Step 7: Conduct a Checkpoint Review

At the end of each round stop and communicate each squad’s status to the room. Do this by having a checkpoint: ask each squad to assess themselves against the skills checklist to indicate whether they have all the skills needed or if they are over- or undersubscribed in any area.

“Ten minutes,” “Self-select,” “Stop,” “Announce to the room” is a pattern that has worked for us in every self-selection event, as depicted here.

For your first checkpoint don’t expect to have many fully formed squads. At this point it’s okay to have empty squads, and you’re likely to have many people in the “Not in a Squad” section.

The aim of the checkpoint is to set up squads to have constructive conversations during the next iteration and to make people aware of who should be talking to whom. During a checkpoint some squads may announce that they’re missing a certain skill, while others might demonstrate an oversupply of the same.

Ask every squad to appoint a spokesperson to report back to the room. One by one the spokesperson from each squad should answer these questions:

• Is the squad fully formed?

• Are there any gaps in skills or numbers?

• Are there any problems or blocks?

Squad announcements often sound like these:

This is Matt from the Bio Squad. We currently have too many developers, not enough testers, and no design.

Brian from the Search Squad here. We don’t have enough developers. We have too many testers, and we have four designers.

Any squad that is fully formed, that is, can deliver end to end, has all the skills needed, and fulfills the constraints, receives a check mark of approval (as shown in this image).

Members of approved squads remain in the room and take part in subsequent self-selection iterations. The fully formed squads’ composition might still have to change and members move to other squads to make the bigger picture work. This doesn’t happen very often, but it’s good to keep the option open.

Try to move through each checkpoint as quickly as possible so that you can start the next round while you have momentum. More than likely the interesting conversations had just started when the timer sounded. You want to check in for direction, but focus on getting on with it.