David Kiersznowski

David Kiersznowski Jr.

I was first exposed to the basic concepts of Agile and Scrum in 2004 when a developer and quality analysts approached me on a difficult project. They had no idea how we were going to satisfy the regulatory requirements, but they wanted to break the work down into smaller pieces, meet in the same room together daily to work, be open and honest with each other, do what we know and learn as we go. We didn't realize what we were doing had a name....

5 years later (and a few failed attempts to recreate that environment) I was approached by an organization whose goal was to "be Agile" and offered the opportunity to become a Product Owner, starting my Scrum journey.

I quickly learned that I was more interested in the development of the team than I was in the development of the product. My Scrum Master was awesome in mentoring me and sharing some of his role when possible - allowing me to facilitate team events, lead ceremonies, coach the team, etc... 

I now have an unwavering faith in the Scrum team - ANY Scrum team. It's simply a matter of being patient as the team learns to break away from traditional behaviors, build their skill and confidence in the framework, then accelerate into awesomeness. And I thoroughly enjoy being part of those journeys.

Engaging teams and serving them on their journey became important enough to me that I decided to leave my PO role (after 22 years with the company) and venture out into the world with the knowledge and skills I had developed.

My goal is to eventually be a Coach, but having spent so much time as a Product Owner, I personally felt I needed to experience the Scrum Master role hands on, and was very fortunate to find a place with a company asking me to be both a coach for some teams of varying experience (0-1 yr) AND a Scrum master on a large program.