The Golden Circle has three layers: why, how, and what. The “Why” layer is in the center, the “How” layer is the middle layer, and the “What” layer is the outermost layer. Influential companies, products, and leaders start with why, meaning they clarify and know the reason why they do what they do. We also commonly call this vision and mission. Ordinary companies, products, and people, on the other hand, start with what, how to develop products or services without vision or mission.
For example, Google's corporate vision is "to give people access to the world's brazil mobile numbers list information with a single click." Based on that vision, they developed the Google search engine, Google Drive, Google Maps, Gmail, etc. All of their products consistently point to their vision. They start with "why."
Ordinary companies, on the other hand, start with “what.” They start by saying, “We want to make more profits and AI is a trend now, so we created a product with AI.” However, money is not the reason (why) but the results (what). Simon Sinek expresses that the reason for the company’s existence is not money but its mission and vision. Since OpenAI created ChatGPT, numerous companies have suddenly launched AI services and products to move forward. However, most of them started with “what,” so their fate is already doomed. The current trend of AI is the same as the dot-com bubble, Lehman Brothers, and the rise of Bitcoin.
Ordinary companies and the golden circle
Leaders who start with why never give up. They are highly inspired by their reasons and believe that what they are doing is important to them and the world. Belief is the most critical factor to persevere. Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba and the richest man in China, is one of the best examples. When he founded Alibaba, he was told that his idea would not work and was rejected by over 30 investors. Even after raising funds, Alibaba did not make a profit for the first 3 years. However, he received many letters of appreciation from customers and believed that his mission was right. He is now recognized as one of the best leaders in the world.
Scrum Roles
Scrum defines only three essential roles : Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Developer, although software projects usually need more roles such as Tester, Business Analyst, Designer, etc. The Product Owner defines the product vision and is responsible for maximizing the value of the product through informed decisions. The Scrum Master implements Scrum to achieve higher performance by coaching, mentoring, teaching, and facilitating. Developers make progress based on the vision defined by the Product Owner and instructions from the Scrum Master. These three roles are exactly the same as Simon Sinek's Golden Circle.
Scrum Roles and Golden Circle
Scrum was born about three decades ago and Start with Why was published in 2009. Back then, Jeff Sutherland didn’t define these three roles based on the Golden Circle. However, he realized that these three essences are fundamental in software development based on his experience and in-depth research.
While most project leaders in waterfall management focus on technologies (developing) and strive to hire super engineers, Scrum defines the product owner to clarify why and the scrum master to define how, which are far more important to the team’s performance. As technologies are simply the tools to achieve the vision and deliver value to customers, they must look at the why and how, which is critical to the success of any project. This is one of the main reasons why Scrum outperforms waterfall management and has been used as the most popular agile framework for three decades.
Conclusion
Combining Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle theory with the Scrum roles provides a solid foundation for effective project management, focusing on the “Why” and “How” before getting to the “What,” which has been critical to Scrum’s continued popularity and success over the past three decades.