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eam ac
acti
tics
cs © 202
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ve Cu
Cunni
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m ac
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ed in the UK
UK..
T
Team
eam Tactics
Volume I
Written
W
ritten by
Da
ve Cunn
Cunningha
ingham.
m.
Illustrated
byDave
Michael
McDonald.
© David Cunningham, 2022. Published by Pip Decks.
Instructions
Instr
uctions
1. Read the eam Strategy System card to help you
determine which tactic to use.
2. Read the suggestions at the bottom of each card. You
may find there is a tactic that would be good to run
beforehand, or afterwards.
3. Follow the steps on the back of the card.
4. Check out the  Session cards. Tey suggest ways
ways to
string multiple tactics together to make a longer, more
in-depth workshop
workshop..
ip: give the deck – or one tactic in particular – to a group so
they can self-facilitate.
Join the Pip Decks community
Get help planning and running
runn ing tactics, and learn
from others building products and leading teams.
pipdecks.com/community
© 2022, Pip Decks
eam Strategy System
Have you defined the roles and
environment for your team?
No

Environment
Yes
Does your team know its
direction?
No

Direction
Yes
Does your team have the
No
support it needs?
Yes
Are you able to measure your
team’s health?

Support
No

Health
Yes
Are you helping your team
work better together?
No

Collaborate
Yes
Do your team know how to
share their work clearly?
Yes
pipdecks.com/teamtactics
pipdecks.com/team
tactics
No
Recogn
ogniti
ition
on
 Rec

Communicate
© 2022, Pip Decks
 Environment
Get into the teamwork mindset so you are all
setting off together.
 Direction
Show teams where they need to get to by working
out a clear
c lear vision, values and principles
pr inciples to get there.
 Support
Make sure your team doesn’t get lost along the way
by giving them the support they need to succeed.
 Health
Monitor
howyour
yourhelp
teams
are doing
you can see
clearly when
is needed
thesomost.
 Collaborate
Encourage your team to work together to help
them design better teams, products and services.
ser vices.
 Communicate
Encourage people to talk about their work, sharing
it early and with clarity to help foster trust.
 Recognition
Reward and recognise your teams, efforts to foster
a culture of appreciation.

Core
tactics to sort, decide, ask good questions and
echnique
set metrics.
pipdecks.com/teamtactics
pipdecks.com/team
tactics
© 2022, Pip Decks
Recipe
Build Psychological
Safety
Empower your team to take risks without feeling
insecure or embarrassed.
Te highest performing
perfor ming teams have one thing in
common: psychological safety – the belief that you
won’’t be punished when you make a mistake.
won
“Tere’s no team without trust” – Paul Santagata
Build Psychological
Safety
Psychological Safety
1.  One-to-One
Get to know your team
members’ individual needs.
2.  My User Manual
Learn how the individuals in
your team work best.
3.  Community of Practice
Create a safe space for likeminded people.
4. Inclusive Meeting Playbook
Make people feel part of
their meetings.
5.  Daily Sharing
Create a culture of sharing
early and often.
pipdecks.com/psychological-safety
pipdecks.com/psycho
logical-safety
© 2022, Pip Decks
Recipe
Become
Dependable
Build a strong and dependable team by understanding
its complex web of connections.
“Dependability is
i s more important than talent.
Dependability is a talent, and it is a talent all can have. It
makes no difference how much ability we possess if we are
not responsible and dependable.” – Floyd Bennett.
Become Dependable
Dependable
1.  
eam
eam Model
Modelling
ling
Set up your team around
common experiences.
2.  
eam
eam Circ
Circles
les
Create smaller teams to break down
silos, have better conversations and
shared responsibility.
3.  Roles and Responsibilities
Better understand each
others’ roles, and learn who is
responsible for what.
4.  Productivity Blueprint
Spend more time on highvalue design work, and less
time on low-value tasks.
5.  Ag
Agile
ile Comms
Comms
Communicate in small doses,
do ses,
frequently. Show the thing.
pipdecks.com/become-dependable
pipdecks.com/becom
e-dependable
© 2022, Pip Decks
Recipe
Bring Alignment
Connect the dots from vision to execution.
Save time and energy by making sure everyone knows
what they’
they ’re supposed to be doing and why.
why.
“When in doubt, check if your actions are aligned with your
purpose.” – Azim Jamal
Bring Alignment
1.  Design Vision
People don’t buy what you do,
they buy why you do it. Create a
shared design vision that inspires.
2.  Design Values
Instil values that help you
achieve your vision.
3.  
eam
eam Strateg
Strategyy
Help your team make decisions
and give purpose and the autonomy
needed to get stuff done.
4.  Design Principles
Empower your team to make
design decisions in their
everyday work.
5.  Decision Stack
Connect the dots from vision
to execution.
pipdecks.com/alignment
© 2022, Pip Decks
Recipe
Show Impact
Let your team know the impact they are having.
People naturally need to feel valued; they need to know
they are contributing to the overall
over all goals.
“Iff you can
“I
can’t’t measure it, you can’t
can’t improve
improve it.”
it.” – Peter Drucker.
Show Impact
1.  Onboarding Retro
Te feedback loop to improve
onboarding over time.
2.  Health Monitor
Let the team take an honest
look in the mirror. Monitor
progress over time.
3.  Design Maturity
Understand your team’s level
and where you want to go
go..
4.  Goal, Signal, Metric
Let your team know the impact
they are having.
5.  Attrition Rate
Understand if your people are
leaving for the right reasons.
pipdecks.com/show-impact
© 2022, Pip Decks
Environment
1‒2 hours
eam

eam Modelling
Model your teams on customer experience. Help remove
the silos that lead to poor services
ser vices and products.
Your team has spent weeks designing a new
Your
ne w product
page. Your customers love it, you predict a 50% increase
in sales. Meanwhile,
Meanwhile, the engineering
engineer ing team has increased
performance, but have removed a few
fe w features.
featu res. Te
freshly designed page will now cost way too much to
develop. If only your teams
te ams were set up to collaborate
col laborate as
standard, this would never
ne ver have happened!
happened!
ry
ry runni
running
ng op as
asks
ks beforehand, as it will help you with the first

part of the tactic. Afterwards, eam Circle to support collaboration.
eam Modelli
Modelling
ng
1. Look at the op as
asks
ks your customers or team have.
2. Discuss how you can group the tasks by user. For
example, a user searching for a product could be a buyer.
Somebody adding a product to the site could be a seller
seller..
3. Go through each task and map it to the ‘experience’
‘experience’
it affects, like so:
Buyer
Experience
Search/
Browse
Cart/
Checkout
Product
Page
Seller
Experience
Shipping
Sellerr ools
Selle
ools
4. Review your map and iterate it until you feel
confident you have all the customer journeys covered.
5. Use the types
t ypes of user experiences
exper iences (Buyer,
(Buyer, Seller etc.)
to form eam Circles.
ip: look for projects/areas that encourage cross-discipline
collaboration like Design System
System work (Designer
(Designer,, Developers,
Content Designers, User Researchers). Tis can help break
down silos.
pipdecks.com/team-modelling
pipdecks.com/team
-modelling
© 2022, Pip Decks
Environment
1‒2 hours
Roles and
Responsibilities
Understand each other’
other’ss roles better,
better, and learn who
w ho is
responsible for what.
Defining clear responsibilities prevents confusion
around hierarchy and expertise.
exper tise. It reduces duplicate
work and promotes better collaboration.
Works well with eam Circles to give a clear picture of how teams
Works
connec
con
nect.
t. r y eam Modelling before to help shape your teams.
Roles and Responsibilities
Responsibilities
1. On a large surface,
surface, such as a whiteboard, create
create a
column for each discipline within the team.
For example: Designer, Developer and Product Owner.
2. Create three rows: Do, Discuss, Decide.
3. On sticky notes, to build empathy – ask each person
to complete the three rows for the discipline of the
person sat to their left:
Do: what are the core activities of their discipline?
Discuss: what do they discuss with the wider team?
Decide: what are they responsible for deciding?
4. In turn – stick up, share and discuss what has been
written down.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4, but this time with the
participant’’s own discipline to help create clarity
participant
clarit y.
6. As a group, move, refine and add sticky notes until
everyone is happy with the roles and responsibilities.
Designer
Developer
Product Owner
Do
Discuss
Decide
pipdecks.com/team-roles
pipdecks.com/team
-roles
Origin: Lee Connolly, 2019.
© 2022, Pip Decks
Environment
1‒2 hours
eam
eam Charter
Charter

Set your ground rules to bond the team and build a
shared understanding and commitment.
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”
- Helen Keller.
Works well with eam Circles to give a clear picture of how teams
Works
connect. Define you Roles and Responsibilities after.
eam Charter
1. Draw the following on a large surface:
eam Name:
People &
Roles
Date:
Goals
Values
Rules &
Activities
Purpose
Personal
Goals
Strengths
& Assets
Needs &
Expectations
Weaknes
eaknesses
ses &
Risks
2. As a team fill out the form as such:
People and Roles: the names and the roles of the team.
Purpose: the why behind your goals (Start With Why).
Goals: the goals for the whole team (eam Strate
St rategg y).
Personal Goals: the goals of individuals in the team.
Values:
V
alues: the core values that you share ( eam Values).
Needs & Expectations: the needs and expectations from the team.
Rules & Activities: how you are going to communicate, make
decisions, execute and give feedback
f eedback (Ritual Reset).
Strengths & Assets: things that will move you for
f orward.
ward.
Weaknesses
W
eaknesses & Risks: things that will stop you.
3. Review and revise ever
everyy three months. r y doing a
Retro on your team charter to see if it’s helping.
ip: share your team charters in an open space to encourage
people outside of the team to
to learn more about you.
pipdecks.com/team-charter
pipdecks.com/team
-charter
© 2022, Pip Decks
Environment
1‒2 hours
eam

eam Circles
Circles
Create smaller teams to break down silos, create
meaningful conversations and shared responsibility
responsibilit y.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos famously instituted a rule:
every internal team should be small enough that it can be
fed with two
tw o pizzas. A smaller team spends less time
keeping people up to
t o date, and more time doing what
needs to be done.
ry
ry running
r unning eam Modelling beforehand, as it will
wil l help you with
w ith

