I recently finished reading “Start With Why” by Simon Sinek. Simon explains the golden circle in which you picture a bullseye with the inner circle being your ‘why.’ The middle ring is your ‘how,’ and the outer ring is your ‘what.’ You must start from within your ‘why’ and be able to communicate what you believe. It inspires people to act. My favorite quote (there were quite a few) was when he stated, “people don’t buy what you do, but why you do it.” Of course, this is more related to business, but it also applies to our personal lives. When we are motivated by our purpose, success happens.

I thought I had found my why when I became a software engineer. My daily work at Enbala, now Generac Grid Services, consisted of leveraging Elixir and other software development tools to advance a platform capable of keeping the grid stable for communities around the globe. My love for creating something out of code fueled me each day until, one day, it didn’t. I felt lost. My hard work wanting to become a successful software engineer went to waste. Then, my coworkers called to attention something I did not recognize as valuable: I love helping people.

The Role of Scrum Master

After numerous conversations with my colleagues, I became Generac Grid Services’ Scrum Master. As a Scrum Master, I am responsible for clearing obstacles the engineering team may face and establishing an environment where they can be effective. I have implemented many software development ceremonies to help increase both the morale and efficiency of our Concerto™ development teams. One is called Sprint Retrospective. This meeting allows a safe space for team members to discuss how the previous sprint went for them. It is a chance to call out what has worked well and to ensure we continue enhancing that process. Conversely, Retrospective is also an opportunity to voice any concerns that may jeopardize our overall goal to deliver quality Concerto releases on time.

Additionally, we’ve implemented an Engineering Iteration Demo. Our engineering team uses this time to demonstrate the Concerto features they have built during a given iteration. The Iteration is an opportunity for internal stakeholders, such as our Customer Success Team and Product Team, to ask follow-up questions to help us put our best foot forward in serving the needs and wants of our customers.

A Career in Software Development Coaching

This career is not only for me but also for my purpose. My job is to coach and guide people to reach their full potential, thus helping us deliver a quality platform to our current and prospective customers. There are still plenty of things for

me to learn regarding guiding our engineering team to deliver timely and scalable distributed energy resource platform features. Still, I am inspired to do more research to become a better coach, facilitator, coworker, and friend.

I found this career by mistake, but everything that has happened in my life has its purpose. Finding your purpose is a challenging task. Sometimes you don’t necessarily look for it; it just magically appears before you. I recommend grabbing the opportunity once you see it.

Patrick Isaac
Scrum Master, Generac Grid Services