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This PDF version of Team Tactics was Published in the UK.

Team Tactics
Volume I

Written by Dave Cunningham.

Illustrated by Michael McDonald.

© David Cunningham, 2022. Published by Pip Decks.

Instructions
1. 
Read the Team 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. F
 ollow the steps on the back of the card.

4. 
Check out the  Session cards. They suggest ways to
string multiple tactics together to make a longer, more
in-depth workshop.

Tip: 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 tactics, and learn
from others building products and leading teams.

pipdecks.com/community

© 2022, Pip Decks

Team Strategy System
Have you defined the roles and 
environment for your team? No
Environment
Yes

Does your team know its

No 
direction?
Direction
Yes

Does your team have the

No 
support it needs? Support
Yes

Are you able to measure your

No 
team’s health? Health
Yes

Are you helping your team

No 
work better together? Collaborate
Yes

Do your team know how to

No 
share their work clearly? Communicate

Yes

pipdecks.com/teamtactics
 Recognition © 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 vision, values and principles 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 how your teams are doing so you can see
clearly when your help is needed the most.

Collaborate
 
Encourage your team to work together to help
them design better teams, products and services.

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.

 Technique
Core tactics to sort, decide, ask good questions and
set metrics.
pipdecks.com/teamtactics © 2022, Pip Decks
 Recipe

Build Psychological
Safety
Empower your team to take risks without feeling
insecure or embarrassed.

The highest performing teams have one thing in

common: psychological safety – the belief that you
won’t be punished when you make a mistake.

“There’s no team without trust” – Paul Santagata

Build 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 like-
minded 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 © 2022, Pip Decks

 Recipe

Become
Dependable
Build a strong and dependable team by understanding
its complex web of connections.

“Dependability is 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
1. 
 Team Modelling
Set up your team around
common experiences.

2. 
 Team Circles
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 high-
value design work, and less
time on low-value tasks.

5. 
 Agile Comms
Communicate in small doses,
frequently. Show the thing.

pipdecks.com/become-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’re supposed to be doing and 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. 
 Team Strategy
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 goals.

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” – Peter Drucker.
Show Impact
1. 
 Onboarding Retro
The 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.

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

Team Modelling
Model your teams on customer experience. Help remove
the silos that lead to poor services and products.

Your team has spent weeks designing a new product

page. Your customers love it, you predict a 50% increase
in sales. Meanwhile, the engineering team has increased
performance, but have removed a few features. The
freshly designed page will now cost way too much to
develop. If only your teams were set up to collaborate as
standard, this would never have happened!

Try running  Top Tasks beforehand, as it will help you with the first
part of the tactic. Afterwards,  Team Circle to support collaboration.
Team Modelling
1. 
Look at the  Top Tasks your customers or team have.

2. D
 iscuss 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.

3. G
 o through each task and map it to the ‘experience’
it affects, like so:

Buyer Search/ Cart/

Experience Browse Checkout
Product
Shipping
Page
Seller
Seller Tools
Experience

4. 
Review your map and iterate it until you feel
confident you have all the customer journeys covered.

5. 
Use the types of user experiences (Buyer, Seller etc.)
to form  Team Circles.

Tip: look for projects/areas that encourage cross-discipline

collaboration like Design System work (Designer, Developers,
Content Designers, User Researchers). This can help break
down silos.

pipdecks.com/team-modelling © 2022, Pip Decks

 Environment 1‒2 hours

Roles and
Responsibilities
Understand each other’s roles better, and learn who is
responsible for what.

Defining clear responsibilities prevents confusion

around hierarchy and expertise. It reduces duplicate
work and promotes better collaboration.

Works well with  Team Circles to give a clear picture of how teams
connect. Try  Team Modelling before to help shape your teams.
Roles and Responsibilities
1. On a large surface, such as a whiteboard, 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.

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 Origin: Lee Connolly, 2019. © 2022, Pip Decks

 Environment 1‒2 hours

Team 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  Team Circles to give a clear picture of how teams
connect. Define you  Roles and Responsibilities after.
Team Charter
1. Draw the following on a large surface:

Team Name: Date:

People & Goals Values Rules &
Roles Activities
Purpose
Personal Needs &
Goals Expectations
Strengths Weaknesses &
& Assets 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 ( Team Strategy).
Personal Goals: the goals of individuals in the team.
Values: the core values that you share ( Team Values).
Needs & Expectations: the needs and expectations from the team.
Rules & Activities: how you are going to communicate, make
decisions, execute and give feedback ( Ritual Reset).
Strengths & Assets: things that will move you forward.
Weaknesses & Risks: things that will stop you.

3. Review and revise every three months. Try doing a

 Retro on your team charter to see if it’s helping.

Tip: share your team charters in an open space to encourage

people outside of the team to learn more about you.
pipdecks.com/team-charter © 2022, Pip Decks
 Environment 1‒2 hours

Team Circles
Create smaller teams to break down silos, create
meaningful conversations and shared responsibility.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos famously instituted a rule:

every internal team should be small enough that it can be
fed with two pizzas. A smaller team spends less time
keeping people up to date, and more time doing what
needs to be done.

Try running  Team Modelling beforehand, as it will help you with

the first part of the tactic. Afterwards use  Agile Comms to help
your teams keep informed.
Team Circles
1. 
Invite your team and those who can help
connect the dots of your workplace.

2. 
Draw three concentric circles and label
them; Informed, Involved, Core team.

3. 
Using the following prompts, plot your team circle:

Core team – up to nine people

 • A multi-disciplinary team focused on a shared goal.
 • Daily communication.
 • Includes: designers, engineers, PMs etc.

