The Team Health Check is a specialised self- assessment tool for agile project teams who are looking to improve the way they work together to meet project outcomes.
Each team member can share openly and honestly whether they are in the same room or distributed around the world. Simple emoticon responses create a traffic light response to each dimension so you see the overall picture.
Instant, visual results can be sorted to better facilitate discussions, making it easier to run plays, develop growth strategies and address team impediments. Changes are tracked over time so that the team can see progression or identify new areas for improvement.
Team Health Check dimensions
The Team Health Check model uses a set of common dimensions that teams can use to evaluate and discover the current health of the team. Use these as standard or create your own set of dimensions to track.
Ownership
The team has clear ownership or a dedicated product owner who is accountable for team’s results and champions the mission inside and outside of the team.
Value
We can define, measure and deliver the value we provide to the business and the user.
Goal alignment
Everyone understands why they are here, supports the idea and believe they have what it takes to create solutions that add value.
Communication
We have clear and consistent communication that ensures that issues are shared, conflict is reduced, and everyone can work at greater efficiency.
Team roles
The current team skill set is right for the current stage and there are clear roles and responsibilities for each person in the team.
Velocity
We learn and implement lessons leading to incremental progress in iterations and production as we go.
Support and resources
We are equipped with the right tools and resources and can easily access support from within and outside the team.
Process
Our processes are aligned, effective and do not cause unnecessary delays and blocks. We have metrics in place to measure our goals.
Fun
We enjoy our work and working as a team. We are being challenged and can develop our skill set or acquire new ones.
How to create a Health Check in TeamRetro
Your template is ready to go
Under Health Checks, select the health check you’d like to complete. Decide if you want to survey the team anonymously, using aliases or openly.
Reveal and discuss the results
Your health check data is displayed showing the average response and tally of each response. Sort dimensions by most positive, negative or mixed responses to make discussions more meaningful.
Keep conversation on track with Presentation Mode
Switch to presentation mode to sync devices making it easier to facilitate and focus conversations. Capture comments and actions along the way.
Review your action plan
Assign action owners and set due dates for new items and review prior actions. This action list can be tracked, shared or integrated into your other workflow tools.
Share the results
Great work, you are all done! Share the results with your team via email, download and print or publish to tools like Jira, Asana and Trello. Results can be tracked in your dashboard.
Tips for running an effective Team Health Check
- Share and discuss the health dimensions as part of your first health check meeting.
- The best results come if people are honest, open and courageous. If you need something to help them get there, set your health check to be anonymous or use aliases.
- During the survey, people should be quickly, silently and independently sharing their ideas. This is not the time to try and solve the problem.
- Encourage open conversation by setting the cadence for discussion and having the right room for discussion.
- End with an agreed action plan, appreciation, and feedback for the next health check. Don’t forget, you can always create your own custom health check to track based on the dynamics and feedback of the team.