H&M
Scrum Master and Agile coaching for H&M’s SEO Centre of Excellence, supporting an international team focused on improving organic search performance across a major global retail business.
Introduction
My work with H&M brought my Agile and digital experience into an area that had become increasingly important to businesses of every size: search engine optimisation. I worked as Scrum Master and Agile Coach within H&M’s SEO Centre of Excellence, supporting a specialist team responsible for helping improve organic search across the organisation’s international digital presence.
The engagement combined Agile delivery with the particular challenges of enterprise SEO, where technical, content and business considerations need to work together across multiple markets and teams. My role focused on helping the team collaborate effectively, organise and prioritise its work, and continually improve the way SEO initiatives were planned and delivered within a large global organisation.
Supporting an International SEO Team
H&M’s SEO Centre of Excellence operated within a complex international digital environment. SEO activity needed to take account of different markets, technologies, content requirements and business priorities while maintaining a coordinated approach across the organisation.
As Scrum Master, my role was to support the team in managing that complexity, helping create visibility around priorities, encouraging collaboration and ensuring that work could progress effectively through an Agile delivery process.
Applying Agile to SEO
SEO does not always fit neatly into a conventional software-development model. Improvements can involve technical changes, content, data and analytics, experimentation and collaboration with teams elsewhere in the organisation.
This made the application of Agile particularly interesting. Rather than applying Scrum mechanically, the emphasis was on using Agile principles and practices in ways that helped the SEO team organise its work, collaborate effectively and continually improve its approach.
Coaching and Continuous Improvement
My role also included Agile coaching, working with the team to identify opportunities to improve its processes and ways of working.
An effective Scrum Master is not simply responsible for meetings and ceremonies. The wider objective is to help a team become increasingly capable of organising its own work, resolving obstacles and adapting its approach as circumstances change.
The H&M engagement brought together my experience of Agile delivery, digital consultancy and SEO, demonstrating how established Agile principles can be applied beyond traditional software-development teams.
Read the Full Project Story
This article provides a short introduction to my work with H&M’s SEO Centre of Excellence. For more information about the engagement, my Scrum Master and Agile coaching responsibilities, and the wider professional context, read the full H&M project page on Mike-Speight.co.uk.