Involved team – up to 12 people

 • Across multiple teams and bring specialist knowledge
when needed.
 • Communication as needed. Regularly updated on progress
using  Agile Comms or  Lean Updates.
 • Includes: Related teams, subject matter experts, policy etc.

Informed team – up to 24 people or teams

 • The connectors of dots across the organisation/company.
 • Involved fortnightly and for changes in direction.
 • Includes: leadership, steering groups, wider organisation etc.
4. Follow up with  Team Charter and  Roles and
Responsibilities. Set your team’s rituals using  Ritual Reset.

Tip: display your Team Circles to connect teams that regularly collaborate.

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. When writing a principle, ask yourself:
will this help me make a design decision? If it 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  Productivity Blueprint beforehand to determine who to

invite. Use  Communication Matrix afterwards.
Design Principles
1. Use  Productivity 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, write down the ingredients

required for good design to happen in your organisation

For example: design and test your work with real people.

3.  Theme 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.

Theme (a) Theme (b) Theme (c)

Principle

Participant
name 1
...

5. Ask your team to write a summary for each theme in their row.

For example: observe behaviour and gather evidence. Work with

subject experts and existing research. Do not rely on hunches.

6. Use  Blind Vote to determine the group’s favoured principles.

7. U
 se 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.

Tip: make your principles practical. Keep to 6 – 8 principles at most.

You can print a good principle on a mug. Keep them short.
pipdecks.com/design-principles Origin: Sakichi Toyoda, 1930. © 2022, Pip Decks
 Direction 1‒2 hours

Decision Stack
Connect the dots from vision to execution.

Where are you going? How will you get there?

Use this framework to help you tell the world about
your 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, 

Team Strategy,  Design Principles,  OKRs.
Decision Stack
1. 
Gather the vision, strategy, principles and objectives from
around your business.
Vision
2. 
Sketch out the frame of Strategy
the Decision Stack and Objectives Objectives
fill in any gaps you can.
Opportunities Opportunities
3. 
Discuss each section using Principles
these prompts:
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? Time bound? Actionable?

Opportunities (The best bets)

Are these your riskiest assumptions? Will they bring the
most impact?

Principles (Help make design decisions)

Do they allow you to make decisions? Do they describe how you
want to build your product? Are they specific to your company?

4. D
 ecide who to share your Decision Stack with using
 Communication Matrix.

Tip: It’s okay to have Decision Stacks for different teams, although
ultimately they should be aligned.
pipdecks.com/decision-stack Origin: Martin Eriksson © 2022, Pip Decks
 Direction 1‒2 hours

Design Vision
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 vision should make your team want to get out of
bed in the morning.

“The vision is a stake in the sand with a giant flag on it, big
enough for everyone on the team to see and march towards.”
- Jared Spool.

Try  Team Modelling and  Team Circles to establish©your

Pipdecks.com
team.
2022, Pip Decks
Design Vision
1. Th
 ink about the impact that your team’s work
will have on your users’ lives in 12 months’ time.
Individually spend time answering these questions:

• By choosing our product/service, our users (people)

will have the ability 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, stress-free or satisfied?

2.  Theme Sort your answers and discuss the themes.

3. Y
 ou should now have the ingredients to write a
design vision. Use your elements of emotion, people,
and the change to build your vision.

For example, Team Tactics could be:

We bring confidence (emotion) to leaders (people) by creating
autonomous, fulfilled and motivated teams (the change).

4. N
 ow say it out loud: does it sound awkward? (Revise
it). Memorable? (Good). Like a person would say in
a normal conversation? (Perfect).

5. Align your Design Vision with your strategy,

objectives and principles using  Decision Stack.
pipdecks.com/design-vision © 2022, Pip Decks
 Direction 1‒2 hours

Frame the Problem

Work 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’d spend 55 minutes

thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about
the solution” ‒ Albert Einstein.

Use  Agile Comms to communicate your plan early and often.

Afterwards
Pipdecks.com
 Impact Effort Map to decide which ideas to©take forward.
2022, Pip Decks
Frame the Problem
As a 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? Who do we think would benefit 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 service?

What problem will it solve for them?
For example: they will spend less time travelling and arrive fresher.

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 our key metrics? What do we need to measure

against these outcomes?
For example: reduction in time travel, income from sales of
flying machines.

Tip: constantly refer back to and iterate your answers. Store them
in an accessible document. They give clear reasoning and constraints
that support prioritisation.

Tip: understanding your stakeholder’s or 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 Ben Holliday, 2015 © 2022, Pip Decks
 Direction 1‒2 hours

Lean Wardley
Mapping
Evolve your team’s practice by finding the most
valuable 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 high-
value areas of opportunity to evolve your team.

“Crossing the river by feeling the stones.” – Deng Xiaoping.

Works well with  Top Tasks.

 Lean Wardley Mapping
1. L
 ist out: 1 user, 1 need Designer Complete project
and 3 ‒ 5 capabilities:
Capabilities enable a Project brief Access to research
need to be fulfilled.
Collaborate with developers
2. A
 rrange your list as a
value chain. Use arrows
to denote “depends
on” relationships. For Designer
example: a complete
project depends on a
Complete project
project brief, which
depends on access to
research, etc. Project brief

Access to research Collaborate with developers

3. P
 lot each element of your value chain in one of the four
stages of evolution that make sense to you.
Designer
Visible
Complete project

Project brief
Access to
research
Collaborate
with developers
Invisible
Chaos Emerging Common Standardised
Expected failure, Beginning to implement, Implemented and Well defined, stable
poorly understood. progress can be shown being improved and impactful

4. C
 hoose a part (e.g. access to research) you’d like to evolve. Use
 Force Field Analysis 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? Then

you’ll know that some pros or cons have a lot more
influence on the decision than others. Even seemingly
simple decisions can soon become complicated. You
need a system to facilitate the conversation, unearth
perspectives, and make decisions together.