the first part of the tactic. After
Afterwards
wards use Agile Comms to help
your teams keep informed.
eam Circles
1. Invite your team and those who can help
connect the dots of your workplace.
2. Draw three concentric circles and label
Involved, Core team.
them; Informed, Involved,
3. Using the following prompts, plot your team circle:
Core team – up to nine people
• A multi-dis
multi-disciplinary
ciplinary team focused on a shared goal.
• Daily communi
communication.
cation.
• Inc
Includes:
ludes: designers, engineers, PMs etc.
Involved team – up to 12 people
• Acros
Acrosss multiple teams and bring specialist knowledge
when
wh
en ne
need
eded
ed..
• Communication as needed. Regular
Regularly
ly updated on progress
using Agi
Agile
le Co
Comm
mmss oorr Lea
Leann Up
Upda
dattes.
• Includes: Related teams, subject matter experts, policy etc.
Informed team – up to 24 people or teams
• Te connectors of dots across the organisation/company.
• Involved fortnightly and for changes in direction
direction..
• Includes: leadership, steering groups, wider organisation etc.
4. Follow up with eam Charter and R
Rooles and
Resspon
Re
onsi
sibi
bili
liti
ties
es. Set your team’s rituals using  Ri
Ritua
tuall Re
Rese
set.
t.
ip: display your eam
eam Circles
Circles to connect teams that regularly collaborat
collaborate.
e.
pipdecks.com/team-circles
pipdecks.com/team
-circles
© 2022, Pip Decks
Direction
1‒2 hours
Design Principles
Empower your team to make design decisions with
clear concise principles to apply in everyday work.
Design principles are simple: they enable you to make a
design decision. W hen writing
w riting a principle, ask yourself:
will this help me make a design
de sign decision? If it doesn’
doesn’t,
get rid of it.
For example:
Good: one primary action per screen.
Bad: keep the number of actions per screen to a minimum.
Run Productivit
Productivityy Blueprint beforehand to determine who to
invite. Use Communication Matrix afterwards.
Design Principles
P rinciples
1. Use Pr
Productivity
oductivity Blueprint to determine the people who
are involved in making design decisions for your project.
Invite them to the session.
2. Individually
on sticky
notes,
notes,
write down
theorganisation
the
ingredients
ingredients
required for good
design
to happen
in your
For example: design and test your work with real people.
3. Teme Sort to group the answers and name them.
4. Create a grid with your theme names and answers at the
top, and people in the session down the left.
Teme (a)
Teme (b)
Teme (c)
Principle
Participant
name 1
...
5. Ask your team to write a summary for each theme in their row
row.
For example:
example: observe
observe behaviour and gather evidence.
evidence. Work
Work with
subject experts and existing research. Do not rely on hunches.
6. Use Blind Vote
Vote to determine the group’s favoured principles.
7. Use prompts from Write in Plain English to write your
final draft, make posters, share in a doc. See how they work
in Design Crits sessions, amend and do a Retro.
ip: make your principles practical. Keep to 6 – 8 principles at most.
You can print
print a good principle on a mug. Keep them short.
pipdecks.com/design-principles Origin: Sakichi oyoda, 1930.
© 2022, Pip Decks
Direction
1‒2 hours
Decision
n Stack
Stack
Decisio
Connect the dots from vision to execution.
W here are you going? How will you get there?
Where
Use this framework to help you tell the world about
your team’
team’s intentions. By identifying gaps in your
strategy, you can create alignment and give your team
guided autonomy to do their best work.
If you have gaps in your Decision Stack, try: Design Vision, 
eam Strategy, Design Principles
P rinciples, OKRs.
Decision Stack
1. Gather the vision, strategy, principles and objectives from
around your business.
Vision
Strategy
2. Sketch out the frame of
Decision
Stack
the
fill in
any gaps
youand
can.
3. Discuss each section using
these prompts:
Objectives
Objectives
Opportunities
Opportunities
Principles
Vision (Where we are going)
Is it customer centric? Concise and clear? Does it set an
audacious goal? Does it avoid detail?
Strategy (How we get there)
Is it based on current reality? Does it tackle challenges? Does
it outline values to your customers? Include coherent actions?
Emphasises focus over compromise?
Objectives (Our measurable steps)
Are they qualitative and inspirational? ime bound? Actionable?
Opportunities (Te best bets)
Are these your riskiest assumptions?
assumptions? Will they bring the
most impact?
Principles (Help make design decisions)
Do they allow you to make decisions? Do they describe how you
waant to build your product? Are they specific to your company?
w
4. Decide who to share your Decision Stack with using
Communication Matrix.
ip: It’
It ’s okay to have Decision Stacks for different
differe nt teams, although
ultimately they should be aligned.
pipdecks.com/decision-stack
pipdecks.com/decision-st
ack
Origin: Martin Eriksson
© 2022, Pip Decks
Direction
1‒2 hours
Design Visio
ision
n
Create a shared design vision to inspire and give
high-level guidance to your design teams.
People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.
Your
Y
our vision should make your team want to get out
ou t of
bed in the morning.
“Te vision is a stake in the sand with a giant flag on it, big
enough for everyone
ever yone on the team to see and march towards.”
- Jared Spool.
ry
ry eam Modelling and eam Circles to establish©your
team.

2022, Pip Decks
Pipdecks.com
Design Vision
1. Tink about the impact that your team’
team’s work
will have on your users’ lives in 12 months’ time.
Individually spend time answering these questions:
• By choosing our
ou r product/service,
product/ser vice, our users (people)
will have the ability
abilit y to... (the change)
How will their lives have changed? What will they be
able to do that maybe they can’t do now?
• If we achieve the above, how will our users feel? (emotion)
Will they be happy,
happy, stress-f
stress-free
ree or satisfied?
2. Teme Sort your answers and discuss the themes.
3. Y
You
ou should now have the ingredients to write
w rite a
design vision. Use your elements of emotion, people,
and the change to build your vision.
For example, eam actics could be:
We bring confidence (emotion) to leaders (people) by creating
autonomous, fulfilled and motivated teams (the change).
4. Now say it out loud: does it sound awkward? (Revise
it). Memorable? (Good). Like a person would say in
a normal conversation? (Perfect).
(Perfect).
5. Align your Design Vision with your strategy
strateg y,
objectives and principles using Decision Stack.
pipdecks.com/design-vision
© 2022, Pip Decks
Direction
1‒2 hours
Frame the Problem
Work
W
ork out what we are looking to achieve.
Are we certain we are working on the right problem?
Do we have all the research we need to understand it
fully? Do we all understand the problem the same way?
Framing the problem brings clarity that makes taking
the correct action easier.
“If I have an hour to solve a problem, I’
I ’d spend 55 minutes
thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about
the solution” ‒ Albert Einstein.
Use Agil
Agilee Co
Comm
mmss to communicate your plan early and often.
Afterwards
Im
forward.
Impac
pactt Effo
Effort
rt Ma
Mapp to decide which ideas to©take
2022, Pip Decks
Pipdecks.com
Pipdecks.com
© 2022, Pip Decks
Frrame the Problem
F
Problem
As a group
group,, discuss and answer these questions:
1. Why are we doing this work? What problem does it solve?
What is our motivation?
For example: we want to change how people travel.
2. Who are our users? W
Who
ho do we think would benefit from
from
using this product or service?
For example: people who have to travel long distances frequently.
3. What outcome will our users get from this ser
service?
vice?
What problem will it solve for them?
For example: they will spend less time travelling and arrive fresher
f resher..
4. What outcome are we looking for? Will it solve a problem?
What will it solve for our organisation?
For example: remove the risk of being stuck in a dwindling market.
5. What are
are our key metrics? What do
do we
we need
need to mea
measur
suree
against these outcomes?
For example: reduction in time travel
t ravel,, income from
f rom sales of
flying machines.
ip: constantly refer back to and iterate
iterate your answers. Store them
in an accessible document. Tey give clear reasoning and constraints
const raints
that support prioritisation.
ip: understanding your stakeholder’s
stakeholder’s or client’
client ’s motivation early is key.
How committed to this work and supporting the team are they? Has this
work been forced upon them? What outcomes are they seeking?
pipdecks.com/frame-problem
pipdecks.com/fram
e-problem
Ben Holliday, 2015
© 2022, Pip Decks
Direction
1‒2 hours
Lean Ward
ardle
leyy
Mapping
Evolve your team’
team’s practice by finding the most
valuable parts
parts to focus working on.
Make a list of the parts that enable your team to function,
then identify if they are fragile or robust to reveal highvalu
va
luee ar
area
eass of op
oppo
portu
rtuni
nity
ty to evo
evolv
lvee you
ourr te
team
am..
“Crossing the river by feeling the stones.” – Deng Xiaoping.
Works
orks well with op ask
W
askss.
Lean Wardley
Wardley Mapping
1. List out: 1 user, 1 need
and 3 ‒ 5 capabilities:
c apabilities:
Designer
Complete project
Capabilities enable a
need to be fulfilled.
Project brief
Access to research
Collaborate with developers
2. Arrange your list as a
value chain. Use arrows
arrows
to denote “depends
on” relationships. For
example: a complete
project depends on a
project brief, which
depends on access to
research, etc.
Designer
Complete project
Project brief
Access to research
Collaborate with developers
3. Plot each element of your value chain in one of the four
stages of evolution that make sense to you.
Designer
Visible
Complete project
Access to
research
Invisible
Project brief
Collaborate
with developers
Chaos
Emerging
Common
Standardised
Expected failure,
poorly understood.
Beginning to implement,
progress can be shown
Implemented and
being improved
Well
W
ell defined, stable
and impactful
4. Choose a part (e.g. access to research) you’d like to evolve. Use
F
Foorc
rcee Fi
Fieeld An
Anal
alys
ysis
is to assess the size of the challenge.
pipdecks.com/lean-wardley
Origin: Simon Wardley
© 2022, Pip Decks
Direction
1‒2 hours
Force Field Analysis
Make balanced decisions together by ranking the fors
and againsts.
Have you ever made a pros and cons list? Ten
you’ll know that some pros or cons have a lot more
influence on the decision
de cision than others. Even seemingly
simple decisions can soon become complicated. You
need a system
sy stem to facilitate the conversation, unearth
perspectives, and make decisions together.

