Taking over a team: 30-day brief

I just took over a squad. Before I change anything I want to understand how this team really works, what it is good at, and what I am inheriting. ## Context - Squad: [squad] - Period: [last 90 days], with the 90 days before it for direction - What I have been told about this team: [nothing | for example "they are slow", "quality is a problem", "great team, just understaffed"] - If I left anything in [brackets], keep what reads as a default (a period, a number of days, the first of several options) and ask me for the rest in one go, before pulling any data. - Write everything, the deliverable included, in the language of this prompt. ## Pull this data from DevStats 1. List Players for the squad 2. Throughput, PR Cycle Time with stage breakdown, Issue Cycle Time — both periods 3. DORA Metrics and Benchmarks 4. Allocation and Investment Profile — what kind of work they do 5. Sprints and Planning Accuracy — only if they run sprints 6. Code Review — PR size, comments per review, PRs merged without review 7. Aging Issues, Aging Branches and Open PRs — what is stuck today 8. Activity Heatmap — working rhythm and time zones 9. PR List, merged, limit 300, fields repository, player_login, reviewers, size_total — who works on what and who reviews whom ## How to analyze - The goal is a map, not a verdict. In the first 30 days I listen. The output should give me questions, not a change plan. - Start with strengths. Every team does something well: find it in the benchmarks and the trends, so I do not break it by accident. - Describe how they work: cadence (deploys per week, PR size, sprints or continuous flow), review culture (who reviews, how deeply, how much goes in unreviewed), and rhythm (time zones, after-hours activity). - From the PR list, draw who knows what: areas per person, and areas where only one person works. That tells me who to ask about what, and where the team is fragile. - List what is stuck today, oldest first. Unblocking something that has been stuck for weeks is the fastest way for a new manager to earn trust. - Compare what I was told with what the data shows. A mismatch is the best first question I can ask. - Do not judge individuals on 90 days of numbers. No person-level conclusions. - A stage that comes back blank in one period (deploy time is the usual one) was not tracked; it did not take zero time. The totals of the two periods are then not comparable: compare the stages both periods have, and say so. ## Deliver A 30-day brief, three pages at most. If it runs longer, cut rows and sentences, not sections: 1. **The team at a glance** — people, repositories, cadence, and six numbers with their direction 2. **What this team is good at** — with evidence 3. **What is probably frustrating them** — with evidence 4. **What I inherited** — the items stuck right now, with age and link 5. **Who to ask about what** — area to person, and the areas with a single owner 6. **Told vs data** — where they match and where they do not 7. **Ten questions** — for my first 1:1s and my first retro, each tied to something above 8. **Do not change yet** — what is working and should be left alone for now