Try  Top Tasks or  Lean Wardley Map before to explore what you
can change. Use  Get Buy In afterwards.
Force Field Analysis
1. Draw out this diagram without the arrows (we’ll add
those in with the team).
Forces for change Forces against change
4 3 2 1 1 2 3 4

Your goal
or change

Score: 11 Score: 8
2. 
Write down your goal or change in the middle box.

3. 
Individually list the forces for change and  Theme 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 on Fridays to lead this; it will save £xx; we have a high
attrition rate.

4. List all the forces against change and  Theme 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 this; Project X is starting soon; it will cost £xx; Isla has tried
this before and doesn’t think it can work.

5. 
Score and add up the fors and then the againsts.

6. 
Discuss the scores and decide whether to move
forward with the change. Use  Who, What, When
to go forward. If you need a new team, use  Team
Circles to help form it.
pipdecks.com/force-field Force Field Analysis, 1951 © 2022, Pip Decks
 Direction 1‒2 hours

Team Values
While your team vision gives your employees a
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. The coffee was incidental. Find
the values your team really works to, and the rest will fall
into place.

Afterwards use  Team Charter to share the who, why and the what
of your team.
Team Values
1. A
 s a group, discuss the following questions, then
spend 10 minutes individually answering them:
  • What values will help us to go further?
For example: our passion to get to the root of our users’ problem has
led to great products.

  • What values do people show that inspire you the

most in our team?
For example: being brave and saying no has helped us to focus.

  • What differentiates our team from other teams?

For example: we are curious about how everything works.

2. 
Use  Theme Sort to group the answers by values.
Then  Blind Vote to decide the values you’d
like to keep.

3. 
Create a grid with your Value name and answers at
the top, and participants down the left.

4. 
Ask your team to write a summary for each value in
their row. Use prompts from  Write in Plain English.
For example: for the value ‘Customer focussed’ – focus on the user and
all else will follow.

5. Use  Blind Vote to determine the favoured values.

6. 
Do a  Lean Presentation or  Agile Comms to
share widely. Review the values every few months by
doing a  Retro.

pipdecks.com/design-team-values Origin: Alan Cooper, 1999 © 2022, Pip Decks

 Direction 1‒2 hours

Start with Why

Inspire action by finding and communicating your
team’s “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?

“Great companies don’t hire skilled people and motivate

them, they hire already motivated people and inspire them.”
– Simon Sinek

Try  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, service
or team exist?
For example: Uber: transportation as reliable as running water,
everywhere for everyone.

3. Individually write down your ‘whys’. Use  Theme

Sort to group similar answers.

4. Discuss the themes. Use  Blind Vote to decide.

Prompts: where did the ‘whys’ come from? Are they really the reason
why we exist?

5. 
Together, 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: Uber – we provide a great Taxi service.

6. 
Consider trying  Bring Alignment to connect the
dots further.

pipdecks.com/start-with-why Origin: Simon Sinek © 2022, Pip Decks

 Direction 1‒2 hours

Team Strategy
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. When 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

Try  Get Buy In beforehand to hear people’s concerns. Use  Agile

Comms and  Lean Presentations to communicate as you go.
Team Strategy
1. Write down a situation you want to change with your team.
For example: improve design/engineering handovers.

2. H
 ow are we going to get there? Write down all the most
immediate tasks you could do to change that.
For example: invite engineers to  Design Crits.

3. W
 hat will be different when we get 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. 
W here are you going? For the above sentence, ask again
‘why?’ and add on another sentence.
For example: improve internal 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 so we can focus on
what matters to our users.
• What will be different when we get there? Minimal repeat work.
  • What do we need to change? Improve design/engineer hand overs.
  • How are we going to get there? Invite devs to  Design Crits

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  Decision Stack for further

alignment and  Force Field Analysis for feasibility.

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.

Try  My User Manual to help remove friction in relationships.

One-to-One
1. 
Write three headings: 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
• Holding team to account • Influencing stakeholders
• Semantic code • Better collaboration

2. C
 hoose 3 to 6 items from each list that you’d like to focus on.
These are stretch goals. If you are going to do the thing anyway,
choose something else.

3. 
Draw three large circles
with five rings. Plot where
you are now and where you
want to be, with 5 being,
“I’m completely new to this”
and 1 meaning, “I could
teach this”.

4. 
Choose one item you’d like
to focus on. Set  OKRs
and discuss every two weeks.

Tips:
• Work gets busy, don’t cancel this one-to-one meeting.
• 
Share learnings across the company to encourage collaboration.
 Community of Practices are a good place to do this.
• Give regular feedback using a  Retro format.
• 
If things get tricky, try  Accountability Dial.
pipdecks.com/one-to-one © 2022, Pip Decks
 Support 1 hour

My User Manual
Help your team understand how they can best work
with you and each other.

Getting people’s working preferences out in the open

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’ of strategy; it is strategy” –

Adam Bryant

Works well with  One-to-One for more effective conversations.

