I’m Lauren Osborne and I was Itero Group’s summer intern. I was tasked with helping train Itero team members on Agile, Kanban, Scrum and Lean Thinking. I worked closely with Jarrod Kuzmitsky, Director of Client Delivery, who specializes in agile work and was an agile coach for several years. Jarrod and I envisioned doing two or three trainings over the course of the summer.
My role involved researching these topics and putting them into PowerPoint slides and Mural Boards. As with any research process, there can be conflicting websites and articles about what agile is, how it’s practiced, and many different interpretations of what it means to each company. It was important, therefore, to go back to the founders of the methodology. For example, for the Scrum Training, we made sure to pull right from The Scrum Guide to relay the most reliable information possible.
Designing the slides was a process of balancing two motives: to engage the audiences but not distract them from the purpose of each slide. I learned that sometimes having fancy charts, busy graphics, and populating each slide to the fullest wasn’t the most effective way of communicating the information. Because this was my first internship, it was important for me to go in with an open mind to feedback, to not take things personally, and to try different approaches until I figured out what Jarrod needed for each presentation. There were many times where the rough draft was completely different than the final presentation, and it can feel defeating to put time and energy into creating something, then having your manager change it. However, I learned “perfect is the enemy of done,” and it’s better to get feedback early and often to allow space for corrections. If the wait time was long, feedback would be rare, and it would be hard to be certain you were on the right track.
To support the trainings, I sent invitations via Microsoft Teams, and managed the number of attendees at each training. I also distributed thank you notes after each session and sent out a link to additional resources and a feedback survey. I now have a working knowledge of Teams, Slack, Outlook, Bamboo HR, Microsoft Whiteboard, and Mural. I also worked on projects with Vanessa Birch, Itero Group’s Marketing Manager, designing and writing posts for Itero’s Instagram page. In doing so, I became familiar with social media programs, like Canva and HeyOrca.
This summer was full of connections, and I had the privilege to connect with Itero Group’s president, Teresa Bailoni; another solution delivery partner, Jill Lawson; and many other Itero Group team members to interview them about their job, what their day-to-day is like, and what advice they would give to young college students. It was great being immersed in this company and receiving everyone’s perspectives on how it is run. If I had any down time, I spent it studying Scrum to take the Scrum Master certification, which I hope to receive soon.
Overall, working with Itero Group and for Jarrod was an amazing opportunity. From the moment I started, the culture felt welcoming and genuine, especially with the care the company took to make sure I had everything I needed to work and feel connected, since I was a remote employee. I learned that Itero Group is who they say they are – they are clie