One year ago there was a special event at MediaMarktSaturn Technology. The first sprint was launched in mid-April, marking the beginning of the organization's agile transformation.

Around 70 employees started in the so-called wave 0. The teams that were already agile were transferred to the new structure. In the course of the year there were many more waves, boot camps and workshops. One year later we look back and draw a conclusion. To date, over 90 product teams are online. We talked to Tom Maurer, Vice President Technology, Domain Agile Coach Sonia Chouaib and Agile Coach Florian Leuchtenstern.

What were the challenges in implementing the product teams?

Tom Maurer: One of the biggest challenges was putting the product teams together. We had to distribute the issues among the teams, see which teams the employees fit into best, what resources those teams need, and finally explain the dependencies between the teams.

Sonia Chouaib: We, the agile coaches, taught the teams the agile values and principles as well as the agile methods like Scrum and Kanban in boot camps. At the beginning it should be ensured that everyone has the same level of knowledge. New colleagues joined some teams during the year, others changed to other teams. In order for the team members to grow together as a team, we carried out team building measures, among other things.

What have you achieved / what are you particularly proud of?

Tom Maurer: We are particularly proud that we can now work much faster and are more productive thanks to the product teams. We can react to new requirements within a very short time and are therefore very flexible. Within this year we have had so many successes. For example, the product detail page in the online shop has been live since November, the MediaMarkt Club in Turkey and Poland is live, we have rolled out a new merchandise management software and piloted SAP as an ordering platform, to name just a few examples. We are particularly pleased to see that the product teams have created greater cohesion within the teams, as well as a willingness to assume responsibility. The teams lead themselves.

Florian Leuchtenstern: Together with lead product owners, product owners and other stakeholders, we have ensured transparency by creating and publishing a roadmap for our products. This is regularly reviewed and adapted. When products were redesigned, we involved the respective teams. For example, the multichannel teams in Munich were allowed to have a say in how their competencies were distributed among the products. Another important step was to create various workshops and training courses, such as Agile Basics training or Product Owner and Scrum Master training. The dates for these courses are now available for colleagues to register for via Success Factors.

What are your tasks now?

Tom Maurer: The coordination between the product teams must become even better. We are now working on this more intensively. The teams are also constantly learning new technologies. For example, the teams are currently learning how to work with cloud services. Since the teams are not rigid, but often new employees join them, we are constantly working to improve cooperation and integrate the new employees into the teams. We are always looking for new developers!

Sonia Chouaib: We, the agile coaches, want to work even more closely with the Lead Product Owners, Tech VPs and the teams in the future. We would like to bring the "Tech Transformation" even stronger into the operative business. After all, the core of the transformation is that business and IT work together in teams. It is also important that we do not rest on our laurels but continue to develop.