My User Manual
1. B
 efore the meeting, have each team member
complete a rough first draft of their user manual,
ready to share with the team. Give them the
following prompts to help:
• My best working patterns look like...
• My absolute requirements to do great work are...
• The best way to give me feedback is...
• When I’m dealing with stress, I...
• Beyond work, I’m really passionate about...

2. 
Split into pairs for 5 minutes. Take 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. They 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  Team Charter to connect the wider team.

5. Share your manuals in an open space, such as your

email signature or internal org chart.

Tips: 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 Origin: Adam Bryant, 2013. © 2022, Pip Decks
 Support 1 hour

Circle of Influence
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

Try  Lean Wardley Map beforehand to explore the environment,

and  Top Tasks 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 on and write
it at the top of the circles.

3. 
Ask the group to write all their areas of concern.
Group the areas using  Theme 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 to choose an area of focus. It’s better to

start small, so change is more likely to happen.

6. Try using  Force Field Analysis to dig deeper into

the area.  Get Buy In can help with influence.

pipdecks.com/influence Stephen Covey 1989 © 2022, Pip Decks

 Support 1 hour

Maker Time
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’s Schedule Manager’s Schedule
Work
Work
Meeting
Work
Lunch vs.
Lunch
Work Meeting
Work

Improve productivity with  Ritual Reset. Try  Productivity

Blueprint to improve ways of working. If maker time starts to slip, use
 Lean Wardley Map to examine your landscape.
Pipdecks.com © 2022, Pip Decks
Maker Time
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 of hours you'd spend ‘practising
your craft’ in a typical week to a grid, as shown
below. Round up or down to the nearest hour.
Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri

AM 1 1
2
PM 1 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.
Total no. of everyone’s
working hours
× 100 = Maker time %
Total no. of Hours in the
people in group × working week

5. 
Set  OKRs on the maker time percentage you’d
like to achieve. Consider doing a  Ritual Reset to
clear calendar space.

Tip: 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 achieve, its
full potential, that word would be ‘meetings’.” – Dave
Barry

Works well with  Maker Time to help people do their craft. And
 Inclusive Meetings to get the most out of your time. © 2022, Pip Decks
Pipdecks.com
Ritual Reset
1. 
Write down a list of all the current rituals within the
group, for example: Stand-ups, Show and Tells,
 Community of Practice.

2. 
Draw the following on a large board and ask the
team to add all their rituals. If you need extra 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 which rituals could be

removed completely.

4.  Discuss each of the voted-for rituals, considering:

what was the purpose of the ritual? Is anybody likely
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 © 2022, Pip Decks

 Health 1 hour

Health Monitor
Keep track of your teams’ health to learn when and
where they need 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 well with  Onboarding Retros, and  Design Maturity.

Monitor your  Attrition Rate alongside health.
Health Monitor
1. 
Ask your team to rate each question using a traffic
light system of red, amber and green:

Myself My Team

• I feel safe sharing my thoughts • I feel listened to

• I know what is expected of me
• I can make decisions on my own
• I’m delivering value
• I’m learning and growing
The Work
• I get support when I need it
• Responsibilities are clear
• We work at a good speed
• It’s fun to work with the team
• We communicate well

• The vision for our work is clear

• We have a clear, shareable roadmap
• We get stuff done without delays
• Our work is delivering value
• We focus on our customers’ needs
• Workflows are understandable and shared
• We’re proud of the quality of our work

2. Review the results, paying attention to the reds. What

is causing them to be red? Has something changed?

3. Use  Research Questions to explore areas to improve.

Use  Who, What, When to ensure issues are acted upon.

4. Follow up by discussing issues in your  Community

of Practice.

pipdecks.com/health-check © 2022, Pip Decks

 Health 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 of people have

decided they are going to leave their role within the
first 45 days. The cost of employee turnover is generally
a lot higher than people account for. It pays to give your
onboarding process constant attention.

“It usually takes 8–12 weeks to replace a knowledgeable worker,

and then another month or two before the replacement gets to full
productivity mode.” – Stephen King, GrowthForce

Use alongside  Health Monitor to unearth problems in individual

teams. Monitor your  Attrition Rate alongside health.
Onboarding Retros
I t 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 after they start.

2. Write down ‘When you first heard about the job’ on the
left of a piece of paper, and ‘today’ on the right.
3. Ask your new starter to talk you through each step
from then to today.
4.  W
 rite down each step as they talk, along with any
pain points or ideas to improve.
5.  O
 nce 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.

Tip: consider doing a  Lean Survey 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 over time.

Tasks

Pain Points

Ideas
pipdecks.com/onboarding © 2022, Pip Decks
 Health 30 mins

Attrition Rate
Get the data to anticipate turnover, act to retain key
employees and 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 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,
 Health Monitor,  Onboarding Retro. Use  Get Buy In to keep
your team informed about problems as they happen
Attrition Rate
1. Calculate your current attrition rate using this formula:

Annual Attrition Rate =

(# of Leavers/# of Employees) × 100

 if you had 40 people leave a team of 200 people

So
in one year, your calculation would be:

(40/200) × 100
Annual Attrition Rate = 20%

If your attrition rate is nearing 20%, this could

indicate problems. According to Monster, the
average attrition rate in the UK is 15%, but for some
disciplines – like design – it is often higher.

