Team health checks provide a systematic way to monitor how your team is doing across multiple dimensions. Unlike sprint retrospectives that focus on recent work, health checks assess ongoing team wellness—surfacing issues before they become crises.

This guide covers the most effective team health check templates, how to run them, and how to act on the results.

What Is a Team Health Check?

A team health check is a structured assessment where team members rate how the team is doing across several key dimensions. It provides:

• Visibility into team wellness beyond just delivery metrics
• Early warning of problems before they become critical
• Trends showing improvement or decline over time
• Discussion prompts for meaningful conversations

Health Check vs Retrospective

Aspect	Health Check	Retrospective
Focus	Ongoing team health	Recent sprint/period
Frequency	Monthly/Quarterly	Every sprint
Scope	Broad dimensions	Specific events
Time orientation	Current state	Past actions
Typical duration	30-60 minutes	45-90 minutes

Many teams run health checks quarterly with regular retrospectives in between.

Spotify Squad Health Check Model

The most famous team health check, developed by Spotify’s engineering teams.

The Concept

Each health dimension is rated using a traffic light system:

• 🟢 Green: We’re doing great!
• 🟡 Yellow: Some problems, but manageable
• 🔴 Red: Significant issues, needs attention

Plus a trend indicator:

• ⬆️ Improving
• ➡️ Stable
• ⬇️ Declining

Spotify’s Original Dimensions

Dimension	Green Looks Like	Red Looks Like
Easy to release	Simple, painless, low-risk	Painful, scary, lots of manual steps
Suitable process	Our way of working fits us perfectly	Our process feels bureaucratic
Tech quality	Proud of our code, minimal debt	Ashamed of our codebase
Value	We deliver great stuff, proud of it	We deliver crap, or don’t know if users need it
Speed	We get stuff done fast	We never finish anything
Mission	We know exactly why we’re here	We’ve no idea why we exist
Fun	We love our work!	Work is boring
Learning	We’re learning all the time	We never learn anything
Support	Always get help when stuck	We’re on our own
Pawns or Players	We control our own destiny	We’re told what to do

How to Run It

Step 1: Set Up (5 minutes)

• Display all dimensions with green/red descriptions
• Explain the traffic light + trend system
• Emphasize honest assessment

Step 2: Individual Voting (10 minutes)

Each person votes on each dimension:

• Anonymous voting (cards or digital)
• Rate current state (green/yellow/red)
• Note trend (improving/stable/declining)

Step 3: Reveal and Discuss (30-40 minutes)

• Show aggregated results
• Discuss dimensions with disagreement
• Focus on red items
• Identify patterns across dimensions

Step 4: Action Items (10 minutes)

• Pick 1-2 red dimensions to address
• Create specific improvement actions
• Assign owners

Spotify Health Check Template

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    SQUAD HEALTH CHECK                               │
│                    Team: [Name] | Date: [Date]                      │
├─────────────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┬─────────────────┤
│ Dimension       │   🟢     │   🟡     │   🔴     │     Trend       │
├─────────────────┼──────────┼──────────┼──────────┼─────────────────┤
│ Easy to release │    4     │    1     │    0     │      ⬆️         │
│ Suitable process│    2     │    2     │    1     │      ➡️         │
│ Tech quality    │    1     │    3     │    1     │      ⬇️         │
│ Value           │    3     │    2     │    0     │      ⬆️         │
│ Speed           │    2     │    2     │    1     │      ➡️         │
│ Mission         │    4     │    1     │    0     │      ➡️         │
│ Fun             │    2     │    2     │    1     │      ⬇️         │
│ Learning        │    1     │    3     │    1     │      ⬇️         │
│ Support         │    3     │    2     │    0     │      ➡️         │
│ Pawns/Players   │    2     │    2     │    1     │      ➡️         │
└─────────────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┴─────────────────┘

💡 Pro tip: Run Spotify Health Checks in RetroFlow—built-in templates, free, no signup needed.

Alternative Health Check Templates

Team Radar

A visual representation of team health across dimensions.

Dimensions (rate 1-5):

1. Communication
2. Collaboration
3. Technical excellence
4. Work-life balance
5. Continuous improvement
6. Clarity of goals
7. Psychological safety
8. Stakeholder relationships

How to use:

1. Each person rates all dimensions 1-5
2. Average scores per dimension
3. Plot on radar/spider chart
4. Discuss low-scoring areas
5. Compare to previous months

Visual Format:

        Communication
              5
              │
  Stakeholder ├────┤ Collaboration
  Relations   │    │
       4──────┼────┼──────4
              │    │
  Continuous  ├────┤ Technical
  Improvement │    │ Excellence
              3
         Work-Life

Happiness Index

Simple weekly or bi-weekly pulse.

The Question: “How happy were you at work this week/sprint?”

Scale: 1-5 or emoji scale (😢 😕 😐 🙂 😊)

Tracking:

• Average score per sprint
• Trend over time
• Correlate with events (releases, incidents, etc.)

Value: Simple enough to run every sprint without fatigue.

Niko-Niko Calendar

Daily mood tracking for the whole team.

How it works:

1. At end of each day, team members mark their mood
2. Use colors or emoji
3. Track on shared calendar
4. Patterns emerge over time

Sample:

       Mon   Tue   Wed   Thu   Fri
Alex   😊    🙂    😕    🙂    😊
Jamie  🙂    🙂    🙂    😊    😊
Sam    😕    😕    🙂    🙂    🙂

Benefits:

• Surfaces issues quickly
• Shows patterns (Friday burnout, post-meeting dips)
• Low overhead

Team Assessment Grid

Comprehensive assessment across multiple categories.

