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“Squad” is a useful plain-language label, not a mandatory methodology. You can use the role map and working agreement below with Scrum, another framework, or no formal framework at all.
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What a squad is—and what it is not
A squad is a small, interdependent team working toward a shared outcome. Interdependence means members plan work, solve problems, make decisions and review progress together rather than simply handing separate tasks to a coordinator. Google’s Project Aristotle guide describes teams in those terms: “Teams are highly interdependent – they plan work, solve problems, make decisions, and review progress in service of a specific project.”
That distinction matters. A work group can contain capable people whose tasks barely affect one another. A squad has a common result and enough connection between its members that coordination, trust and decision clarity affect the result.
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How large should a squad be?
There is no universal optimum. Project Aristotle examined teams ranging from three to 50 people, with a median of nine. That is an observation about the teams Google studied, not a rule that every squad should contain nine people. Scrum.org describes a Scrum Team as small, typically 10 or fewer people, because a compact group can coordinate directly while still covering the skills needed to create something valuable.
Use the smallest group that can do the work without creating constant queues for outside approval. Add a member when a required capability is persistently unavailable, not merely because the team feels busy. If conversations become difficult to schedule, decisions wait for a large meeting, or members have little knowledge of one another’s work, the squad may be too large. Split by a clear outcome or product boundary rather than by arbitrary headcount.
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Before assigning titles, write one sentence describing the result the squad is responsible for. Name the audience or beneficiary, the problem being addressed and the condition that will show the work is complete. “Improve the app” is too broad; “Enable new customers to complete account setup without support” gives the squad a direction it can test.
Define “done” in observable terms. Depending on the work, that may include an accepted deliverable, a documented handoff, a safety or compliance check, or evidence that the intended user can perform the task. Do not confuse activity with an outcome: publishing ten documents or holding six meetings does not by itself prove that the customer problem was solved.
List the decisions required to reach the outcome. Typical decisions include priority, scope, technical or operational approach, acceptance criteria, risk treatment and release timing. Every important decision needs a visible owner or an explicitly named decision group. Shared accountability without a decision right usually becomes delayed accountability.
The beginner role map
These are responsibilities, not rigid job titles. One person may hold two responsibilities in a very small squad, but the combination should be stated openly and reviewed when the work changes.
| Responsibility | Primary contribution | Decisions or signals to make visible |
|---|---|---|
| Outcome or product owner | Clarifies the goal, audience and priorities; coordinates or makes priority decisions. | What matters most, what can wait, how trade-offs are resolved and who accepts the result. |
| Facilitator or team coach | Keeps collaboration healthy, surfaces blockers, protects useful routines and helps the group improve. | How the squad works, which impediments need escalation and when a working agreement needs revision. |
| Builders or specialists | Create the result, apply their expertise and collaborate across specialties. | Feasibility, quality, dependencies, risks and the work needed to meet the agreed outcome. |
Outcome or product owner
The owner turns a broad request into an ordered set of choices. This person does not have to perform every task or outrank everyone else. The essential duty is to make priority and value decisions promptly, using input from the people doing the work and from affected users or stakeholders. In Scrum, the Product Owner is accountable for maximizing product value.
Make the owner’s authority explicit. Can the person reorder work, reject an incomplete result, or ask for a scope trade-off? If an executive, client or another department retains those rights, record that relationship rather than pretending the squad has autonomy it does not have.
Facilitator or team coach
The facilitator improves the system in which the squad works. They make blockers visible, help meetings achieve their purpose, notice patterns such as repeated handoff delays and create space for disagreement without personal attack. They should not become a permanent secretary who owns every follow-up or a manager who silently makes the team’s decisions.
Scrum gives this responsibility a specific form: the Scrum Master is accountable for establishing Scrum as defined in the guide and supporting team effectiveness. Outside Scrum, the same facilitation work can be adapted to the squad’s needs.
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Builders and specialists
Builders are the people who produce the outcome, whether that means software, analysis, design, operations, content, research or a physical result. A specialist owns the quality of their contribution while collaborating beyond their discipline. The label “Developers” in Scrum is broader than programmers; it refers to the people needed to create the usable increment.
Ask each builder to state dependencies and backup coverage. A specialist who is the only person able to perform a critical step creates a single point of failure, even if that specialist is highly dependable.
Combining responsibilities safely
Combining roles can reduce overhead, but it also creates conflicts that need naming. A person who owns priorities and builds the deliverable may favor a preferred solution; a facilitator who is also the most senior specialist may find it difficult to challenge their own decisions. Counter those risks with visible decision logs, peer review and a scheduled check of the charter.
Five behaviors that make teamwork work
Google’s Project Aristotle examined more than 35 statistical models across hundreds of variables and identified five dynamics associated with effective teams. They are useful behaviors to practice, not a guarantee of productivity or a ranking of personality types.
