Interview with Simo @EPAM

 (image by EPAM Bulgaria)

Recently EPAM’s InfoPortal published my interview, related to the most recent training ‘Mastering ScrumMastering’, and hopefully the insights would be useful for all of you who wish to develop as trainers.

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Simeon Kisyov has successfully delivered several training sessions on Scrum in Sofia. Today, he shares the ‘backstage’ of a trainer’s activity, the secrets to delivering good training, and plans for the future.

EPAM: What was the reason behind your wish to contribute as a trainer?
Simeon: That’s what I do. I love conducting training sessions and delivering talks, sharing experience and inventing amazing games and challenges so that participants can learn and grow quickly while having fun. Supporting people to get out of their comfort zone feels great.

EPAM: What training have you already conducted?
Simeon: I’ve delivered ‘Agile and Scrum Foundations,’ ‘Mastering ScrumMastering’ in a series of trainings, a couple of talks, e.g. ‘Self-organizing teams’, ‘Empower your decisions,’ and a lot of other 'Agile training' events. Some of those we developed together with Bogoy Bogdanov.

EPAM: What was the most challenging thing for you while preparing training sessions at EPAM?
Simeon: Innovation is always a challenge. I ask myself, ‘If I am to attend the training, what would keep me interested in it, what would be the ‘wow’ moments to keep me engaged and hungry for more, what would be useful to practice, without being boring.’ Based on these, I develop games, talks, presentations, and practice sessions, keeping in mind the mantra: ‘Engage with the audience to influence a change.’

EPAM: What to your mind is the most interesting during your training sessions?
Simeon: Most of the games were fun. Probably the ‘out of the box thinking’ game ‘Still picture’ when we all used our bodies to create and evolve pictures. Very creative and cool scenes we got there.

EPAM: What changes have happened in your daily activities/personality after training conducting?
Simeon: Surprisingly, I had to cover the Product Owner role in the team for some time. (laughing)

EPAM: Your training has very good feedback from participants. What’s your personal secret for good training? How do you create a high-quality educational event?
Simeon: Innovation, a lot of practice and always sticking to ‘Deliver value in an easy-to-understand/practice and interesting way.’ The formula is useful + interesting(fun) = valuable.

EPAM: What inspires you for daily work and conducting trainings?
Simeon: I love sharing knowledge and experience and helping others growing.

EPAM: What would you recommend to trainers preparing their first training event?
Simeon: Delivery is everything (not materials, neither expertise, nor even the content). You have to inspire and keep it on emotional level to engage. Don’t copy anybody else style/materials/games. Try to come up with ‘your stuff’, delivered in ‘your way.’ We all value authenticity and passion more, compared to conservative (just logical) sharing of information.

EPAM: Do you plan to create new training sessions soon? What topics are you going to cover?
Simeon: There is demand for ‘Agile Scaling in Software Development’ and ‘Product Owner advanced’ we will cover soon.