Categories:

Category	Questions
Direction	Do we know our goals? Do we believe in them?
Execution	Can we deliver? Are we efficient?
Quality	Are we proud of our work? Is tech debt manageable?
Culture	Do we enjoy working together? Is it safe to speak up?
Growth	Are we learning? Are we improving?

Format: Rate each 1-10, discuss lowest scores.

Building Your Own Health Check

Step 1: Choose Dimensions

Select 6-12 dimensions relevant to your team. Consider:

Technical:

• Code quality
• Release confidence
• Technical debt
• Test coverage

Process:

• Sprint predictability
• Meeting effectiveness
• Decision-making speed
• Documentation quality

Team:

• Psychological safety
• Communication
• Collaboration
• Work-life balance

Organizational:

• Stakeholder relationships
• Cross-team collaboration
• Resource availability
• Strategic clarity

Step 2: Define the Spectrum

For each dimension, describe what good and bad look like:

Dimension	🟢 Green	🔴 Red
Technical debt	Minimal, managed	Overwhelming, blocking features
Work-life balance	Sustainable pace	Regular overtime, burnout signs
Decision making	Quick, clear	Slow, unclear ownership

Step 3: Choose Your Scale

Traffic light (recommended for simplicity):

• 🟢 Green / 🟡 Yellow / 🔴 Red

Numeric scale (for trend tracking):

• 1-5 or 1-10

Emoji scale (for engagement):

• 😢 😕 😐 🙂 😊

Step 4: Set Frequency

Frequency	Best For
Weekly	Happiness index, mood calendar
Bi-weekly	Quick pulse checks
Monthly	Abbreviated health check
Quarterly	Full Spotify-style health check

Facilitating Health Checks

Before the Session

1. Schedule appropriately - Health checks need focused time
2. Share context - Send dimensions beforehand if new
3. Gather data - Any relevant metrics (velocity, incidents, etc.)
4. Previous results - Show last health check for comparison

During the Session

Maintain safety:

• Voting should be anonymous
• No “wrong” answers
• Divergent views are valuable

Focus discussion:

• Don’t discuss every dimension equally
• Focus on reds and significant disagreements
• Time-box discussions

Drive to action:

• Don’t just assess—improve
• Create specific actions for problem areas
• Assign owners

After the Session

1. Share results - With the team and stakeholders (appropriately)
2. Track trends - Add to historical data
3. Follow up - Check on action items
4. Schedule next - Make it a regular practice

The right questions can surface what teams are afraid to say. Browse our retrospective questions guide.

Acting on Health Check Results

Prioritizing Issues

When multiple dimensions are red:

1. Impact - Which affects team most?
2. Urgency - Which will worsen fastest?
3. Addressability - Which can we actually improve?
4. Dependencies - Which blocks others?

Creating Effective Actions

For each priority issue:

❌ Vague: “Improve tech quality” ✅ Specific: “Dedicate 20% of next sprint to tech debt in payment module”

❌ No owner: “We should communicate better” ✅ Owned: “Sarah will propose a new standup format by Friday”

Tracking Improvement

Compare health checks over time:

Tech Quality Trend:
Q1: 🔴 (avg 2.1)
Q2: 🟡 (avg 3.2) ⬆️
Q3: 🟡 (avg 3.5) ⬆️
Q4: 🟢 (avg 4.1) ⬆️

Celebrate improvements, investigate declines.

Health Check Anti-Patterns

Checking Without Acting

Problem: Running health checks but never addressing reds. Solution: Create action items every session, review progress next time.

Checking Too Often

Problem: Survey fatigue, people stop engaging. Solution: Match frequency to value. Full health check quarterly, simple pulse weekly.

Public Voting

Problem: People vote what they think they should, not what they feel. Solution: Always use anonymous voting.

Ignoring Disagreement

Problem: Averaging hides important divergent views. Solution: Explicitly discuss dimensions where votes vary widely.

Leader Goes First

Problem: Team votes to match the manager’s vote. Solution: Leaders vote last, or use anonymous voting.

Health Checks for Remote Teams

Adaptations

• Use digital tools with anonymous voting
• Allow async voting before sync discussion
• Increase frequency - Remote teams need more check-ins
• Add remote-specific dimensions - Communication tools, async collaboration

Remote-Specific Dimensions

Dimension	Green	Red
Remote tooling	Tools work great	Constant tech issues
Async communication	Clear, effective	Confusing, delayed
Connection	Feel part of the team	Feel isolated
Work boundaries	Clear start/end	Always “on”

What to Read Next

• Spotify Health Check Retrospective
• Team Health & Psychological Safety - Complete team health guide
• Psychological Safety in Retrospectives - Building safe environments
• Sprint Retrospective Formats - Complement health checks with retros
• Remote Retrospectives Guide - Health checks for remote teams

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a team health check?

A team health check is a structured assessment where team members rate their team’s performance across multiple dimensions — like communication, technical quality, fun, and psychological safety. It gives a snapshot of team wellness beyond sprint velocity.

How often should you run team health checks?

Monthly or quarterly works well. Running them too frequently creates survey fatigue. Pair health checks with retrospectives — run the health check first to identify focus areas, then use the retro to discuss and act on the results.

What is the Spotify Squad Health Check?

The Spotify Squad Health Check is a team health model created by Spotify where teams rate dimensions like “delivering value,” “speed,” “mission,” and “fun” using traffic light colors (green, yellow, red) plus a trend arrow (up, down, flat). It is one of the most popular health check frameworks.

Run Team Health Checks with RetroFlow

Monitor your team’s health with RetroFlow:

• ✅ Health check templates - Spotify and custom formats
• ✅ Anonymous voting - Honest assessment guaranteed
• ✅ No signup required - Start immediately
• ✅ Trend tracking - Compare over time
• ✅ Completely free - Full features, no limits

Start Free Health Check →