1. Psychological safety
People should be able to ask a basic question, admit a mistake, challenge an assumption or suggest an idea without expecting humiliation or punishment. Google describes it this way: “In a team with high psychological safety, teammates feel safe to take risks around their team members.”
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Safety is not the absence of disagreement. A squad can debate evidence vigorously while treating the people in the debate with respect. Leaders create safety by responding to bad news with curiosity, thanking the person who surfaced it and separating the quality of an idea from the status of its proposer. A private apology after a public reprimand does not repair a pattern; the group needs consistent behavior.
2. Dependability
Members complete quality work on time or raise a risk early enough for the squad to respond. Dependability includes keeping promises about reviews, attending agreed decision points and leaving useful information for a backup. It does not mean accepting every request silently. A clear “I cannot meet that date because of this dependency” is more dependable than a late surprise.
3. Structure and clarity
Everyone should understand the outcome, current priorities, role expectations, plan and consequences of a change. Put this information where the squad can see it. A short written charter, an ordered work list and a decision log are often enough; the objective is shared understanding, not paperwork volume.
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4. Meaning
Members need a reason the work matters to them personally or professionally. Meaning can come from helping users, learning a capability, supporting colleagues or meeting a mission. The owner should connect routine choices to that purpose without exaggerating the impact of small tasks.
5. Impact
People should be able to see how their work makes a difference. Show the user, operational or business change that follows from a completed result. When the effect is delayed or hard to observe, agree on a proxy signal and revisit whether it still represents value.
Project Aristotle found these dynamics associated with effectiveness; it did not establish a universal productivity percentage for every industry. Variables such as personality type, office location or seniority alone were not reliable substitutes for the team behaviors above.
Run a practical first meeting
The first meeting should produce working decisions, not a tour of everyone’s job history. Invite the people who will do the work and anyone who owns a decision the squad cannot make internally.
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- List decisions. Identify priority, scope, quality, risk, release and escalation decisions. Assign one owner or decision group to each. Record who must be consulted and who only needs to be informed.
- Map responsibilities. For every member, write their contribution, dependencies, expected availability and backup coverage. Mark any capability that exists in only one person.
- Agree on collaboration. Decide which channel is used for urgent blockers, where durable decisions are recorded, the expected response window for normal messages and the point at which an issue is escalated.
- Choose useful routines. Set the purpose and frequency of planning, progress review, risk review and improvement conversations. A meeting without a decision, inspection or learning purpose should be removed.
- Publish a one-page charter. Have the squad create, discuss and explicitly commit to the document. Keep it simple and transparent so it can be used during day-to-day work.
Do not treat the first version as permanent. Scrum.org’s Team Charter Canvas emphasizes that a charter should be created by the team, agreed and committed to, used in daily work, improved incrementally and kept simple and transparent.
What to put in a one-page squad charter
The charter is a working agreement, not a policy manual. Use plain language and write only what the squad is willing to follow.
| Charter section | Question it answers | Example of useful wording |
|---|---|---|
| Outcome | What result are we jointly responsible for? | “Enable first-time customers to complete setup without staff intervention.” |
| Definition of done | What evidence shows the result is acceptable? | “The documented flow works for the agreed test cases and support has the final instructions.” |
| Responsibilities | Who owns priorities, facilitation, delivery and specialist checks? | List a person beside each responsibility, including backup coverage. |
| Decision rights | Who decides when opinions differ? | Name the owner for scope, quality, risk, timing and escalation. |
| Communication | Where do urgent messages, routine discussion and final decisions go? | Specify channels and what must be written down. |
| Response and escalation | How quickly should people acknowledge a request, and when is help requested? | Set a locally realistic expectation and an escalation path rather than an impossible promise. |
| Review date | When will the squad test whether the agreement still helps? | Review after a major change and during a regular improvement conversation. |
Make execution dependable between meetings
Keep work visible
Use one shared place for the current outcome, ordered work, blockers and decisions. A private spreadsheet or a conversation remembered by one person is not a shared system. Visibility lets a builder identify a conflict before starting work and lets the owner see the cost of a new request.
Separate coordination from decision-making
A progress update can be asynchronous; a trade-off that changes scope needs the people with decision rights. Label agenda items as information, discussion, decision or escalation. This prevents a long status meeting from hiding the one choice that is actually blocking delivery.
Design backup coverage
For each critical activity, name a second person who can perform or safely hand off the work. Pairing, short runbooks and recorded decisions reduce the risk of absence. Backup coverage is a design choice, not an accusation that the primary owner is unreliable.