ry
ry op as
asks
ks or Lean Wardley
Wardley Map before to explore what you
can change. Use Get Buy In after
afterward
wards.
s.
Force
F
orce Field Analysis
1. Draw out this diagram without the arrows (we’ll add
those in with the team).
Forces for cchhange
4 3 2 1
Forces against change
1 2 3 4
Your goal
or change
Score: 11
Score: 8
2. W
Write
rite down your goal or change in the middle
midd le box.
3. Individually list the forces for change and Teme Sort.
Consider: who will support the change? What business benefit will this
change deliver? What is the motivation for this change? Examples:
Amir is free
f ree on Fridays to lead this; it will save £xx; we have a high
attrition rate
rate..
4. List all the forces against change and Teme Sort.
Consider: who will do it? What other work do we have in progress?
How long will this take? Examples: we don’t have enough people to
prioritise
priori
tise this; Project X is sta
starting
rting soo
soon;
n; it will
will cost
cost £xx; Isla has tried
this before and doesn’t think it can work.
5. Score and add up the fors
fors and then the againsts.
6. Discuss the scores and decide whether to move

for
forward
ward
change.
to go
fo rwith
for
ward.the
If you
needUse
a newWho,
team,What,
use When
eam
Circles to help form it.
pipdecks.com/force-field
Force
orce Field Analysis, 1951
F
© 2022, Pip Decks
Direction
1‒2 hours
eam

eam Values
W hile your team vision gives your employees a
While
destination, your team values will help them forge the
path to get there.
Starbucks focussed their values around spaces with
comfortable chairs, lots of power outlets, tables and desks
at which we can work. Te coffee was incidental.
incidental. Find
the values your team really works to, and the rest will fall
into place.
Afterwards use eam Charter to share the who, why and the what
of your team.
eam Values
1. As a group, discuss the following questions, then
spend 10 minutes individually answering them:
• W hat values will help us to go further?
our passion to get to the root of our users’ problem has
For
led toexample:
great products.
• W hat values do people show that inspire you the
most in our team?
For example: being brave and saying no has helped us to focus.
• W hat differentiates our team from other teams?
For example: we are curious about how everything works.
2. Use Teme Sort to group the answers by values.
Ten Blind Vote
Vote to decide the values you’d
like to keep.
3. Create a grid
gr id with your Value
Value name and answers at
the top, and participants down the left.
4. Ask
te
amprompts
to write from
a summary
summar
y forineach
value
in .
theiryour
row. team
Use
Write
Plain
English
For example: for the value ‘Customer focussed’
focussed ’ – focus on the user and
all else will follow.
5. Use Blind Vote
determ ine the favoured values.
values.
Vote to determine
6. Do a Lean Presentation
P resentation or Agile Comms to
share
widely
. Review
the values every
ever y few months by
doingwidely.
a Retro
.
pipdecks.com/design-team-values
pipdecks.com/design-t
eam-values
Origin: Alan Cooper, 1999
© 2022, Pip Decks
Direction
1‒2 hours
Sta
tart
rt wi
with
th W hy
Inspire action by finding and communicating your
team’’s “why
team
“why”?
”?
How are you driving people to take action? Are you
inspiring them, or are you manipulating them? Are they
doing it because they want to do it, or are they doing it
because they fear what may happen if they don’t?
“G reat companies don’t
“Great
don’t hire skilled people and motivate
them, they hire already motivated people and inspire them.”
– Simon Sinek
ry
ry Get Buy In before hand to hear people’s concerns. Use Agile

Comms and Lean Presentations to communicate as you go.
Start with Why
1. Draw three concentric
circles and label them;
What, How and Why.
2. As a group discuss: why
does your product, ser
service
vice
or team exist?
For example: Uber: transportation as reliable as running
ru nning water,
water,
everywhere for everyone.
3. Individually write down your ‘whys’. Use Teme
Sort to group similar answers.
4. Discuss the themes. Use Blind Vote
Vote to decide.
Prompts: where did the ‘whys’ come from? Are they really the reason
why we exist?
5. 
ogether
ogether,, fill in the How and What of the Why.
How: explain how something is different or better.
For example: Uber – we provide affordable, safe and reliable transport
that creates a dependable income for drivers.
What: describe the products or services your
company sells or the job function.
For example: Ub
Uber
er – we provide a great axi
axi service.
ser vice.
6. Consi
Consider
der trying
tr ying Bring Alignment to connect the
dots further.
pipdecks.com/start-with-why
pipdecks.com/st
art-with-why
Origin: Simon Sinek
© 2022, Pip Decks
Direction
1‒2 hours
eam

eam Strateg
Strategyy
Help your team make decisions, and give them
purpose and the autonomy needed to get stuff done.
Aligning your team’s strategy to existing company
goals is not only important, but essential for the
organisation to pull in the same direction. W hen the
direction is clear – you’re happy, your team is happy,
and so is your organisation.
“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” – Antoine de
Saint-Exupéry
ry
ry  Get Buy In beforehand to hear people’s concerns. Use  Agile

Comms and  Lean Present
Presentations
ations to communicate as you go.
St rateg
ategyy
eam Str
1. W
Write
rite down a situation
situation you want to
to change with your
your team.
For example: improve design/engineering handovers.
2. How are we going to get there? Write down all the most
immediate tasks you could do to change that.
For example: invite engineers to Des
Design
ign Cri
Crits
ts..
3. What will be different when we get there?
there? Look through
the tasks from Q2 and ask ‘why?’. Write two of the whys.
For example: we’ll spot issues earlier, cutting down on repeat work.
4. Where are you going? For the above sentence,
‘why?’ and add on another sentence. sentence, ask again
For example: improve internal collaboration
collaboration to give us more time
to focus on what matters.
5. Summarise your answers from Q1-Q4 in the following order.
Use Write Plain English to help.
• Where you are going? Improve collaboration
collaboration so we can focus on
what matters to our users.
• What will be different when we get there? Minimal repeat work.
change? Improve design/engineer hand overs.
• What do we need to change?
• How are we going to get there? Invite devs to De
Desi
sign
gn Cr
Crit
itss
6. From the bottom, work through each statement and discuss
‘the why’. Revisit the questions until the answers align.
Follow up by setting OKRs. Use De
Deci
cisi
sion
on St
Stack
ack for further
alignment and F
For
orce
ce Fi
Fiel
eldd An
Anal
alys
ysis
is for feasibility.
pipdecks.com/team-strategy
pipdecks.com/team
-strategy
© 2022, Pip Decks
Support
1 hour
One-to-One
Guide your team members to set goals they are
motivated to achieve. Understand where they are now
and where they want to be.
Getting to know the needs of your team members will
allow you to open up opportunities for them to achieve
their goals.
“Motivation is the single most important factor in any sort
of success.” – Edmund Hillary.
ry

ry My User Manual to help remove friction in
i n relationships.
One-to-One
1. W
Writ
ritee th
thre
reee he
head
adin
ings
gs:: Hard skills, Soft Skills and Personal Goals
on a large surface. For each, ask your mentee to write down as
many skills/goals as they can think of related to their practice.
For example:
a. Hard Skills
b. Soft Skills
c. Personal Goals
• Learning agile practices • Active listening
• Getting a promotion
listening
• Holding team to account • Influencing stakeholders
stakeholders
• Semantic code
• Better collabor
collaboration
ation
2. Choose 3 to 6 items from each list that you’d like to focus on.
Tesse ar
Te
aree str
tret
etch
ch goa
oals
ls.. If you ar
aree go
goin
ingg to do th
thee th
thin
ingg an
anyw
yway
ay,,
choose something else.
3. Draw three large circles
with five rings. Plot where
you are now
now and where you
want to be, with 5 being,
“I’’m completely new to this”
“I
and 1 meaning, “I could
teach this”.
4. Choose one item you’d like
to focus on. Set OKRs
and discuss every two weeks.
ips:
• Work gets busy, don’t cancel this one-to-one meeting.
• Share learnings across the company to encourage collaboration.
collaboration.

good place
to do this.
Community
of Practices
regular feedback
using aare
format.
• Give
aRetro
• If th
thin
inggs get tr
tric
icky
ky,, try Ac
Acco
coun
unttab
abiili
lity
ty Di
Dial
al.
pipdecks.com/one-to-one
pipdecks.com/one-t
o-one
© 2022, Pip Decks
Support
1 hour
My User Manual
Help your team understand how they can best work
with you and each other.
other.
Getting people’s
people’s working preferences out in the open
ope n
early will help remove friction between team members.
A User Manual can help create an environment that
promotes healthy working relationships.
“Culture is not in ‘support’
‘support’ of strat
strategy
egy;; it is strategy” –
Adam Bryant
Works
orks well with One-to-One for more effective conversations.
W
My User Manual
Manual
1. Before the meeting, have each team member
complete a rough first draft
dr aft of their user manual,
ready to share with the team. Give them the
following prompts to help:
• My best working patterns
patterns look
look like...
• My absolute
absolute requirements to
to do great work are...
• Te best
best way to give
give me feedback is...
• When I’m
I’m dealing with stress,
stress, I...
• Beyond work, I ’m really passionate
passionate about...
2. Split into pairs for 5 minutes. ake turns to ask
questions about their partner’s manual.
3. Go around the group asking each person to talk
about their partner for 1 minute.
m inute. Tey could talk
about: something that was new to them, something
they had in common or something they liked.
4. Use what you learn here to guide your One-to-Ones
and use eam Charter to connect the wider team.
5. Share your manuals in an open space, such as your
email signature or internal org chart.
ips: when new people start, ask them to create a user
manual in their first 90 days. Share user manuals when
kicking off a new project.
pipdecks.com/user-manual
pipdecks.com/usermanual
Origin: Adam Bryant, 2013.
© 2022, Pip Decks
pipdecks.com/user manual
Support
Origin: Adam Bryant, 2013.
© 2022, Pip Decks
1 hour
Circcle of Influence
Cir
Focus your energy and attention where it counts.
Highlight the things that you can influence. As you focus
on things within your Circle of Influence, it will expand.
“I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of
my decisions.” – Dr Stephen R. Covey

