A major Scandinavian insurer scaling its non-life insurance business through a new strategy, distributed agile teams, and a modernized tech stack.
I started out supporting two distributed agile teams as a Scrum Master, then moved—after a company restructure—into a new team working in a complex policy area. The team had faced major disruption, impacting morale and delivery. I stepped in with a servant leadership approach to rebuild trust, resolve conflicts, and re-establish team stability, all within the context of a recent shift to SAFe®.
My approach centered on inclusion, psychological safety, and continuous learning. I introduced regular 1:1s, clarified team roles, and ran hands-on workshops covering topics like feedback, limiting WIP, Kanban flow, Pull vs. Push, Little’s Law, and collaborative techniques like Software Teaming (Mob Programming) and the Johari Window. These helped improve communication, especially across a culturally diverse team.
To align the team and boost delivery, we co-created a Team Canvas, Team Working Agreement, OKRs, and ran a Skills Gap Analysis (Market of Skills). I brought in data-informed retrospectives using metrics like cycle time and number of incidents, and encouraged habits like the Daily Kata and more focused Scrum routines. Over time, the team grew more resilient, collaborative, and consistent in delivering value.