COMPANY PLAYBOOK
Atlassian
Atlassian addresses team problems through reusable exercises, explicit roles and measurable health signals rather than abstract values.
System principles
- Turn the problem into a discussable team exercise.
- Clarify decision roles and success measures at the start.
- Assess team health regularly with shared language.
Tensions and trade-offs
- A playbook creates shared language but can become ceremony when detached from context.
- Measurement aligns teams but poor signals can confuse outputs with outcomes.
PRACTICES
How Atlassian builds its operating system
01
Team health
Team Health Monitor
Teams periodically assess themselves against eight health attributes.
- How it works
- Teams assess themselves against eight health attributes using a shared red–amber–green view.
- Why it is used
- Makes unspoken issues visible in a safe, repeatable way.
- Trade-off
- Scoring produces diagnosis without improvement unless tied to action.
- Best fit
- Cross-functional teams that struggle to discuss collaboration quality.
02
Decision making
DACI decision framework
Driver, Approver, Contributors and Informed roles are explicit.
- How it works
- Driver, Approver, Contributors and Informed roles are assigned before the decision.
- Why it is used
- Makes decision ownership and contribution boundaries visible.
- Trade-off
- Becomes heavy if used for every decision and the Approver can become a committee.
- Best fit
- High-impact, multi-stakeholder decisions needing one final approver.
03
Goals
Goals, Signals, Measures
Goals, success signals and measures are separated.
- How it works
- Goal, signal of progress and measure of that signal are defined separately.
- Why it is used
- Separates delivered output from created outcome.
- Trade-off
- Risks overfocusing on what is measurable and losing qualitative signal.
- Best fit
- Projects and product initiatives with ambiguous success definitions.
04
Learning
Retrospective Play
Completed work is systematically reviewed to generate improvements.
- How it works
- A facilitated retrospective surfaces what worked, what did not and what should change.
- Why it is used
- Turns experience into organizational learning and concrete improvement.
- Trade-off
- Stays superficial without trust and becomes actionless ceremony when overused.
- Best fit
- Teams with recurring delivery cycles and trackable improvement ownership.