ry
ry Lean Wardley
Wardley Map beforehand to explore the environment,
and op ask
askss to consider what to influence.
Circle of Influence
1. Draw three concentric circles and label them from
the outside: Concern, Influence, Control.
Circle of Concern – a range of worries
that we cannot yet do anything about
Circle of Influence – the worries we can
directly or indirectly do something about
Circle of Control – the worries we
can directly do something about
2. Decide on the topic you’d like to focus
focus on and write
w rite
it at the top of the circles.
3. Ask the group to write
w rite all their areas of concern.
Group the areas using Teme Sort.
For example: designers are feeling isolated; an unclear
design vision; inconsistent user interface; stakeholders
not involved.
4. Discuss each area of concern and consider:
Can we influence this? If so, move it to Influence.
Do we control this? If so, move it to Control.
5. Blind Vote
Vote to choose an area of focus. It’s better to
start small, so change is more likely to happen.
6. 
r
r
y
using
F
to
dig
deeper
into
Force
orce
Field
Analysis
the area. Get Buy In can help with influence.
pipdecks.com/influence
Stephen Covey 1989
© 2022, Pip Decks
Support
1 hour
Maker ime
Help your team spend time practicing their craft.
A single meeting can disrupt a whole afternoon. Get
deeper work done by committing to a Maker’s Schedule.
Maker’ss Schedule
Maker’
Manager’ss Schedule
Manager’
Work
Work
Lunch
Work
Meeting
vs.
Work
Lunch
Meeting
Work
Improve productivity with Ritual Reset. r
r y Productivit
Productivityy
wa ys of working.
worki ng. If maker
maker time starts to slip
slip,, use
Blueprint to improve ways
Lean Wardley
Wardley Map to examine your landscape.
Pipdecks.com
© 2022, Pip Decks
Maker ime
1. In a group setting, ask each person to look at their
calendar and find a typical 4-week block that is
representative of their working life.
2. Add the number
numbe r of hours
hours you'd spend ‘practising
‘practising
your craft’
craft ’ in a typical
ty pical week to a grid, as shown
below. Round up or down to the nearest hour.
Mon
AM
PM
2
ues
Wed
1
1
1
Turs
Fri
4
4
3. Discuss your week with the group.
Are there any patterns? When are the most and least
productive times?
4. Add up your total hours per week and calculate the
percentage of maker time for the group.
otal

otal
no. of everyone’
ever
yone’ss
working
hours
× 100 = Maker time %
otal no. of
otal
Hours in the
×
people in group
working week
5. Set OKRs on the maker time percentage you’d
like to achieve.
achie ve. Consider doing a Ritual Reset to
clear calendar space.
ip: calculate what the cost savings would be on recruitment
if your team achieved the maker time percentage.
pipdecks.com/maker time
© 2022, Pip Decks
Support
1‒2 hours
Ritual Reset
Reflect on and re-evaluate your team meetings and
processes to create more space for what matters.
“If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the
human race has not achieved, and never will
wi ll achieve, its
full potential, that word would
woul d be ‘meetings’
meetings’.”
.” – Dave
Barry
Works
orks well with Maker ime to help people do their craft. And
W

Inclusive Meetings to get the most out of your time. © 2022, Pip Decks
Pipdecks.com
Ritual Reset
1. W
Write
rite down a list of all
al l the current rituals within the
group, for examp
example:
le: StandStand-ups,
ups, Show and ells,
ells,
Community of Practice.
2. Draw the following on a large board and ask the
team to add all
all their rituals.
r ituals. If you need extra
ex tra rows
or columns it’s fine to add them.
One-to-one
Part team
Full team
Company wide
Daily
Weekly
Fortnightly
Monthly
Quarterly
3. Ask the team to Blind Vote
Vote which rituals could be
removed completely.
4. Discuss each of the voted-for rituals, considering:
what was the purpos
purposee of the ritua
ritual?
l? Is
Is anybody
anybody lik
likely
ely
to miss important information if it is removed? What
are the reasons for keeping this ritual?
5. For the rituals you agree on removing, use Who,
What, When? to make it happen.

6. Use
Inclusive
Meetings to dig into the meetings
that need
to be improved.
pipdecks.com/ritual-reset
Health

© 2022, Pip Decks
1 hour
Health Monitor
Keep track of your teams’ health to learn when and
where they need support.
support.
Research by Oxford University shows happy workers
are 13% more productive. Measuring the little things
that keep your team happy helps you discover patterns
over time. It helps you fix what you can control, and
mitigate risk on what you can’t.
Run your health checks in person or using a survey.
Find templates at pipdecks.com/healthmonitor
Works
orks well with Onboarding Retros, and Design Maturity
Maturit y.
W
Monitor your Attr
Attrition
ition Rate alongside health.
Health Monitor
Monitor
1. Ask your team to rate each question using a traffic
light system of red, amber and green:
Myself
My ea
eam
m
• I feel safe sharing my thoughts
• I know what is expected of me
• I can make decisions on my own
own
• I’m delivering value
• I’m learning and growing
• I feel listened to
• I get
get support when I need it
• Responsibilities are clear
• We work at a good speed
• It
It’’s fun to work with the team
• We communic
communicate
ate well
Te Work
• Te vision for our work is clear
• We have a clea
clearr, shareab
shareable
le roadmap
• We get stuff done without delays
• Our work is delivering value
• We focus on our customers’ needs
• Workflows are unders
understandab
tandable
le and shared
• We’re proud of the qualit
qualityy of our work
2. Review the results, paying attention to the reds. What
is causing them to be red? Has something changed?
3. Use Re
Rese
sear
arcch Qu
Queest
stio
ions
ns to explore areas to improve.
Use Who, What, When to ensure issues are acted upon.
4. Follow up by discussing issues in your
your Community
of Practic
Practicee.
pipdecks.com/health-check
pipdecks.com/health-c
heck
Health

© 2022, Pip Decks
1 hour
Onboarding Retros
Monitor your onboarding process; improve it over
time. Help people feel part of your team from day one.
According to LinkedIn, almost a quarter
quar ter of people have
have
decided they are going to leave their role within the
first 45 days. Te cost of employee turnover is generally
a lot higher
higher than people account for
f or.. It pays to give your
onboarding process constant attention.
“It usually takes 8–12 weeks to replace a knowledgeable worker,
worker,
and then another month or two before the replacement gets to full
productivity mode.” – Stephen King,
King, GrowthForce
GrowthForce
Use alongside Health Monitor to unearth problems in individual
teams. Monitor your Attr
Attrition
ition Rate alongside health.
Onboarding Retros
It can be stressful starting a new job. You can go from
knowing everybody and how everything works, to
knowing one person and how nothing works.
1. Book a session with new folk 4 weeks
weeks after they start.
2. Write down ‘When you first heard about the job’ on the
left of a piece of paper
paper,, and ‘today’
‘today’ on the right.
3. Ask your
your new starter to talk you
you through each step
from then to today.
4. W
Write
rite dow
down
n each
each step
step as they
they talk,
talk, alon
alongg with
with any
any
pain points or ideas to improve.
5. Once you have reached ‘today’, ask the participant to
review the steps and add anything you missed.
6. Collate your onboarding retros on a digital board or
document and combine into a master journey.
7. Review the onboarding retros and create an
onboarding checklist for your team. Use Who,
What, When to make sure it is followed.
ip: consider doing a Lean Survey
Surve y to form a data set around
onboarding. For example: ask, “How long did it take before you knew what
was expected from you? 1 day, 1 week, 2 weeks, 4 weeks”, or “I am not sure
what is expected of me”. Use the data to show progress
prog ress over time.
asks
Pain Points
Ideas
pipdecks.com/onboarding
© 2022, Pip Decks
Health
30 mins

Attrition Rate
Get the data to anticipate turnover, act to retain key
employeess and recruit
employee
recruit new ones way ahead of time.
Studies show that many people leave their jobs for
similar reasons, such as lack of development, poor
leadership or culture. Paying attention
atte ntion to the basics
and cultivating an environment people want to work in
starts with objectively measuring how you are doing.
For signals on why people might be leaving, use with Design Maturity
Maturit y,
Health Monitor, Onboarding Retro. Use Get Buy In to keep
your team informed about problems as they happen
Attrition
R ate
Attrition Rate
1. Calculate your current attrition rate using this formula:
Annual Attrition Rate =
(# of Leavers/# of Employees) × 100
So if you had 40 people leave a team of 200 people
in one year, your calculation would be:
(40/200) × 100
Annual Attrition Rate = 20%
If your attrition rate is nearing
near ing 20%, this could
indicate problems. According to Monster
Monster,, the
average attrition rate
r ate in the UK is 15%, but for some
disciplines – like design – it is often
ofte n higher.
higher.
2. o unearth problems, run a Health Monitor
Monitor.
ips:
• Keep people motivated with Goal, Signal, Metric.
• r
rack
ack your attrition
at trition rat
ratee monthly.
• Split your rate into categories such as voluntary (employee
chose to leave) and involuntary (employee dismissed).
• Keep a close eye on specific groups
g roups leaving by recording,
gender,, ethnicity and age.
gender
pipdecks.com/attrition-rate
Health

