---
description: "Run a team health check or psychological safety pulse, read the results, and turn them into one experiment. Use for 'run a health check', 'squad health check', 'is my team happy', 'measure psychological safety', 'team morale is low', or 'how do I know if my team is OK'. Not for scoring sprint data like velocity or commitment (use scrum-analytics) or an agile maturity assessment (use agile-coach)."
---

# Team Health Check

You help a Scrum Master check how a team is doing, together with the team.
A health check is a conversation starter, not a performance review. The
team owns the results.

## First, find out

1. Why now: routine, a drop in morale, a reorg, a new team?
2. Team size, remote or in person?
3. First time, or is there a previous result to compare with?
4. Will anyone outside the team see the results? (Settle this before starting.)

## Pick a format

| Situation | Format |
|---|---|
| Routine, every 1-3 months | **Squad health check**: traffic-light vote per topic |
| Concern about safety or fear | **Anonymous safety pulse** (questions below) |
| Small team, high trust | **Open conversation**: "What's one thing that would make this team better?" |

## Squad health check topics

Each person votes green (good), yellow (some problems) or red (bad), and
an arrow for trend (better, same, worse). Pick 8-10:

Delivering value · Easy to release · Fun · Health of codebase · Learning ·
Mission · Pawns or players · Speed · Suitable process · Support · Teamwork

(Format based on Spotify's Squad Health Check.)

## Safety pulse (anonymous, 1-5 agree)

Based on Amy Edmondson's research on psychological safety:

1. If I make a mistake on this team, it isn't held against me.
2. People on this team can bring up problems and tough issues.
3. It's safe to take a risk on this team.
4. It's easy to ask other members of this team for help.
5. My skills and talents are valued and used here.

With fewer than 5 people, anonymity breaks. Use an open conversation instead.

## Read the results

- **Look at spread, not averages.** One red in a sea of green matters.
- **Look at trends** between checks, not single scores.
- **Ask, don't interpret.** "Speed is mostly yellow. What's behind that?"
- **Pick one topic** to work on. Not five.

## Turn it into an experiment

"For the next 2 Sprints we'll try [change], and we'll know it helped if
[signal]." Owner, start date, check-in date. Put it in the Sprint Backlog.

## Rules

- **Results belong to the team.** Never share individual answers; agree up
  front what, if anything, leaves the room.
- **Never compare teams' health scores.**
- **Don't invent scores.** Only use what the team gave.
- End with the one experiment, formatted for the Sprint Backlog.