Pivoting into Scrum?
I have over 14 years experience as a project manager at various creative / marketing agencies. While I have a little direct experience with development, almost all of the projects I've worked on in my career have been creative development, production, digital strategy, social media, etc. – basically marketing and advertising. And in terms of methodology, I've used waterfall because that's what the industry dictates. My current role is actually overseeing a project management department (which I built), so I've got a kind of PMO role today, overseeing my teams executions, while interacting at a senior leadership level across the agency.
Lately, I've been really interested in moving over to software development and becoming a Scrum Master. Frankly, I'm bored and frustrated with the creative agency space, and have been for some time. I'm much more interested in being involved in building things, and in an industry that continues to grow exponentially (read: better career growth). I'm keenly interesting in making a career shift, and personally feel like this is a viable move, the more I read about Scrum.
I understand and agree that a traditional PM does not equate to an SM, but I feel I have a lot of transferrable qualities to a potential SM role: removing barriers for the team, working with stakeholders / PO-like people, coaching & support, facilitation, balancing & educating on process, prioritization, leadership, etc. My friends are devs and they're supportive of the idea, in that they agree I could be successful in the role. While I lack the depth of technical knowledge today, I do have a passion for tech and am generally tech-minded. Also if it matters, I'm in the Boston area, and not looking to move.
As of today, I'm considering going for a CSM at some point in the near future, but I'm concerned about the real world viability of making the move. Is this a pipe dream? Am I basically looking at starting my career over from scratch with only entry level possibilities? What kind of marketability might I have between solid career experience plus a certification? Are Scrum Masters even really that high in demand, or did I fall victim to the internet's misguidance?
Any thoughts or feedback are welcome - thanks in advance.
In my experience the creatives are no better or worse than any other sector. All face barriers to agility, including stage-gated cultures which many are too vested in to readily change.
The creatives may be less familiar with Scrum than the mainstream IT industry, but they tend to have an advantage in that they are more market-facing and have a great potential to be feedback-driven. I suggest promoting change from that angle, such as by promoting entrepreneurship and the Lean Startup approach, finding MVP's and reducing leaps of faith. Scrum might be introduced once that potential for better creativity through innovation is recognized and sponsored.
Thanks for the response, Ian.
I think, for all intents and purposes, agile is a lost cause in my current organization. It's complicated and not worth getting into here, but let's assume the methodologies currently in place are not changing any time soon – and I couldn't even begin to be the change agent without putting myself at risk of my job. Again, complicated, but I am looking externally for my next move.