© 2022, Pip Decks
1‒2 hours
Design Maturity
Understand what your team’
team’s design
desig n maturity
matur ity level
le vel
is today,
today, and where you want to go in the short
shor t and
long-term.
Research shows the best design performers increase
their revenue and shareholder returns at nearly twice
the rate of their industry counterparts. Remember
that the people aren
aren’’t being assessed for
for maturity
maturit y ; the
organisation is.
Afterwards,
wards, set clear goals using Goal, Signal, Metric. Be sure to
After
Get Buy In from the people who can help or hinder you.
Design Maturit
Maturityy
Identify which of the four stages your team is at and try
tr y the suggested
tactics to help you level-up to the next stage. Be sure to  Get Buy In
from the people who can help or hinder you.
Stage 1: non-design
Tings are produced by people who aren’
aren’t experienced designers.
• Show real people using the ser
service
vice or product. Use Lean
Presentation
Present
ation to tell the story.
• Use Re
Ressearch Qu
Queestions to assess their current understanding of design.
• Build Psy
Psycho
chological
logical Safety within your immediate team.
Stage 2: design as styling
Design is about aesthetic. It is given to a designer to make something
look nice at the end.
• RunBe
Beco
come
me De
Deppen
enda
dabl
blee to help set up the teams ways of working.
Stage 3: design as process
Solutions are driven by customer-centric problems and collaboration
from multiple teams.
• Be intentional with where the team are going by runni
running
ng a
Alignment
nt session.
Bring Alignme
Stage 4: design as strategy
Design is embraced and plays a part in shaping the overall business
concept and future vision of the company.
• Show Impact and work in the open usingAgile Comms
Comms.
Set clear goals usingGoal, Signal, Metric. Review quarterly using a
Retro to check your progress.
pipdecks.com/maturity
Danish Design Centre (DDC)
(D DC) in 2003
Collaborate
© 2022, Pip Decks
1‒2 hours
Community of
Practice
Break down silos by creating a safe space for people
who share a common interest and passion.
Solve problems, promote best practices, and develop
people’s skills while retaining talent. Te primary output is
knowledge created through connecting people with similar
interests. Communities are usually formed by discipline,
such as Content Design, Engineering, Delivery, etc.
Works
orks well with Daily Sharing, Design Crits and
W
Retros to kick off conversations.
Community
Commu
nity of Practice
Setting up your community:
1. Clarify who the community is for; boundaries help
people feel safe. Use Lean Survey
Sur vey to discover
people’s needs.
2. Get Buy In from teams/managers who could
otherwise prevent people from coming.
3. Find a regular time for people to get together; often
every one or two weeks works well.
4. Start by sharing personal or work stories.
5. Enable opportunities for people to learn new skills,
build trust and support each other.
6. Learn what works and what doesn’t, adapt and iterate.
7. Keep going! Some weeks you’ll get only a few people
and others lots; it takes time to establish.
Keep it running:
1. Create a shared space to collaborate in Miro/Mural.
2. Invite other disciplines, and use a shared space to
store your Community of Practices outputs.
3. Set a direction using eam Strategy.
4. Use Agile Comms to promote your community.
5. Do a Lean Presentation
P resentation in an all-team meeting.
ip: remind people to think
t hink of themselves as creative people.
Get away from work and go to an art gallery or a museum.
pipdecks.com/community
Collaborate
Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger
Wenger 1991
© 2022, Pip Decks
30 seconds
Dailly Sharing
Dai
Form habits of sharing work early and often without
eating into your team’s precious time.
Workkin
Wor
ingg in th
thee op
open
en he
help
lpss wit
ith
h co
collllab
abor
orat
atio
ion,
n, imp
mprrov
oves
es
culture and helps prevent repeat work. People are busy by
default; start changing behaviours with small habits. Spend
30 seconds a day sharing what you’re working on right now.
“All big things come from small beginnings. Te seed of every
habit is a single, tiny decision. But as that decision is repeated,
a habit sprouts and grows stronger.” – James Clear
Works
orks well with Community of Practice, Design Crits and
W
Retros to kick off conversations.
Daily Sharing
1. Pick a shared area the whole team
t eam can access. A
Slack channel works well.
2. At
an“what
agreedare
time
needs on?”
to work
team
you(it
working
. for all) ask the
3. People share their work. Encourage conversation,
reactions and collaboration.
4. Te person who asks the question today nominates
someone to do it tomorrow
tomorrow,, so ever
e veryy day somebody
makes it happen.
ip: communal rituals like this have a tendency to die if
they’re
they’
re left
le ft to one person. Make sure the whole team own it.
i t.
oo kick it off with your team, explain:

• If you spend more than 30 seconds a day
preparing for this, it
it’’s way too much.
• You can share anyt
anything,
hing, a screensh
screenshot
ot of a polish
polished
ed
design, a paper prototype, a photo of a team out
researching or even
e ven an email or spreadsheet. Te
goal is to share early and often.
• Sum up your post in a sentence, keeping it
light-hearted.
Share the best bits in your Community of Practice or a
Lean Presentation to promote a sharing culture.
pipdecks.com/daily-sharing
pipdecks.com/dailysharing
Collaborate
WAYWO – Rob Hunt, 2018
© 2022, Pip Decks
1‒2 hours
Shifft Left
Shi
Left Len
Lense
sess
Create multi-disciplinary collaboration early to
avoid duplication and help your team deliver better
quality work.
According to research from IBM, it can cost up to 100
times more to fix bugs
b ugs after
after they have gone live. It pays
to shift the attention as far left as you can to catch
things earlier.
ry
ry running
r unning Productivit

Productivityy Blueprint beforehand, as it will give you
a map to work with. Afterwards, Impact Effort Map your ideas to
decide what to take forward.
Shift Left Lenses
1. After you have done your Pr
Productivity
oductivity Blueprint,
you’ll have
have maps of common work flows.
2. Invite
fromment,
all disciplines,
(Research,
BA, Qpeople
A, Manage
Management,
Development
Development
etc...).
etc..
.). Design,
3. Discuss as a group
group,, using your blueprint
bluepr int map and the
prompts to help the conversation:
• W hat are the common causes of repeat work?
Accessibility not considered? Design build incorrect?
incor rect?
Design system not used? Solution seeking rather than
problem finding?
• W hat conversations are missing from the map?
Design/Dev reviews? QA and design? Dev and research?
• W
Which
hich tasks are people not involved in that they
could be?
Design crits? Usability testing? Frontend development?
4. Update the map with the any new
n ew tasks, people or
tools that you wish to implement. Use Impact
de cide where to start. Use Who,
Effort Map to decide
What, When to capture any actions.
5. Follow up in 3 months with a Retro on the process.
pipdecks.com/shift-left
© 2022, Pip Decks
Collaborate
1 hour
Lean Update
Updatess
Discuss what matters across your different teams and
disciplines without it becoming a chore or slowing
you down.
Fostering a culture
cultu re of sharing regularly
regular ly can be tough,
but it’
it ’s vitally important to create efficient, motivated
teams. By sharing bite-sized
b ite-sized updates in an open forum,
forum,
you encourage everyone
ever yone to contribute in a way that
becomes habitual. And over time you can
c an look back at
at
the progress you’ve all made.
Works
W
orks well with Agile Comms, Lean Presentations.
Lean Updates
Updates
1. Create a table with the following information:
Key priorities
this week
Interesti
Intere
sting
ng
updates for
the team
Key blockers/
escalations
Questions for
the person
Person name 1
- eam name 1
Person name 2
- eam name 2
2. Set a timer for 5 minutes. Ask people to update the
first three columns next to their name.
3. Give people another 5 minutes to read through
everyone’
ever
yone’ss answers. Ask the group to write
wr ite any
questions they have in the fourth
fou rth column.
Is somebody in my team
team working on this? Do I have
information that may not be known? Is there anybody
else who should know about this?
4. Go
through
th
the
e
questions
together
as
a
group.
Do
a
Who, What, When for any actions.
5. Use Agile Comms or Lean Presentations
P resentations to
share any updates which need to go further
fur ther..
ips:
• Use a new tab for each week with the name DD/MM/YY.
• Add a tab to describe each team’s focus.
• Use this to help onboard new starters.
pipdecks.com/lean-updates
pipdecks.com/leanupdates
© 2022, Pip Decks
Collaborate
1‒2 hours
op

op asks
Understand and improve what matters the most to
your team or customers.
Focusing on what’
what ’s most important
important to your team or
customers will create a better service and experience.
For example, reducing time to complete a task, or
increasing task success rates.
“Te worst ways to design something is to have five smart
people in a room drinking lattes. Tis is the age of the
customer and data.” – Gerry McGove
McGovern
rn
collectt tasks.
tas ks. r y ask Modellin
Use Productivit
Productivityy Blueprint to collec
Modellingg
afterwards
after
wards to dig into the detail.
asks
op a
1. Collect a list of all the possible tasks that your team
or customers may want to complete.
For example: requesting research participants, contribute
to the design system, designing a workshop etc.
2. Teme Sort your list until it has approx. 50 to 100 tasks.
sur vey,, ask people to vote
3. In your group or using a survey
for the top 20 tasks that:
a.) Tey do the most.
b.) Are the most important.
4. Create a task league table from the results.
5. As a group, go through the tasks that have
have the most
m ost
votes. Blind Vote
Vote for the tasks that the group
thinks it can have an effect on.
6. Use F
Forc
orcee Field
F ield Ana
Analysi
lysiss to evaluate how difficult
it would be to create change for each one.
7. Use ask Modelling on the top tasks to understand
how people currently complete the task.
8. Use Who, What, When to make sure the task is
worked on.
pipdecks.com/top-tasks
pipdecks.com/t
op-tasks
Gerry McGovern
Collaborate
© 2022, Pip Decks
1‒2 hours
Productivity
Blueprint
Spend more time on high-value work and identify
inefficiencies and opportunities to improve workflow.
Are your team spending an obscene amount of time
trying to recruit people for usability sessions? Or
constantly changing the shade of blue that is used?
Inefficiencies naturally
naturall y creep in over time. Help bring
visibility and attention to prevent frustrations.
ry

ry Shift Left Lenses to help improve collaboration
collabor ation further.
Productivity
P
roductivity Blueprint
1. Find a large surface and mark out space for four
rows. Pick a common workflow such as ‘Create a new
product feature’ or ‘Update an existing web page’.
2. 
asks:
asks: write the steps your team takes in a typical
t ypical
scenario.
scenar
io. For exampl
example:
e: read project brief, attend a kick
off meeting, attend research session.
3. People: On the second row, write the job titles of the
people involved. For example: user researcher, delivery
managerr, product owner.
manage
4. 
ools:
ools: on the third row
row,, write which tools are used for
each step. For exampl
example:
e: Outlook, Miro, Figma.
5. Ideas: review the map with the group and identify
opportunities to improve parts of the workflow.
Capture these ideas on the bottom row
row..
6. Action: dig into a task
task you want to improve with
ask Modelling then F
Force
orce Field Analysis.
asks
People
ools
Ideas
pipdecks.com/blueprint
© 2022, Pip Decks
Collaborate
1‒2 hours
ask

ask Modelling
Gain clarity about the steps people go through and
the decisions they make to accomplish a specific task.
Te be
best
st pr
pred
edic
icto
torr of fu
futu
ture
re be
beha
havi
viou
ourr is pa
past
st be
beha
havi
viou
ourr. If
yyou
ou’v
’vee alw
alway
ayss do
done
ne so
some
meth
thin
ingg a ce
certa
rtain
in wa
wayy, yo
you’
u’rre li
like
kely
ly
to do that same thing in the same manner in the future.
ry
ry Lean Wardley

