How to know who's responsible for what
Practices on clarifying ownership, responsibility and roles in teams.
Hey there,
Being a startup often means moving around from project to project and priority We’re lucky enough to have super flexible and versatile talent on the team, so that many people can take on many different projects (from writing content in the app to driving marketing campaigns and leading user research). Overtime, when moving fast this can lead to people losing sight of that north star ⭐️ and having a harder and harder time understanding how their contribution pays into the team’s mission and our goals.
At the same time, I believe that what made us successful so far is that spirit of “rolling up your sleeves and do the thing the team needs to succeed” 💪. So roles descriptions did not really cut it for me somehow and I have discovered this concept of mandates and we decided to try it out in our team. We’ve clarified most mandates and will share them with the team next week.
I wanted to share what I have found in terms of useful resources for clarifying each team member’s responsibilities and ownership areas.
How to make clear what everyone’s working on and how it contributes to the bigger picture 🛣
👉 Clarifying team mandates from agile team development
Top Take-Away: There are many different way you relate to each other when collaborating from advising to telling/informing to delegating. This resource shows you all the different kinds there are and pushes you to be explicit about it.
👉 Example of one of our mandates (this one is from Anthony Reo, my co-founder and our COO)
Top Take-Away: We link our company mission to a team mission to a personal mission and also use NOW, NEXT, LATER as a mental model to give clarity on priorities
👉How to facilitate a team roles and responsibilities workshop by Monica Viggars, Product Coach, Director at Rather Good Consultancy
Top Take-Away: Starting from the team’s understanding of their roles & responsibilities unlocks a much larger potential for more ownership and responsibility-taking with whatever responsibilities come out of the workshop
Our definition of ownership 👇 at Bunch (does not only count for decisions, also projects):
Tips from the Bunch AI coach:
Check out Start Your New Team Off on the Right Foot by Merissa Silk, Head of Product at fundingport
Have a great week and let me know what methods you’re using to clarify responsibilities and ownership!
Darja