"Having the Agile Coach work with us was about having a service-minded leading figure and a person who made it possible for the team to concentrate on their own core area of expertise.”
Taking product development teams’ agility to a whole new level with Agile Coaching
In practice, Hansen (former Enoro) is, to a large extent, responsible for the connection between how an electric appliance is used and paid for. In addition to Finland, Hansen also operates in the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and Austria. Towo Toivola, Product Development and Delivery Manager at Hansen, explains, “As a software company, we enable the energy market in many European countries”.
Since 2014, Hansen has been engaged in reforming their working methods. However, scaling agile transformation for hundreds of staff poses its own challenges.
In winter 2017, it was time to start taking the operations skills of two separate teams to a new level. Hansen asked Contribyte’s (now part of Eficode) Agile Coach to assist them with this. Toivola recalls, “At first, we were actually looking for a Scrum Master, but then we realized that even though every Agile Coach can act as a Scrum Master, not every Scrum Master can act as an Agile Coach”. He realized, “We needed the Agile Coach right away, as our organization was going through a difficult phase back then.
Hansen selected their partner on the basis that the partner was able to directly contact the decision makers and receive an immediate response,” Toivola continues.
According to Toivola, the Agile Coach started the job approximately a week after Hansen’s first contact. Since then, the Agile Coach has been praised by the two teams with which they worked. Toivola describes that “Having the Agile Coach work with us was about having a service-minded leading figure and a person who made it possible for the team to concentrate on their own core area of expertise. It’s a bit like motor oil. Even though we all know that the oil doesn’t produce any power in the motor, the motor doesn’t work if you don’t add the oil”.
Ingrid Onoiu is one of the team members who worked with the Agile Coach. For part of the CMF project, the team required assistance to accelerate and rationalize work. She explained, “I feel that the Agile Coach helped a great deal with work habits. It’s important to start getting to know people, how they work, and how they do or do not bring up the problems they have.”