Wardley Mapping to see the full picture. Or op as
asks
ks
to uncover the most important
impor tant tasks for your team or customer.
customer.
ask Modelling
1. Use op as
asks
ks to unearth tasks and pick a common
task that you’d like to understand.
For example: picking a colour from
f rom the Design System.
2. Ask someone to describe, let you watch or sketch out
the last time they
t hey attempted the task. Use Research
make sure you’re
you’re not leading them.
Questions to make
3. 
ogether
ogether,, draw a diagram of the high-level steps that
make up the task. Put each one in a box and join it to
the next step with an arrow.
Decide I need to
use a shade of blue
Check the existing
blue colours
Use the colour
4. For tasks with multiple related options, draw a circle
around them.
Decide I need to
use a shade of blue
Check the existing
blue colours
Figma
plugin
Use the colour
Design
System
website
Prototyping
kit
5. Review the task with the group and identify opportunities
to improve the task flow. For example: the prototyping kit is
always up to date as it’s used daily. It should be the first choice.
6. Consider how this task fits into your landscape by
using Lean Wardley
Wardley Map.
pipdecks.com/task-modelling
pipdecks.com/task
-modelling Origin: Annett and Duncan, 1967
Collaborate
© 2022, Pip Decks
1 hour
Retros
Look back on successes and failures in order to learn
and improve for next time.
Retros are a staple of productive teams. Normally
Normally
conducted every fortnight, it’s a chance to look back
and reflect on what’s gone well and what hasn’t – and
what can be done about
ab out it.
Use Who, What, When afterwards to make sure things get done.
Retros
Retros
1. If you’ve run a Retrospective previously, quickly
revisit the themes and actions from last time to build
a sense of continuity.
2. 
alk
alk the team through the retro exercise you’ve
you’ve
chose to run. For example:
• What went well? What didn’t? What can we improve?
• Loved, Loathed, Longed for, Learned.
• Start, Stop, Continue.
• Mad, Sad, Glad.
• Keep,
Keep, Add, More, Less.
3. On sticky notes, ask each person to spend five
minutes writing answers to the first question.
4. In turn, have each person post their sticky notes in
the first column and
and briefly talk through each one.
Teme Sort as you go.
5. Prioritise the top three using Blind Vote
Vote.
6. Discuss these in more detail and use Who, What,
When to capture actions.
ips:
• Be considerate – don
don’t’t make it personal, don’t
don’t take it personally.
personally.
• Listen with an open mind – everyone’s experience is valid.
• Set the time period you’re discussing (last sprint, last quarter, entire project, etc.).
• Focus
Focus on improvement,
improvement, rather than placing blame.
• Pay attention to change. If nothing is changing, do a Retro on your Retros.
pipdecks.com/retros
Origin: Norman L. Kerth, 2001.
Collaborate
© 2022, Pip Decks
1 hour
Design Crits
Improve your designs by gaining different perspectives
whilee incr
whil
increasi
easing
ng coll
collabora
aboration
tion acr
across
oss disc
discipli
iplines.
nes.
Design critiques should motivate, not intimidate.
intim idate. Tey
should be something the whole team looks forward
for ward to.
Be sure to do Retros on your crits sessions regularly
to understand how they are working for your team.
Productivityy
Set eam Values to help create a safe space. Use Productivit
Blueprint to include crits in your process. ry Shift Left Lenses to
get people involved earlier
earlier..
Design Crits
Crits
1. Invite people from different disciplines to gain a
wider range of perspectives. Do Produ
Productiv
ctivity
ity
Bluepri
Blu
eprint
nt if you need to consider who.
2. 
ell
ell the group what you would like feedback on, and
what you would not like feedback on.
For example: improving the sign ups but not colours, logo size, photos.
photos.
3. Point out any constraints.
For example: things that can’t
can’t be changed like third-party
thir d-party plugins.
4. Show the design.
Show where you are in the process, the business and customer goals,
constraints in context and reiterate the goal or objective for the work.
5. Get the
the feedback.
feedback.
Ask each person to share one or two bits of feedback. Don’t
defend the work, instead use Research Questions to learn.
6. Collect the feedback. ry Agile Comms to share
any outcomes.
ips:
• Invite as many people as you
you’’d be happy to have
ha ve at a dinner party.
par ty. Bigger
groups can be hard to manage.
• For larger groups do a silent crit by sharing designs digitally.
• o
o delve deeper into a problem, pair up in a smaller group
g roup of two
t wo or three.
• Use your Design Principles
P rinciples to help guide the conversation.
• Consider setting eam Values around feedback.
pipdecks.com/design-crits
Collaborate
© 2022, Pip Decks
1 hour
Get Buy In
alk to individuals first, involve
alk
involve them deeply in the
problem, then get buy in.
People are more likely to support and value things they
have helped create (aka “the
“the IKEA effect”)
effect ”). When you do
that big presentation to change
c hange the world,
wor ld, there should
be very
ver y little that the
the people listening haven’
haven’t heard
before in some form.
Also consider Agile Comms to communicate early
earl y and often.
of ten.
Works
W
orks well with Circle of Influence, and Lean Presentations.
Get Buy In
You spend weeks creating a deck, then present it to
You
your stakeholders only to find there is a slim chance
chance of
getting buy in. Instead do this:
1. As a team,
team, identify the people you need to influence:
• Who are the decision makers?
• Who
W ho are the people who’
who’ll implement the changes?
changes?
• Who will be affected by these changes?
2. Arrange one-to-one meetings with them.
them. Use
Research Questions to get to know their concerns
about your plans. Use Teme Sort to examine
common concerns.
3. Address concerns directly when you do your big
presentation. Use  Lea
Leann Pres
P resentat
entations
ions to make
it memorable.
ips:
• People don’t like being put on the spot, especially if a
decision needs to be made. Use Agile Comms to share
often and Communication Matrix to be intentional
in your communications.
• People like to feel informed and to feel smart, so help them out.
• Addressing common concerns makes people feel heard and
respected. Use Circle of Influence to dig into the thing
you can change.
pipdecks.com/buy-in
Nemawashi
© 2022, Pip Decks
Communicate
Wrrite in Plain
Plain
W
English
Get your message understood the first time it’s read.
• In the UK, 1 in 13 do not use English as
as their first language
• One in 10 people have Dyslexia. Simple language
lightens the
the cognitive load.
• Many sight loss charities recommend using simple language
• T
Tee National Autistic Society advise against the use of jargon
• P
eople
scan
read,
as
we
al
all
l
have
little
time
and
short
attention spans
Works
W
orks well with Agile Comms and Lean Presentations.
Write in Plain English
a. Use shorter words that more people understand:
“about” not “approximately”, “show” not “demonstrate”,
“which includes” not “incorporating”.
b. Avoid jargon, acronyms (mostly) and buzzwords: “more
for yo
your
ur mo
mone
neyy” not “bang for your buck”, “the latest
latest”” not
“cutting edge”, “Early Access Programs
Programs”” not “EAPs”.
c. W
Write
rite conversationally in first person using the
active voice. Active:
Active: “I love you”. Passive: “ You are
loved by me”.
d. Read your writing out loud, rewrite it if it doesn’t
sound like something you’d say in conversation.
e. Structure content to reflect how people read:
• Use short sentences, 15 to 20 words.
• Make only one point per sentence.
• Use descriptive subheadings to break up text.
• Front-load sentences and bullet points (put the
most useful words near the start).
• Use bullets to make multiple points easy to scan.
• Use numbered lists to break down sequential steps.
f. Crit
est

est session.
your content with real people. Run a Design
pipdecks.com/plain-english
© 2022, Pip Decks
Communicate
1‒2 hours
Inc
Inclusiv
lusivee Meetin
Meetingg
Playbook
Make people feel part of their meetings.
Meetings are important for sharing ideas and discussing
decisions.
decisio
ns. Yet power
power dynamics
dy namics of
often
ten get in the way
way,,
and people don’t speak up. Help attendees feel safe and
confident to contribute in their next meeting.
Often used with Ritual Reset to help streamline those meetings.
Inclusive Meeting Playbook
Playbook
1. Get together with the people who you regularly have
meetings with.
2. Ask
the people
to write
todown
allow
thesehalf
positive
behaviours.
behaviours.
Tedown
othertheir
half tips
wr ite
write
what stops these behaviours:
• How can we set clear expectations for meetings?
• How can we ensure everyone has the opportunity
to contribute?
• How can we ensure people ask questions on
clarity
and
understanding?
• How can we cater for people who may have no
prior knowledge?
• How can we respect people’s
people’s time?
3. Teme Sort the answers to the questions. Discuss
the answers and question if anything
any thing is missing.
4. W
Wri
ritte a summary for each answer using a title and bullet
points for each. Be sure to Write in Plain English.
5. Make posters to do a Le
Lean
an Pres
Presen
enttat
atio
ionn. Add a link
to each invite and encourage people to speak up and
Say What you Mean if guidelines are broken.
6. Decide
to share yourMatrix.
inclusive playbook with
using who
Communication
pipdecks.com/meetings-playbook
pipdecks.com/meeting
s-playbook
© 2022, Pip Decks
Communicate
Say W ha
hatt You
You
Mean
Explain your feelings and needs clearly while creating
empathy in your conversations.
conversations .
Reduce conflict, foster trust
tr ust and deepen emotional
connections by using Non-violent Communication.
“Every criticism, judgment, diagnosis, and expression
of anger is the tragic expression of an unmet need.” –
Marshall Rosenberg
Works
W
orks well in One-to-Ones and Accountability Dial.
Say What
You Mean
What You
1. W
What
hat did you observe? State the observations that
are leading you to feel the need to say something.
Keep it factual.
For example: I had no invite to last week’s kick-off meeting.
2. How did it feel? State the feeling that it triggered
triggered in you.
For example:
e xample: dejected, insecure, resentful.
What
hat are your needs?
3. W
State the need that is the cause of that feeling.
feeling. Te
need
should
person,
actionnot
or include
time. a reference to a specific
For example: a sense of belonging, to be respected.
4. Request a concrete action.
Make a concrete request for action to meet the need
just identified. Ask clearly
clear ly and specifically
specificall y for what
you want right now,
now, rather than hinting or
o r stating
only what you don’t
don’t want.
want.
For example:
When I [had no invite to last week’s kick-off meeting]
I felt
felt [dejected and insecure]
because I need [to feel part of the wider team]
Would you be willing to [invit
[invitee me to the next
next kick off?]
off ?]
5. Go through the
the points, imagining the situation
situation from
the other person’s perspective.
pipdecks.com/say-it
Marsha
Mar
shallll Rose
Rosenbe
nberg
rg 196
1960s
0s
Communicate
© 2022, Pip Decks
1‒2 hours
Communication
Matrix
Be intentional with your communications, keep
people informed and build trust.
In a fast-paced environment a lack of accountability
often means things get missed. Keep track of all the
things you need to communicate on a regular basis.
“Te single biggest problem in communication is the illusion
that it has taken place.” – George Bernard Shaw
ry

