I've lead product teams for years, and have consulted for over 15 years and am so pleased to see Team Topologies in print. Everywhere I've been we've grappled with the question of how to form teams for maximum effect, and struggled to find the right patterns. At my current client, we've begun to create dedicated cross-functional teams who own value streams as we've defined them. Our definition of a value stream is a part of the system that aligns with a part of the customer journey, e.g., web engagement, cart & checkout, and then feature sets in the app (think Spotify, because we deliver entertainment content). Our app lives on approx 6 platforms, e.g., Android, Chrome, iOS, etc. We're early on, so we're struggling to define the boundary between client-specific app teams, stream-aligned teams, and enabling teams. I'm sure I'll find helpful examples as I get further into the book, but I'd like to know if there are heuristics we cam apply at this stage of our team creation?

I've lead product teams for years, and have consulted for over 15 years and am so pleased to see Team Topologies in print. Everywhere I've been we've grappled with the question of how to form teams for maximum effect, and struggled to find the right patterns. At my current client, we've begun to create dedicated cross-functional teams who own value streams as we've defined them. Our definition of a value stream is a part of the system that aligns with a part of the customer journey, e.g., web engagement, cart & checkout, and then feature sets in the app (think Spotify, because we deliver entertainment content). Our app lives on approx 6 platforms, e.g., Android, Chrome, iOS, etc. We're early on, so we're struggling to define the boundary between client-specific app teams, stream-aligned teams, and enabling teams. I'm sure I'll find helpful examples as I get further into the book, but I'd like to know if there are heuristics we cam apply at this stage of our team creation?

Did you look at any other high-performing organizations and their teaming models to help shape the topologies that evolved into what we see in the book? I'm seeing some similarities between the way the military, particularly the Army is set up into the brigade structure - combat arms (rough equivalent to the stream-aligned teams) being supported by the Combat Support units (complicated sub-systems and platforms teams) and Combat Services Support (Enabling Teams). The cool thing is that all members of the team work towards a shared mission and aligned brigade and division-level identity while also being very individualized at the lower echelons.

Did you look at any other high-performing organizations and their teaming models to help shape the topologies that evolved into what we see in the book? I'm seeing some similarities between the way the military, particularly the Army is set up into the brigade structure - combat arms (rough equivalent to the stream-aligned teams) being supported by the Combat Support units (complicated sub-systems and platforms teams) and Combat Services Support (Enabling Teams). The cool thing is that all members of the team work towards a shared mission and aligned brigade and division-level identity while also being very individualized at the lower echelons.