2. To unearth problems, run a  Health Monitor.

Tips:
• Keep people motivated with  Goal, Signal, Metric.
• Track your attrition rate monthly.
• Split your rate into categories such as voluntary (employee
chose to leave) and involuntary (employee dismissed).
• Keep a close eye on specific groups leaving by recording,
gender, ethnicity and age.

pipdecks.com/attrition-rate © 2022, Pip Decks

 Health 1‒2 hours

Design Maturity
Understand what your team’s design maturity level
is today, and where you want to go in the short 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’t being assessed for maturity; the
organisation is.

Afterwards, set clear goals using  Goal, Signal, Metric. Be sure to

 Get Buy In from the people who can help or hinder you.
Design Maturity
I dentify which of the four stages your team is at and try 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
Things are produced by people who aren’t experienced designers.
• Show real people using the service or product. Use  Lean
Presentation to tell the story.
• Use  Research Questions to assess their current understanding of design.
•  Build Psychological 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  Become Dependable 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 running a
 Bring Alignment session.

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.

Set clear goals using  Goal, Signal, Metric. Review quarterly using a
 Retro to check your progress.

pipdecks.com/maturity Danish Design Centre (DDC) in 2003 © 2022, Pip Decks

 Collaborate 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. The 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 well with  Daily Sharing,  Design Crits and

 Retros to kick off conversations.
Community of Practice
Setting up your community:
1.  Clarify who the community is for; boundaries help
people feel safe. Use  Lean Survey 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  Team Strategy.
4. 
Use  Agile Comms to promote your community.
5. 
Do a  Lean Presentation in an all-team meeting.

Tip: remind people to think of themselves as creative people.

Get away from work and go to an art gallery or a museum.

pipdecks.com/community Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger 1991 © 2022, Pip Decks
 Collaborate 30 seconds

Daily Sharing
Form habits of sharing work early and often without
eating into your team’s precious time.

Working in the open helps with collaboration, improves

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. The seed of every
habit is a single, tiny decision. But as that decision is repeated,
a habit sprouts and grows stronger.” – James Clear

Works well with  Community of Practice,  Design Crits and

 Retros to kick off conversations.
Daily Sharing
1. Pick a shared area the whole team can access. A
Slack channel works well.

2. At an agreed time (it needs to work for all) ask the
team “what are you working on?”.

3. P
 eople share their work. Encourage conversation,
reactions and collaboration.

4. The person who asks the question today nominates

someone to do it tomorrow, so every day somebody
makes it happen.

Tip: communal rituals like this have a tendency to die if

they’re left to one person. Make sure the whole team own it.

To kick it off with your team, explain:

   • If you spend more than 30 seconds a day
preparing for this, it’s way too much.
   • You can share anything, a screenshot of a polished
design, a paper prototype, a photo of a team out
researching or even an email or spreadsheet. The
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 WAYWO – Rob Hunt, 2018 © 2022, Pip Decks
 Collaborate 1‒2 hours

Shift Left Lenses

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 after they have gone live. It pays
to shift the attention as far left as you can to catch
things earlier.

Try running  Productivity 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  Productivity Blueprint,
you’ll have maps of common work flows.

2. Invite people from all disciplines, (Research, Design,

BA, QA, Management, Development etc...).

3. Discuss as a group, using your blueprint map and the

prompts to help the conversation:

   •  W hat are the common causes of repeat work?

Accessibility not considered? Design build incorrect?
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 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 tasks, people or

tools that you wish to implement. Use  Impact
Effort Map to decide where to start. Use  Who,
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 Updates
Discuss what matters across your different teams and
disciplines without it becoming a chore or slowing
you down.

Fostering a culture of sharing regularly can be tough,

but it’s vitally important to create efficient, motivated
teams. By sharing bite-sized updates in an open forum,
you encourage everyone to contribute in a way that
becomes habitual. And over time you can look back at
the progress you’ve all made.

Works well with  Agile Comms,  Lean Presentations.

Lean Updates
1. Create a table with the following information:
Interesting
Key priorities Key blockers/ Questions for
updates for
this week escalations the person
the team
Person name 1
- Team name 1

Person name 2
- Team 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’s answers. Ask the group to write any
questions they have in the fourth column.
Is somebody in my 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 the questions together as a group. Do a
 Who, What, When for any actions.

5. 
Use  Agile Comms or  Lean Presentations to
share any updates which need to go further.

Tips:
• 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 © 2022, Pip Decks
 Collaborate 1‒2 hours

Top Tasks
Understand and improve what matters the most to
your team or customers.

Focusing on what’s most 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.

“The worst ways to design something is to have five smart

people in a room drinking lattes. This is the age of the
customer and data.” – Gerry McGovern

Use  Productivity Blueprint to collect tasks. Try  Task Modelling

afterwards to dig into the detail.
Top Tasks
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. 
 Theme Sort your list until it has approx. 50 to 100 tasks.

3. 
In your group or using a survey, ask people to vote
for the top 20 tasks that:
a.) They 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 the most
votes.  Blind Vote for the tasks that the group
thinks it can have an effect on.

6. 
Use  Force Field Analysis to evaluate how difficult
it would be to create change for each one.

7. 
Use  Task 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 Gerry McGovern © 2022, Pip Decks

 Collaborate 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 creep in over time. Help bring
visibility and attention to prevent frustrations.

Try  Shift Left Lenses to help improve collaboration further.

Productivity Blueprint
1. F
 ind 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. 
Tasks: write the steps your team takes in a typical
scenario. For example: 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
manager, product owner.

4. 
Tools: on the third row, write which tools are used for
each step. For example: 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.