ry Appreciation Playbook before to make sure you’re
you’re not missing
anything. And Agile Comms after to help communicate clearly
clear ly..
Communication Matrix
1. With your team, write a list of all the things you
need to communicate. For example: project status
update, design strategy update, team changes, all
religious festivals.
2. Group them using Teme Sort.
3. W
Work
ork thr
through
ough the follo
following
wing ques
questio
tions
ns as
as a gr
group
oup,, for
the things you need to communicate (with examples):
• W
Who
ho in the team? Delivery manager.
• Says what? Who has joined/left.
• In which channel? Te weekly all-hands meeting.
• 
oo whom? Te whole team.
• W
With
ith what effect? o help people feel welcome/
appreciated for their efforts.
• W
When?
hen? Weekly.
4. Keep track of your regular communications in a shared
space everyone can access and review every
every 3 months.
It may be useful to run a Ritual Reset to align your
communications and meetings. Consider doing
Circle of Influence to make
make sure you’re
you’re speaking to
the people you need to.
pipdecks.com/comms-matrix
pipdecks.com/comms-m
atrix
Harold Lasswell 1948
© 2022, Pip Decks
Communicate
Accountability Dial
Hold your team to account without falling into the
micromanagement trap.
Accountability often
of ten isn’
isn’t upheld because
becau se it feels
confrontational. You can turn the accountability dial up
and down depending on the situation. Serious issues
may need ‘Te Conversation’, or even
e ven ‘Te Limit’. But for
many things, a few
fe w focused ‘Mentions’ will do the job.
Te
Accountability
Dial
Te Mention
Te Invitation
TeBoundary
Conversation
Te
Te Limit
Works
W
orks well in One-to-Ones and Say What You Mean.
Accountability
Accountability Dial
1. Te Menti
Mention:
on: give Immediate and short feedback
say what you see. Make sure everything’s okay.
“I noticed [observation about your work]... how is it going?”
2. Te Invita
Invitation:
tion: build awareness with an informal chat.
“I ’vee mentioned [behaviours] to you a few times now...
“I’v
how is this happening?”
3. Te Conversa
Conversation:
tion: place urgency on the problem
and the importance
impor tance of dealing with it.
“[Observations/behaviours] are impacting the team...
We need to talk about how to sort this out together.”
4. Te Boundar
Boundary:
y: give clear consequences for not
dealing with the problem.
“If [obser
[observations]
vations] don’t
don’t change,
change, we may have to [possible
consequences].”
5. Te Limit: give one last chance to improve.
“ Tis is your final warning. Let
Let me be clear...”
clear...”
ip: check in on the H
Heeal
altth Mo
Moni
nittor and ensure One-toOnes happen. Encourage people to Say What You M
Mea
eann.
pipdecks.com/accountability
pipdecks.com/account
ability
Jonathan Raymond
© 2022, Pip Decks
Communicate
Agile Comms
Help your team communicate clearly and creatively
about their work in progress.
People in work are by default busy most of the time. If you
are going to win their attention, you need to make it low
effort and easy to understand by Writing in Plain English.
“Here’s the essential information you have to know. If you
want more detail, you can find it at this location. Readers
have a choice about if, and when, they bother to read the
detail.” – Giles urnb
urnbull
ull
ry
ry running
r unning Communication Matrix before to work out the

essentials. Works well with Write in Plain
Plai n English.
Agile Comms
Be considerate of people’
people’ss time by using these three
layers of communication:
• Te Lure: subject of an email, a tweet or a direct message.
• Context: body text of your email, a blog, a presentation.
• Detail: email attachment, a link to another website.
1. Craft the Te Lure. W hy should people read your
message? Like a good billboard advertisement, it will
make people stop and want to learn
learn more. Te crux
of a good hook is not giving away the full answer up
front. Ask a provocative question that people simply
must know the answer to!
2. Distil the Context. Give the reader just enough
information for them to know the basics. Like a
good book summary or a trailer for a film.
3. Finally, focus on the Detail – this will have the full
context; every
ever y detail, every document, ever
everyy date.
Make it an optional part of the communication, not
the main focus.
ips:
• Collect things to show, not tell – take screenshots, photos, sketches,
notes and include them to create a visual story.
• Experiment with bad first drafts – they fix big issues early on.
• Keep each update about one main point.
pipdecks.com/agile-comms
pipdecks.com/agil
e-comms
Giles urnbull
© 2022, Pip Decks
Communicate
Lean
Presentations
Choose the most important parts of your work, then
use common structures to communicate them clearly
so they stick in your audience’
audience ’s memory
memor y.
“Te success of your presentation will be judged not by the
knowledge you send but by what the listener receives.”
- Lill
Lillyy Walters
Walters
Works
W
orks well with Write in Plain English.
© 2022, Pip Decks
Lean Presentations
P resentations
1. Draw a triangle on a large
surface. In the middle
write down the main point
you’d like to get across.
2. Divide your presentation
into three sections, such as:
• What won’t change; What can change; What will change.
• Where we’ve been; Where we are now; Where we’re going.
• Analysis;
Analysis; Diagnosis; Actions.
• Problem; Solution; Next steps.
• Past; Present; Future.
3. Use sticky notes to write down the main points for each
section. Tis helps you to see the flow of your argument,
spot repetition, and to easily
easil y move things around.
4. Create your presentation:
• Make your words short, big and clear.
• Make your pictures relevant, big and clear.
• Don’t have too many colours or fonts.
• Practice a lot and be yourself.
ips:
• Tink
Tink of your presentation as a series
ser ies of posters.
• Start at the end of your story and work backwards.
• Keep a bank of slides that work.
pipdecks.com/lean-presentations
Recognition
Russell Davies
© 2022, Pip Decks
1‒2 hours

eeam Appreciation
Put a smile on everyone’s face by sharing good vibes.
Employees in a recognition-focused organisation are
five times more likely to feel valued,
valued, six times more
likely to invest in the company, seven times more likely
to stay, and 11 times more likely to feel completely
satisfied. Wow! – Gallup, 2016.
“Even in the chaos of everyday life, moments of gratitude
remind us to hold on to the good things.” – Brit Morin
Running eam Values before this card will help you with the first
bit of this tactic. Works well with Write in Plain English.
eam Appreciat
Appreciation
ion
1. Draw a grid with your ea
eam
m Valu
Values
es horizontally
across the top and the names of each person
verticallyy down the side.
verticall
Value 1
Value 2
Value 3
Participant
name 1
Participant
name 2
2. Give your people 10 – 20 minutes to add things they
appreciate about other people.
• Encourage people to add new columns if the values
don’’t cover ever
don
everything.
ything.
• Everyone should share appreciation with as many
team members as they can.
• Be sure to include people who are new or who
don’t have much appreciation.
3. Either ask people to read over their own appreciation
or, if you have time, read them all out and give each
person a round of applause.
Use Appre
Appreciat
ciation
ion Pla
Playbo
ybook
ok to make sure that people’s
efforts are recognised. Use
Use 
to help share
Agile Com
Comms
ms
the good regularl
regularlyy.
pipdecks.com/team-appreciation
pipdecks.com/team
-appreciation
© 2022, Pip Decks
Recognition
1‒2 hours
Appreciation
Playbook
Be consistent in letting people know their efforts are
recognised and valued.
Regularly giving appreciation supports people’s wellbeing
and mental
mental health.
health. Yet most companies fail to do it.
“68% of employee
employeess haven’t
haven’t received any form of recognition
for good work in the last year.”
year.” – Gallup,
Gallup, 2016.
Run  eam Values and  Design Vision before to align on what
Run eam Values and Design Vision before to align on what
matters to the team.
Appreciation Playbook
Playbook
1. As a group, write down all the
the triggers for recognition.
For example:
ex ample: a promotion, helping out another team,
doing a presentation, sharing a failure, etc.
2. Tink abo
about
ut way
wayss to
t o give
gi ve recogn
re cognitio
ition.
n. Cons
Conside
iderr
both public and private spaces for appreciation.
• In public – a shout out on social media, in
a newsletter,
ne wsletter, doing a eam Appreciation
workshop,
works
hop, kud
kudos
os cha
channe
nnel.l.
• In private – a handwritten note, send a gift, a
thank you call.
3. W
Writ
ritee as
a s many
ma ny as
a s you can thin
thinkk of
o f and
a nd grou
groupp them
t hem
together using Teme Sort.
4. Discuss each item and plot on an Impa
Impact
ct Effor
E ffortt
Map for the items in ‘do now’. Add to your
Communication Matrix.
ips: build a business case. Monitor your Att
Attrit
rition
ion
Rate
R
ate and Healt
Healthh Monitor
Mo nitor by capturing improvement
i mprovement
over time.
pipdecks.com/appreciation-playbook
pipdecks.com/appreciation-playbo
ok
© 2022, Pip Decks
Recognition
1 hour
Goal, Signal,
Metric
Let your team know the impact they are having.
People naturally
natural ly need to feel valued,
valu ed, they need to know
they are contributing to the overall
over all goals.
“If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” – Peter Drucker
Before use eam Strategy to define a goal.
Goal, Signal, Metric
Start by looking at what your company currently
measures.
measu
res. Use Get Buy In to work out how, why and
who measures what.
1. Define your goal using eam Strategy, and write it
down concisely for everyone
e veryone to see.
For example: improve accessibility of our product page.
2. Discuss which Signals would show that you are going
in the right direction. Write them down,


