A coach for teams
Stronger teams are built one conversation at a time.
Strong Suit is a coach that starts those conversations. It asks one teammate what they saw another do, then gets the two of them talking about how.
Each line is one exchange: something one teammate saw another do, asked about, and answered. The newest are in blue. This is an illustration of how they add up, not a measurement.
The half your week leaves out
Your team is built to find what went wrong. Almost nothing asks what went right.
Bugs get tickets. Incidents get reviews. Retrospectives list what to fix. Keep all of it. Strong Suit adds the other half.
What your week already asks
What broke?
Who is fixing it?
What do we change next sprint?
What Strong Suit asks
What did you see a teammate do?
What do you want to learn from how they did it?
Where have you done it before?
Most of what your people can do goes unused, because nobody asks the question that would make it visible. A person cannot repeat, teach, or protect what has never been put into words.
How it works
It is not thanks. It is asking to be influenced.
First
You tell the coach what you saw a teammate do.
It says your story back, with what it shows in it.
Then the question nobody else asks
What do you want to learn from how Sam did it?
This is the difference between recognizing someone and seeking their influence. You say how you want their way of working to change yours.
Then
Your teammate gets a note, and two questions.
Being asked counts for more than being thanked. The coach walks them through answering.
Then
Their answer comes back, and you go talk.
The point of the page is the conversation that happens off it.
Priya to Sam
What Priya saw
When the migration failed on Tuesday, you wrote down what you knew and what you did not, and posted it before anyone asked.
What it shows
says what he knows and what he does not, before anyone has to ask
What Priya wants to learn
I want to learn how you say what you do not know without waiting to be sure. I go quiet until I am certain.
Priya's questions for you
What did it take to post that before you were sure?
Where did you learn to do it that way?
An example of the note a teammate receives.
Your sprint
It fits the rhythm you already run.
Tell Strong Suit when your sprint, cycle, or week ends. In the three days before, each person is asked one thing. Your retrospective keeps its list of what to fix, and now it also starts from what worked.
Your table, before the sprint ends
Who did something this sprint that you want to learn from?
Tell the coach what you saw
Draw the first line this week.
Name your team, send one link, and tell the coach about one thing a teammate did.