6. 
Action: dig into a task you want to improve with
 Task Modelling then  Force Field Analysis.

Tasks

People

Tools

Ideas

pipdecks.com/blueprint © 2022, Pip Decks

 Collaborate 1‒2 hours

Task Modelling
Gain clarity about the steps people go through and
the decisions they make to accomplish a specific task.

The best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour. If

you’ve always done something a certain way, you’re likely
to do that same thing in the same manner in the future.

Try  Lean Wardley Mapping to see the full picture. Or  Top Tasks
to uncover the most important tasks for your team or customer.
Task Modelling
1. Use  Top Tasks to unearth tasks and pick a common
task that you’d like to understand.
For example: picking a colour from the Design System.

2. Ask someone to describe, let you watch or sketch out

the last time they attempted the task. Use  Research
Questions to make sure you’re not leading them.

3. Together, 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 Check the existing Use the colour
use a shade of blue blue colours

4. For tasks with multiple related options, draw a circle

around them.
Decide I need to Check the existing Use the colour
use a shade of blue blue colours

Design
Figma System
plugin website
Prototyping
kit

5. R
 eview 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 Map.
pipdecks.com/task-modelling Origin: Annett and Duncan, 1967 © 2022, Pip Decks
 Collaborate 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

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 it.

Use  Who, What, When afterwards to make sure things get done.
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. T
 alk the team through the retro exercise 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, 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 briefly talk through each one.
 Theme Sort as you go.

5. 
Prioritise the top three using  Blind Vote.

6. 
Discuss these in more detail and use  Who, What,
When to capture actions.

Tips:
• Be considerate – don’t make it personal, don’t take it 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 on 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. © 2022, Pip Decks
 Collaborate 1 hour

Design Crits
Improve your designs by gaining different perspectives
while increasing collaboration across disciplines.

Design critiques should motivate, not intimidate. They

should be something the whole team looks forward to.
Be sure to do  Retros on your crits sessions regularly
to understand how they are working for your team.

Set  Team Values to help create a safe space. Use  Productivity

Blueprint to include crits in your process. Try  Shift Left Lenses to
get people involved earlier.
Design Crits
1. Invite people from different disciplines to gain a
wider range of perspectives. Do  Productivity
Blueprint if you need to consider who.

2. Tell 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.

3. Point out any constraints.

For example: things that can’t be changed like third-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 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. Try  Agile Comms to share

any outcomes.

Tips:
• Invite as many people as you’d be happy to have at a dinner party. Bigger
groups can be hard to manage.
• For larger groups do a silent crit by sharing designs digitally.
• To delve deeper into a problem, pair up in a smaller group of two or three.
• Use your  Design Principles to help guide the conversation.
• Consider setting  Team Values around feedback.

pipdecks.com/design-crits © 2022, Pip Decks

 Collaborate 1 hour

Get Buy In
Talk to individuals first, 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 IKEA effect”). When you do
that big presentation to change the world, there should
be very little that the people listening haven’t heard
before in some form.

Also consider  Agile Comms to communicate early and often.

Works well with  Circle of Influence, and  Lean Presentations.
Get Buy In
 ou spend weeks creating a deck, then present it to
Y
your stakeholders only to find there is a slim chance of
getting buy in. Instead do this:

1. 
As a team, identify the people you need to influence:
• Who are the decision makers?
• Who are the people who’ll implement the changes?
• Who will be affected by these changes?

2. 
Arrange one-to-one meetings with them. Use
 Research Questions to get to know their concerns
about your plans. Use  Theme Sort to examine
common concerns.

3. 
Address concerns directly when you do your big
presentation. Use  Lean Presentations to make
it memorable.

Tips:
• 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.
•A
 ddressing 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

Write in Plain
English
Get your message understood the first time it’s read.

• In the UK, 1 in 13 do not use English as their first language

• One in 10 people have Dyslexia. Simple language
lightens the cognitive load.
• Many sight loss charities recommend using simple language
• The National Autistic Society advise against the use of jargon
• People scan read, as we all have little time and short
attention spans

Works 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 your money” not “bang for your buck”, “the latest” not
“cutting edge”, “Early Access Programs” not “EAPs”.

c. Write conversationally in first person using the

active voice. 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. Test your content with real people. Run a  Design

Crit session.

pipdecks.com/plain-english © 2022, Pip Decks

 Communicate 1‒2 hours

Inclusive Meeting
Playbook
Make people feel part of their meetings.

Meetings are important for sharing ideas and discussing

decisions. Yet power dynamics often get in the 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
1. 
Get together with the people who you regularly have
meetings with.

2. Ask half the people to write down their tips to allow

these positive behaviours. The other half write down
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 time?

3. 
 Theme Sort the answers to the questions. Discuss
the answers and question if anything is missing.

4. 
Write 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  Lean Presentation. Add a link
to each invite and encourage people to speak up and
 Say What you Mean if guidelines are broken.

6. 
Decide who to share your inclusive playbook with
using  Communication Matrix.

pipdecks.com/meetings-playbook © 2022, Pip Decks

 Communicate

Say What You

Mean
Explain your feelings and needs clearly while creating
empathy in your conversations.

Reduce conflict, foster trust 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 well in  One-to-Ones and  Accountability Dial.

Say What You Mean
1. 
W 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 in you.
For example: dejected, insecure, resentful.

3. 
W hat are your needs?
State the need that is the cause of that feeling. The
need should not include a reference to a specific
person, action or time.
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 and specifically for what
you want right now, rather than hinting or stating
only what you don’t want.
For example:
When I [had no invite to last week’s kick-off meeting]
I felt [dejected and insecure]
because I need [to feel part of the wider team]
Would you be willing to [invite me to the next kick off?]

