles. I was going to ask you, are you calling us from a castle today?

[Simina Fodor]

I wish, but unfortunately I don't have the budget for a castle. Maybe in 10, 20 years, who knows?

[Podcast Host]

Absolutely. So let me tell you a little bit about Simina. She's a career rebel with a passion for bold moves from HR to agile delivery. She's ditched the rulebook and inspires others to build careers that ignite passion. No apologies, no detours, just fearless pivots and real talk about creating work that truly fires you up. And given that intro, I'm really excited to have you on the show. And also curious, what was that career pivot that ended up having you as a Scrum Master?

[Simina Fodor]

Well, first off, I'm really excited and glad to be here. So in terms of the changes that I've done in the past, I've done a lot of career pivots over time, so I'm not afraid of change, so to say. And funny story, is that Agile or Scrum? Well, I didn't find Agile or Scrum. Basically they found me. And the interesting story is I didn't have the traditional background or the traditional career path you would imagine. I didn't grow up dreaming to be a Scrum Master. I don't think anyone does, actually. But how I found Scrum was through the different roles that I had in my career, customer support, HR and training. I was doing a lot of research, just as anyone would do, I'm assuming with YouTube and Google and Udemy and you name it, every resource out there. And there was one night that I specifically remember I was binging YouTube with a lot of notions and there was a video that basically just popped like randomly and, and it was something called Scrum Crash Course or something like that. It was a one hour video and it got me intrigued. So there were a lot of notions being thrown around like retro Sprint planning, standups and stuff like that. But when I heard stand ups I basically just switched my my ear and was wondering what's that stand ups? Like do people actually do comedy? And it got me intrigued and that I basically went into a whole rabbit hole trying to dig up as much information as I could about Scrum and Agile. And it got me really intrigued. I was already considering a career change in terms of officially becoming a project manager. I applied internally for the role, but I came into that role knowing that I wanted to do Scrum. I wanted to see what it was like in practice. But I was also part of an organization that was more the traditional side of things. So they weren't doing Agile, they were waterfall all the way, milestones, huge plannings and stuff like that. And I knew that I had to do something a little bit different. So I used the skills that I had already built up in my career, having worked in HR like a lot and training. So I used communication and negotiation and all of those things. And I started out small, so I planted seeds here and there. I was talking to people whenever I had the chance. I would bring in anything that was related to Scrum in the conversation. Things like stand ups and the fact that it's more about people than processes, all of the things that you could find in an Agile manifesto. And I started doing more and more. I was also being a traditional project manager. I was doing the whole command and control type of approach because that was part of the organization. But internally I was also unofficially promoting Scrum. So I was doing lunch and learns with the information that we find from different videos and trainings that I was going to. I had different knowledge sharing type of sessions with other people, I was networking with people from other companies that were already going through Agile transformations or were already doing Agile in some fashion or another. And I was trying to influence as much as possible from an informal matter given that I was part of a strictly traditional organization. So it took about three years until we actually did something that was cram related in the organization. But by that point in time, people already kind of knew about me informally because I was talking to anyone that would listen about Scrum. So I was really obsessed with the whole framework and I was unofficially invited to support some of the transformations. And eventually I did get to the part where I would call myself a Scrum Master, but it took a lot of time. It took a lot of patience.

[Podcast Host]

And the real cool thing about this story is that of course, as a Scrum Master, a lot of what we need to do is exactly what you did to get to that point, which is to sow the seeds, to talk to people, to understand what their needs are. But it isn't always an easy job to be a Scrum Master. Sometimes we, we do bump our heads against the proverbial wall, as they say. And today's Monday Fail Monday here on the podcast. So we want to explore one of those stories. Simina, share a story of how you faced the Scrum Master role and perhaps had, I don't know, a failure, a difficulty, a challenge, something that was hard in that role. And walk us through that story. We'll take the takeaways later, but first, walk us through that story.

[Simina Fodor]

Sure. It was one of the most interesting experience I've had so far. So I have a lot of experience in the corporate settings type of scenario. I spent most of my career in corporate settings in one role or another, not necessarily a Scrum Master or a pm. And at some point in time I was given an opportunity to join a startup. So this was a really interesting opportunity for me because I pretty much almost never say no to change and interesting things. So I'm driven by challenge, but I think most Scrum Masters and Agile folks are. So I basically want full force into it because I had the feeling that all of my corporate experience along the way would help me. So I had the whole toolbox. I had all of my information, all of my vocabulary, all of my experience. And I went in thinking that this is something that I could do. I mean, these people only need structure. It's a team that's fresh. I get to influence it. I get to implement processes, I get to work through strategy to the actual product vision. But I got it all wrong. So it was a start.

[Podcast Host]

So tell us a little bit more. So you went in with a lot of motivation and energy and a lot of ideas, and then you say I got it all wrong. But what was happening? Like what were the things, how was the organization and the people around you reacting what were you trying? How did it go?

[Simina Fodor]

I went full force in, and I wasn't that patient looking in, in retrospective, meaning that I was expecting. I was comparing my experience to the experience of a corporate setting where you would have more mature teams, teams that are already performing. And we had no roles defined. There weren't any metrics, there weren't any events, any meetings. We were still hiring people. While we were discovering things about the product, we were actually changing things along the way, like week by week. And I basically tried to scale up way too fast. Rather than starting small and listening to people and going through that discovery phase, I went in full force thinking that I knew better.

