The One-Pager
Print-friendly PDF, formatted as a desk reference
What this is
A condensed Scrum reference I built while preparing for the Certified Scrum Product Owner exam. The official Scrum Guide is short but dense, and most beginner explanations are bloated and full of consultant jargon. This is the version I wished I had on day one: every role, every event, every artifact, on one page, in plain language.
Why it matters for EdTech work
Every product team I’ve researched at EdTech companies, from Instructure and Udemy down to small ed-AI startups, runs on some version of Scrum or a hybrid (often called Scrumban). The vocabulary is so embedded in interview conversations and job descriptions that not having it fluent at the tip of your tongue reads as inexperience, even if you’ve been doing the underlying work for years. This was my fluency drill.
The vocabulary at a glance
Sprint
A fixed time window, usually two weeks, in which a team commits to shipping a defined set of work.
Backlog
The full prioritized list of everything the product might eventually need. The PM owns it.
User Story
One unit of work, written from the user’s perspective. “As a [user], I want [thing] so that [outcome].”
Acceptance Criteria
The checklist that defines when a story is Done. Without it, “done” is a fight.
Sprint Planning
The meeting at the start of a sprint where the team decides what gets pulled in.
Daily Standup
15 minutes. What I did, what I’m doing, what’s blocking me. Status, not problem-solving.
Sprint Review
End of sprint demo. Stakeholders see working software, not slides.
Retrospective
The team-only meeting after Review. What worked, what didn’t, what we change next sprint.
Velocity
How many story points the team has historically completed per sprint. Used for forecasting.
How to use it
Print it. Pin it next to your desk for the first month. Cross-reference whenever a meeting invite shows up with a Scrum ceremony name in it. The PDF is the deliverable; this page is the rationale.