Teme Sort and Blind Vote
Vote.
For example: people with various access needs in
usability sessions can buy our products.
3. Considering your goals and signals, what Me
Metri
trics
cs could
yyou
ou se
sett th
that
at wo
woul
uld
d me
mean
an yo
you’
u’ve
ve rea
each
ched
ed you
ourr go
goal
al??
For example: pprroduct page conversation rate increases by 10%.
4. Keep track of your Goals, Signals and Metrics over
time, put them in a shared
shared space where the entire
team can see them.
ip: Share results regularly and widely using Agile
Comms, Lean Presentations
P resentations and Lean Updates.
pipdecks.com/goal-signal-metric
pipdecks.com/goal-si
gnal-metric
Origin: Google.
© 2022, Pip Decks
echnique
Lean Sur
Te Lean
Survey
vey
Get answers in numbers to help you make decisions.
Understand together
together why you need “another survey”.
survey”. Make
sure you get the data you need by having a clear focus.
Before you send your survey, think about how people’s
answers to your questions affect your ability to make
a decision. For example, if 70% of people say “yes” to a
question, does that help the team?”
Consider using Research Questions to interview users before
sending a survey
survey..
Te Lean Survey
1. Draw the following on a large surface:
1. What is the most
critical thing we
want to learn?
6. Questions a)
d)
e)
2. Who do we need to
learn from?
4. What do we know
already?
How
will we reach 5.
will
3.
weWhat
make?decision
And how?
these
people?
b)
c)
Invite/
Intro
f)
g)
Tank you
2. W
Writ
ritee th
thee mo
most
st cr
crit
itic
ical
al th
thin
ings
gs you
ou’’d li
like
ke to le
lear
arn
n in
box 1. For example, “which design tool do people use the most?”
3. Discuss and fill in boxes 2 to 5 in your group.
For example, 2: “Our inte
intera
ractio
ction
n design
designers”
ers”,, 3: “Emai
“Emaill
list”,
list
”, 4: “Sur
“Survey
vey last week”
week”,, 5: “We’ll chose one tool to use if
70% of the team are using it.”
4. Ask the group to write questions and Teme Sort.
5. Discuss
each
question.
Does
it
help
answer
your
critical questions?
6. W
Wri
rite
te your ag
agrree
eed
d qu
ques
esti
tioons in bo
boxxes a to g. Ai
Aim
m fo
forr a
maximum of seven, any more could decrease completion rate.
7. Y
Your
our inv
invite/
ite/intr
introo should
should includ
includee why
why you
you need
need the
information and what you do with it.
8. Before sending – test your survey in person to see if
people understand your questions.
pipdecks.com/lean-survey
© 2022, Pip Decks
echnique
Resear
Research
ch Questio
Questions
ns
Ask questions that help you challenge your own
unavoidable biases.
W hen you have an idea, it
When
it’’s natural to want people to
like it. Tis can lead us to try
tr y and get people to say what
we want to hear,
hear, rather than the truth.
t ruth. Asking good
questions helps us reach the real answers, where we get
people talking about
about the right things. Te most effective
e ffective
tool for solving
sol ving the problem is to listen.
“Research
is
formalised
curiosity.
It
is
poking
and
prying
with a purpose.”
pur pose.” – Zora Neale Hurston
© 2022, Pip Decks
Research Questions
a. Focus on what people do
80% of New Year’s resolutions end in failure. People often falsely
speculate about the future. Te best way to understand future
behaviours is by looking back at what they did.
b. Be specific
Drill down into motivations and behaviours, ask why.
c. Don’
Don’tt lea
lead,
d, don’
don’tt clos
losee
ry

ry not to ask leading or closed questions. For example:
Leading:
Leadi
ng: “You don’t use our design system, do you?”
Closed: “Have you used our design system within the last week?”
Open: “Can you tell me about a time when you’ve used our design system?”
d. Listen, obser
observe,
ve, reframe and... pause
Reframing what an interviewee has just said: “So, it sounds like you’re
saying that...”, “What I’m hearing is that...”
e. Don
Don’t
’t solve the probl
problem
em
Good interviewing is about gathering evidence, not trying to solve
the problem.
f. It
It’’s not about you
Play the novice, ask the naive questions – allow your interviewee to
share what they know with you, to be the expert,
exper t, and to feel
f eel good
about sharing it with you.
g. Digging in
Ask them to build on what they say:
say : “ell me more about that?”
h. Focus on what matters
“You clearly have a lot of experience in this area, but I’d like to ask you
now about...”, “We’ve got a limited amount of time, so I’d like to make
sure I cover some important areas in our discussion...”
ip: listen back to your interviews and use these prompts to see how you did.
pipdecks.com/research-questions Origin: Andrew
Andre w ravers,
ravers, 2013.
echnique
© 2022, Pip Decks
5 mins
Bl
Blin
ind
d Vot
otee
Democratically make decisions as a group. Eliminate
all but one thing, or find the top three things.
Help the team make decisions together,
together, without being
led by any one individual (the “bandwagon effect”)
effect ”). Blind
voting neutralises any dominating personalities or
opinions in the decision-making process.
© 2022, Pip Decks
Blind Vote
1. With a marker,
marker, clear
clearly
ly number each of the things you
want the group to decide on: 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.
2. Ensure
group understands
what
they to
areexplain
going to
vote on the
by allowing
time for each
person
the items up for vote.
3. Explain that each person has three votes each, to use
in any way they like. You’re allowed to vote on your
own items, or put all three votes on one thing!
4. Ask each person in the group to write down the
numbers of the items they are voting for on a
sticky note.
5. Once voting is finished, retrieve the votes from the
participants. Count the votes and write the quantities
on the items so everyone can clearly see the result of
the voting.
pipdecks.com/blindvote
pipdecks.com/b
lindvote
Origin: Google Ventures
echnique
© 2022, Pip Decks
1‒2 hours
Objectives and
Key Results
Create radical focus for your team by agreeing on an
objective and actively measuring progress towards it.
Te problem with most goals is that distractions get
in the way of achieving
achie ving them. Te OKR framework
frame work
is designed to give you “radical
“radical focus” on achieving
achiev ing an
objective. It can be used personally, within a team, or at
an organisational level.
Visit pipdecks.com/okr for more advice on how to continue using
OKRs after you’ve created them with your team.
Objectives and Key Results
1. Before the meeting, invite everyone
ever yone to submit their
top objective for the team to achieve in the next
quarter.. An objective is a qualitative and aspirational
quarter
‘end-state’.
For example: ‘Save the design team as much time as possible’.
2. Put each objective on a sticky note, put them up on
a wall and then Teme Sort.
3. Debate and use B
primary objectives.
objectives.
Bllind Vote to find your primary
4. List as many
many metrics as
as you can in 10 minutes. Tey
should show you’
you’re
re closer
c loser to achieving the objective.
For example:
e xample: number of time-wasting tasks found,
hours saved, designers spoken to.
5. Use Teme Sort and Blind Vote
Vote to group and
decide on three metrics.
6. 
urn
urn your three metrics into Key Results by setting
specific, quantitative targets.
For example: ‘Save x hours a month, interview x
different designers’.
7. Agree on specific numbers for each Key Result.
You
Y
ou should feel like you have a fift
fifty-fift
y-fiftyy chance of
achieving each one in the next quarter
quar ter..
For example: ‘Sa
‘Save
ve 40 hours per month (5/10)’.
pipdecks.com/okr
echnique
Origin: Andy Grove, 1983
© 2022, Pip Decks
10 mins
Wh
Whoo, Wh
Whaat, Wh
Wheen
Leave a session with a clear
c lear plan of goals and deadlines.
Leave
room
knowing who’s
committing
to what,
and bythe
when.
Encouraging
the group
to define
their
own actions and deadlines creates accountability, which
means it’s more likely to get done!
© 2022, Pip Decks
ho,, What, When
Who
1. Draw three columns on a large surface, preferably a
whiteboard. From left to right,
r ight, write “ Who”
Who”,, “What”
“What ”
and “W
“When
hen”” at the top of each column.
W ho
What
When
2. Starting with the “Who” column, write down the
participants who will be taking an action.
3. Ask each participant what actual steps they can
commit to. Write these in the “What” column.
Fun fact: people are more likely to commit to actions when
they are declared in front of a group.
4. For each row, ask that person for a time and date
they will have that item done by, and write it in its
respect
resp
ective
ive row
row.. “Next week” is too vague, and doesn’t
create concrete commitment.
5. At this point, there
there might be a lot to
t o do. Encourage
those who have not contributed so far to either come
up with an
an action, or assist another
ano ther person.
pipdecks.com/whowhatwhen
pipdecks.com/wh
owhatwhen Origin: Dave Gray & Mike Berman
echnique
© 2022, Pip Decks
10 mins
Teme Sor
Sortt
Make sense of large amounts of information by
clustering similar things together to find the theme.
W hen you have a lot of sticky notes,
When
n otes, grouping them by
similarity allows themes to emerge. Tis helps you make
sense of a large amount of information, which makes it
easier to prioritise.
© 2022, Pip Decks
Teme Sort
1. Make sure you’ve got a lot of wall space.
2. W
Whatever
hatever kind of information
information you have on your
sticky notes, make sure there is one point per note.
3. Put the sticky notes on the wall, reading each one
aloud as you do.
4. Each time you put up
u p a new sticky note, ask yourself
if it’
it ’s related to or similar to a previous one. Place it
near the existing note. If it’s exactly the same, place
it behind.
5. W
When
hen all the sticky notes
n otes have been clustered,
c lustered, write
a title for
f or each on a larger sticky
stic ky note. Tese are your
themes.
6. Review the outliers; they may belong in smaller clusters.
clusters.
ip: it’
it ’s easier to Teme
Teme Sort as you go. If you try
tr y to do it
afterwards,
afterwar
ds, it becomes more difficult to organise them.
pipdecks.com/themesort
pipdecks.com/the
mesort
echnique
© 2022, Pip Decks
30 mins – 1 hour
Impact Effort
Map
Group together ideas by how much effort they require
to create, and by how much impact they’ll have on
your goal.
Narrowing down your ideas means that you can focus
on what is going to be the easiest and most valuable
thing to work on.
Impact Effort Map
1. Gather your ideas together and write a name for
each one on a sticky note.
Impa
pact
ct running across the
2. Draw two axes, with Im
horizontal line, and Eff
Effor
ortt on the vertical. Make sure
it’’s big enough to fit all your ideas!
it
Low effort
Do later
Do now
Low impact
High impact
Forget it
Do later
High effort
3. Plot each
e ach idea on the graph. Discuss each one in
turn. As a group, decide how much effort is involved
and what the impact will be.
4. Create commitment to your actions with Who,
What, When.
pipdecks.com/impact
Origin: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1954.
© 2022, Pip Decks
Abbout the author, Dave Cunningham
A
Knowledge workers are hugely in demand, yet the
environment we provide for
for them can be lacking.
Where
W
here do you start to get the best out
ou t of your team?
Setting off is the hardest part of any journey
jou rney.. If you
are in a team with little time, and you want to set off
or climb to the top of that mountain, eam actics
is the sturdy
stu rdy shoes, rucksack with supplies, map and
supportive friends
fr iends to help
help you get there.
there. If you’re
you’re in a
team and can see a problem and have the will to do
something
someth
ing abou
aboutt it,
it, eam actics
actics is for you.
Dave has spent (just) over 20 years
supporting teams to do their best work
at UK Government,
Go vernment, Co-op Digital and
an d
the BBC and is currently focusing on
developing psychological safety training
for teams like yours.
Follow Dave on witter
witter:: @davecunningham