Good question, I believe every developer have been struggled with that especially in the beginning of their career or starting in a new team.

One thing that made me wonder:

> Epic owners create tickets and they are presented to people. Whoever is interested in whatever tickets, they assign it to themselves...When these tickets are created, the creator assigns an estimated story point value based on their judgement of the complexity of the ticket.

Sounds like the creator estimates the task not you. Is that the case? If yes (I hope not), for me, this is totally wrong. Often it's hard to make estimations yourself when you know yourself very well and know what you are capable of. Now imagine if you have to do it for someone else. This guy should know you really well, better than you. So, someone is setting the pace for the entire team which I can't agree cause you aren't (most likely) at the same level. I can write a lot how wrong for me is this, so I hope this is not the case.

One idea, which adds to one of @Rama's suggestions - since the backlog typically is prepared in advance, check if you can prepare in advance about understanding of some of the tasks. See how good are you in each one of them and act fast later. If your have good relationship with the other team mates, ask them if you can pick those tasks before the planning :)

Software Engineer

Plamen Tsokov

Hello, thank you for your question.

I would recommend **Alex's Guide To Effective Communication [https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/hVdLQQzfslaYarLSCmmy/](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/hVdLQQzfslaYarLSCmmy/)**

This reminds me of a book **Surrounded by Idiots.** The book talks about 4 different types of behaviors presented as colors. Some of us are only one type, some of us mix few of them. It's worth reading it if you haven't already. These personalities sound like **reds/yellow**. How can you deal with them? Talking louder won't help, you can't change people as well (it will take a while at least :)). What Erikson (the author of the book) suggests is - leave them talk as much as they want. Then, just share your opinion with as few words as possible. This shouldn't discourage you or the others.

How to share opinion - "Don't view the situation as you vs them", "Try to weave their approach with yours". Alex gave great ideas here - <https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/EBkBhlTSwKp96MiHND2C/effective-communication-guide-part-4-resolving-disagreements/>

Dealing with **reds** - earn their trust and respect. Strong opinion is not the way. Actually, if you have more **reds** in the room it can lead to a conflict pretty easily. What can help is building a relationship - <https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/tyaPFMXPoz2pmzB7OVzt/how-to-build-deep-relationships-quickly-in-tech-12172022/> If you prove yourself against **red** you will earn their respect. But again, don't prove with having stronger opinion but with a hard work for example, giving great ideas, be friend with them, etc.