RetroBeginner

Team Health Check

Popularised by Spotify, the Team Health Check is a regular ritual where teams self-assess across key dimensions of healthy team functioning (e.g. 'Suitable Process', 'Teamwork', 'Delivering Value', 'Morale', 'Learning'). Each dimension is rated as healthy (green), some concerns (yellow), or unhealthy (red). Trends over time surface systemic issues before they become crises.

Duration

30m–1h

Group size

3–15 people

Materials

Health Check cards or printed template, voting cards (green/yellow/red per person)

Origin

Community

How to run it

1
Prepare 8–12 health dimension cards. Spotify uses: Awesome Codebase, Delivering Value, Fun, Easy to Release, Health of Codebase, Learning, Mission, Pawns or Players, Speed, Suitable Process, Support, Teamwork.
2
For each dimension, read the 'healthy' and 'unhealthy' descriptions.
3
Each team member simultaneously holds up green, yellow, or red (cards or fingers).
4
Note the result and any key discussion points for each dimension.
5
After all dimensions, identify the top 1–2 areas needing attention.
6
Track results over time to see trends.

Tips

The power is in the trend, not the snapshot — run it every 4–8 weeks and track changes.
Don't use results to evaluate teams externally.
The goal is team self-improvement, not management reporting.

Variations

Adapt the dimensions to your context — the generic Spotify dimensions may not fit every team. Add a 'comments' round after voting for each dimension to surface the 'why' behind the colours.

Where it fits

Regular team health monitoringAgile team retrospectivesEngineering team managementCross-team benchmarking

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Method descriptions on Workshop Weaver are original content written by our team, based on established facilitation practices.