1. The work
- What is the team accountable for right now?
- What are the three most important outcomes for the next 90 days?
- Which responsibilities are stable and which are changing?
- Which decisions are currently blocked or unresolved?
- Where are the biggest dependencies on other teams?
2. Ownership and decision rights
- Who owns each major responsibility?
- Where is ownership shared or unclear?
- Which decisions can individuals make independently?
- Which decisions require specialist input or leadership approval?
- Where does the team repeatedly wait for permission?
3. The people
For each person, transfer professional context that can help the new manager start a better conversation. Avoid private labels or unsupported judgements.
- What does this person own?
- Where do they add particular value?
- What amount of context helps them act?
- How do they tend to make decisions?
- How do they prefer to receive feedback?
- What should a manager know about working well with them?
- What information comes from the person themselves, and what is only the outgoing manager's observation?
4. The relationships
- Which people work closely together?
- Where do differences strengthen the work?
- Where does friction repeatedly appear?
- Is that friction about people, or is ownership or process unclear?
- Which relationships are especially important to team performance?
5. The team's working system
- How are important decisions documented?
- What are the team's current working agreements?
- What communication rhythms are useful and which feel like overhead?
- How does the team challenge decisions?
- How does the team know when something should be escalated?
6. What the new manager should revalidate
Mark anything that may be outdated, subjective or dependent on the previous manager's relationship with the team. In the first few weeks, ask each person what still feels accurate, what has changed and what the new manager should understand differently.
First-week questions for the new manager
- What do you most want me to understand about how you work?
- What responsibility do you feel clearest about?
- Where is ownership currently unclear?
- What should I avoid changing before I understand it better?
- What would make working with me easier in the first month?