Close the loop with stakeholders
Tell affected people what changed, what remains uncertain and what decision is needed from them. An owner who accepts a request without updating priorities creates invisible overload; a builder who changes scope without informing the owner creates a competing outcome.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How decisions and escalation should work
Start with the lowest level that has enough information and authority to decide. The builder should decide implementation details within the agreed constraints. The outcome owner should resolve priority or scope trade-offs. A sponsor or specialist authority should decide matters outside the squad’s mandate, such as a regulatory or organizational constraint.
When escalating, provide the decision needed, the options considered, the recommendation, the deadline and the consequence of waiting. Escalation is not failure; silent delay is. Record the final decision and the reason in the shared workspace so an absent member does not reopen the same question.
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When Scrum is a useful model
Scrum is useful when the work is complex, the best path is not known in advance and the squad benefits from frequent inspection and adaptation. It supplies a concrete vocabulary: Product Owner, Scrum Master and Developers, along with a regular cycle of planning, reviewing a result and improving the way the team works.
The 2020 Scrum Guide makes two accountabilities explicit: the Product Owner is accountable for maximizing product value, and the Scrum Master is accountable for establishing Scrum as defined in the guide. Scrum is a framework example, not a requirement for every small team. Adopting the labels without giving the people corresponding authority only adds ceremony.
| Question | Informal squad structure | Scrum-oriented structure |
|---|---|---|
| Decision ownership | Defined locally; often broad responsibilities. | Product Owner accountability for value and explicit team accountabilities. |
| Work uncertainty | Suitable when the plan and handoffs are relatively stable. | Useful for complex work requiring repeated inspection and adaptation. |
| Cadence | Coordination frequency is chosen by the squad. | Uses a regular planning, review and improvement cycle. |
| Role flexibility | Responsibilities can be combined or adapted. | Uses the Scrum accountabilities while allowing varied specialist skills. |
| Shared artifacts | A charter, work list and decision record may be sufficient. | Charter plus the Scrum artifacts and accountabilities defined by the guide. |
Scrum.org’s Dave West captures the discipline involved: “Professional Scrum is hard, not because the ideas are hard, but because it requires persistence, focus, and dedication to not let the day-to-day realities get in the way.” Choose Scrum because its inspection-and-adaptation loop solves a real problem, not because every team is expected to use it.
When a lighter structure is better
If work is stable and sequential, a role-and-handoff map may be clearer than a full framework. Define the input, owner, quality check, handoff condition and escalation path for each stage. Keep a short charter and review it when demand, technology or dependencies change.
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A lightweight approach is not an excuse for vague ownership. Even a two-person team needs an answer to “Who decides priority?” and “What happens when the handoff is late?” The difference is that the team uses only the routines that reduce uncertainty or improve quality.
Troubleshoot common squad problems
Everyone is responsible, so nobody decides
List the stalled decisions and assign one owner for each. Invite input broadly, but distinguish consultation from authority. Put the decision rule in the charter.
The owner becomes a bottleneck
Separate decisions that truly require the owner from reversible implementation choices. Give specialists clear boundaries within which they can act, and set a regular time to review exceptions.
Meetings are frequent but progress is unclear
Give each routine one purpose and one expected output. Move factual updates to the shared workspace, reserve live time for decisions and unresolved risks, and remove a meeting that produces neither.
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Check psychological safety before blaming dependability. Ask what made the risk difficult to raise, thank the person who surfaced it and adjust the escalation path if the current channel is unsafe or unclear.
One specialist is carrying the system
Identify the critical tasks, schedule knowledge transfer and create backup coverage. Make the capacity cost visible when new work is proposed; otherwise the squad will continue to hide a structural dependency.
Priorities change every day
Ask the outcome owner to make the trade-off explicit: what stops, what starts and what date or quality condition changes. A visible reorder is healthier than asking the squad to absorb unlimited work.
The charter is ignored
Use it during an actual decision, remove rules nobody needs and revise wording the squad cannot follow. A charter that is too long or written by someone outside the team will become decoration.
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Review whether the squad can explain its outcome, find the current priorities, identify decision owners, raise a concern early and show evidence of impact. Look for trends such as repeated blocked work, missed commitments, reopened decisions or growing single-person dependencies. These signals prompt a conversation; they are not a universal benchmark.
During a retrospective or regular check-in, choose one working change to try, assign an owner and set a date to inspect the result. Update the charter when the experiment changes a responsibility, decision path or communication rule. Keep principles that help and remove ceremony that no longer earns its cost.
Optional learning aid
Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time by Jeff Sutherland and J.J. Sutherland is a Scrum-specific business book that Scrum Inc. presents as a practical guide. It can help a team understand the ideas behind Scrum, but it is not a universal teamwork solution. A one-page charter, the Scrum Guide and Scrum.org’s free team-charter material are enough to begin testing the role and collaboration practices described here.
The practical starting point is simple: name the shared outcome, give every important responsibility and decision an owner, make collaboration expectations visible, and revisit the agreement as the work changes.
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