5. 
Go through the points, imagining the situation from
the other person’s perspective.
pipdecks.com/say-it Marshall Rosenberg 1960s © 2022, Pip Decks
 Communicate 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.
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion
that it has taken place.” – George Bernard Shaw

Try  Appreciation Playbook before to make sure you’re not missing

anything. And  Agile Comms after to help communicate clearly.
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  Theme Sort.

3. 
Work through the following questions as a group, for
the things you need to communicate (with examples):
   • Who in the team? Delivery manager.
   • Says what? Who has joined/left.
   • In which channel? The weekly all-hands meeting.
  • To whom? The whole team.
  • With what effect? To help people feel welcome/
appreciated for their efforts.
  • W hen? Weekly.

4. 
Keep track of your regular communications in a shared
space everyone can access and review 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 sure you’re speaking to
the people you need to.

pipdecks.com/comms-matrix Harold Lasswell 1948 © 2022, Pip Decks

 Communicate

Accountability Dial
Hold your team to account without falling into the
micromanagement trap.

Accountability often isn’t upheld because it feels

confrontational. You can turn the accountability dial up
and down depending on the situation. Serious issues
may need ‘The Conversation’, or even ‘The Limit’. But for
many things, a few focused ‘Mentions’ will do the job.
The Mention
The The Invitation
Accountability The Conversation
Dial The Boundary
The Limit

Works well in  One-to-Ones and  Say What You Mean.

Accountability Dial
1. The Mention: 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.  The Invitation: build awareness with an informal chat.

“I’ve mentioned [behaviours] to you a few times now...
how is this happening?”

3.  The Conversation: place urgency on the problem

and the importance of dealing with it.
“[Observations/behaviours] are impacting the team...
We need to talk about how to sort this out together.”

4.  The Boundary: give clear consequences for not

dealing with the problem.
“If [observations] don’t change, we may have to [possible
consequences].”

5.  The Limit: give one last chance to improve.

“This is your final warning. Let me be clear...”

Tip: check in on the  Health Monitor and ensure  One-to-

Ones happen. Encourage people to  Say What You Mean.

pipdecks.com/accountability 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 Turnbull

Try running  Communication Matrix before to work out the

essentials. Works well with  Write in Plain English.
Agile Comms
Be considerate of people’s time by using these three
layers of communication:
• The 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 The Lure. Why should people read your

message? Like a good billboard advertisement, it will
make people stop and want to learn more. The 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 detail, every document, every date.
Make it an optional part of the communication, not
the main focus.

Tips:
• 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 Giles Turnbull © 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’s memory.

“The success of your presentation will be judged not by the

knowledge you send but by what the listener receives.”
- Lilly Walters

Works well with  Write in Plain English. © 2022, Pip Decks

Lean Presentations
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; Diagnosis; Actions.
• Problem; Solution; Next steps.
• Past; Present; Future.

3. U
 se sticky notes to write down the main points for each
section. This helps you to see the flow of your argument,
spot repetition, and to easily 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.

Tips:
• Think of your presentation as a series of posters.
• Start at the end of your story and work backwards.
• Keep a bank of slides that work.

pipdecks.com/lean-presentations Russell Davies © 2022, Pip Decks

 Recognition 1‒2 hours

Team 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, 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  Team Values before this card will help you with the first
bit of this tactic. Works well with  Write in Plain English.
Team Appreciation
1. Draw a grid with your  Team Values horizontally
across the top and the names of each person
vertically down the side.
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 everything.
   • 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  Appreciation Playbook to make sure that people’s

efforts are recognised. Use  Agile Comms to help share
the good regularly.

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 health. Yet most companies fail to do it.

“68% of employees haven’t received any form of recognition

for good work in the last year.” – Gallup, 2016.

Run  Team Values and  Design Vision before to align on what

matters to the team.
Appreciation Playbook
1. As a group, write down all the triggers for recognition.
For example: a promotion, helping out another team,
doing a presentation, sharing a failure, etc.

2. Think about ways to give recognition. Consider

both public and private spaces for appreciation.
   • In public – a shout out on social media, in
a newsletter, doing a  Team Appreciation
workshop, kudos channel.
   • In private – a handwritten note, send a gift, a
thank you call.

3. Write as many as you can think of and group them

together using  Theme Sort.

4. Discuss each item and plot on an  Impact Effort

Map for the items in ‘do now’. Add to your
 Communication Matrix.

Tips: build a business case. Monitor your  Attrition

Rate and  Health Monitor by capturing improvement
over time.

pipdecks.com/appreciation-playbook © 2022, Pip Decks

 Recognition 1 hour

Goal, Signal,
Metric
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 goals.

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” – Peter Drucker

Before use  Team Strategy to define a goal.

Goal, Signal, Metric
Start by looking at what your company currently
measures. Use  Get Buy In to work out how, why and
who measures what.

1. Define your goal using  Team Strategy, and write it

down concisely for everyone 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,
 Theme Sort and  Blind Vote.

For example: people with various access needs in

usability sessions can buy our products.

3. Considering your goals and signals, what Metrics could

you set that would mean you’ve reached your goal?
For example: product page conversation rate increases by 10%.

4. Keep track of your Goals, Signals and Metrics over

time, put them in a shared space where the entire
team can see them.

Tip: Share results regularly and widely using  Agile

Comms,  Lean Presentations and  Lean Updates.

pipdecks.com/goal-signal-metric Origin: Google. © 2022, Pip Decks

 Technique

The Lean Survey

Get answers in numbers to help you make decisions.

