Cognitive load review
Checklist for measuring and acting on team cognitive load.
- Confirm survey questions, confidentiality approach, and communication plan with people partners.
- Launch survey to delivery teams; keep it open for one sprint and send reminders.
- Export responses and calculate scores by dimension (domain, technical, operational, cross-team).
- Pull supporting metrics: pager volume, support tickets, WIP limits breaches, onboarding time.
- Visualize results in a simple heatmap comparing current vs. previous quarter.
- Facilitate workshop with platform, product, and team representatives to interpret findings.
- Prioritize interventions; assign owners, due dates, and impact hypotheses.
- Communicate decisions and support commitments to affected teams within one week.
- Track action progress biweekly and adjust if load does not decrease.
- Capture lessons learned to refine next quarter's survey and workshop format.
Prerequisites
- Survey tooling that can anonymize responses when needed.
- Accurate service/team ownership data to map responsibilities.
Pitfalls
- Weaponizing results or using them in performance reviews.
- Failing to follow up, which erodes trust in future surveys.
- Ignoring onboarding or cross-team collaboration overhead.
Want support running the diagnostic? Contact us via /contact.
