Part 1: Three start-up prep models.

20 minutes: Team start-up starts with your homework as the person “starting them up.” This part of the session presents three models to use and when to use them:

Good enough - Come with what you know and what you’ve done before. Adjust to the team’s needs on the fly during the start-up

Insightful - Co-create the start-up with the product owner, agile coach and pertinent managers. Adjust your usual agenda to address what you “think” you are hearing. A list of useful questions and inquiries will be provided to the participants.

Targeted - Observe the team members and the larger organization in action before starting up a team. Know what to look for in the observation so that you discover “ills” you want to address with the start-up. Co-create the start-up with everyone - team members, product owner, agile coach, pertinent managers. One “formula” for doing this type of targeted start-up will be provided to the participants.

Part 2: Walk the agenda (sample agenda is below)

10 minutes: Present a typical start-up agenda. Talk about the purpose and value of the three sections of a start-up: Learning about the Process, Learning about Each Other and the Team, Learning about the Work Ahead.

10 minutes: Walk through the details of the “Learning about the Process” section of the agenda. Go through what activities and depth are added as you move from Good Enough, to Insightful, to Targeted. We may pause to play out a quick activity if that feels right.

20 minutes: Walk through the details of the “Learning about the Each Other and the Team” section of the agenda. Go through what activities and depth are added as you move from Good Enough, to Insightful, to Targeted. For this section, we will explicitly address the activities used to deepen the team members’ learning. I will bring examples from other start-ups to show and we will play out at least one activity for bonding as a team.

10 minutes: Walk through the details of the “Learning about the Work Ahead” section of the agenda. Go through what activities and depth are added as you move from Good Enough, to Insightful, to Targeted.

10 minutes: Wrap-up. Thought time for the participants: what one thing will you use from this in your next start-up?

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Sample agenda:

Learning about the process… Goal: Get the team members on the same page about what frameworks or processes they will use to get the work done; provide the foundation for working Agile. Activities are designed to help the team answer these questions: What is Agile? How does it work? What does it feel like to be self-organized? Will my company support this?

Learning about each other and the team… Goal: Get the team members relating as humans so that they can create a productive and energized team environment. Identify skill gaps and overlaps. Set the stage for team members to share work and become interdependent. Activities are designed to help the team answer these questions: Who are we as individuals? Who we are as a team? What skills, expertise, talents the team members bring? Are there any gaps? Overlaps? What to people want to get out of this experience? How can we, as a team, support that? Who are our external team members and what do they provide? What do they need from us? Who are our stakeholders? What do they want from us? What values do we hold, individually and collectively? What will our team norms be? (These are the “groundrules” for a focused and collaborative working environment and include things like sprint length, standup time as well as team values.)

Learning about the work ahead… Goal: Get the team members up to speed on the work that had come before (business case, research, etc) as well as the work that lies ahead. Create a sprint goal and get into action! Activities are designed to help the team answer these questions: What is the vision for the project? Why is it important? What does it mean to me? What are the things in the product backlog? What is missing? What is unclear? What is the information architecture (or any other infrastructure-type “standards”) the project will need to live within? What will be the goal for the first sprint? What stories will the team take in for the first sprint? What’s next? How do we get into ACTION?