"This team delivers support and service beyond expectations! They are always friendly and supportive, provide constant updates on the status and expected time of response, and deliver with top-notch quality." 

When Sanna Fagerström and her team were nominated for the customers' Group IT Award 2023 with the above-mentioned motivation, she felt particularly proud of her team and the work they accomplished together 💎👏 Sanna Fagerström is one of Epical's talented consultants. She's working as a Scrum Master in our business area Digital Trust. Her great team from Epical consists of skilled security experts, developers, and solution architects.

Sanna lives in the countryside in Borås with her two teenage sons, her partner, two bonus kids, and their cats. In her spare time, she loves downhill skiing, and swimrun is a big passion during the summertime. She started her professional career at ICA Banken 16 years ago, and for the last three years she held the role of Scrum Master in a systems team. When a colleague of hers left the bank and started at Epical, Sanna was approached and asked if she would like to join Epical as well. After a couple of great meetings she felt brave enough to take the step of switching employers, and so her Epical journey began 🚀

A typical day for Sanna starts with a standup meeting with the team for a check-in. A key responsibility in her role is to be a servant leader, helping the team collaborate and removing obstacles. Other recurring tasks include planning sprints together, going through the backlog, planning the upcoming quarter, and having retrospectives to reflect on what went well and what can be improved next time.

One challenge Sanna faces in her role is getting to know a big team when they are working remotely. At Epical, colleagues are spread across Sweden and Finland, and client collaboration is most often done remotely (from home or Epical office). To overcome this challenge, Sanna schedules regular one-on-one meetings with her peers, and they've also visited each other’s offices a couple of times. She also tries to be open and build personal connections, for example, by asking colleagues about their weekends, etc. Sanna thinks it's easier to solve bigger issues and alleviate frustration if you have strong relationships 🤝

Working remotely can pose certain challenges, but it also contributes to a healthy work-life balance. The role of a Scrum Master can sometimes be hectic since you are the person pulling the strings. The way Sanna maintains a work-life balance while managing the demands of her role is by working from home a couple of days per week. During lunch breaks, she can prepare the dinner or a snack for the kids before soccer practice or take a relaxing walk in nature to clear her head. She thinks it's great to be able to balance life with kids together with work at Epical. 

We asked Sanna what motivates her to continue growing her career at Epical and taking on new challenges. She says that she loves learning new things which she is able to do in her role. Additionally, being able to go to a nice office (which is both modern and centrally located in Gothenburg) a couple of days per week and meet great Epical people motivates her each day 😃

Something Sanna has learned throughout her career, which has inspired her a lot, is the value of working in larger teams. Getting to know how people work and collaborate in different ways as well as seeing both her own and the team's development is something that has been truly inspiring 💫