Team Agreements and Purpose

Establishing a shared understanding of the team's agreements, identity, and purpose is crucial for fostering a cohesive and effective team. This involves defining the team's core values, clarifying the purpose behind their product, and establishing guidelines for collaboration.

Example

At a SaaS company like GitLab, the Product Manager might lead a team workshop focused on collectively defining the team's shared values, aligning on the team's purpose, and establishing working agreements. During a dedicated session in the team's weekly meeting, the Product Manager guides the discussion on decision-making processes and communication norms. To ensure efficiency, the Product Manager, along with the engineering manager, outlines high-level items in advance. The team covers topics such as what their team goals are, the product areas of focus, and current objectives for the quarter or month.

These objectives are directly tied to the projects, features, and improvements the team is working on, as well as the company's overarching objectives. The outline may also include details on team-wide meetings, Definition of Done agreements, agreeing to have every piece of work tracked with a ticket, and criteria for complete and detailed product and engineering tickets.

Pain Points

Ensuring that all team members feel heard and represented during the process of defining the team's identity, purpose, and agreements can be challenging. Regularly revisiting and updating these aspects is crucial to accommodate changes and support team growth.

Practical Exercise

Initiate a discussion with your team to define or reassess your team's identity, purpose, and agreements. Evaluate how well these align with your product goals and make any necessary adjustments.

Related Research Topics

• Team charter [ Google | Perplexity ]

• Value alignment [ Google | Perplexity ]

• Team-building exercises [ Google | Perplexity ]

• Team agreement [ Google | Perplexity ]

• Acceptance criteria [ Google | Perplexity ]

• Definition of done [ Google | Perplexity ]