Company
Date Published
Author
Simon Darken
Word count
1260
Language
English
Hacker News points
None

Summary

PagerDuty's product development teams employ a modified version of the Spotify Squad Health Check Model to uncover systemic issues and improve team dynamics through quarterly health check surveys. These surveys allow team members to anonymously express their feelings on topics such as team value, quality, processes, and overall happiness using a simple scoring system complemented by comments. Results are compiled and discussed at team and organizational levels, with management buy-in being crucial for addressing identified issues. Over time, the process has highlighted significant concerns such as autonomy and code release challenges, leading to targeted improvements. Despite challenges in effecting organizational change, the health checks have been instrumental in driving discussions and improvements across teams, with management involvement enhancing the effectiveness of this initiative. The evolving process continues to provide valuable insights into team health and happiness, demonstrating its utility as a tool for organizational improvement within the Agile framework.