Understand together why you need “another 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.
The Lean Survey
1. Draw the following on a large surface:
1. What is the most 2. Who do we need to 4. What do we know
critical thing we learn from? already?
want to learn? 3. How will we reach 5. What decision will
these people? we make? And how?
6. Questions a) b) c) Invite/
Intro
d) e) f) g) Thank you

2. 
Write the most critical things you’d like to learn 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 interaction designers”, 3: “Email
list”, 4: “Survey last 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  Theme Sort.

5. 
Discuss each question. Does it help answer your
critical questions?

6. 
Write your agreed questions in boxes a to g. Aim for a
maximum of seven, any more could decrease completion rate.

7. 
Your invite/intro should include why you 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
 Technique

Research Questions
Ask questions that help you challenge your own
unavoidable biases.

When you have an idea, it’s natural to want people to

like it. This can lead us to try and get people to say what
we want to hear, rather than the truth. Asking good
questions helps us reach the real answers, where we get
people talking about the right things. The most effective
tool for solving the problem is to listen.

“Research is formalised curiosity. It is poking and prying

with a purpose.” – 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. The 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’t lead, don’t close

Try not to ask leading or closed questions. For example:
Leading: “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, observe, 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’t solve the problem

Good interviewing is about gathering evidence, not trying to solve
the problem.

f. 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, and to feel good
about sharing it with you.

g. Digging in
Ask them to build on what they say: “Tell 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...”

Tip: listen back to your interviews and use these prompts to see how you did.
pipdecks.com/research-questions Origin: Andrew Travers, 2013. © 2022, Pip Decks
 Technique 5 mins

Blind Vote
Democratically make decisions as a group. Eliminate
all but one thing, or find the top three things.

Help the team make decisions together, without being

led by any one individual (the “bandwagon effect”). Blind
voting neutralises any dominating personalities or
opinions in the decision-making process.

© 2022, Pip Decks

Blind Vote
1. 
With a marker, clearly number each of the things you
want the group to decide on: 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.

2. 
Ensure the group understands what they are going to
vote on by allowing time for each person to explain
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 Origin: Google Ventures © 2022, Pip Decks

 Technique 1‒2 hours

Objectives and
Key Results
Create radical focus for your team by agreeing on an
objective and actively measuring progress towards it.

The problem with most goals is that distractions get

in the way of achieving them. The OKR framework
is designed to give you “radical focus” on achieving 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 to submit their
top objective for the team to achieve in the next
quarter. An objective is a qualitative and aspirational
‘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  Theme Sort.

3. Debate and use  Blind Vote to find your primary objectives.

4. 
List as many metrics as you can in 10 minutes. They
should show you’re closer to achieving the objective.
For example: number of time-wasting tasks found,
hours saved, designers spoken to.

5. 
Use  Theme Sort and  Blind Vote to group and
decide on three metrics.

6. 
Turn 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 should feel like you have a fifty-fifty chance of
achieving each one in the next quarter.
For example: ‘Save 40 hours per month (5/10)’.
pipdecks.com/okr Origin: Andy Grove, 1983 © 2022, Pip Decks
 Technique 10 mins

Who, What, When

Leave a session with a clear plan of goals and deadlines.

Leave the room knowing who’s committing to what,

and by 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

Who, What, When
1. Draw three columns on a large surface, preferably a
whiteboard. From left to right, write “Who”, “What”
and “When” at the top of each column.

Who 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
respective row. “Next week” is too vague, and doesn’t
create concrete commitment.

5. 
At this point, there might be a lot to do. Encourage
those who have not contributed so far to either come
up with an action, or assist another person.

pipdecks.com/whowhatwhen Origin: Dave Gray & Mike Berman © 2022, Pip Decks
 Technique 10 mins

Theme Sort
Make sense of large amounts of information by
clustering similar things together to find the theme.

When you have a lot of sticky notes, grouping them by

similarity allows themes to emerge. This helps you make
sense of a large amount of information, which makes it
easier to prioritise.

© 2022, Pip Decks

Theme Sort
1. 
Make sure you’ve got a lot of wall space.

2. 
W hatever kind of 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 a new sticky note, ask yourself
if 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 hen all the sticky notes have been clustered, write
a title for each on a larger sticky note. These are your
themes.

6. 
Review the outliers; they may belong in smaller clusters.

Tip: it’s easier to Theme Sort as you go. If you try to do it

afterwards, it becomes more difficult to organise them.

pipdecks.com/themesort © 2022, Pip Decks

 Technique 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.

2. Draw two axes, with Impact running across the

horizontal line, and Effort on the vertical. Make sure
it’s big enough to fit all your ideas!

Low effort

Do later Do now

Low impact High impact

Forget it Do later

High effort

3. Plot each 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

About the author, Dave Cunningham
Knowledge workers are hugely in demand, yet the
environment we provide for them can be lacking.
Where do you start to get the best out of your team?

Setting off is the hardest part of any journey. If you

are in a team with little time, and you want to set off
or climb to the top of that mountain, Team Tactics
is the sturdy shoes, rucksack with supplies, map and
supportive friends to help you get there. If you’re in a
team and can see a problem and have the will to do
something about it, Team Tactics is for you.

Dave has spent (just) over 20 years

supporting teams to do their best work
at UK Government, Co-op Digital and
the BBC and is currently focusing on
developing psychological safety training
for teams like yours.

Follow Dave on Twitter: @davecunningham

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