The US has plenty of established fintech organizations, and many companies are still emerging year over year. Have you ever heard of Visa, Paytech, Mastercard, Intuit, and Fiserv? They are the top fintech companies worldwide, originated in the US. The Fintech industry is one of the rapidly evolving sectors, continually adapting to technological advancements and shifting consumer preferences.
Financial companies are integrating the Scrum framework and adopting effective agile methodologies to align with consumer preferences. Scrum masters play a crucial role in making agile transformation possible and smooth. Do Scrum masters only perform guiding actions?
No, they have tremendous potential to ensure alignment, productivity, and responsiveness to market changes in the US fintech sector. Let's see it in detail!
Evolving Landscape of Fintech Industries in the US
Paytech, accounting, open banking, merchant payments, BNPL, and cryptocurrency are examples of companies that fall under the fintech industry. According to a Mordor intelligence report, the US is expected to hold more than 62% of global fintech transactions, and over 8,775 fintech start-ups in America have emerged recently. The fintech industry is projected to grow at a 11% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2025 to 2030.
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Role of Scrum Masters in US Fintech Industry
The increased use of mobile phones, digital banking services, and the growth in the e-commerce sector have led to the development of fintech industries. Payments and Money Transfers, Lending Platforms, Investment Management, and Insurtech are some of the constantly growing fintech industries.
US fintech companies, including PayPal, Stripe, TransferWise, and Visa, are increasing their digital payment capabilities in response to business and customer demands.
Scrum Masters has a huge role in enhancing the fintech industry. They help facilitate and lead the agile teams. They have the following responsibilities to include:
1. Coaching Teams
The organization's productivity and output lie in the work of the employees. To achieve maximum output, Scrum Masters guide teams in agile best practices and agile principles. They help team members understand the process and improve communication among them.
2. Removing Obstacles
A process without errors and obstacles is considered a better process. To avoid significant losses, the Scrum Master must identify obstacles during the initial stage and discuss them with the team to eradicate them as early as possible.
3. Promoting Agile Culture
Scrum masters are essential for teaching Agile values and principles to cross-functional team members and stakeholders management. They explain the Scrum best practices to improve productivity and minimize any issues during the initial stage.
4. Stakeholder Engagement
Scrum masters are the communication link between team members and external stakeholders. They are responsible for clarifying the roles and responsibilities of members and features among stakeholders.
By following every role properly, Scrum Masters can help fintech companies navigate complex project management and drive innovation.
How Do Scrum Masters Handle Some Major Obstacles?
How will the Scrum master role and responsibilites help in fintech industries? We discussed some primary considerations in the industry and saw how a scrum master can help overcome them all.
1. Maintaining Regulatory Compliance
The scrum master helps maintain regulatory conditions by communicating with stakeholders and cross-functional teams. The Scrum Master identifies key regulatory areas, such as materials and user data security, payment processing, money transmission, and other financial services activities. Regulation principles are divided into parts to simplify the development team's compliance process.
2. Customer Retention
The Scrum Master reviews user feedback and ensures that the features meet users' needs. They also work to improve the user experience and retain customers.
3. Developing Personalized Service
Organisations can provide personalised service by enhancing collaboration between team members and stakeholders. Scrum Masters conduct research to gather the necessary information for product development. Iterative cycles, with the support of Scrum masters, ensure personalized offerings.
4. Blockchain Integration
The integration of any new approaches requires the support and involvement of the scum master. Similarly, integrating Blockchain technology into fintech requires proper planning and execution.
Scrum masters collaborate with development teams, experts in blockchain technology, and financial regulation bodies to ensure a smooth integration process. They must also arrange sessions for employees to learn about blockchain trends. Implementing such safe features will ensure the organization remains competitive and secure.
5. Accelerating Product Launches
If the organization wants to sustain a fast-paced fintech environment, speed of deployment and adoption are essential.
The Scrum Master identifies and prioritizes the backlog to deliver the project with the most value, enabling the team to reach the market quickly. With the backlog prioritized, the team first focuses on solving the top-impacting tasks. These processes can accelerate production and help launch products to market soon.
6. Enhancing User Experience Through Feedback
In the fintech industry, user experiences are significant. Many organizations are improving their services with biometric authentication, AI chatbots, etc. Biometric support provides users with a sense of security, and AI chatbots help enhance customer care support.
The Scrum masters in the organizations help adopt user-centric designs, features, and principles that consider the end user. They collect user feedback to enhance the user experience.
Real-World Examples of Scrum Masters in Fintech
Case studies can show you the roles of a scrum master in the real world. They can help you better understand the organization's goal, scrum masters' actions, and enhanced output.
American Express
1. Aim
American Express sought to innovate its payment solutions and improve customer experience.
2. Role of Scrum Master
Scrum Masters conducted the Agile ceremonies to ensure that teams adhere to Scrum principles.
3. Outcome
By following the scrum framework the company achieved faster delivery cycles that reduced the launch time for new features by 50%. This agility enabled them to remain competitive in the rapidly evolving FinTech landscape.
Capital One
1. Aim
Capital One needed to enhance the user experience and planned to develop software to improve convenience and digitise fintech processes.
2. Role of Scrum Master
Scrum Masters are essential for collaboration, removing impediments and analyzing the critical features.
3. Outcome
The Scrum masters improved collaboration across software development teams, stakeholders, and users. The effective process resulted in a significant reduction in project delivery time. Capital One made the customer feedback more effective and implemented and corrected it to enhance their product.
PayPal
1. Aim
To sustain itself within the competition, PayPal needed to innovate rapidly to withstand changing market demands.
2. Role of Scrum Master
To handle this, Scrum Masters implemented Agile practices across multiple teams to improve productivity and ensure the company's alignment and focus.
3. Outcome
After the continuous effort of the Scrum master role, PayPal, a fintech company, increased development speed to 30. The team's communication and team spirit also improved. Implementing and following the Agile approach helped launch new features to the market faster, while maintaining an outstanding user experience.
How CSM Certification Can Be Helpful?
If you need to be an effective scrum master, then getting a Certified Scrum Master (CSM) certification is essential. CSM certification has a lot more benefits for career prospects, like:
1. Credibility
CSM certification will help in showcasing your commitment and experience in agile practices and principles.
2. Networking Opportunities
Join the community where you will connect with experienced and knowledgeable professionals and help you improve your Scrum knowledge.
3. Skill Development
The certification process provides in-depth knowledge of Scrum methodologies and best practices.
As the fintech industry continues to grow, having a CSM certification can set candidates apart in a competitive job market.
Conclusion
Scrum Masters are the centre of the Scrum framework, and they help guide and lead the growth and innovation within the US fintech industry. The Fintech industry can be refined by following the Scrum framework and sustaining a competitive edge. The industry will seek certified candidates to enhance its approach and output. The CSM certification process will also help improve the skills required to manage the organization. Learning to embrace agile methodologies will benefit fintech companies in enhancing the customer experience in financial services.
As fintech disrupts traditional banking, Scrum Masters are becoming the secret weapon for sustainable growth. If you need to move on this path, then follow these rules:
Obtain CSM certification
Specialize in fintech pain points and work processes(compliance, security)
Leverage hybrid work opportunities
The future belongs to agile fintech, and Scrum Masters are holding the keys.
