Example data. Fieldnote is a fictional company used to fill every board, so the examples tell one consistent story.
Fieldnote, the Field app squad, two weeks after a third engineer joined and the squad split from Office web.
What the team took away
Two of the three values already existed as habits. The third, saying the bad number out loud, was written after nobody could name the 38 % activation loss without checking.
How to run it
Preparation
Run it without the manager in the room if the team reports to one. Roles and needs are not said honestly in front of the person who writes the reviews.
Book two hours in one block. Split across two sessions, the second half never happens.
Print the canvas big enough that two people can write on it at the same time.
Warn the team that personal goals will be asked for, so nobody is ambushed.
Agenda
15 min
Purpose Why does this team exist, in one sentence that is not the company mission. If two people write different sentences, that is the finding.
20 min
People and roles Each person writes their own role as they actually practise it, not their job title. Then everyone reads the others and flags overlaps and gaps.
25 min
Common and personal goals Team goals for the next quarter, then what each person personally wants out of it. The second column is the one that predicts who stays.
25 min
Values and rules Three values maximum, each turned into an observable rule. 'Transparency' is not a rule. 'Decisions get written in the channel the same day' is one.
20 min
Needs and expectations What each person needs from the team to do their job. This is where the real blockers surface, usually about decisions and information.
15 min
Commit Read the canvas aloud. Each person names one rule they will personally hold, and the team picks a date to revisit it.
Pitfalls
Values that nobody could break. If you cannot imagine behaviour that violates the value, it is decoration. Rewrite it until it forbids something.
Skipping personal goals to save time. They are the half of the canvas a team charter does not have, and the reason to run this instead.
Treating it as permanent. A team canvas is true for a quarter. Date it, and expect the roles block to be wrong first.
Afterwards
Put the canvas where the team works, not in a drive. If the rules block turns out to be the hard part, the Team charter goes deeper on working agreements alone.