• Product Owner

‘I don’t consider myself a hardcore Agile trainer’

Geeske Kloostra trains Product Owners how to maintain speed, quality and control in Scrum projects. But as the tantalizing quote in the title tells you, she is not exactly rigid in her Agile vision. In fact, she loves the space that personal anecdotes and examples from the shop floor offer her during training. Openness, in other words. Time to meet Geeske in all openness: perhaps Product Owner at heart, but not a hardcore Agile trainer. How about that?

When Geeske thinks back to when she started working Agile, some 15 years ago, a small smile appears on her face. Why, “Because it all went so nice and natural. I had been working for a financial institution for a few years in the digital department, representing the customer’s interests in the development of digital products and processes.” Geeske translates for this department what the customer needs and what the product and marketing departments have as ambitions to the it department. And with success. Because the moment the it department takes steps, and runs at full speed, she continues to fulfill the role of business developer. You read it: a Product Owner is born.

‘Sometimes a Product Owner has to make blunt choices’

The real lift-off as Product Owner takes place when Geeske works for an airport’s digital channels. “Here there was really still with a big thick marker a date for going live in the agenda, not really Agile of course,” she says laughing. But all the more interesting because she and the Scrum Master work super well together as partners in crime to deliver a working functionality every two weeks. In such a way that the stakeholders actually use and validate it during the sprint review. “We really got into the flow that way, so we were able to go straight to production right after the sprint review.” Sometimes that involves making blunt choices: What should we as a team pick up first? What is most important to the stakeholders? It also requires a lot of flexibility from the Agile team and stakeholders.

Route towards Agile trainership

As the title says, Geeske doesn’t consider herself a hardcore Agile trainer. But what then? “I am an experienced Product Owner who loves to inspire and help others further with concrete practical examples. And of course also by sharing my own failures as a Product Owner.” To give more shape to that motivation, she starts freelance interim assignments as Product Owner back in 2016. Pling. The sound of a new email in her inbox. Sender: Gert-Jan Danenberg of Scrum Academy. “Gert-Jan asked me to join the open enrollment trainings for Product Owners as a trainer.” And to this day, this is a match. The best part about that match is the fact that it allows Geeske to work with trainers who bring a ton of experience in all Agile roles and different industries.

‘I hope to encourage others to really dare to experiment’

A training day with Geeske

In her trainings, Geeske provides psychological safety and plenty of room to bring both personal and role-related issues to the table. This is also instructive for Geeske: “During each training and each in-company program I still learn as a trainer. Through the interaction with the students and the interaction of the students among themselves. But also by the practical examples and how the roles are designed within various organizations.” So during Geeske’s trainings, a certain openness and communication plays an important role. Also, the practical examples are often taken from her working life. Is that typical of Geeske’s training style? “I appreciate the personal touch, the real-life examples. That’s why I also like to share my personal failures as a Product Owner and what I do differently now as a result.” Geeske herself also plays her cards openly, so that participants are given practical matters that they can start working with the very next day.