What’s a “health check”?

A “health check” is a soft evaluation process with the purpose of supporting a Core Team’s health by: ensuring work completed and future planned work is aligned with the Core Team’s strategy; discussing challenges and identifying possible solutions; informally sourcing feedback around intra-Team coordination.

The idea for a “health check” emerged from the Paris Contributor Offsite as a process that could be used within the framework of the MVDAO. In the framework of the MVDAO v1 (as proposed at the Paris Contributor Offsite), the health check would be held by the Strategy Pillar (or a subset of contributors to the Strategy Pillar) to hold Core Teams accountable and evaluate their work without acting as a gatekeeper.

The health check can measure two things:

• Adaptability
  • Questions: Is the Core Team "healthy"? Are they supporting the development of the project as a whole and adapting as the project and other Core Teams shift? Is this Core Team "taking away" from any other Core Team?
• Performance
  • Question: Is there progress towards pre-determined goals/objectives? Does this progress align with the team's timelines and budgets?

How can we test the “health check” concept?

Core Team Leads will be asked to answer these questions in preparation for their next monthly Foundation Council check-in. These questions will be used by the Foundation Council to guide the check-in itself.

By testing these questions in the monthly Foundation Council check-ins, we hope to understand:

1. Are Core Teams currently in a position (or setup in a way) to be able to answer these questions?
2. If no, what’s missing and what changes would be required?
3. Are these questions achieving the purpose of the “health check”?
4. Are any of these questions too “burdensome” for the benefit they bring?

Health Check Questions

Core Team Leads, please answer the questions below, either in written long-form, bullet points, or 🚥 red/yellow/green emojis (to drive greater discussion in the check-in itself around issue/success areas).

• What roles have been (in)formalized within the Core Team?
• How has the work since the last “Health Check” progressed or reached the Core Team’s shorter-term “goals”?
• What issues or challenges have prevented the Core Team from achieving these shorter-term “goals”?
• What Core Teams have you been dependent on? How are you coordinating with this Team and has coordination been successful?
• Has the Core Team’s annual (or bi-annual) strategy changed or shifted since it was set? Should it?