[Podcast Host]

By going in full force, you say you started telling them what roles to have, exactly what meetings to have, how to manage their backlogs, like, is that what you mean?

[Simina Fodor]

Yes. And we were doing so just to give you a little bit more context in terms of the people that were part of the Scrum team. We had developers that were really young and haven't interacted with the Scrum Master before, so they didn't know anything about the role. People that maybe have never been into a retrospective or did planning. I even introduced planning poker, which is a total failure when you tell people about story points. I went in thinking that I had assumptions, thinking that people knew about Agile, they knew about the framework, they knew what we were already doing in terms of all of the days in and days out, rather than maybe starting with a workshop, presenting them what agile is. What's the difference between a product owner and a Scrum Master, how the team should react to change. What's the difference maybe between waterfall, traditional waterfall and Scrum and more agile approaches. So I did everything wrong. Everything that you can think of, I did it wrong. But I learned.

[Podcast Host]

So if I understand you correctly, there were two things kind of going full force and maybe too fast for what people were ready for. But it sounds to me that you're also saying that you were actually putting a lot of expectations on them, right? Like, even though they were new, they were just starting. Some developers were juniors, some were not familiar with Scrum. You were still kind of implicitly expecting them to understand what the sprint planning is, what retrospectives are and all of that, right?

[Simina Fodor]

Yes. Yes. So that was the mistake number one that I did. I should have talked to people beforehand, I should have talked about expectations, I should have tried to observe things. Rather than going in full force with all of the meetings and all of the documentation and everything that we did, I should have spent more time in that discovery phase that I was mentioning about, and the thing that actually got to me in this whole experience is the original idea that I got from the founders, from the leadership team was that we needed speed. So it was a startup, they needed to react, to change like really fast from one me to another to keep the product competitive. Especially being a startup of having a really tight budget for everything. And that was the thing that basically resonated with me each morning. We have to have speed. We have to be able to deliver, like really, really fast. So rather than building the team first, I went into full delivery mode. Way too fast.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah. And that's also a very important kind of realization and takeaway for our audience that as Scrum masters, we need to understand that it's the team that is going to build the product. And if we try to build the product without building the team, we're kind of doing things in the wrong order.

[Simina Fodor]

Yep, definitely.

[Podcast Host]

That's a great story. Thank you for sharing that, Simina.

[Simina Fodor]

Sure.

[Host]

Hey friend, thank you for staying here. Is all you need to know about the Global Agile Summit. If you've ever suffered or know people who are suffering from agile fatigue, this event is for you. Agile fatigue is that feeling that settles in when we can't really see a light at the end of the tunnel. We get discouraged, especially when conversations revolve around the same old frameworks, the same old buzzwords and theories. We don't feel that energy anymore. Well, the Global Agile Summit is a different kind of event. We're bringing you real life first person stories of Agile succeeding out there in the real world that will inspire you to take action and transform the way you work. The Global Agile Summit will happen In Tallinn, Estonia, May 18th. That's the workshop day. Then 19th and 20th, the conference day. And Tallinn, Estonia is one of the most innovative tech hubs in Europe. The Global Agile Summit is hosted together with Latitude 59, which is kind of a citywide celebration of software startups and groundbreaking ideas. And we'll have a shared ticket for you to attend those events as well. So who will be speaking? Well, we've got an incredible lineup of thought leaders in software and agile. For example, Clinton Keith, the person who wrote, literally wrote the book on game development with Scrum and is busy bringing Agile to the world of game development. You must check his session. The very famous and well known Jurgen Apello, author of Management 3.0, will be talking and exploring about AI's impact on leadership. We also have Goiko Adsic, who's taking an unconventional look at Product Growth with his Lizard Optimization keynote. Other speakers include, for example 6 Dietz, who's challenging everything we know about software development by ditching, literally ditching contracts and estimates. Can you imagine his teams deliver software before their competitors are even done with the contract negotiation? How agile is that? But there's more. We'll cover engineering practices in our developer track with talks on for example AI assisted test driven development, developing products in minutes with a different approach to how we develop, configure, deploy platforms, and much more. We also have a product track where we cover cutting edge ideas around product discovery, delighting customers with product delight frameworks. We'll have a talk about that. And we also have an Agile Business track where we will talk about, for example Open Strategy, a very agile approach to managing organizations and delivering software faster to clients faster than you can even write a contract.

[Podcast Host]

Literally.

[Host]

I mean, I already told you about Svendeet's story is amazing. It definitely is a must see. I'm sure you'll be inspired and get a lot of ideas for your own software projects and software delivery. Now, whether you're a business leader, a product innovator or a developer, you'll definitely find value in our three focused tracks. That's Agile Business for those working with businesses and organizations, Agile Product for product managers, product owners and innovators and Agile Developer for the builders making Agile work in practice, the coders, the testers, the designers, the producers, the scrum masters, you name it. If you join, you will meet over 200 agile professionals from all over the world. People who just like you, want to grow, want to share, and want to learn by challenging the ideas that don't work anymore. At the Global Agile Summit, you'll get new connections, fresh ideas, and the energy to take your own Agile to the next level. And who knows, maybe even find your next career opportunity. So don't miss out. Check out the full program and grab your ticket [e-mail] I'm really looking forward to seeing you all in Tallinn, Estonia in May. I'll see you there.

[Podcast Host]

Sam.