The Team Playbook is free to download, and it's organized and grouped according to the team dynamic you want to address. It includes stories about how Atlassian creates team plays, as well as the plays our Content Designers use most often, and how we use these plays to inform our work.

1. JOHN PAZ | SENIOR CONTENT DESIGNER | @TECHWRITERNINJA
Unleashing Your Team’s Potential
With The Atlassian Team Playbook

2. Agenda
The Atlassian Team Playbook
Great Plays for Content Creators
How to use the Team Playbook
Q&A

4. Atlassian Values
They guide what we do, why we create, and who we hire.
Opencompany,
nobullshit
Buildwithheart
&balance
Bethechange
youseek
Play,
asateam
Don’t#@!%
thecustomer

5. We believe behind every great human
achievement, there is a team. Our mission
is to unleash the potential of every team.
OUR MISSION

6. When work is open,
we unleash the full
potential of all teams.
WE BELIEVE

7. OPEN

8. The Atlassian Team Playbook

9. THE ATLASSIAN TEAM PLAYBOOK
Our no-bullsh*t
guide to
unleashing
your team’s
potential

10. Focused,
printable, & free
atlassian.com/
team-playbook
WEBSITE TEMPLATES

11. Health
Monitors

12. 8 attributes of healthy teams
Assess your team against attributes of healthy
teams, and get better understanding of your
strengths and weaknesses.
Everyone has a say
Open and honest conversation, silent vote, avoid
group think, meant to be run over multiple
sessions.
For all teams
Whether your team is high-performing, or deeply
dysfunctional; no matter your level, function, or
industry.
Health
Monitors

13. Leadership teams
For decision-makers who
work on longer term vision
and high-level initiatives.
Project teams
For those of us that make
the things.
Service teams
For teams with queue-based
work that likely have daily or
weekly quotas.
Three types of Health Monitors

14. Game
Plans

15. Eight types
Tried and trusted
Regularly-used solutions, easy-to-use
templates, and constantly being improved.
Not sure which play to run
Game plans are collections of plays we
recommend for specific purposes.
Game
Plans

16. Game plans
Project Management
Becoming a Cross-
Functional Product
Team
DevOps
Open Lines of
Communication
Incident Response
HR Teams
Making Better
Decisions
Operational Planning

17. DACI
Clarify roles in the
decision and
document options.
Demo Trust
Get guidance from
leadership early on
(when it matters most).
Trade-off Sliders
Agree on the relative
importance of all the
factors.
OKRs
Set high-level goals
so your low-level
decisions align.
Making Better Decisions Game Plan

18. Plays

19. Many plays (more to come!)
There may not be a play for everything, yet, but
we hope there will be, soon.
Many ways to group them
Sort them by Health Monitor Attribute,
development phase, or known pain point, it’s up
to you.
Many ways to use them
Use in conjunction with a Health Monitor as part
of a diagnosis, or pick a play that suits your
needs.
Plays

20. Over 30 published Plays (as of now)
Customer Interview
Experience Canvas
Decision-Making
Framework
Feature/Project
Kick-off
Elevator Pitch
Journey/Mind
Mapping
Empathy Mapping
Project Poster

21. How to use the Team Playbook
Warning: these talks could lead to some tough discussions at your work place

22. About the project
As content-driven professionals, we need a Game Plan
that addresses our specific needs.
Let’s run a
Health Monitor
Set the context
Break into teams
Give ratings
Let’s review

23. Divide into even teams
Assign someone as the moderator/facilitator (this will
be the full-time owner).
Once into teams, read the prompt.
Let’s run a
Health Monitor
Set the context
Break into teams
Give ratings
Let’s review

24. Assess the health of the project
1. Read name and definition of each attribute out loud.
2. Vote.
3. Consensus?
1. If yes, awesome!
2. If no, why? average?
4. Repeat for each.
Let’s run a
Health Monitor
Set the context
Break into teams
Give ratings
Let’s review

25. The 8 Project Health Monitor Attributes
Full-time owner
There is one lead who is
accountable.
Proof of concept
A prototype to demonstrate
the problem and proposed
solutions.
Balanced team
The project has people with
the right blend of skill set.
One-pager
Summary available to other
teams explaining project
purpose and value.
Shared understanding
The team understands the
problem, solution, and risks.
Managed dependencies
Clear understanding of
complexity, infrastructure, risks,
resources, effort, and timeline.
Value and metrics
Success defined, how it’s
measured, & value prop for
the business and users.
Velocity
Incremental progress
shipping iterations,
applying lessons learned.

26. How’d it go?
1. What was the rating for each attribute?
2. Why was that rating chosen?
Let’s run a
Health Monitor
Set the context
Break into teams
Give ratings
Let’s review

27. Plan the next Health Monitor
Take the time while everyone is in the room to
ensure the next Health Monitor is scheduled.
Strengthen problem areas
Which Play(s) or Game Plans might we use to
strengthen the yellow and red items?
Publish your assessment
Keeping the information to yourself limits the
impact of running a Health Monitor.
Next Steps
Post-Health Monitor

28. Plays for Improving Problem Areas
Full-time owner
• Project Kick-off
Proof of concept
• Elevator Pitch
• End-to-end Demo
• Journey Mapping
Balanced team
• DACI
• Roles and
Responsibilities
One-pager
• Elevator Pitch
• Problem Framing
• Project Poster
Shared understanding
• Demo Trust
• Elevator Pitch
• Project Poster
Managed dependencies
• Project Kick-off
• Trade-off Sliders
Value and metrics
• Empathy Mapping
• Goals, Signals, and Measures
• Trade-off Sliders
Velocity
• Retrospective
• Sparring

29. LIFE CYCLE FOR USING THE TEAM PLAYBOOK
Problem framing Project poster Project kickoff
RetrospectiveEnd-to-End Demo
Sparring Journey Mapping Mind Mapping
Demo Trust Customer Interview
Problem framing

30. Great Plays for Content Creators
(sorted by development phase)

31. GREAT PLAYS FOR CONTENT CREATORS: ENVISION STAGE
Experience Canvas
Clarify what problem your project is trying to solve, the
customer(s) you're solving it for, and what success looks like.
Project Poster
Understand what problem you’re solving, why it matters, and
share that information with teams outside of your own.
Project/Feature Kick-off
Clarify what problem your project is trying to solve, the
customer(s) you're solving it for, and what success looks like.

32. GREAT PLAYS FOR CONTENT CREATORS: BUILD STAGE
DACI Framework
Helps you make group decisions efficiently and effectively, and
define roles for making high-impact or high-risk decisions.
Sparring
A structured way to get peer feedback from teammates and
stakeholders by challenging ideas or inspiring new ones.
Tradeoff Sliders
Helps you understand the relative importance of all the factors
you're considering, and get consensus on priorities.

33. GREAT PLAYS FOR CONTENT CREATORS: IMPROVE STAGE
Incident response communication
Put yourself in your customers' shoes to asses the cadence of
your current customer communication to identify gaps.
Retrospectives
How to run basic retrospectives, and how to adapt them to suit
your team.
Demo Trust
Helps you understand the relative importance of all the factors
you're considering, and get consensus on priorities.

34. Q&A

35. JOHN PAZ | SENIOR CONTENT DESIGNER | @TECHWRITERNINJA
Thanks!