Pre-retro
Brief the cohort on situational fit before a retro episode. Name the beat type and the 3 to 5 focus skills.
Manager field guide · Team IQ
The Team IQ manager field guide
Situational fit, focus skills, and provenance for running the pod under pressure
Run situational fit under quarter pressure: assign focus skills, brief the pod, coach from polar and provenance. Use this page as your map. Pair it with the STEAMIQ sample report and the Team IQ rulebook for mechanics.
Who this is for
Deal IQ trains decisions under buyer pressure. Team IQ trains craft under pod pressure. Same passport, different win condition. This guide is for enablement leads, sales managers, and RevOps owners who assign focus skills and coach from evidence, not trait labels.
Enablement leads designing pod soft-craft programmesSales managers running retros and 1:1 coachingRevOps owners who want shared focus-skill language across Deal IQ and Team IQ
- Not a personality or trait assessment
- Not four seat-cloned Team IQ frameworks (SDR / AE / CSM / hiring)
- Not the Team IQ game rulebook (see link for mechanics)
Not a personality test. Not seat-cloned Team IQ frameworks. For game mechanics see the rulebook link above.
When to use this guide
Focus-skill week
Assign one skill per gap group, rematch the same beat type, and read uplift on the polar, not completion vanity.
Coaching debrief
Open the session drawer. Coach from input, reaction, engine, and Klara tags with beat snippets.
Hiring calibration
Use Team IQ as supporting pod-craft evidence beside Deal IQ work samples. Never as a lone hiring gate.
Native axes under pressure
Native axes under pressure
Psychological safety contribution
Measured: Peer openness after your beats in pod scenes.
Manager play: Watch whether peers stay open after the rep speaks. If the room closes, coach the beat (listen vs fix), not the personality.
Managing up
Measured: Fit signals in manager 1:1 episodes.
Manager play: In 1:1 beats, inspect agenda ownership and escalation clarity. Rematch managing-up scenes when fit is risky or mismatched.
Peer trust repair
Measured: Recovery after conflict beats, not avoidance.
Manager play: Score recovery after conflict, not silence. Avoidance looks calm and fails the rematch.
Values in action
Measured: Company values rubric on visible choices.
Manager play: Ask which visible choice matched the values rubric. Trait praise without a choice is noise.
Feedback reception
Measured: Response to coach and manager input in-fiction.
Manager play: Track how the rep absorbs coach or manager input in-scene. Deflection without a next move is a rematch signal.
Beat types you actually manage
Team IQ scenes use directed beat types. Brief the pod on the beat, not a soft-skill lecture. Source: Team IQ quick reference and rulebook.
- 01RetroPod looks back on a sprint or deal week. Choice and dialogue beats dominate. Focus skills often sit in discovery-insight and influence-communication.
- 021:1Manager and report. Managing-up and feedback-reception axes light up. Compose beats for async follow-ups.
- 03Stand-upShort status under time pressure. Observe before speak. Watch initiative and accountability proxies.
- 04Deal reviewInside-pod deal review (not the buyer room). Peer trust and judgment-leadership groups often carry focus skills.
- 05Cross-functional handoffHandoff to CS, product, or partners. Values-in-action and peer trust repair show up when ownership blurs.
Read the polar
Situational fit bands
Read the polar and per-scene bands. Coach the moment, not the person. Open the STEAMIQ sample debrief to see authored evidence.
Well matched
Right skill for the social moment. Peers respond positively. Keep the focus skill and raise difficulty on rematch.
Risky here
Useful elsewhere, fragile in this scene type. Rematch the same beat type with a clearer brief.
Wrong tool / mismatch
Wrong tool for the moment. Peer reaction marks the gap. Change the move, not the trait label.
Pod-craft shape
The Retro · sample report
Dashed wedges = not yet measured this episode
Open the authored STEAMIQ sample debrief: polar chart, focus-skill fit, episode scrubber.
Open sample reportAssignment loop
Focus-skill assignment loop
Managers assign 3 to 5 focus skills per cohort. Rematch on the same beat type. Read uplift on situational-fit charts, not completion vanity.
- 01PickChoose focus skills from the five O*NET-rooted groups (24 skills). Prefer one skill per gap group.
- 02BriefName the beat type and the win condition. Situational fit, not trait labels.
- 03PlayRun the episode. Reaction-first feedback lands before notes.
- 04ReadOpen polar, group rollup, and session drawer provenance.
- 05RematchSame beat type, same focus skills. Compare prior-episode overlay. Coach the delta.
Defensible debriefs
Session drawer provenance
Defensible debriefs need source tags. The session drawer opens with beat snippets managers can coach to.
input
What the rep chose, typed, or composed in the beat.
reaction
Peer or manager reaction in the scene (mood, openness, trust).
engine
Scoring and fit band the engine applied to that beat.
Klara
Sparse coach prompts. Separate from peer reaction.
What not to do
- Do not trait-label reps from a single episode (introvert, aggressive, natural closer).
- Do not coach personality. Coach the beat move and rematch the scene type.
- Do not use Team IQ as a lone hiring gate. Pair with Deal IQ work samples and human review.
- Do not invent SDR / AE / CSM / hiring Team IQ framework clones. Soft craft stays one taxonomy.
- Do not chase completion vanity. Read situational-fit uplift on rematch.
Co-flagship
How this pairs with Deal IQ
Deal IQ: decisions under buyer pressure (SPICED, MEDDPICC, expand/renew by seat). Team IQ: craft under pod pressure (5 groups, 24 skills, situational fit). Same Sales Twin passport. Different rooms, shared focus-skill IDs where they overlap.
Open the Deal IQ manager practice guides for seat-specific buyer-room depth.
FAQ
What retro cadence should managers run?+
Weekly or biweekly for cohorts in active enablement. Brief focus skills before play. Debrief the same day while provenance is fresh.
How soon should we rematch a gap?+
Rematch the same beat type within one to two weeks. Longer gaps erase the prior-episode overlay signal.
Is situational fit the same as performance?+
No. Fit answers whether the skill matched the social moment. Performance still lives in pipeline, Deal IQ scorecards, and manager judgment.
What if the pod has fewer than five people?+
Team IQ still runs. Treat chemistry rollups carefully when n is small. Lean on individual polar and session provenance more than team averages.
Is this guide available in German?+
Yes. The web field guide ships in EN and DE. The Team IQ rulebook and sample debrief also support DE. A gated PDF kit is a later follow-up.
Evidence
See situational fit on the STEAMIQ sample
Open the authored STEAMIQ sample debrief: polar chart, focus-skill fit, episode scrubber.
Run a pod cohort this week
Open the sample report, assign focus skills, then book a discovery call when you want a facilitated pilot.